Caliph
CALIF, or KHALIF, the title borne by the successor of Mohammed in temporal and religious authority. The First Four Caliphs. - The Prophet leaving no son, the wise and good Abubekr, father of his favorite wife Ayeshah, was elected by an assembly of the faithful (632 A. D.). On Omar's death (644) a council of six appointed as third and son-in-law. Othman was succeeded by the heroic Ali, poet, soldier, and saint, husband of Fâtima, and son of wíya, governor of Syria, son of that Abu been beaten at Bedr, and had helped to his cousin Othman. On Ali's murder by a fanatic he negotiated the abdication caliph in "the year of union," 661, made the title hereditary.
CALIPH The Ommiades. - Moawiya (661-679) was the first caliph of the line called Ommiades, from one of his forefathers.
Their seat was Damascus.
Moawíya was a statesman; the rest of his line were neither statesmen nor saints. His son Yezîd I. (679-683) succeeded him.
Yezîd I. was followed by Moawíya II. (683); and he by Merwân I. (murdered 685). Abdulmalik's troubled reign lasted till 705.
The glorious reign of the inactive Walíd I. (705-715) saw the caliphate extended at one end by the addition of Spain, and at the other end Sogdiana, between the Oxus, the Jaxartes, and the Caspian Sea, taken from the Turks by Kuteibah, and the caliphate extended to the mouth of the Indus. Suleimân I. (died 717) sent a magnificent army and fleet under his brother Móslemah against Constantinople; but next year (718) both perished almost utterly. Good Omar II.'s reign was ended with poison (720). Yezîd II. died 724. Hishâm died 743. Walid II. was killed in an insurrection (744). Yezîd III. died 744. Ibrahim was dethroned by Merwân II., governor of Armenia (745).
The Abbassides. The first Ommiade united the caliphate; the first Abbasside divided it. One Ommiade, Abdurrahman, escaped from the massacre of Abdallah, and, crossing the strait into Spain, founded after a struggle the Ommiade caliphate of Spain of Cordova. Abûl Abbas (750-754), called also Saffah, "the shedder" of his enemies' blood, was followed by his brother Abu Jafar Almansôr (754-775), who founded Bagdad for the seat of empire. The £30,000,000 sterling left by him, his son Almahdi (775-785) and grandson Alhâdi (785-786) vaingloriously squandered.
Alhadi's brother, Harûn Ar Rashid, "The Just" (Haroun Al Raschîd) (786-809), owes his fame to the interested praise of orthodox and literary men. His three sons, instead of accepting his partition of the empire, fought for supremacy.
Almín, the caliph, was defeated and slain (813); Almamûn, his brother (813- 833), aided the culmination of Saracen culture. cisive Mutassem (833-842), following his brother, maintained the desolating indecisive wars in Asia Minor. With him departed the glory of the Abbassides.
Sectarian persecution was the bane of Alwâthek's reign (842-847) and Mutawakkil's (847-861). His son, Múntasir, conspired with the Turks against him and slew him, and reigned 861-862. Almustain reigned 852-870; Almúhtadi, 870-871; Almútamid, 871-893; Almûtahid, 893-903; Almûktafi, 903-908; Al- CALISTHENICS múktadir, 908-932; Kahir, 932-934; Radhi, 934-940, was the last last caliph that like a true Imâm and caliph preached to the people. Mutakki died 944; Mustakfi, his successor, had no temporal power beyond the walls of Bagdad.
Ommiades of Spain. - Abdurrahman I. (755-787), on accepting the Spanish throne which was offered him by the Arab chiefs, assumed the titles of Caliph and Emir-ul-Muminîn. He built (786) the great mosque of Cordova, now the cathedral. His successors, Hashem I. (787-796) and Al-Hakem I. (796-821), were much troubled with internal revolts. Abdurrahman II. (821-852) reestablished internal quiet, and occupied his subjects with incessant wars against the Christians. These conflicts developed among the Arabs that chivalrous heroism which is found nowhere else in the Mohammedan world. Abdurrahman, himself a man of learning, greatly encouraged the arts and sciences, and diffused information among his people; he also attempted, by regulating the laws of succession to property, to constitute his kingdom on a basis analogous to that of other European nations. During his reign Mohammedan Spain was the bestgoverned country in Europe. His successors, Mohammed I. (852-880), Mondhar (880-882), and Abdallah (882-912), followed in his footsteps. Abdurrahman III. (912-961), like his predecessors, was a great encourager of learning, and a poet of no mean ability. He founded schools which far surpassed surpassed those in other parts of Europe. His son, Al- Hakem II. (961-976)) was in every way worthy to be his successor, but his premature death was the cause of the downfall of the Ommiades in Spain. Hashem II. (976-about 1013), a child of eight years, now occupied the throne; but fortunately his mother, Sobeiha, possessed the abilities necessary for such an emergency, and appointed as her son's vizier Mohammed ben Abdallah, surnamed Almansôr, "the victorious," who had originally been a peasant. Hashem finally, after having been supposed dead for several years, resigned the throne about 1013; and, with the exception of the brief reign of Hashem III. (1027-1031), from this time the family of Ommeyah, which had for more than two centuries so happily and brilliantly governed the greater part of Spain, disappears from history.