by Hugh Kennedy
khutba: address in mosque at Friday prayer which included mention of the ruler’s name, a sign of sovereignty
kufr: unbelief
mamlūk: slave soldier. This term, occasionally used in early Islamic history, came to replace the term ghulām from the fifth/eleventh century onwards
mawlā, pl. mawālī: originally ‘client’, often non-Arab client of an Arab tribe, hence the use of mawālī to describe non-Arab Muslims in the first century of Islam. Later more commonly ‘freedmen’ in the Abbasid period, the term passes out of general use in the fourth/tenth century
minbar: pulpit in a mosque
muhājir, pl. muhājirūn: who participated in the Hijra, that is one Meccan who accompanied Muhammad to settle in Medina
murtadd: apostate: used of those who rejected the authority of the Muslims after the death of Muhammad
nass: designation of ruler by his predecessor
qādī: Muslim judge
qalansuwa: tall, conical headgear worn as part of Abbasid court dress
ridda: apostasy from Islam; hence the wars in Arabia which followed Muhammad’s death are known as the ridda wars
sābiqa: precedence, especially precedence in conversion to Islam, i.e. the earlier a person was converted, the greater his sābiqa
sahāba: Companions of the Prophet
sadaqa: the payment of alms enjoined by Muslim law
sharīa: Muslim religious law
sharīf, pl. ashrāf: in Umayyad times, tribal leader, chief. By the fourth/tenth century the title is usually confined to descendants of Alī
shawkat: political and military power
shirk: polytheism
shūra: council formed to choose a caliph
sikka: the right to mint coins, usually the prerogative of the ruler
sunna: the sayings and actions of Muhammad used as legal precedents
sūq: market
ulama: learned men, especially experts in the Traditions of the Prophet and Islamic law
umma: the Muslim community
List of Caliphs
This list is based on the definitive reference work of C. E. Bosworth, The New Islamic Dynasties, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press (1996).
THE ORTHODOX OR RIGHTLY GUIDED CALIPHS (632–61)
632
Abū Bakr
634
Umar b. al-Khattāb
644
Uthmān b. Affān
656–61
Alī b. Abī Tālib
THE UMAYYAD CALIPHS (661–750)
661
Muāwiya I b. Abī Sufyān
680
Yazīd I
683
Muāwiya II
684
Marwān I b. al-Hakam
685
Abd al-Malik
705
Walīd I
715
Sulaymān
717
Umar II b. Abd al-Azīz
720
Yazīd II
724
Hishām
743
Walīd II
744
Yazīd III
744
Ibrāhīm
744–50
Marwān II
THE ABBASID CALIPHS (749–1517)
BAGHDAD AND IRAQ (749–1258)
749
Saffāh
754
Mansūr
775
Mahdī
785
Hādī
786
Hārūn al-Rashīd
809
Amīn
813
Ma’mūn
833
Mutasim
842
Wāthiq
847
Mutawakkil
861
Muntasir
862
Mustaīn
866
Mutazz
869
Muhtadī
870
Mutamid
892
Mutadid
902
Muktafī
908
Muqtadir
932
Qāhir
934
Rādī
940
Muttaqī
944
Mustakfī
946
Mutī
974
Tā’ī
991
Qādir
1031
Qā’im
1075
Muqtadī
1094
Mustazhir
1118
Mustarshid
1135
Rāshid
1136
Muqtafī
1160
Mustanjid
1170
Mustadī
1180
Nāsir
1225
Zāhir
1226
Mustansir
1242–58
Mustasim
1258
Mongol sack of Baghdad
CAIRO (1261–1517)
1261
Hākim I
1302
Mustakfī I
1340
Wāthiq I
1341
Hākim II
1352
Mutadid I
1362
Mutawakkil I, first time
1377
Mutasim, first time
1377
Mutawakkil I, second time
1383
Wāthiq II
1386
Mutasim, second time
1389
Mutawakkil I, third time
1406
Mustaīn
1414
Mutadid II
1441
Mustakfī II
1451
Qā’im
1455
Mustanjid
1479
Mutawakkil II
1497
Mustamsik, first time
1508
Mutawakkil III, first time
1516
Mustamsik, second time
1517
Mutawakkil III, second time
1517
Ottoman conquest of Egypt
THE SPANISH UMAYYAD CALIPHS (929–1031)
929
Abd al-Rahmān III al-Nāsir (emir since 912)
961
Hakam II al-Mustansir
976
Hishām II al-Muayyad, first reign
1009
Muhammad II al-Mahdī, first reign
1009
Sulaymān al-Mustaīn, first reign
1010
Muhammad II, second reign
1010
Hishām II, second reign
1013
Sulaymān, second reign
1018
Abd al-Rahmān IV al-Murtadā
1023
Abd al-Rahmān V al-Mustazhir
1024
Muhammad III al-Mustakfī
1027–31
Hishām III al-Mutadid
1031
Abolition of Umayyad caliphate of Andalus
THE ALMOHAD CALIPHS IN NORTH AFRICA AND ANDALUS (1130–1269)
1130
Muhammad b. Tūmart
1130
Abd al-Mu’min
1163
Abū Yaqūb Yūsuf I
1184
Abū Yūsuf Yaqūb al-Mansūr
1199
Muhammad al-Nāsir
1214
Abū Yaqūb Yūsuf II al-Mustansir
1224
Abd al-Wāhid I al-Makhlū
1224
Abū Muhammad Abdallāh al-Ādil
1227
Yahyā al-Mutasim
1229
Abū al-Alā Idrīs al-Mamūn
1232
Abū Muhammad Abd al-Wāhid II al-Rashīd
1242
Abū al-Hasan Alī al-Saīd al-Mutadid
1248
1266–9
Abū’l-Ulā al-Wāthiq
1269
Christian conquest of all Spain except Granada; North African lands divided among Abdal-Wādids, Hafsids and Marīnids
THE FATIMID (909–1171)
NORTH AFRICA (909–69)
909
Ubaydallāh al-Mahdī
934
Qā’im
946
Mansūr
953
Muizz (from 969 in Egypt)
EGYPT (969–1171)
977
Azīz
996
Hākim
1021
Zāhir
1036
Mustansir
1094
Mustalī
1101
Āmir
1131
Hāfiz
1149
Zāfir
1154
Fā’iz
1160–71
Ādid
1171
Ayyubid conquest of Egypt
Notes
ABBREVIATION
CIS
Kersten, C. (ed.), The Caliphate and Islamic Statehood: Formation, Fragmentation and Modern Interpretations, Berlin: Gerlach Press (3 vols., 2015)
CHAPTER 1: THE FIRST CALIPHS
1. M. Cook, ‘Muhammad’s Deputies in Medina’, Usūr al-wusta 23 (2015), 1–67
2. P. Crone and G. M. Hinds, God’s Caliph: Religious Authority in the First Century of Islam, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (1986), 111–12
3. Ibid., 12–23
4. R. Hoyland, ‘The Inscription of Zuhayr, the Older Islamic Inscription (24 AH/AD 644–5)’, Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy 19 (2006), 210–37
5. E. Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ed. W. Smith, London: John Murray (1855), VI, 288
6. A. Marsham, Rituals of Islamic Monarchy, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press (2009), 100–1
7. P. Crone, Medieval Islamic Political Thought, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press (2004), 60–1
CHAPTER 2: THE EXECUTIVE CALIPHATE: THE RULE OF THE UMAYYADS
1. Translated and discussed in Marsham, Rituals, 86–9
2. Quoted in Crone and Hinds, God’s Caliph, 6
3. Ibid., 33–42
4. Balādhuri, Futūh al-buldān, ed. M. J. de Goeje, Leiden: Brill (1866), 167–8
5. R. Hillenbrand, ‘La Dolce Vita in Early Islamic Syria’, Art History 5 (1982), 1–35
6. Crone and Hinds, God’s Caliph, 118–26
7. Translated and discussed in ibid., 129–32
CHAPTER 3: THE EARLY ABBASID CALIPHATE
1. Tabarī, Ta’rīkh al-rusul wa’l-mulūk, ed. M. J. de Goeje et al., Leiden: Brill (1879–1901), III, 29–33
2. Night 19, The Arabian Nights, trans. M. C. Lyons and U. Lyons, London: Penguin Books (2008), I, 123
3. Night 462, ibid., II, 321
4. Tabarī, Ta’rīkh, III, 709
5. Miskawayh, Abu Ali, The Eclipse of the Abbasid Caliphate, trans. D. S. Margoliouth, London: I. B. Tauris (2015), I, 57–60
6. Ibn Fadlān, Mission to the Volga, ed. and trans. J. Montgomery, New York and London: New York University Press, Library of Arabic Literature (2014)
CHAPTER 4: THE CULTURE OF THE ABBASID CALIPHATE
1. Masūdī, Murūj al-dhahab, ed. and French trans. C. Barbier de Meynard, Paris: Imprimerie Nationale (1874), VIII, 289–304
2. This was a characteristic tenet of the Mutazila, who held that every Muslim has free choice and that if he is guilty of a serious offence and dies without repentance he will endure hell-fire for ever, in contrast to other groups, notably the Murjia, who held that Muslims might be punished for a while but would ultimately attain paradise ( janna)
3. S. M. Toorawa, Ibn Abī Tāhir Tayfur and Arabic Writerly Culture, London and New York: Routledge Curzon (2005), 33–4
4. J. Bloom, Paper before Print: The History and Impact of Paper in the Islamic World, New Haven and London: Yale University Press (2001)
5. Ibn Khallikan, Ibn Khallikan’s Biographical Dictionary, trans. M. de Slane, Paris (1842–71), I, 478–79
6. Ibid., V, 315–17
7. The name means ‘ugly’, which was a name often given to beautiful slaves, perhaps as a joke, perhaps to guard against the evil eye.
8. The caliph’s given name, which would only have been used by his closest intimates and lovers.
9. All accounts from Ibn al-Sā‘ī, Consorts of the Caliphs, ed. S. M. Toorawa, trans. Editors of the Library of Arabic Literature, New York: New York University Press (2015), 78–81
CHAPTER 5: THE LATER ABBASID CALIPHATE
1. T. W. Arnold, The Caliphate, Oxford: Clarendon Press (1924), 65–7
2. This is translated and discussed in A. Mez, The Renaissance of Islam, New Delhi: Kitab Dhavan (1937), 268–70
3. Bayhaqi’s account can be read in The History of Bayhaqi, trans. C. E. Bosworth and M. Ashtiany, Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press (2011), I, 401–24
4. Ibn al-Athir, Chronicle, trans. D. S. Richards, Aldershot: Ashgate (2008), I, 108
5. Arnold, The Caliphate, 86–7
6. The Chronicle of the Third Crusade: A Translation of the Itinerarium Peregrinorum et Gesta Regis Ricardi, trans. Helen J. Nicolson, Aldershot: Ashgate (1997), 53
7. Ibn Wāsil, quoted by K. Hirschler in Medieval Muslim Historians and the Franks in the Levant, ed. A. Mallett, Leiden: Brill (2015), 149
8. Ibn al-Athir, Chronicle, I, 190–91
9. The Travels of Ibn Jubayr, trans. R. Broadhurst, London: Jonathan Cape (1952), 236–39
10. For a full discussion of these different accounts, N. Neggaz, The Falls of Baghdad in 1258 and 2003: A Study in Sunni-Shii Clashing Memories. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Georgetown University, Washington DC. 2013. I am very grateful to Dr Neggaz for allowing me to make use of her work
CHAPTER 6: THREE AUTHORS IN SEARCH OF THE CALIPHATE
1. Al-Māwardī, The Ordinances of Government, trans. W. H. Wahba, Reading: Garnet Publishing (1996), 1–32
2. Ibid., 6–22
3. W. B. Hallaq, ‘Caliphs, Jurists and the Saljūqs in the Political Thought of Juwaynī’, CIS, II, 210–25 at p. 221
4. C. Hillenbrand, ‘Islamic Orthodoxy or Realpolitik? Al-Ghazālī’s Views on Islamic Government’, CIS, II, 226–52 at p. 230
CHAPTER 7: THE CALIPHATE OF THE SHIITES
1. See the excellent discussion of this work in W. al-Qādī, ‘An Early Fātimid Political Document’, CIS, III, 88–112
2. See Nasir-ī Khusraw, Book of Travels, trans. W. M. Thackston, Cosa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers (2001), see pp. 52–76
CHAPTER 8: THE UMAYYADS OF CÓRDOBA
1. See R. M. Menocal, The Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews and Christians Created a Culture of Tolerance in Medieval Spain, New York: Little, Brown (2002)
2. Latin text and English trans. in C. Smith, Christians and Moors in Spain, Warminster: Aris & Phillips (1988), I, 62–75
3. Slavs from Eastern Europe had been imported to Andalus, via the great slave market at Prague, throughout the tenth century as elite soldiers
CHAPTER 9: THE ALMOHAD CALIPHS
1. Ibn Sāhib al-Salāt, Al-man bi’l-imāma, ed. A. al-Hadi al-Tazi, Beirut (1964), 534
2. Abd al-Wāhid al-Marrākushi, Al-Mujib, ed. M. al-Uryan, Cairo (1949), 238–9
CHAPTER 10: THE CALIPHATE UNDER THE MAMLUKS AND OTTOMANS
1. Arnold, The Caliphate, 74–6, 107–8
2. Ibid., 130
3. Tufan Buzpinar, ‘Opposition to the Ottoman Caliphate in the Early Years of Abdülhamid II: 1877–1882’, CIS, III, 6–27
4. Quoted in K. H. Karpat, The Politicization of Islam: Reconstructing Identity, State, Faith, and Community in the Late Ottoman State, Oxford: Oxford University Press (2001), 161, 162. ‘Padishah’ was an ancient title of Persian origin, sometimes used by the Ottoman sultans
5. For the full text
and a beautifully illustrated account of the relics, and of Abdul al-Hamīd’s funeral, see H. Aydin, The Sacred Trusts, Pavilion of the Sacred Relics, Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul, Clifton, NJ: Tughra Books (2014)
6. Buzpinar, ‘Opposition to the Caliphate’, 20
CHAPTER 11: THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AND BEYOND
1. R. Pankhurst, The Inevitable Caliphate?, London: Hurst and Company (2013), 99
2. Qur’an, 2 (Surat al-Baqara), verse 124
Further Reading
GENERAL
Arnold, T. W., The Caliphate, Oxford: Clarendon Press (1924)
Crone, P., Medieval Islamic Political Thought, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press (2004)
Kennedy, H., The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates, London: Routledge (3rd ed., 2015)
Kersten, C. (ed.), The Caliphate and Islamic Statehood: Formation, Fragmentation and Modern Interpretations, Berlin: Gerlach Press (3 vols., 2015). A valuable collection of essays on all aspects of the caliphate, cited hereafter as CIS
Rosenthal, E., Political Thought in Medieval Islam, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (1962)