What Happened to the Caliphs of Islam?

The stages of Caliphate expansion under the Rashidun, and Ummayad Caliphate. Credit Wikimedia

Caliph meaning successor were the successors of Mohammed Ibn Abdullah as the leaders of Islam.

After Muhammed’s death in 632 there was a squabble over power and Abu Bakr, Mohammed’s father in law was elected the first Caliph by Shura, a tribal council. And set the precedent that all Caliphs had to be from Mohammed’s tribe called the Quraysh.

Abu Bakr founded the Rashidun Caliphate and ruled for 2 years. followed by Mohammed’s son in laws Umar Uthnan and Ali all elected by a Shura and all assassinated. These four are the rightly guided Caliphs And are the only four Caliphs all Muslims agree on.

After the death of Abu Bakr. Things got complex.

Control of the caliphate was centered first around Mohammed’s family, second those who had been his original supporters, and lastly his tribe the Quraysh.

The last Qurayshi’s to convert had been the old powers of mecca and had lost most of their power as a result.

One of these prominent family the Ummayad, sons of Ummayah, would rebuild their family position. And in 656 Mu’awiyah the Ummayad governor of Syria sparked the first Muslim civil war. With the help of Mohammed’s last wife Aisha.

After Ali was assassinated the title of Caliph passed briefly to Ali’s son Hasan Mohammed’s grandson.

And you’ll never guess what happened to him. That’s right he surrendered it to Mu’awiyah, and retired. And was then assassinated. Mu’awiyah became the first Ummayyad Caliph bringing an end to the first Islamic civil war but also starting process of the Sunni/Shia split and 15 centuries of sectarian struggles.

The Ummayad Caliphate lasted from 661 to 750, It abolished the shura elections and introduced a hereditary caliphate.

By overthrowing an elected Caliph Mu’awiyah created the precedent that anyone from the Quraysh could become Caliph.

And in 750 the Abbasid’s, descendants of Abbas Mohammeds uncle claimed the title and overthrew the Ummayyad.

The Abassid ruled between 750 and 1258. It rose by appealing to the now multi cultural empire delegating power outside of the traditional Arabic base. And unifying many cultures into their capital of Baghdad. But the position of Caliph stayed closely guarded by the descendants of Mohammed’s tribe.

But though ruling over the Islamic golden age, the Abbasid were also the last Caliphs to rule over a unified Islamic people.

In 897 the Rassid dynasty in Yemen declared itself an independent Shia Imamate. With the leaders claiming descent from Mohammed. This was the first split in Islam. And would set a long tradition of Shia states being those rebelling against Sunni empires.

During this period control of the spiraling bloodlines of Muhammeds Quraysh became extremely important.

But though the Abbasid expanded the empire its size began to pull it apart. And in the 10th century long running tensions came to a head. And two rival caliphates rose in revolt against Baghdad.

In 909 the Shiite Fatamid Caliphate is declared in Raqqadda Tunisia. Claiming descent from Fatima Mohammed’s daughter and wife of the fourth Caliph Ali. It will rule much of North Africa and very nearly seize the empire before it is overthrown by Saladin in 1171

At the same time the Ummayad family who had relocated their power base to Morroco and Al Andalus declare the short lived Caliphate of Cordoba. 929 to 1031.

With half the empire in rebellion. The Nomadic Seljuk Turks begin to arrive and conquer in Anatolia in the 10th century followed shortly by the Crusaders in 1088.

And in 1121 a small confederation of Berbers in Morocco even used the title of Caliph for their short lived kingdom 1121 to 1269.

The title of Caliph had come to mean little more than king or emperor for the dozens of factions scrabbling for control of the dying empire.

The Abbasid are nearly destroyed but they manage to claw their way back pushing the Seljuk's back in 1157 and reclaiming much of their former empire defeating the rival Caliphs.

Though Egypt, Persia, Turkey, and Al Andalus are now fully independent of the empire. The Caliphate establishes a series of alliances. The Caliph converts from emperor to spiritual leader and mediator. Like the Pope and the Papal states in Europe.

And for a brief period it looked like things were looking up for the 37th Abbasid Caliph Al Musta Sim Billah.

And then the Mongols arrived

Blasting through Persia they sack Baghdad in 1258. The Caliph Al Musta Sim would either be starved to death or rolled in a carpet and trampled by horses depending on the source you consult.

There would be no Caliph for the next three years.

The Mongols left the mid east in 1260 carrying the Caliphates gold and Islam with them back to central Asia.

With the fall of Baghdad and the death of the Caliph. Islam was in disarray. The city was the lynch pin of the loosely organized Muslim empires. Even weakened it was like a Muslim united nations. But those days were done.

The three great powers the Seljuks, Persians, and Abbassid’s were decimated leaving a power vacuum which would be filled by the Mameluke Sultanate and a tiny tribe of little importance deep in the mountains of Anatolia.

The Mameluke's rapidly threw out the last of the crusaders became the major power in the Islamic world and invited the surviving members of the Abbasid family to Cairo. And in 1261 the Abbasid's Caliphate was declared reestablished.

This revived hereditary Caliphate lasted until 1517.

During this time a tiny tribe in the mountains of Anatolia took down the Seljuk's and the Byzantines, and then set their eyes on Cairo.

IN 1517 the Ottoman empire blazed through the Mameluke's with their new shiny guns. And seized Cairo and the last Abbasid Caliph Al Muttawakkil the third bringing him back to Constantinople with them.

The last Abbasid Caliph died in 1543 and the Ottoman sultan Selim 1 took the title of Caliph for himself… maybe… because by this point the title is so hollow it is not used by Ottoman state documents until the 18th century.

But the Sultans did eventually claim the title.

And, this was the first time a Caliph had been a non-Arab, and not a descendant of Mohammed’s Quraysh tribe.

The title is briefly revised as a form of counter propaganda during the decline of the Ottomans in the 18th century.

But the ongoing collapse of the empire quickly reveals the concept of the Ottomans as protector and leader of Islam as hollow.

And the collapse of the Ottomans would see the final death of the Caliphate.

The last Ottoman Caliph of Islam was Crown Prince Abdul Mejid the second. After the dissolution of the Empire conservatives in Turkey lobbied for the position of Caliph to be preserved and the no doubt very confused Abdul Mejid was elected Caliph by the National assembly of the Republic of Turkey. Making him the first Caliph to be elected since Ali in 632.

So the Ottoman Caliphate outlived the Ottoman empire. By two years Because the national assembly abolished the position exiling the poor ex Caliph.

Abdulmajid lived in poverty in France. And died in 1944 from a heart attack. And so died the man known as the last Caliph of Islam…

So why has there not been a Caliph since?

Well there has been,

In 1924 King Hussein of Hejaz the ruler of Mecca and Medina tried to declare himself Caliph but was immediately overthrown by the forces of Ibn Saud.

King Hussein was the last major ruler to try and take the title and since then it has mostly gone to… crackpots.

In 1994 a group of Islamic extremists declared themselves the caliphate of the federated Islamic state of Anatolia. Before being disbanded in 2001.

And most recently in 2014 Abu Bakr al Baghdadi declared the formation of a new unified global Islamic state with himself as the new Caliph of Islam.

Interestingly he claimed he was elected by shura and a descendant of Mohammed, and the rightful ruler of all Muslim's.

After his death the second caliph of ISIS Abu Ibrahim was elected by a shura in 2019. However he was killed in 2022.

Since then, the Islamic State has yet to declare if it has elected a new Caliph.

The last major international attempt to re-establish a sunni Caliphate was in 2012 at an Austrian conference called Muslims Rise!

And despite the hysterical response from western nationalists, the conference… completely failed.

At the moment the most Islamic religious leaders can agree on is that there should be a new Caliph.

So why isn’t there one? And how does one become Caliph?

Well for fourteen hundred years the title of Caliph has just gone to whoever claims it. There’s no organized church in Sunni islam to recognize or bestow the title. So ever since Ali death it has either been hereditary or taken by force by whoever was the biggest power in the middle east.

The only exception to this was the first four Caliphs selected by a council of mohammed’s original followers. And the last elected by the Turkish national assembly.

However many Arabic religious leaders today argue the Ottoman Caliphs were illegitimate as only a Qurayshi can be a Caliph.

And surprise surprise, there are deep racial undertones and tensions around this.

With many Arabs argueing only Arabs can be Qurayshi. Even though by this point probably most of the world is vaguely related to a Quarayshi one way or another.

The people who made these rules… were Quarayshi’s. And not all muslims agreed with that rule at the time.

Many Shia sects believe only direct descendants of Mohammed should be Caliph.

The problem is Mohammed didn’t really set out any rules for succession. And unlike the Catholics there was never a unified Sunni church to set out its own rules of succession. So there aren’t really any rules.

Other than maybe that they have to be a Qurayshi picked by a qurayshi.

But unsurprisingly out of nearly 2 billion muslims for the billion and three quarters who aren’t arabs the idea that “only an arab can be Caliph” can be a bit alienating.

So the answer to the question who can be Caliph is idontknow and the answer to how is a new Caliph selected *idon’t know noise.

And the answer to why hasn’t there been a new Caliph is how about you stop asking questions?

So though the 2012 Muslims rise conference agreed yes we should have a new Capiph. It raised so many question that no one can answer.

Should a Caliph be elected by Shura? If so who makes it up? Who gets to vote? Who gets to be a candidate for Caliph? How do we even track down all the descendants of the Quraysh, and Mohammed?

And most importantly what would a Caliph even be? The Caliph has always been more a political leader than a spiritual one. Sunni Islam isn’t an organized religion. So what would they even do?

So will there be another Sunni Caliph? Almost certainly someone will at some point take the title.

Just last week as of broadcast March the 14th ISIS declared a new leader, but have yet to say whether they are taking the title Caliph or not.

As for the Shia.

Well, the Shia have mixed views about Caliphs. The title of Caliph has contentious political history in early Islam for the Shia. The Shia didn’t deny that there were Caliphs. They just denied their spiritual leadership, and legitimacy.

So rather than burying their heads in the sand early Shia generally referred to Ali and his sons as Imams. For the Shia the term Imam is often used very similarly to that of Caliph.

Some Shia leaders did take the title of Imam and claimed descent from Mohammed. Taking a very similar role to Caliph.

But as Caliphs the only Shia Caliphate was the Fatamid Caliphate. That died in 1171