The caliph, Al Mansur, lived nearly twelve hundred years ago.
The caliph at once gave orders for the gardener to be brought before him the next day.
The caliph laughed outright, and so did every one that heard him.
About the year 646 `Amr was deprived of his government by the caliph Othman.
The next morning the caliph called ten of his officers before him.
Hadrian's policy in this respect was matched later on by the edict of the caliph Omar (c. 638), who, like his Roman prototype, prevented the Jews from settling in the capital of their ancient country.
Moawiya, the first Omayyad caliph, chose Damascus for his residence; but in 750 the capital of the empire was removed by the Abbasids to Bagdad.
It was under the name of al-mandi that Mokhtar proclaimed `Ali's son Mahommed as the opponent of the caliph Abdalmalik, and, according to Shahrastani, the doctrine of the mandi, the hidden deliverer who is one day to appear and fill the oppressed world with righteousness, first arose in connexion with a belief that this Mahommed had not died but lived concealed at Mount Radwa, near Mecca, guarded by a lion and a panther.
Of the many pretenders to this dignity known in all periods of Moslem history the most famous was the first caliph of the Fatimite dynasty in North Africa, `Obaidallah al-Mandi, who reigned 909-933.
The vizier gave Firdousi an apartment near himself, and related to the caliph the manner in which he had been treated at Ghazni.
Notwithstanding the losses that the city had sustained, `Amr was able to write to his master, the caliph Omar, that he had taken a city containing "4000 palaces, 4000 baths, 12,000 dealers in fresh oil, 12,000 gardeners, 40,000 Jews who pay tribute, 400 theatres or places of amusement."
The fanaticism of the caliph Hakim destroyed the church of the Sepulchre and ended the Frankish protectorate (Ioio); and the patronage of the Holy Places, a source of strife between the Greek and the Latin Churches as late as the beginning of the Crimean War, passed to the Byzantine empire in 1021.
There was once a caliph of Cordova whose name was Al Mansour.
At this period the religion of Mahomet was spreading over the east, and in 637 the caliph Omar marched on Jerusalem, which capitulated after a siege of four months.
The caliph Omar initiated in the 7th century a code which required Christians and Jews to wear peculiar dress, denied them the right to hold state offices or to possess land, inflicted a poll-tax on them, and while forbidding them to enter mosques, refused them the permission to build new places of worship for themselves.
But Mahmud had by this time heard of his asylum at the court of the caliph, and wrote a letter menacing his liege lord, and demanding the surrender of the poet.
The Latin power thus established and organized in the East had to face in the north a number of Mahommedan amirs, in the south the caliph of Egypt.
The mosque of the Omayyads in Damascus was built by the Caliph Walid in A.D.
He next turned against the Mameluke rulers of Egypt, crushed them, and entering Cairo as conqueror (1517), obtained from the last of the Abbasid caliphs,' Motawakkil, the title of caliph (q.v.) ' After the fall of the caliphs of Bagdad (1258), descendants of the Abbasids took refuge in Cairo and enjoyed a purely titular authority under the protection of the Egyptian rulers.
The caliph has the style of Amir ul Omara, " lord of lords."
AlMansur, however, pardoned him on the intercession of his fellowtribesman Musayyab ibn Zuhair of Dabba, and appointed him the instructor in literature of his son, afterwards the caliph al-Mandi.
After the marriage of his daughter to the caliph, which was celebrated at enormous expense, an arrangement was made giving the Tulunid sovereign the viceroyalty of a region extending from Barca on the west to Hit on the east; but tribute, ordinarily to the amount of 300,000 dinars, was to be sent to the metropolis.
In the middle of the year 914 Egypt was invaded for the first time by a Fatimite force sent by the caliph al-Mahdi Obaidallah, now established at Kairawan.
This fleet was destroyed by a far smaller one sent by the Bagdad caliph to Rosetta; but Egypt was not freed from the invaders till the year 921, when reinforcements had been repeatedly sent from Bagdad to deal with them.
He is even said to have given orders to substitute the name of the Fatimite caliph for that of the Abbasid in public prayer, but to have been warned of the unwisdom of this course.
The Egyptian rebels managed to gain most influence, and, in accordance with their desire, 'Ali was appointed caliph by the citizens of Medina.
The final blow to any political pretensions of Medina was dealt by the caliph when he had his son Yazid declared as his successor, thus taking away any claim on the part of the citizens of Medina to elect to the caliphate.
The Kharijites who had opposed 'Ali on the ground that he had no right to allow the appeal to arbitration, were defeated at Nahrawan or Nahrwan (658), but those who escaped became fierce propagandists against the Koreish, some claiming that the caliph should be chosen by the Faithful from any tribe of the Arabs, some that there should be no caliph at all, that God alone was their ruler and that the government should be carried on by a council.
In 762 there was a rebellion in favour of a descendant of 'Ali, but it was put down with great severity by the army of the caliph Mansur.
In 845-846 the lawless raids of Bedouin tribes compelled the caliph Wathiq to send his Turkish general Bogha, who was more successful in the north than in the centre and south of Arabia in restoring peace.
The two cities were governed by Arabian nobles (sherifs), often at feud with one another, recognizing formally the overlordship of the caliph at Bagdad or the caliph of Egypt.
Thus in 966 the name of the caliph Moti was banished from the prayers at Mecca, and an `Alyite took possession of the government of the city and recognized the Egyptian caliph as his master.
About a century later (1075-1094) the 'Abbasid caliph was again recognized as spiritual head owing to the success in arms of his protector the Seljuk Malik-Shah.
Poetry depended on patronage, and that was to be had now chiefly in the court of the caliph and the residences of his governors.
Protected by the caliph he employed the old weapons of satire to support them against the " Helpers " and to exalt his own tribe against the Qaisites.
Qais ur-Rugayyat was the poet of `Abdallah ibn uz-Zubair (Abdallah ibn Zobair) and helped him until circumstances went against him, when he made his peace with the caliph.
On the other hand Ibn ul-Mo`tazz (son of the caliph) was the writer of brilliant occasional verse, free of all imitation.
The patriarch was able to secure from the caliph permission for the Christians to practice their religion in return for tribute money and this was afterwards remitted.
In the centre of the town stands Meshed (strictly Meshhed) `Ali, the shrine of `Ali, containing the reputed tomb of that caliph, which is regarded by the Shi`ite Moslems as being no less holy than the Ka`ba itself, although it should be said that it is at least very doubtful whether `Ali was actually buried there.
Even Moslem historians speak favourably of the Norman rule in Africa; but it was brought to an early end by the Almohade caliph Abd ul-Mumin, who took Mandia in 1160.
He has also the privilege of corresponding direct with the caliph; but otherwise is regarded as rather opposed to the Osmanli administration, and has no real power.
When Omar became caliph he made Khalid chief commander of the Syrian armies, `Amr remaining in Palestine to complete the submission of that province.
It is stated by D'Herbelot that the era of the Hegira was instituted by Omar, the second caliph, in imitation of the Christian era of the martyrs.
In 777 the king was visited at Paderborn by three Saracen chiefs who implored his aid against Abdar-Rahman, the caliph of Cordova, and promised some Spanish cities in return for help. Seizing this opportunity to extend his influence Charles marched into Spain in 778 and took Pampeluna, but meeting with some checks decided to return.
Before his coronation as emperor, Charles had entered into communications with the caliph of Bagdad, Harun-al-Rashid, probably in order to protect the eastern Christians, and in 801 he had received an embassy and presents from Harun.
Though certainly Irish by birth, it has been conjectured (from his references to Sedulius and the caliph's elephant) that he was in later life in an Irish monastery in the Frankish empire.
The name is probably derived from the Kurdish and Persian Yazdan, God; though some have connected it with the city of Yezd, or with Yezid, the second Omayyad caliph (720-24).
Kerbela owes its existence to the fact that IJosain, a son of `Ali, the fourth caliph, was slain here by the soldiers of Yazid, the rival aspirant to the caliphate, on the 10th of October A.D.
Khalid was the vizier of the caliph Mandi and tutor of Harlan al-Rashid.
The caliph `Ali made it his residence and the capital of his caliphate.
There were titular caliphs of Abbasid descent in Egypt from that date till 1517 when the last caliph was captured by Selim I.
The Sunnites insist that the office belongs to the tribe of Koreish (Quraish) to which Mahomet himself belonged, but this condition would vitiate the claim of the Turkish sultans, who have held the office since its transference by the last caliph to Selim I.
According to a tradition falsely ascribed to Mahomet, there can be but one caliph at a time; should a second be set up, he must be killed, for he "is a rebel."
Later he went to Bagdad, where he wrote verses in praise of the caliph Motawakkil and of the members of his court.
From this time it is the name of the caliph that is inscribed on Mahmud's coins, together with his own new titles.
The new honours received from the caliph gave fresh impulse to Mahmud's zeal on behalf of Islam, and he resolved on an annual expedition against the idolaters of India.
His relations towards the unorthodox caliph Nur-ed-din were marked by extraordinary tact.
In 1171 on the death of the Fatimite caliph he was powerful enough to substitute the name of the orthodox caliph in all Egyptian mosques.
He suppressed the name of es-Salih in prayers and on the coinage, and was formally declared sultan by the caliph 1175.
He was a native of Kufa, the northernmost of the two great military colonies founded in 638 by the caliph `Omar for the control of the wide Mesopotamian plain.
In 762 he took part in the rising led by Ibrahim ibn 'Abdallah ibn al-IIasan, the 'Alid, called "The Pure Soul," against the caliph al-Mansur, and after the defeat and death of Ibrahim was cast into prison.
The Seljuks inherited the traditions and at the same time the power of the Arabian caliphate, of which, when they made their appearance, only the shadow remained in the person of the Abbasid caliph of Bagdad.
Nothing could, therefore, be more acceptable to the caliph than the protection of the orthodox Toghrul Beg, whose name was read in the official prayer (khotba) as early as 1050.
Toghrul Beg now re-entered Bagdad, re-established the caliph, and was betrothed to his daughter, but died before the consummation of the nuptials (September 1063).
At first he professed to rule only with the advice of a council formed of the nobles, but when his power became established he dispensed with this show of republican government, and then gave himself the appearance of a legitimate title by protecting an impostor who professed to be the caliph Hisham II.
It is, however, part of the personal history of Abd-ar-rahman that when in 763 he was compelled to fight at the very gate of his capital with rebels acting on' behalf of the Abbasids, and had won a signal victory, he cut off the heads of the leaders, filled them with salt and camphor and sent them as a defiance to the eastern caliph.
Meanhwile the caliph Mottaqi appeared as a fugitive at Mosul, Nasibin, Rakka (944).
By 1055 the Seljuks had taken the caliph under their charge.
His arms were successful both in Europe and Asia, and he was the first Ottoman sovereign to be styled "sultan," which title he induced the titular Abbasid caliph to confer on him.
The details of this contest, of his relations with the caliph Ma'mun, and of his many travels - including a journey to Egypt, on which he viewed with admiration the great Egyptian monuments, - are to be found in the Ecclesiastical Chronicle of Barhebraeus.
Besides a valuable account of the principal sacred sites of Judaea, Samaria and Galilee as they existed in the 7th century, he also gives important information as to Alexandria and Constantinople, briefly describes Damascus and Tyre, the Nile and the Lipari volcanoes, and refers to the caliph Moawiya I .
After friendly correspondence with the caliph at Bagdad, whom he acknowledged as Amir el Muminin, "Prince of the Faithful," Yusef in 1097 assumed the title of "Prince of the Resigned" - Amir el Muslimin.
Omar then began to fear that the Koran might be entirely forgotten, and he induced the Caliph Abu Bekr to undertake the collection of all its parts.
The Caliph laid the duty on Zaid ibn Thabit, a native of Medina, then about twenty-two years of age, who had often acted as amanuensis to the Pro het in whose service Zaid s First p ?
These three manuscripts will therefore be those which the caliph, according to trustworthy tradition, sent in the first instance as standard copies to Damascus, Basra and Kufa to the warriors of the provinces of which these were the capitals, while he retained one at Medina.
Now when we consider that at that time there were many Moslems who had heard the Koran from the mouth of the Prophet, that other measures of the imbecile Othman met with the most vehement resistance on the part of the bigoted champions of the faith, that these were still further incited against him by some of his ambitious old comrades until at last they murdered him, and finally that in the civil wars after his death the several parties were glad of any pretext for branding their opponents as infidels; - when we consider all this, we must regard it as a strong testimony in favour of Othman's Koran that no party found fault with his conduct in this matter, or repudiated the text formed by Zaid, who was one of the most devoted adherents of Othman and his family, and that even among the Shiites criticism of the caliph's action is only met with as a rare exception.
Amr, the conqueror of Egypt for the caliph Omar, after taking the town besieged the fortress for the greater part of a year, the garrison surrendering in April A.D.
Jauhar (Gohar) el-Kaid, the conqueror of Egypt for the Fatimite caliph El-Moizz, founded a new capital, A.D.
In the confusion which followed on the death of the Omayyad caliph Yazid the Egyptian Moslems declared themselves for Abdallh b.
Towards the beginning of the 3rd Islamic century the practice of giving Egypt in fief to a governor was resumed by the caliph Mamun, who bestowed this privilege on Abdallgh b.
The rebellion broke out repeatedly in the following years, and in 831 the Copts joined with the Arabs against the government; the state of affairs became so serious that the caliph Mamun himself visited Egypt, arriving at Fostat in February 832; his general Afshin fought a decisive battle with the rebels at Bgshard in the IJauf region, at which the Copts were compelled to surrender; the males were massacred and the women and children sold as slaves.
This event finally crushed the Coptic nation, which never again made head against the Moslems. In the following year the caliph Motasim, who surrounded himself with a foreign bodyguard, withdrew the stipends of the Arab soldiers in Egypt; this measure caused some of the Arab tribes who had been long settled in Egypt to revolt, but their resistance was crushed, and the domination of the Arab element in the country from this time gave way to that of foreign mercenaries, who, belonging to one nation or another, held it for most of its subsequent history.
While the governor T rkish was appointed by the feudal lord, the finance minister goUvernors continued to be appointed by the caliph.
The enterprise of a usurper in Syria in the year 872 caused the caliph to require the presence of Ahmad in that country at the head of an army to quell it; and although this army was not actually employed for the purpose, it was not disbanded by Abmad, who on his return founded a fresh city called Kati, the fiefs, S.E.
In 882 relations between Abmad and Mowaffaq again became strained, and the former conceived the bold plan of getting the caliph Motamid into his power, which, however, was frustrated by Mowaffaqs vigilance; but an open rupture was the result, as Mowaffaq formally deprived Abmad of his lieutenancy, while Abmad equally formally declared that Mowaffaq had forfeited the succession.
He was succeeded by his son Khomarflya, then twenty years of age, who immediately after his accession had to deal with an attempt on the part of the caliph to recover Syria; this attempt failed chiefly through dissensions between the caliphs officers, but partly through the ability of Khomgruyas general, who succeeded in winning a battle after his master had run away from the field.
In the eight years of his government the Tulunid empire contracted, owing to the revolts of the deputies which HrUn was unable to quell, though in 898 he endeavoured to secure a new lease of the sovereignty in Egypt and Syria by a fresh arrangement with the caliph, involving an increase of tribute.
The following years witnessed serious troubles in Syria caused by the Carmathians, which called for the intervention of the caliph, who at last succeeded in defeating these fanatics; the officer Mahommed b.
Solaimn, to whom the victory was due, was then commissioned by the caliph to reconquer Egypt from the Tulunids, and after securing the allegiance of the Syrian prefects he invaded Egypt by sea and land at once.
In 941, after the death of Ibn Raiq, the Ikshid took the opportunity of invading Syria, which the caliph permitted him to hold with the addition of the sacred cities of Mecca and Medina, which the TUlunids had aspired to possess.
As this was in origin identical with that professed by the Carmathians, he hoped to gain the submission of their leader by argument; but this plan was unsuccessful, and there was a fresh invasion from that quarter in the year after his arrival, and the caliph found himself besieged in his capital.
Before his death he was acknowledged as caliph in Mecca and Medina, as, well as Syria, Egypt and North Africa as far as Tangier.
In August 977 Aziz met the united forces of Aftakin and his Carmathian ally outside Ramleh in Palestine and inflicted a crushing defeat on them, which was followed by the capture of Aftakin; this able officer was taken to Egypt, and honorably treated by the caliph, thereby incurring the jealousy of Jacob b.
His North African possessions were maintained and extended by Ali, son of Bulukkin, whom Moizz had left as his deputy; but the recognition of the Fatimite caliph in this region was little more than nominal.
After a few years regency he was assassinated at the instance of the young sovereign, who at an early age developed a dislike for control and jealousy of his rights as caliph.
The Egyptian court, chiefly owing to the jealousy of the vizier, sent no efficient aid to Basgsiri, and after a year Bagdad was retaken by the SeljUk Toghrul Beg, and the Abbasid caliph restored to his rights.
For some months the caliph was under this sons control; but the latter, who aimed at conciliating the people, speedily lost his popularity with the troops, and his father was able to get possession of his person and cause him to be poisoned (beginning of 1133).
Four years later (April 1154) the caliph was murdered by his vizier AbbAs, according to Usgmah, because the caliph had suggested to his favorite, the viziers son, to murder his father; and this was followed by a massacre of the brothers of Zgfir, followed by the raising of his infant son Abul-Qasim Isa to the throne.
His death was brought on by the rigour with which he treated the princesses, one of whom, with or without the connivance of the caliph, organized a plot for his assassination, and he died in September 1160.
The caliph, who up to this time appears to have left the administration to the viziers, now sent for Shirguh, whose speedy arrival in Egypt caused the Franks to withdraw.
After two months ShIrguh died of indigestion (23rd of March 1169), and the caliph appointed Saladin as successor to Shirgflh; the new vizier professed to hold office as a deputy of Nureddin, whose name was mentioned in public worship after that of the caliph.
Sultan Bibars, who proved to be one of the most competent of the Baliri Mamelukes, made Egypt the centre of the Moslem world by re-establishing in theory the Abbasid caliphate, which had lapsed through the taking of Bagdad by Hulagu, followed by the execution of the caliph.
Bibars recognized the claim of a certain Abul-Qasim Abmed to be the son of Zahir, the 35th Abbasid caliph, and installed him as Commander of the Faithful at Cairo with the title al-Mostansir billh.
But when the Sassanian empire was overthrown by the Arabs, the conquerors immediately advanced eastwards, and in a few years Bactria and the whole Iran to the banks of the Jaxartes had submitted to the rule of the caliph and of Islam.
The quarrel was taken up by his brother Abdallah, known by the name of Abu'l-Abbas as-Saffah, who after a decisive victory on the Greater Zab (750) finally crushed the Omayyads and was proclaimed caliph.
His father Sergius was a Christian, but notwithstanding held a high office under the Saracen caliph, in which he was succeeded by his son.
Dissensions and rivalries soon broke out among the Moslem leaders, and in 661 Moawiya, the first caliph of the Omayyad.
On the deposition of `Abdul Hamid he was invested as caliph (April 27 1909).
Kasim invaded and conquered the Hindus of Sind in the name of Walid I., caliph of Damascus, of the Omayyad line.
With the spread of the Pan-Islamic movement, moreover, the undefined authority of the sultan as caliph of Islam received a fresh importance even in countries beyond the borders of the Ottoman empire, while in countries formerly, or nominally still, subject to it, it caused, and promised to cause, incalculable trouble.
In the following year (656) the leaders of the rebels came once more from Egypt and Irak to Medina with a more numerous following; and the caliph again tried the plan of making promises which he did not intend to keep. But the rebels caught him in a flagrant breach of his word, 4 and now demanded his abdication, besieging him in his own house, where he was defended by a few faithful subjects.
The new caliph, however, found means of disposing of their opposition, and at the battle of the Camel, fought at Basra in November 656, Talha and Zobair were slain, and Ayesha was taken prisoner.
With the murder of Othman the dynastic principle gained the twofold advantage of a legitimate cry - that of vengeance for the blood of the grey-haired caliph and a distinguished champion, the governor Moawiya, whose position in Syria was impregnable.
But Othman had not the strong personality of his predecessor, and, although he practically adhered to the policy of Omar, he was accused of favouring the members of his own family - the caliph belonged himself to the house of Omayya - at the expense of the Hashimites andthe Ansar.
When, ten weeks before the murder, some hundreds of men came to Medina from Egypt and Irak, pretending that they were on their pilgrimage to Mecca, but wanted to bring before the caliph their complaints against his vicegerents, nobody could have the slightest suspicion that the life of the caliph was in danger; indeed it was only during 1 Ma'ad is in the genealogical system the father of the Moelar and the Rab`ia tribes.
If the caliph then, as the chroniclers tell, sent a message to Moawiya for help, his messenger could not have accomplished half the journey to Damascus when the catastrophe took place.
An acknowledgment of Ali as caliph by Moawiya before he had cleared himself from suspicion was therefore quite impossible.
To him was committed the conduct of the war against the Byzantine emperor, which he continued with energy, at first only on land, but later, when the caliph had at last given in to his urgent representations, at sea also.
Wellhausen, in his excellent book Das arabische Reich and sein Stiirz, has made it very probable that the decision of the umpires was that the choice of Ali as caliph should be cancelled, and that the task of nominating a successor to Othman should be referred to the council of notable men (shura), as representing the whole community.
On the murder of Ali in 66r, his son Hasan was chosen caliph, but he recoiled before the prospect of a war with Moawiya, having neither the ambition nor the energy of Ali.
Sho`ba, eventually broke down the resistance of Ziyad, who came to Damascus to render an account of his administration, which the caliph ratified.
Sa`id, son of the caliph Othman, whom Moawiya made governor of Khorasan, in 674 marched against Samarkand.
The example of Abu Bekr proved that the caliph had the right to appoint his successor.
On the news of Yazid's accession, the numerous partisans of the family of Ali in Kufa sent addresses to Hosain, inviting him to take refuge with them, and promising to have him proclaimed caliph in Irak.
Ali remained faithful to the caliph, taking no share in the revolt of the Medinians, and openly condemning the risings of the Shiites.
Though he named himself publicly a refugee of the House of God, he had himself secretly addressed as caliph, and many of the citizens of Medina acknowledged him as such.
He was already ill, and died about midway between the two cities, after having given the command, according to the orders of the caliph, to Hosain b.
It is said that on the news of the death of Yazid a conference took place between Hosain and Ibn Zobair, and that the former offered to proclaim the latter as caliph provided he would accompany him to Syria and proclaim a general amnesty.
Hitherto Ibn Zobair had confined himself to an appeal to the Moslems to renounce Yazid and to have a caliph elected by the council (shura) of the principal leading men.
He now openly assumed the title of caliph and invited men to take the oath of allegiance.
Ziyad, conceived that only a man of distinction could win the contest, and proclaimed Merwan caliph, on condition that his successor should be Khalid b.
When, in the year (69 A.H.) 689 Abdalmalik had at last encamped at Botnan Habib in the vicinity of Kinnesrin (Qinnasrin),1 with the purpose of marching against Mus`ab, his cousin `Amr Ashdaq, to whom by the treaty of Jabia, before the battle of Merj Rahit, the succession to Merwan had been promised, took advantage of his absence to lay claim to the supreme power, and to have himself proclaimed caliph by his partisans.
The caliph Abdalmalik summoned him to his palace and slew him with his own hand.
Meanwhile, the caliph committed to him the government of the Hejaz.
Mohallab, who at the time of the battle of Bajomaira was in the field against the Azraqites (Kharijites), and had put himself at the disposal of the caliph, had orders to carry on the war.
At the end of this address he ordered his clerk to read the letter of the caliph.
Mohallab, reinforced by the army of Irak, at last succeeded, after a struggle of eighteen months, in subjugating the Kharijites and their caliph Qatara b.
The new pretender entered Fars and Ahwaz (Susiana), and it was in this last province near Tostar (Shuster) that Hajjaj came up with him, after receiving from Syria the reinforcements which he had demanded in all haste from the caliph.
Hajjaj, afraid lest his communications with Syria should be cut off, pitched his camp at Dair Qorra, eighteen miles west from Kufa towards the desert, where Mahommed, the brother of the caliph, and Abdallah, his son, brought him fresh troops.
Merwan, the caliph's brother, who was appointed governor of Mesopotamia and Armenia, and in 692 beat the army of Justinian II.
The postmasters were charged with the task of informing the caliph of all important news in their respective countries.
In Asia Minor and Armenia, Maslama, brother of the caliph, and his generals obtained numerous successes against the Greeks.
He therefore proclaimed the caliph of Damascus as sole ruler of the whole peninsula.
Mohallab, the then mighty favourite of the caliph Suleiman, but died in the same year 716 on his way to Mecca.
His death has been falsely imputed by some historians to the caliph Suleiman.'
Walid was the first caliph, born and trained as prince, who felt the majesty of the imamate and wished it to be felt by his subjects.
Hajjaj, however, was not the man to allow the formation of a fresh nucleus of sedition, and persuaded the caliph to dismiss Omar in the year 712, and appoint Othman b.
Moslim, the powerful governor of Khorasan, tried to anticipate the caliph by a revolt, but a conspiracy was formed against him, which ended in his murder.
He therefore asked the caliph to give him the governorship of Khorasan also, and took his residence in Merv, where he was free from control.
He sent, however, to the caliph an exaggerated account of his victories and the booty he had made.
It is said that Suleiman was firmly persuaded that Constantinople would be conquered during his reign, in accordance with a Sibylline prophecy which said that the city would be subdued by a caliph bearing the name of a prophet, he himself being the first to fulfil this condition.
One of the wives of the new caliph, the same who gave birth to that son of Yazid II.
A pardon obtained for him from the caliph came too late; he had already gone too far.
Ahwaz (Khuzistan), Fars and Kirman were easily subdued, but in Khorasan the Azd could not prevail over the Tamim, who were loyal to the caliph.
The caliph at first ratified this choice, but soon after dismissed Mahommed from his post, and replaced him by Bishr b.
They told him that Khalid had used disrespectful terms in speaking of the caliph, and that he had appropriated revenues belonging to the state.
Though it soon appeared that the imputation was false, Khalid, on his return, was furious, and uttered very offensive words against the caliph.
Mahommed (afterwards caliph), governor of Armenia and Azerbaijan (Adherbaijan), succeeded in repelling the Khazars, imposing peace on the petty princes of the eastern Caucasus, and consolidating the Arab power in that quarter.
After his death, Suleiman, another son of the caliph, had the supreme command.
Still, they could not believe that it was according to the will of the caliph that they here thus treated, until a certain number of their chiefs went as a deputation to Hisham, but failed to obtain an audience.
Sayyar to collect a rich present of horses, falcons, musical instruments, golden and silver vessels and to offer it to the caliph in person, but before the present was ready the news came that Walid had been murdered.
A great many troops had been detached by Hisham to Africa and other provinces, the caliph himself was in one of his country places; the prefect of Damascus also was absent.
After a valiant combat, the caliph retired to one of his apartments and sat with the Koran on his knee, in order to die just as Othman had died.
On the news of the murder of the caliph, the citizens of Horns (Emesa) put at their head Abu Mahommed as-Sofiani, a grandson of Yazid I., and marched against Damascus.
The orthodox faith also, whose strong representative and defender had hitherto been the caliph, was shaken by the fact that Yazid III.
The distant provinces, with the exception of Sind and Sijistan, renounced the authority of the new caliph.
He was acknowledged as caliph only in a part of Syria, and reigned no longer than two months, when he was obliged to abdicate and to submit to the authority of Merwan II.
He had great military capacity and introduced important reforms. On the murder of Walid he prepared to dispute the supreme power with the new caliph, and invaded Mesopotamia.
Suleiman then made himself master of the treasury and fled with the caliph Ibrahim to Tadmor (Palmyra).
Hisham persuaded them to proclaim himself caliph, and made himself master of Kinnesrin.
This adventurer now went into Media (Jabal), where a great number of maulas and Shiites, even members of the reigning dynasty and of the Abbasid family, such as the future caliph Mansur, rejoined him.
Ibn Omar did not acknowledge Merwan as caliph.
Their leading tribe, the Shaiban, possessed the lands on the Tigris in the province of Mosul, and here, after the murder of Walid II., their chief proclaimed himself caliph.
Sayyar did not at once acknowledge the Caliphate of Yazid III., but induced the Arab chiefs to accept himself as amir of Khorasan, until a caliph should be universally acknowledged.
Ali pretended to grant an amnesty to all Omayyads who should come in to him at Abu Fotros (Antipatris) and acknowledge the new caliph,and even promised them the restitution of all their property.
Durham, killed under the reign of Hisham for heretical opinions, had followers in Mesopotamia, and that, when Merwan became caliph, the Khorasanians called him a Ja`d, pretending that all'Ja`d had been his teacher.
Abu Jahm, the vizier (q.v.; also Mahommedan Institutions), or "helper," of Abu Moslim, advised that Abu Ja`far, the caliph's brother, should be sent to Khorasan to consult Abu Moslim.
The new caliph then distributed the provinces among the principal members of his family and his generals.
He was received with great honour, but the caliph said that he was sorry not to be able to give him the leadership of the pilgrimage, which he had already purposely entrusted to his brother, Abu Ja`far.
When the news of the death of Abu`1-Abbas reached Abdallah, who at the head of a numerous army was on the point of renewing the Byzantine war, he came to Harran, furious at his exclusion, and proclaimed himself caliph.
The caliph spared his life for a time, but he did not forget.
The caliph replied by a threatening letter which angered Abdarrahman.
He next caused a circular letter, commanding all Maghribins to refuse obedience to the caliph, to be read from the pulpit throughout the whole extent of the Maghrib (western North Africa).
Ash`ath, the Abbasid general, entered Kairawan and regained possession of Africa in the name of the eastern caliph.
Weary of these commotions, the Arabs of Spain at last came to an understanding among themselves for the election of a caliph, and their choice fell upon one of the last survivors of the Omayyads, Abdarrahman b.
Two aunts of the caliph took part in this expedition, having made a vow that if the dominion of the Omayyads were ended they would wage war in the path of God.
In 758 (others say in 753 or 754) a body of 600 sectaries, called Rawendis (q.v.), went to Hashimiya, the residence of the caliph, not far from Kufa.
They believed that the caliph was their lord, to whom they owed their daily bread, and came to pay him divine honours.
In the last days of the Omayyads, the Shiites had chosen as caliph, Mahommed b.
Strictly it was a huge citadel, in the centre of which was the palace of the caliph and the great mosque.
But now his equals in birth and rank, the Omayyads and the Alids, had been crushed; the principal actors in the great struggle, the leaders of the propaganda and Abu Moslim were out of the way; the caliph stood far above all his subjects; and his only possible antagonists were the members of his own family.
Khalid already had so many friends that the sum was brought together with the exception of 30,000 dirhems. At that moment tidings came about a rising in the province of Mosul, and a friend of Khalid said to the caliph that Khalid was the only man capable of putting it down.
Da'ud, who, having insinuated himself into the confidence of the caliph, especially by discovering the hiding places of certain Alids, was afterwards (in 778) made prime minister.
The chroniclers relate that on this occasion for the first time camels loaded with ice for the use of the caliph came to Mecca.
In 779 the caliph decided on leading his army in person.
The caliph kept faith with them, and settled them in Bagdad, where they built a monastery called after their native place.
Irritated by this failure, the caliph in 781 sent Harun, accompanied by his chamberlain Rabi`, with an army of nearly ioo,000 men, with orders to carry the war to the very gates of Constantinople.
The accession of a new caliph doubtless appeared to the partisans of the house of Ali a favourable opportunity for a rising.
Mansur, the caliph's representative in the pilgrimage of that year, was entrusted with the command against him.
Yahya, accepted the proposal, but required that the caliph should send him letters of pardon countersigned by the highest legal authorities and the principal personages of the empire.
At the end of some months, however, he was calumniously accused of conspiracy, and the caliph, seizing the opportunity of ridding himself of a possible rival, threw him into prison, where he died, according to the majority of the historians, of starvation.
The unfortunate man was brought by the caliph himself to Bagdad, and there died, apparently by poison.
Almost every year successful raids were made, in the year 797 under the command of the caliph himself, so that Irene was compelled to sue for peace.
An attack by the Khazars called the caliph's attention from his successes in Asia Minor.
Each of the parties concerned swore to observe faithfully every part of this deed, which the caliph caused to be hung up in the Ka`ba, imagining that it would be thus guaranteed against all violation on the part of men, a precaution which was to be rendered vain by the perfidy of Amin.
Not a few were jealous of their greatness and sought for opportunities of instilling distrust against them into the mind of Harlan, and of making him feel that he was caliph only in name.
The only Barmecide who remained unmolested with his family was Mahommed the brother of Yahya, who had been the chamberlain of the caliph till 795, when Fadl b.
Scarcely had the caliph returned into winter quarters when Nicephorus broke the treaty.
The caliph went in person to Merv, in order to judge of the reality of the complaints which had reached him.
The caliph on learning that the revolt was due to Ali's tyranny, sent Harthama b.
The caliph's hope that Rafi` would submit on condition of receiving a free pardon was not fulfilled, and he resolved to set out himself to Khorasan, taking with him his second son Mamun.
In the days of this caliph the first paper factories were founded in Bagdad.
Rabi`, with the view of gaining the new caliph's confidence, hastened to call together all the troops of the late caliph and to lead them back to Bagdad, in order to place them in the hands of the new sovereign, Amin.
On hearing the news, Mamun, strong in the rightfulness of his claim, retaliated by suppressing the caliph's name in all public acts.
Zobaida, the mother of the caliph, entreated Ali to treat Mamun kindly when he should have made him captive.
Mamun now no longer hesitated to take the title of caliph.
The reign of Mamunthat reign in which art, science and letters, under the patronage of the caliph, threw so brilliant a lustre - had a very stormy beginning.
Shabath, who with numerous adherents refused submission to the caliph.
Fadl, informed of his intentions, filled the caliph's mind with distrust against the old general, so that when Harthama arrived Mamun had him cast into prison, where he died shortly afterwards.
Sahl, called by them the Majuzi ("the Zoroastrian"), who had chosen Madain for his residence, and put at their head Mansur, a son of Mandi, who refused to assume the title of caliph, but consented to be Mamun's vicegerent instead of Hasan b.
It was only indirectly that the news reached the caliph, who then saw that Fadl had been treating him as a puppet.
The caliph therefore wrote to Tahir to meet him at Nahrawan, where he was received with the greatest honour.
Tahir, fearing lest the caliph, not being able to endure the sight of the murderer of his brother, should change his mind towards him, contrived to get himself appointed governor of Khorasan.
When he returned thence, the caliph gave him the choice between the government of Khorasan and that of the northern provinces, where he would have to combat Babak the Khorramite.
Happily for these unfortunate doctors, they had scarcely reached Adana, when news of the caliph's death arrived and they were brought back to Bagdad.
Backed by this force he seems to have persuaded the ailing caliph to designate him as his successor.
The chroniclers content themselves with recording that he himself wrote in the name of the caliph to the chief authorities in Bagdad and elsewhere that he was to be the successor.
During his return the caliph was informed of a conspiracy in the army in favour of 'Abbas the son of Mamun, of which `Ojaif b.
Afshin, who stood at that moment in the highest favour of the caliph, was condemned and died in prison.
The caliph also shared Mamun's intolerance on the doctrinal question of the uncreated Koran.
The new caliph hated the vizier Zayyat, who had opposed his election, and had him seized and killed with the same atrocious cruelty which the vizier himself had inflicted on others.
His possessions, and those of others who had opposed the caliph's election, were confiscated.
So, with the perfidy of his race, the caliph took him off his guard, and had him imprisoned and killed at Bagdad.
The caliph had him flogged, and compelled each of the twenty-seven to give him ten blows on the head with his fist.
The first caliph who imposed humiliating conditions on the Dhimmis, or Covenanters, who, on condition of paying a certain not over-heavy tribute, enjoyed the protection of the state and the free exercise of their cult, was Omar II., but this policy was not continued.
It is reported that the caliph even permitted one of his buffoons to turn the person of Ali into mockery.
In 855 a revolt broke out in Homs (Emesa), where the harsh conditions imposed by the caliph on the Christians and Jews had caused great discontent.
The caliph sent against them Mahommed al-Qommi, who subdued them in 856 and brought their king Ali Baba to Samarra before Motawakkil, on condition that he should be restored to his kingdom.
Laith al-Saffar proclaimed himself amir of that province in the year 860, and was soon after confirmed in this dignity by the caliph.
But in the year 865 Wasif and Bogha fled with Mosta`in to Bagdad, and Motazz was proclaimed caliph at Samarra.
As the provincial revenues annually decreased, it became impossible to pay this sum, and Salih the son of Wasif, in spite of the remonstrances of the caliph, confiscated the property of state officials.
Wasif, proclaimed as caliph one of the sons of Wathiq with the title of al-Mohtadi billah ("the guided by God"), who, however, refused to occupy the throne until his predecessor had solemnly abdicated.
On the news of the conspiracy against Motazz, Musa, the son of the famous general Bogha, 1 then governor of Media (Jabal), ordered his deputy-general Moflih to return at once from a proposed invasion of Dailam, and moved with his army towards Samarra, notwithstanding the peremptory orders of the caliph.
Musa could not refuse to comply with the formal command of the caliph to march against him.
The power of Ya`qub then increased to such an extent that he was not content with the caliph's offer to recognize him as supreme in the provinces he had conquered, and military governor of Bagdad, but marched against Irak.
The caliph himself, wearing the mantle and the staff of the Prophet, then went out against him, and after a vigorous resistance he was beaten by Mowaffaq, who had the command of the troops, and fled to Jondisapur in Khuzistan, where he died three years later, leaving his empire to his brother `Amr. This prince maintained himself in power till the year 900, when he was beaten and taken prisoner by Isma`il b.
The Samanids had been governors of Transoxiana from the time of Mamun, and after the fall of the Tahirids, had been confirmed in this office by the caliph.
Motamid's flight was stopped by his vizier Ibn Makhlad, and the caliph himself was reconducted to Samarra as a prisoner in the year 882.
His son Khomaruya succeeded him, and maintained himself in power till his death in 896, in which year his daughter was married to the caliph Motadid.
Ten years later Egypt was conquered by a general of the caliph Moktafi.
Abu Sa`id al-Jannabi, who had founded a Carmathian state in Bahrein, the north-eastern province of Arabia (actually called Lahsa), which could become dangerous for the pilgrim road as well as for the commerce of Basra, in the year 900 routed an army sent against him by Motadid, and warned the caliph that it would be safer to let the Carmathians alone.
In the same year the real chief of the sect, whose abode had been discovered by the caliph, fled from Salamia in Syria, where he lived, to Africa, and hid himself at Sijilmasa (in Tafilalt) in the far west, whence he reappeared ten years later at Kairawan as the Mandi, the first caliph of the Fatimites.4 Motadid died in Rabia II.
Suleiman was sent by the caliph to Egypt, where he overthrew the dominion of the Tulunids.
In the year 905 the Greek general Andronicus took Marash, and penetrated as far as Haleb (Aleppo), but the Moslems were successful at sea, and in 907 captured Iconium, whilst Andronicus went over to the caliph's side, so that the Byzantine emperor sent an embassy to Bagdad to ask for a truce and an exchange of prisoners.
The new caliph, al-Moqtadir billah (" the powerful through God"), a brother of Moktafi, was only thirteen years of age when he ascended the throne.
Owing to his extreme youth many of the leading men at Bagdad rebelled and swore allegiance to Abdallah, son of the former caliph Motazz, a man of excellent character and of great poetical gifts; but the party of the house of Motadid prevailed, and the rival caliph was put to death.
Next year Mecca was taken and plundered; even the sacred Black Stone was transported to Lahsa, where it remained till 339 (950), when by the express order of the Imam, the Fatimite caliph, it was restored to the Ka`ba.
Very soon he withdrew, and though he could not prevent the plundering of the palace, and the proclamation as caliph of another son of Motadid with the title al-Qahir billah (" the victorious through God"), he rescued Moqtadir and his mother, and at the same time his imprisoned friend Ali b.
The caliph, who wished nothing more than to be reconciled to his old faithful servant, was forced to take arms against him, and fell in battle Shawwal 320 (October 932), at the age of 38 years.
In this extremity the caliph bade Ibn Raiq, who had made himself master of Basra and Wasit, and had command of money and men, to come to his help. He created for him the office of Amir al-Omara, "Amir of the Amirs," which nearly corresponds to that of Mayor of the Palace among the Franks.'
Another son of Moqtadir was then proclaimed caliph under the name of al-M.
The Ikshid, sovereign of Egypt and Syria, offered him a refuge, but Tuzun, fearing to see the caliph obtain such powerful support, found means to entice him to his tent, and had his eyes put out, Saphar 333 (October 944).
Such was the weakness of the caliph that a notorious robber, named Hamdi, obtained immunity for his depredations by a monthly payment of 25,000 dinars.
The sultan, reserving to himself all the powers and revenues of the Caliphate, allowed the caliph merely a secretary and a pension of 5000 dirhems a day.
Though in public prayers and on the coins the name of the caliph remained as that of the supreme authority, he had in reality no authority out of the palace, so that the saying became proverbial, "he contents himself with sermon and coin."
The Turks who had placed him on the throne could not maintain themselves, but so insignificant was the person of the caliph that `Adod addaula, who succeeded his cousin Bakhtiyar in Bagdad, did not think of replacing him by another.
This prince, who was as avaricious as he was ambitious, wishing to deprive the caliph Ta`i of his possessions, compelled him to abdicate A.H.
A grandson of Moqtadir was then made caliph under the name of al-Qadi y billah (" the powerful through God").
The situation in Bagdad had become so desperate that the caliph called Toghrul to his aid.
They were soon overthrown by Toghrul, who was now supreme, and compelled the caliph to give him his daughter in marriage.
Baths, the Zeirid ruler of the Maghrib, made himself independent, and substituted in prayer the name of the Abbasid caliph for that of Mostansir.
All the eastern provinces, a great part of Asia Minor, Syria with the exception of a few towns on the shore, the main part of West Africa acknowledged the caliph of Bagdad as the Imam.
Yemen had been subjected, and at Mecca and Medina his name was substituted in the public prayers for that of the Fatimite caliph.
The caliph, who had in 1087 married the daughter of Malik-Shah, had been compelled two years after to send her back to her father, as she complained of being neglected by her husband.
Al-Mostazhir billah (" he who seeks to triumph through God"), son of Moqtadi, was only sixteen years old when he was proclaimed caliph.
Not long before that event the wellknown Spanish traveller Ibn Jubair visited the empire of Saladin, and came to Bagdad in 580, where he saw the caliph himself.
Here, however, he came into conflict with the then mighty prince of Khwarizm (Khiva), who, already exasperated because the caliph refused to grant him the honours he asked for, resolved to overthrow the Caliphate of the Abbasids, and to place a descendant of Ali on the throne of Bagdad.
Neither he nor the caliph had the slightest notion of the imminent danger they conjured up. When Nasir died, Ramadan 622 (October 1225), the eastern provinces of the empire had been trampled down by the wild hordes, the towns burned, and the inhabitants killed without mercy.
Al-Mostansir billah (" he who asks help from God") was caliph till his death in Jomada II.
Al-Mosta`sim billah ("he who clings to God for protection"), son of Mostansir, the last caliph of Bagdad, was a narrow-minded, irresolute man, guided moreover by bad counsellors.
On the 4th of Saphar (February loth) he came with his retinue into the camp. The city was then given up to plunder and slaughter; many public buildings were burnt; the caliph, after having been compelled to bring forth all the hidden treasures of the family, was killed with two of his sons and many relations.
In vain, three years later, did Abu'l-Qasim Ahmad, a scion of the race of the Abbasids, who had taken refuge in Egypt with Bibars the Mameluke sultan, and who had been proclaimed caliph under the title al-Mostansir billah (" he who seeks help from God"), make an effort to restore a dynasty which was now for ever extinct.
Then another descendant of the Abbasids, who also had found an asylum in Egypt, was proclaimed caliph at Cairo under the name of al-Hakim bi amri'llah (" he who decides according to the orders of God").
Another scion of the Abbasid family, Mahommed, a greatgrandson of the caliph Mostansir, found at a later period a refuge in India, where the sultan of Delhi received him with the greatest respect, named him Makhdumzadeh, "the Master's son," and treated him as a prince.
They do not differ on any point of faith; the dispute is confined to a quarrel as to the correct chronological date for the computation of the era of Yazdegerd, the last king of the Sassanian dynasty, who was dethroned by the caliph Omar about A.D.
It is generally supposed that the order for a general war can only be given by the caliph (an office now claimed by the sultans of Turkey).
He was both physician and minister to Caliph Abd ar-Rahman III.
It almost appeared as if Asia Minor would be annexed to the dominion of the Caliph.
About 908 the governor of Van or Vaspuragan was crowned king by the caliph Moktadir, and in 1021 his descendant Senekherim was persuaded by Basil II.
Abu Bekr, Omar and Othman, however, occupied this position before him, and it was not until 656, after the murder of Othman, that he assumed the title of caliph.
At the outset the Arabs under the caliph Othman made themselves masters of the island, and destroyed the city of Salamis, which until that time had continued to be the capital.
It was perhaps this Philoponus who tried to save the Alexandrian library from the caliph Omar after Amu's victory in 639.
With the Mahommedan conquest of Persia and the fall of the Sassanians the title was abolished; it was in use for a short time during the ioth Century, having been granted to Shah Ismail Samani by the Caliph Motadid A.D, 900; it appeared again on coins of Nadir Shah, 1736-1747, and was assumed by the present dynasty, the Kajars, in 1799.
Haruns sons Amin and Mamun quarrelled over the succession; Amin became caliph, but Mamun by the aid of Tahir b.
To another Turk, Itakh, the caliph Wathiq gave a titular authority over all the eastern provinces.
In the reign of the tenth caliph Motawakkil the Tahirids fell before Yakub b.
Laith al-Saffar, who with the approbation of the caliph founded a dynasty, the Saffarid (q.v.), in Seistan.
Mohtadi, the fourteenth Abbasid caliph, endeavoured vainly to replace them by Persians (the Abna).
The thirty-eighth and last Abbasid caliph, Mostasim, was brutally murdered, and thus the Mahommedan caliphate ceased to exist even as an emasculated pontificate.
Like the Greek drama and the mysteries of the European middle ages, it is the offspringof purely religious ceremony, which for centuries has been performed annually during the first ten days of the month Muharramthe recital of mournful lamentations in memory of the tragic fate of the house of the caliph All, the hero of the Shiitic Persians.
The story, legendary or historical, adds that Malik had refused to go to the caliph, saying that it was for the student to come to his teacher.
It was refounded in 912 by the first Fatimite caliph, 'Obaidallah-al-Mandi, after whom it was named.
The Christian story first appears in Greek among the works of John of Damascus, who flourished in the early part of the 8th century, and who, before he adopted the monastic life, had held high office at the court of the caliph Abu Ja`far al-Mansur, as his father Sergius is said to have done before him.
He consequently left Medina in 733, and went to Alexandria, then to Kufa and Hira, and finally to Bagdad, where the caliph Mansur provided him with the means of writing his great work.
Having boasted that he could construct a machine for regulating the inundations of the Nile, he was summoned to Egypt by the caliph Hakim; but, aware of the impracticability of his scheme, and fearing the caliph's anger, he feigned madness until Hakim's death in 1021.
The history of Mecca is full of the record of these inundations, unsuccessfully combated by the great dam drawn across the valley by the caliph Omar (Kutbeddin, p. 76), and later works of Mandi.5 The fixed population of Mecca in 1878 was estimated by Assistant-Surgeon `Abd el-Razzaq at 50,000 to 60,000; there is a large floating population - and that not merely at the proper season of pilgrimage, the pilgrims of one season often beginning to arrive before those of the former season have all dispersed.
See the letter of the caliph Mandi on the subject; Wustenfeld, Chron.
The dignity of sherif (or grand sherif, as Europeans usually say for the sake of distinction, since all the kin of the princely houses reckoning descent from the Prophet are also named sherifs), although by no means a religious pontificate, is highly respected owing to its traditional descent in the line of Hasan, son of the fourth caliph `Ali.
From a political point of view the sherif is the modern counterpart of the ancient amirs of Mecca, who were named in the public prayers immediately after the reigning caliph.
After his death his most glaring innovations (the introduction of two doors on a level with the ground, and the extension of the building lengthwise to include the Hijr) were corrected by Hajjaj, under orders from the caliph, but the building retained its more solid structure.
The door to this stair (called the door of mercy - Bab el-Rahma) was plated with silver by the caliph Motawakkil.
He has made himself known to men by successive incarnations, of which the last was Hakim, the sixth Fatimite caliph.
Meanwhile the endeavours of the caliph to get his divinity acknowledged by the people of Cairo continued.
In 1020 (411 A.H.) the caliph was assassinated by contrivance of his sister Sitt ul-Mulk; but it was given out by Hamza that he had only withdrawn for a season, and his followers were encouraged to look forward with confidence to his triumphant return.
But the force of this tradition had been so far weakened that Abd-ar-rahman could proclaim himself caliph on the 16th of January 929, and the assumption of the title gave him increased prestige with his subjects, both in Spain and Africa.
The original city of Basra was founded by the caliph Omar in A.D.
The first Arabic translation of the Almagest was made by order of Harun al-Rashid about the year Boo; others followed, and the Caliph Arah al-Mamun built in 829 a grand observatory at astro- Bagdad.
The celebrated caliph, Harun-al-Rashid, lived in Derbent at different times, and brought it into great repute as a seat of the arts and commerce.
The kings of Northumbria and Sussex, the kings of the Basques and of Galicia, Arab amirs of Spain and Fez, and even the caliph of Bagdad came to visit him in person or sent gifts by the hands of ambassadors.
The seat of empire had been transferred to Bagdad, on the highway of Oriental commerce; and the distant Khorasan became the favourite province of the caliph.
Even in 1150 Bagdad had seen a library of philosophical books burned by command of the caliph Mostanjid; and in 1192 the same place might have witnessed a strange scene, in which the books of a physician were first publicly cursed, and then committed to the flames, while their owner was incarcerated.
During 713 and 714 the north was subdued to the foot of the mountains, and when Miis and Tank were recalled to Damascus by the caliph the progress of the Moslems was not delayed.
That the lieutenants of the caliph at Damascus should take the place of the Visigoth kings, their dukes and counts seemed to many no loss and to a still greater number a gain.
The great landowners, to whom patriotism was unknown and whose religious faith was tepid, were as ready to pay tribute to the caliph as to render service to one of their own body who had become king by violence or intrigue.
He extorted from the feeble caliph the Abdur- title of successor, thereby deeply offending the rahmaa princes of the Omayyad house and the populace Sanchol.
Was driven out by his nobles, in alliance with Fernan Gon zales, count of Castile, and restored by the caliph.
One of the governors, the Bagratid Ashod I., was crowned king of Armenia by the caliph Motamid, 885, and founded a dynasty which ended with Kagig II.
A little later the Ardzrunian Kagig, governor of Vaspuragan or Van, was crowned king of that province by the caliph Moktadir, 908, and his descendants ruled at Van and Sivas until 1080.
After the murder of Ali, the fourth caliph, his successor Moawiya transferred the seat of the Caliphate from Mecca to Damascus and thus commenced the great dynasty of the Omayyads, whose rule extended from the Atlantic to India.
The church of St John the Baptist constructed by Arcadius on the site of the temple was turned by Caliph Walid I.
In 668 occurred another destructive flood (Theophanes, p. 537), and in 678 an earthquake which destroyed part of the " old church," which the caliph Mo`awiya I.
In the 10th century al-D'las`udi, writing in the very year in which it happened, tells how the Mahommedan ruler of Edessa, with the permission of the caliph, purchased peace of the emperor Romanus Lecapenus by surrendering to him the napkin of Jesus of Nazareth, wherewith he had dried himself after his baptism.
The relatives of the murdered caliph fled to Mecca with vows of vengeance.
Wouldst thou have the caliph murdered, or delivered over to the enemy?
In accusing Britain of being hostile to their venerated caliph, the Khilafatists were fighting an imaginary enemy.
Weak and faint from the assassin's dagger, the emergency came upon the dying caliph unprepared.
Sayyida Nafisa, a descendant of Ali, the fourth caliph, was also a great scholar.
His anger was provoked, however, by the election of the third caliph, Uthman.
There were exceptions; but ' Ali was lenient, and 235 would not press the adherents of the late caliph to swear allegiance.
But ' Aisha found the light-hearted damsel with no desire to wed the aged Caliph.
Syria and Egypt next fell before him; he became master of the holy cities of Islam; and, most important of all, he induced the last Caliph of the Abbasid dynasty formally to surrender the title of caliph (q.v.), as well as its outward emblems, viz.
The dignity with which the Ottoman sultans have thereby become invested lends them that prestige throughout the Mussulman world which is of such importance to the present day, and which has thrown into oblivion the condition that the caliph ought to be an Arab of the tribe of Koreish.
The caliph's librarian, Abu Jafar Muhammad Ben Musa, wrote a geographical work, now unfortunately lost, entitled Rasm el Arsi (" A Description of the World "), which is often referred to by subsequent writers as having been composed on the model of that of Ptolemy.
A day's journey beyond Meskene are the remains of Siffin (Roman Sephe), where Moawiya defeated the caliph Ali in 657 (see Caliphate), and opposite this, on the west bank, a picturesque ruin called Karat Ja`ber (Dausara).
The caliph, perceiving his mistake, immediately restored `Amr, who, on his arrival in Egypt, drove the Greeks within the walls of Alexandria, but was only able to capture the city after a most obstinate resistance by the defenders.
For six years (672-677) the Arabs under the caliph Moawiya (see CALIPHATE) besieged Constantinople, but the ravages caused amongst them by the so-called "Greek fire," heavy losses by land and sea, and the inroads of the Christian Mardaites (or Maronites, q.v.) of Mount Lebanon, obliged Moawiya to make peace and agree to pay tribute for thirty years.
Of this hatred he was fully conscious; he knew that his subjects, even many of his own ministers, regarded Mehemet Ali as the champion of Islam against the " infidel sultan;" he suspected the pasha, already master of the sacred cities, of an intention to proclaim himself caliph in his stead.
The Fatimite caliph 'Obaidallah (see Fatimites), to whom Abu Tahir professed allegiance, publicly wrote to him to restore the stone, but there is some reason to believe that he secretly encouraged him to retain it.
Mehren, p. 263); whilst Abmad ibn Fadlan, who passed through Khazaria on a mission from the caliph Moqtadir (A.D.
Lebanon, chiefly by the immigration of various more or less heretical elements, Kurd, Turkoman, Persian and especially Arab, the latter largely after the break-up of the kingdom of Hira; and early in the i ith century these coalesced into a nationality (see Druses) under the congenial influence of the Incarnationist creed brought from Cairo by Ismael Darazi and other emissaries of the caliph Hakim and his vizier Hamza.
In support of the policy, and to emphasize the religious character of Ottoman war aims, a Jihad or Holy War was proclaimed by the Sultan as Caliph of Islam.
But Sabuktagin, throughout his reign at Ghazni, continued to acknowledge the Samanid suzerainty, as did Mahmud also, until the time, soon after succeeding to his father's dominions, when he received from Qadir, caliph of Bagdad (see Caliphate, C. § 25), a khilat (robe of honour), with a letter recognizing his sovereignty, and conferring on him the titles Yamin-addaula (" Right hand of the State"), and Amin-ulMillat (" Guardian of the Faith").
Such authority as remained to the orthodox caliph of Bagdad (see Caliphate) or the heretical Fatimites of Cairo was exercised by their viziers.
At this time the power of Qaim, the Abbasid caliph of Bagdad (see Caliphate, section C, § 26), was reduced to a mere shadow, as the Shiite dynasty of the Buyids and afterwards his more formidable Fatimite rivals had left him almost wholly destitute of authority.
Killis, who had been raised to the rank of vizier, to deal with the situation in Syria, where a Turkish general AftakIn had gained possession of Damascus, and was raiding the whole country; on the arrival of Jauhar in Syria the Turks called the Carmathians to their aid, and after a campaign of many vicissitudes Jauhar had to return to Egypt to implore the caliph himself to take the field.
Everywhere in the provinces there was agitation against the caliph and his governors, except in Syria, where Othman's cousin, Moawiya, son of Abu Sofian (see below), carried on a wise and strong administration.
The proud Arabic lords could not acquiesce in paying to a plebeian like Hajjaj, invested with absolute power by the caliph, the strict obedience he required.
Tariq forwarded the embassy to Kairawan, and Musa asked the caliph's permission to send an expedition into Spain.
The dismemberment of the empire continued fast in these years, and the caliph was compelled to recognize the virtual independence of the governors Ya`qub the Saffarid (see Saffarids and Persia, History, § B) in Seistan, and Ahmad b.
His son and successor al-Mostadi' biamri'llah ("he who seeks enlightenment by the orders of God"), though in Egypt his name was now substituted in public prayers for that of the Fatimite caliph, was unable to obtain any real authority.
He was conscious of his own intense unpopularity, the outcome of his efforts at reform; he knew that in popular opinion Mehemet Ali was the champion of Islam against the infidel caliph, and that the issue of a struggle with him was more than doubtful.
In the reign of the caliph Motasim a serious revolt of Persian Mazdakite sectaries (the Khorrami) in alliance with Byzantium was with difficulty suppressed, as also a rising of Tabaristan under an hereditary chief Maziyar who was secretly supported by the Turkish mercenaries (e.g., Af shin) whom the caliph had invited to his court.
The poet wished very much to please the caliph.
The caliph's eyes were filled with tears.
On the day appointed, forty gray- bearded, honest old men stood before the caliph.
Great was the caliph's surprise when he heard the poor man's story.
Another story is that the Caliph got Khalid the Barmeki to suborn witnesses who swore that ' Isa had resigned his right.
The Panislamic propaganda was encouraged; the privileges of foreigners in the Ottoman Empire - of ten an obstacle to government - were curtailed; the new railway to the Holy Places was pressed on, and emissaries were sent to distant countries preaching Islam and the caliph's supremacy.
Gold coins (dinars) of this caliph are extant on which al Reza's name appears with the title of heir-apparent.
Already under Charlemagne this development is noticeable; in his generous treatment of the Jews this Christian emperor stood in marked contrast to his contemporary the caliph Harun al-Rashid, who persecuted Jews and Christians with equal vigour.
Firdousi next repaired to Bagdad, where he made the acquaintance of a merchant, who introduced him to the vizier of the caliph, al-Qadir, by presenting an Arabic poem which the poet had composed in his honour.
The caliph summoned him into his presence, and was so much pleased with a poem of a thousand couplets, which Firdousi composed in his honour, that he at once received him into favour.
In this connexion Yaqui tells a curious story of the opening of one of the tombs by the caliph, which in spite of fabulous incidents, recalling the legend of Roderic the Goth, shows some traces of local knowledge.
Not only was Syria thus weakened by being detached from the body of the Seljukian empire; it was divided by dissensions within, and assailed by the Fatimite caliph of Egypt from without.
A great religious difference divided the Fatimite caliph of Cairo, the head of the Shiite sect, from the Abbasid caliph of Bagdad, who was the head of the Sunnites.
The crusading princes were well enough aware of the gulf which divided the caliph of Cairo from the Sunnite princes of Syria; and they sought by envoys to put themselves into connexion with him, hoping by his aid to gain Jerusalem (which was then ruled for the Turks by Sokman, the son of the amir Ortok).
Into the vicissitudes of the fight it is not necessary here to enter; but in the issue Nureddin won, in spite of the support which Manuel gave to Amalric. Nureddin's Kurdish lieutenant, Shirguh, succeeded in establishing in power the vizier whom he favoured, and finally in becoming vizier himself (January 1169); and when he died, his nephew Saladin (Sala-ed-din) succeeded to his position (March 1169), and made himself, on the death of the caliph in 1171, sole ruler in Egypt.
He claimed descent from the caliph Abubekr, and from the Khwarizm-Shah Sultan `Ala-uddin b.
Ptolemy were translated into Arabic, and in 827, in the reign of the caliph Abdullah al Mamun, an arc of the meridian was measured in the plain of Mesopotamia.
Of the original building of the caliph Mostansir all that remains is a minaret and a small portion of the outer walls.
References in the Jewish Talmud show that this city still continued to exist at and after the commencement of our era; but according to Arabian writers, at the time when the Arab city of Bagdad was founded by the caliph Mansur, there was nothing on that site except an old convent.
The Arab city, the old or round city of Bagdad, was founded by the caliph Mansur of the Abbasid dynasty on the west side of the Tigris just north of the Isa canal in A.D.
It was a mile in diameter, built in concentric circles, with the mosque and palace of the caliph in the centre, and had four gates toward the four points of the compass.
He was favoured by Ibn uz-Zaiyat, the vizier of the caliph Wathiq.
Apparently this state of things lasted till after the Mahommedan conquest, for Barhebraeus 1 tells us that it was the caliph Walid I.
In the 8th century, when peace was made between the caliph Walid and the emperor Justinian II., the former stipulated for a quantity of mosaic for the decoration of the new mosque at Damascus, and in the 10th century the materials for the decoration of the niche of the kibla at Cordova were furnished by Romanus II.
He became secretary to the governor of Granada, and later physician and vizier to the Mohad caliph, Abu Ya`qub Yusuf.
In 636 Jerusalem fell and received a visit from the caliph.
The reign of the third caliph Othman (644-656) was marked by the beginning of that internal strife which was to ruin Arabia; but the foreign conquests continued.
After the murder of Othman, `Ali (656-661) became caliph, but Moawiya, governor of Syria, soon rebelled on the pretext of avenging the death of Othman.
The new national feeling demanded that all Arabs should be free men, so the caliph ordained that all Arab slaves should be freed on easy terms. The solidarity of Arabia survived the first foreign conquests.
After some years of growing dissatisfaction deputies from these places came to Medina, and the result was the murder of the caliph.
According to the Shiite Moslems, who call the office the "imamate" or leadership, no caliph is legitimate unless he is a lineal descendant of the Prophet.
That following the old Tanitic channel is called the canal of Al-Moizz, the first Fatimite caliph who ruled in Egypt, having been dug by his orders, and the latter bears the name of the canal of Abu-l-Muneggi, a Jew who executed this work, under the caliph Al-Amir, in order to water the province called the Sharkia.
These are all presided over by a direct descendant of the caliph Abu Bekr, called the Sheikh El-Bekri.
In 969 the country was conquered by Jauhar for the Fatimite caliph Moizz, who transferred his capital from Mahdia in the Maghrib to Cairo.
Sad, on whom the third caliph conferred the government of Lower Egypt also, Amr being recalled, owing to his unwillingness to extort from his subjects as much money as would satisfy the caliph.
The favor afterwards shown to Ibn Raiq at Bagdad nearly threw the Ikshid into the arms of the Fatimite caliph, with whom he carried on a friendly correspondence, one letter of which is preserved.
In August I121 al-Aflal was assassinated in a street of Cairo, it is said, with the connivance of the caliph, who immediately began the plunder of his house, where fabulous treasures were said to be amassed.
On the 4th of October 1125 he with his followers was seized and imprisoned by order of the Caliph Amir, who was now resolved to govern by himself, with the assistance of only subordinate officials, of whom two were drawn from the Samaritan and Christian communities.
Reaching Cairo on the 6th of January 1169, he was soon able to get possession of Shawars person, and after the prefects execution, which happened some ten days later, he was appointed vizier by the caliph.
This was the last time that the Ilkhans gave the Egyptian sultans serious trouble; and in the letter written in the sultans name to the Ilkhan announcing the victory, the former suggested that the caliphate of Bagdad should be restored to the titular Abbasid caliph who had accompanied the Egyptian expedition, a suggestion which does not appear to have led to any actual steps being taken.
On the 23rd of May 1412, after being defeated and shut up in Damascus, he was compelled by Sheik Mabrnudi to abdicate, and an Abbasid caliph, Mostain, was proclaimed sultan, only to be forced to abdicate on the 6th of November of the same year in Sheiks favor, who took the title Malik al-Muayyad, his colleague Newruz having been previously sent to Syria, where he was to be autocrat by the terms of their agreement.
A decree of disposition was now issued against the sacrilegious vali, who had dared " to fire shots in Constantinople, the residence of the caliph, and the centre of security."
The Greek city was destroyed by the Arabs under the Caliph Moawiya in 647, and does not seem to have revived.
The caliph wished you to amuse him with pleasant thoughts, and you have filled his mind with melancholy.
There was a caliph of Persia whose name was Al Mamoun. He had two sons whom he wished to become honest and noble men.
When the caliph heard of this he sent for Al Farra and asked him, "Who is the most honored of men?"
Al Farra bowed low, but said nothing; and the caliph went on.
As soon as he entered the hall the caliph went to meet him.
On the Arab invasion this work was in great danger of perishing at the hands of the iconclastic caliph Omar and his generals, but it was fortunately preserved; and we find it in the 2nd century of the Hegira being paraphrased in Arabic by Abdallah ibn el Mokaffa, a learned Persian who had embraced Islam.
Of these Ahmad and his second son Isma`il overthrew the Saffarids (q.v.) and the Zaidites of Tabaristan; and thus the Samanids established themselves with the sanction of the caliph Motamid in their capital Bokhara.
The Seljukian Turks, first the mercenaries and then the masters of the caliph, had given new life to the decadent caliphate of Bagdad.
It was subject to the direct personal control of the sultan, who was himself a temporal autocrat, which he now is not, and the most generally recognized caliph, that is, " successor," of the Prophet, and consequently the spiritual head of by far the greater portion of the Moslem world - as he still is.
Owing principally to the fact that the system of the caliph Omar came to be treated as an immutable dogma which was clearly not intended by its originator, and to the peculiar relations which developed therefrom between the Mussulman Turkish conquerors and the peoples (principally Christian) which fell under their sway, no such thing as an Ottoman nation has ever been created.
To the usual letter announcing the victory the caliph in Egypt replied saluting Bayezid with the title of " Sultan of the lands of Rum."
The Tatars Treaty of from the frontier of Poland to the shores of the Kuchuk Caspian, including those of the Crimea and Kuban, were declared independent under their own khan 1774' of the race of Jenghiz, saving only the religious rights of the sultan as caliph of Islam.
Under the rule of the Abbasids, Bagdad became the centre of scientific thought; physicians and astronomers from India and Syria flocked to their court; Greek and Indian manuscripts were translated (a work commenced by the Caliph Mamun (813-833) and ably continued by his successors); and in about a century the Arabs were placed in possession of the vast stores of Greek and Indian learning.
After the murder the rebels were unwilling to return home until a new caliph had been chosen in the capital.
The caliph was so well pleased with these jewels that he bought them and paid the merchant a large sum of money.