caliph, also spelled calif, Arabic khalīfah (“successor”), ruler of the Muslim community. When the Prophet Muhammad died (June 8, 632 ce), Abū Bakr succeeded to his political and administrative functions as khalīfah rasūl Allāh, “successor of the Messenger of God,” but it was probably under ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, the second caliph, that the term caliph came into use as a title of the civil and religious head of the Muslim state. In the same sense, the term was employed in the Qurʾān in reference both to Adam and to David as the vice-regents of God.
Abū Bakr and his three immediate successors are known as the “perfect” or “rightly guided” caliphs (al-khulafāʾ al-rāshidun). After them the title was borne by the 14 Umayyad caliphs of Damascus and subsequently by the 38 ʿAbbāsid caliphs of Baghdad, whose dynasty fell before the Mongols in 1258. There were titular caliphs of ʿAbbāsid descent in Cairo under the Mamlūks from 1258 until 1517, when the last caliph was captured by the Ottoman sultan Selim I. The Ottoman sultans then claimed the title and used it until it was abolished by the Turkish Republic on March 3, 1924.
After the fall of the Umayyad dynasty at Damascus (750), the title of caliph was also assumed by the Spanish branch of the family who ruled in Spain at Córdoba (755–1031), and it was also assumed by the Fāṭimid rulers of Egypt (909–1171), who claimed to descend from Fāṭimah (daughter of Muhammad) and her husband, ʿAli.
According to the Shīʿites, who call the supreme office the “imamate,” or leadership, no caliph is legitimate unless he is a lineal descendant of the Prophet Muhammad. The Sunnis insist that the office belongs to the tribe of Quraysh (Koreish), to which Muhammad himself belonged, but this condition would have vitiated the claim of the Turkish sultans, who held the office after the last ʿAbbāsid caliph of Cairo transferred it to Selim I.
This table provides a list of the primary caliphs.
| Primary caliphs* | |
| caliph | reign |
| "Perfect" caliphs | |
| Abu Bakr | 632–634 |
| ʿUmar I | 634–644 |
| ʿUthman ibn ʿAffan | 644–656 |
| ʿAli | 656–661 |
| Umayyad caliphs (Damascus) | |
| Muʿawiyah I | 661–680 |
| ʿAbd al-Malik | 685–705 |
| al-Walid | 705–715 |
| Hisham | 724–743 |
| Marwan II | 744–750 |
| ʿAbbasid caliphs (Baghdad) | |
| al-Saffah | 749–754 |
| Harun al-Rashid | 786–809 |
| al-Mamun | 813–833 |
| Fatimid caliphs (al-Mahdiyah) | |
| al-Mahdi | 909–934 |
| al-Qaim | 934–946 |
| al-Mansur | 946–953 |
| al-Muʿizz | 953–975 |
| al-Hakim | 996–1021 |
| al-Mustansir | 1036–94 |
| al-Mustaʿli | 1094–1101 |
| ʿAbbasid caliph (Baghdad) | |
| al-Nasir | 1180–1225 |
| *When Muhammad died, Abu Bakr, his father-in-law, succeeded to his political and administrative functions. He and his three immediate successors are known as the "perfect" or "rightly guided" caliphs. After them, the title was borne by the 14 Umayyad caliphs of Damascus and subsequently by the 38 ʿAbbasid caliphs of Baghdad. ʿAbbasid power ended in 945, when the Buyids took Baghdad under their rule. The Fatmids, however, proclaimed a new caliphate in 920 in Tunisia, it lasted until 1171. ʿAbbasid authority was partially restored in the 12th century, but the caliphate ceased with the Mongol destruction of Baghdad in 1258. | |