The institution of the Caliphate came into being after the death of Prophet Muhammad in 632 AD. It is during the time of the Ummayads and Abbasids Caliphates that Muslim power reached its zenith. In March 1924, the Caliphate was abolished by Kemal Mustafa Pasha, President of the Turkish Republic. The Caliphates ruled for 1292 years from different centres: Mecca, 632-660; Damascus, 660-750; Baghdad, 750-1258; Egypt, 1258-1517 and Constantinople, 1517-1924. A Fatimid Caliphate also existed in Egypt and North Africa between 908-1171 AD. Abdul Majid Efendi was the last Caliph of the Sunni Islam. He and all the members of the royal family were expelled from Turkey. In a scintillating article, The Caliphate Yesterday, To-day And To-morrow, D.S. Margoliouth, a distinguished scholar of Arabic at Oxford (published in the The Moslem Word of Today by John R AMott, Hodder And Stoughton, London, 1925) had inter-alia observed the following in regard to the revival of the institution of Caliphate after it had been abolished by the Turkish Government: "There would seem, at the moment, to be two proposals before the Moslem peoples: one, that representatives should meet in Mecca to determine the future of the Sanctuaries (Mecca and Medina); another, that such should meet in Cairo to settle the question of the Caliphate. It is difficult to suppose that the former of these Congresses could do more than register the wishes of the Wahhabi Sultan; 

Another Scholar (anonymous, ibid) observes: The author of the Sharhul Muwakif says: The appointment of an Imam (Caliph) is incumbent upon the united body of Muslims according to the orthodox law of the Sunnis. He goes on to say The sovereignty of the Caliph is incompatible with constitutional government. Sell in The Faith of Islam, published in Madras, 1880 wrote words which sound like prophecy at the present day. He wrote: It is a fatal mistake in European politics and an evil for Turkey to recognize the Sultan as the legal Khalifa of Islam, for if he be such, Turkey can never take any steps forward to newness of political life.

Four decades later, Sell's prophecy came true. After Turkey was defeated in World War I, Kemal Mustafa abolished both the Sultanate as well as the Caliphate. Kemal Mustafa was determined to modernize Turkey. In his view, for centuries Turks had 'always walked from the East in the direction of the West'. And they would continue to follow the same path. The Caliphate was a symbol and rallying point of the dark forces of religious reaction. He wanted to 'cut out this tumour of the Middle Ages- the Caliphate. He went on to say that It has now become a plainly evident truth that it is necessary to liberate and elevate the Islamic religion from its position of being a tool of politics, in the way it has been traditional for centuries. 

Citing foreign intervention and attempts by Turkish monarchists to use Mejid to revive the Sultanate, Kemal, in the words of the British ambassador in Istanbul, 'completed the revolution'. On 3 March 1924, just 15 months after Mejid's appointment, the National Assembly voted to abolish the Caliphate. Britain's Daily Telegraph called it 'one of the most astonishing acts of suicidal recklessness in the history of modern and ancient times and predicted, correctly, the inevitable stirring of the Muslim world. That night troops surrounded Dolmabahee Palace and the chief of Istanbul police told Mejid to have his bags packed by 5.30 a.m. the next day. At the appointed hour, several cars drove upto the palace to collect Mejid's immediate family and servants. He was handed UK Pound 2000 in cash, driven to Chatalja and then put on the Orient Express to Switzerland. Today 'His Imperial Majesty the Caliph Abdul Mejid II as he styled himself, barely rates more than a footnote in histories of Ottoman Empire. But Mejid never gave up his belief that he was robbed of the Caliphate and that he alone had the right to appoint the successor to the Prophet himself. After his death, in war-torn Paris in 1944, British officials were shocked to find when they read his will that he had nominated his grandson Mukarram Jah, at the time a shy schoolboy in India, as the next Caliph. 

In 1924 news of the ex-Caliph's precarious condition made it to Hyderabad, where Ali Imam, the President of the Executive Council, discreetly suggested to the Nizam that bailing our Mejid might enhance his standing among Muslims and fortify his claim for Berar. Accepting Imam's advice, the Nizam proposed paying a monthly allowance of UK pound 300 towards the upkeep of Mejid and his family and asked the British Resident to seek the Viceroy's approval. Although approval was forthcoming, the Government of India suspected more than just charity was involved in the Nizam's desire to bail out a fellow Muslim leader.

When the Treaty of Sevres effectively erased Turkey from the map and with it the control of the Caliph over the holy places of Islam, the movement gathered strength. Kemal's abolition of the Caliphate raised fears among Indian Muslims that the office of Caliph would be given to a ruler under British influence and used to further its imperial aims. Britain's favoured candidates for the post were believed to include King Abdullah of Transjordania, King Faisal of Iraq and Ali Haider Pasha, the former Sherif of Mecca. Following the abolition of the Caliphate, Shaukat Ali together with Marmaduke Pickthall, a British national who had been employed by the Nizam to translate the Koran into English, began working behind the scenes for Osman Ali Khan to be made Caliph and be given the title of King. 

Mejid's only child, Durrushehvar, was only 11 years old when the family was sent into exile. It had been a traumatic time for the young princess whose name means 'great pearl'. But even greater changes were imminent for the new tall and slender teenager. In the summer of 1931, the reservations clerk received a booking from Hyderabad for two entire floors in the names of Azam and Moazzam Jah and their entourages. Durruschehvar had never been to the Negresco and met the Nizam's sons, but within six months she and her 15-year-old cousin Niloufer would be boarding a steamer from Marseilles to Bombay with their new Indian husbands. As the Nizam dithered, a bidding war broke out among three other royal families for Durrushehvar and Niloufer. King Faud of Egypt, King Faisal of Iraq and Shah Reza of Persia lobbied hard to obtain the hands of the girls in marriage for their sons or relatives believing that an alliance with the spiritual head of the Muslim world would strengthen their thrones.

When the negotiations were eventually finalized, largely in Hyderabad's favour, wire services flashed the news that the Nizam had sealed the contract with gifts of US$200,000 in cash jewels worth US$1 million, Durrushehvar was described as 'the epitome of Oriental beauty', fluent in six languages and a 'throughly modern woman', while Azam was billed as 'the heir to more wealth than that held by all the Fords, Rockefellers and Morgans'.

(Sources: Ataturk: The Birth of A Nation by Patrick Kinross, Phoenix, London 1964 and The Last Nizam by John Zubrzyeki, Picador, London, 2007) 

A short write-up on the institution of Caliph based on the classic study, The Caliphate by Sir Thomas Arnold, OUP, London, 1924. 

Theory of the Caliphate 

The Caliphate grew up without any deliberate pre-vision, out of the circumstances of that vast empire which may almost be said to have been flung in the faces of the Arabs, to be picked up with the minimum of effort, by the rival empires of Persia and Rome, exhausted as they were by the age-long struggle in which they had endeavoured to tear one another to pieces, and in the case of the Roman empire, distracted by the acerbity of the theological antagonisms of rival Churches, still more embittered by racial antipathy. No one at the beginning of the seventh century, least of all an Arab, could have anticipated in imagination the vast extent, the immense wealth and power, which were to be under the control of the successor of the Prophet when he reigned in Damascus or Baghdad. Unlike the Holy Roman Empire, the Caliphate was no deliberate imitation of pre-existent form of civilization or political organization. It was the outgrowth of conditions that were entirely unfamiliar to the Arabs, and took upon itself a character that was exactly moulded by these conditions. The Caliphate as a political institution was thus the child of its age, and did not look upon itself as the revival of any political institution of an earlier date.

The theory as embodied in the works of Muhammadan theologians and jurists was elaborated in order to suit already operating facts; the history of the development of this theory is obscure, but it certainly does not make its appearance in literature until after the Arab empire had become an economical reality. This theory first finds expression in the Traditions, which claim to be the utterances of the Prophet Muhammad or his intimate companions. These Traditions, at first handed down only by word of mouth, were embodied in authoritative compilations during the third century of the Muhammadan era, and in all matters of dogma, religions observance, law and the practices of the devout life they were regarded as authorities second only to the Quran's itself. 

The orthodox Muslim world has never accepted the existence of any functionary corresponding to a Pope, though among the Shiahs an exalted degree of authority has been assigned to the Imam as an exponent of divine truth; but among the Sunnis, to whom the historic Caliphate belongs, divine revelation is held to have ceased with the Quran and the Traditions, and the task of interpretation of these sources of truth was assigned to the 'Ulama' (the learned) and did not belong to the Caliph. Thus the Caliph, enjoyed no spiritual functions. As Imam he could lead the faithful in prayer, in acts of public worship; but this was a privilege which the meanest of his Muslim subjects could enjoy, since for such an office no special ordination or consecration was required, and the performance of this religious activity implied the possession of no specific spiritual character, such as is connected with the doctrine of the Christian priesthood. Islam knows of no priesthood, of no body of men set apart for the performance of religious duties which the general body of the faithful are not authorized to perform.

In the Muslim world there is not that separation between Church and State which has been a source of so much controversy in Christendom. It is true that the Muslim Ulama have often denounced the unrighteous ways of the Caliph and his Government, and have demanded for the religious law an extensive operation which the offices of government have generally refused to grant; but these have been matters of dispute, not between a priesthood and the civil authorities, but between individual laymen and other laymen. 

Status of the Caliphate

He is pre-eminently a political functionary, and though he may perform religious functions, these functions do not imply the possession of any spiritual powers setting him thereby apart from the rest of the faithful. There are still rival claimants for the possession of the title of Caliph, and the theory of the Caliphate is still cherished by theological students who shut their eyes to the altered circumstances of the political world, and expound the doctrine of the Caliphate as though they were still living in the ninth century. 

Origins of the Caliphate

The Prophet Muhammad nominated no successor. It would be idle to speculate why with his genius for organization he neglected to make such provision for the future of the new religious community he had founded. Election of Abu Bakr was carried by acclamation. Abu Bakr took his seat on the Minbar in the Mosque where the dead Prophet had been accustomed to address his followers. In ancient Arab custom, his office passed to that member of the tribe who enjoyed the greatest influence. Abu Bakr was sixty years of age when he was elected to succeed the Prophet, and he enjoyed the dignity for two years only. Abu Bakr nominated 'Umar as his successor.' However this may have been, there was certainly some form of election in the case of the first four Caliphs - 'Abu Bakr', 'Umar', 'Uthman' and 'Ali'; in neither instance was there any question of hereditary succession, nor was the choice of either of these Caliphs influenced by considerations of relationship. 

Hereditary Principle of the Caliphate

In 661 the office of the Caliphate passed into the hands of Mu'awiyah, the founder of the Umayyad dynasty. Mu'awiyah was the first to establish the hereditary principle, and in 676 (four years before his death) he nominated his son Yazid as his successor. Deputations from the chief cities in the empire came to Damascus, and took the oath of allegiance to Yazid. When Syria and 'Iraq had thus paid homage to the heir apparent, the Caliph took his son with him to the holy cities of Medina and Mecca, and compelled the citizens there to accept this innovation, though in the face of considerable opposition.

The precedent thus established was generally followed in later times throughout the Abbasid period also. But the direct succession of father and son was so little exemplified in actual practice in the case of the first twenty-four Caliphs of the Abbasid dynasty, that for a period of more than two centuries (754-974) only six of them were succeeded by a son. When the power of the Abbasid Caliphate had sunk into insignificance, it became more common for son to succeed father, but throughout the whole period political theory maintained that the office was elective. 

Historical Survey of the Institution of the Caliphate

The establishment of the Umayyad dynasty, with its capital in Damascus, marked a distinct breach with the pious tradition of the original converts to Islam, whose interest was rather in Islam as a body of doctrine and a code of practice, than as a political organization. So long as the central government remained in Medina, Islamic influences were predominant, and the faithful Companions of the Prophet could attempt to organize the new society in accordan with the teachings of their dead master. But, when in 661 Mu'awiyah made Damascus the capital of the empire, the old heathen sentiment of the Arabs was able to assert itself. In place of theoretical equality of all believers in the brotherhood of Islam, we find the Arabs asserting themselves as a dominant aristocracy ruling over subject people. During the whole of the Umayyad period, pious circles in Mecca and Medina which clung to the primitive apostolic traditions felt that Mu'awiyah instead of preserving the piety and primitive simplicity of the Prophet and his Companions, had transformed the Caliphates into a temporal sovereignty, animated by worldly motives and characterized by luxury and self indulgence. The Umayyads were accused of having secularized the supreme power in the very midst of Islam, and of having exploited the inheritance of the Muslim community for the benefit of the members of their own tribe and family. This breach of sentiment between the centres of Muslim orthodoxy and the capital of the Arab empire is of importance for the student of the development of Islamic political theory. For, though the political theory of the Caliphate could not entirely ignore the actual facts of history, yet it was in Medina especially that Islamic speculation of all kinds - theological, legal, and political - had its beginning, and at the outset such theories were worked out without any reference to actual living fact. This is the reason why so much of Muhammadan law is purely theoretic and its character, and lays down many principles that have hardly ever been put into practice.

It was from the greatness of empire, and the riches and power it had brought to the head of the State, that the title of Khalifah derived its secular grandeur. At the outset, this title merely implied succession to the Prophet Muhammad. As, accordingly to Muslim theology, Muhammad was the last of the prophets, of course the prophetic office ceased with him, and no one of his successors could lay claim to speak as the mouthpiece of divine revelation. The community that acknowledged him as their head, Muhammad had been ruler, judge, administrator, preacher, and leader of public worship - and these functions were held to have passed on to his successors, and acquired an added glory and magnificence with each brilliant success of the Arab arms. 

Abbasid Caliphate

Under the new dynasty of the Abbasids the Persian converts had come to the front, and the transference of the capital from Syria to Mesopotamia, and ultimately in 762 to Baghdad, marks the recognition by the new dynasty of its reliance upon its Persian supporters, and consequently the chief offices of state came to be held by men of Persian origin. Whereas the symbols of Umayyad rule had been the scepter and the seal, under the Abbasids increased emphasis was laid on the religious character of their dignity, and the mark of their exalted office became the mantle of the Prophet. This Sacred relic was worn by the Abbasid Caliph on the day of his succession when his subjects first took the oath of allegiance to him, and on every ceremonial occasion, as when, for example, he appeared in the Mosque to lead the prayer in public worship. Several of the Abbasid Caliphs took pleasure in being present at religious discussions, invited men of learning to their court, and had a theological education imparted to their sons. 

This emphasis laid on religious considerations re-acted on the status of the Khalifah himself, and increased emphasis came to be laid on the title 'Imam'. This title first appears on coins and inscriptions in the reign of Ma'mun (813-833). Summary executions became characteristic of the administrative methods of the Abbasid, and many a man summoned in haste to Palace took the precaution of carrying his shroud with him. It was under such circumstances connected with the increasing extension and wealth of the Arab Empire that the theory of the Caliphate was elaborated.

Official designation for the Leader of the Community

After the death of Muhammad in 632, it became necessary to invent some official designation for the new leader of the community. Abu Bakr gave orders that he should be described by the modest title of 'Khalifah Rasul Allah' successor of the Apostle of God). In this haphazard manner originated the title which was to describe the rule of one of the greatest empires the world has ever seen. 

In all these respects Abu Bakr was a successor of the founder of the faith - with the exception of the exercise of the prophetic function, which was held to have ceased with the death of the Prophet. The choice of the designation 'Successor' was doubtless prompted by a genuine feeling of humility on Abu Bakr's part.

There is no evidence that Muhammad in his promulgation of the Quran ever contemplated the possibility of the word Khalifah becoming a title of his successor, nor is it likely that it was any use of this word in the Quran itself which suggested to Abu Bakr that he should style himself 'the Successor of the Apostle of God'. That this simple title of Successor, or Khalifah, should have acquired so much dignity is due to the rapid extension of the Arab conquests and to the enormous wealth and power which these conquests brought to the rules of the newly established empire. 

The Caliph 'Umar, who succeeded to Abu Bakr in 632, was at the outset of his reign first styled 'Kalifah of the Khalifah of the Apostle of God', but soon, as this designation was recognized to be too long and clumsy, he decided to be called 'Khalifah' simply, and it is from 'Umar's reign, the period of the great conquests, that this simple title begins to attain so much significance. 'Umar was the first to assume the other title of 'Amir ul-Mu'minin' (the Commander of the Faithfuls). The phrase, Amir ul-Mu'minin, unlike the titles Khalifah and Imam, does not occur anywhere in the Quran at all. It was by this title, Amir-ul-Muminin, that the Capliph was commonly known to Christian Europe. 

While the title of 'Amir ul-Mu'minin' emphasized the secular aspect of the high position of the Caliph, a third title that of 'Imam', had a special reference to his religious function as leader of the faithful in public worship. The word occurs frequently in the Quran as meaning a leader, a guide. As the leader of the Muslim community, Muhammad was accustomed during the whole of the ten years of his life in Medina to act in this manner as Imam, and lead the public worship for his followers; they were mostly obscure persons, and the name of a blind man who is said to have thus officiated for as many as thirteen times. After Muhammad's death, one Khalifah after another continued to perform this office, and this leadership in public worship was looked upon as a symbol of leadership generally.