The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1882-10-26
The SuItan's Title.

The idea of a united Islam under the
rule of a single Caliph being q funda-
mental conception of the Mussulman
religion, is as old as that religion itself,
and was, during more than q century,
practically realized. Under the early
Caliphs Islam was not merely All abb
stract religious system but q highly or
ganized social and political community.
with q monarchical form of government
which rapidly developed into an unlim-
tied despotism. The known world was
divided into two parts, the Daru u Is
lam and the Daru Il Harb-the land Of
the faithful and the land of the infdel-
and throughout the whole extent of the
former the Caliph exercised uncontrolled
temporal and spiritual authority. Such
was the caliphhte of the Omn ayades,
with Damacus as its capital. With the
fall of that dynasty, about 12O years after
the death of the prophet, the political
unity of Islam came to an end. When
the Abhassides seized the supreme pow
er and removed the seat of govern
ment to Bagdad, the Moors of Spain,
refusing to recognize the usurpation,
elected Caliph of their own from
among the survivors of the dethroned
dynasty, and at later period third
independent caliphate was formed in
Egypt by the so-caled Fatimite dynasty.
Thus the Mussulman world was split
into three parts. and since that moment
it has never been politically reunited.
The Western and Egyptian caliphates
passed through many crises and finally
periShed, but the Eastern Caliphs could
not profit by the weakness and disasters
of their rivals. They were in fact no
longer Caliphs in the old sense of the
term. Ambitious provincial govern
ments and inSubordinate Tartar chief
tains had created for themselves and
their descendants semi-independent
sovereignties, and the little central
authority that remained was WELD
ed by band of Pratorians, or
by o Vizier resembling the Mayor of the
palace in the Frankish monarchy. AS
successors of the prophet, the Caliphs
continued to enjoy popular veneration,
and their names were regularly recited
every Friday in the mosques; but they
had lost all real power, and their chief
political functions consisted in legalizing
successful usurpation by performing the
ceremony of investiture for those who
had made themselves practically inde-
pendent rulers. The caliphate had be-
come, in fact, loose confederation of
practically independent States under
the nominal sovereignty OF spiritual
head, and might be compared in some
respects to medieval Christendom un-
der the spiritual sovereignty of the
Pope. In this etherealized form it has
continued to survive to the present
day. distinguished in Bagdad by the
great Tartar invasion of the thirteenth
century, it was revived Immediately
afterward in Egypt. A mysterious in.
dividual, processing to be an Abbasside
who had escaped the massacre of hiG
family in Bagdad, appeared in Cairo
and declared himself to be the legiti-
mate representative of the venerated
dynasty. The Mameluke Sultan of the
time, perceiving the advantages of hav-
ing Caliph of his own, caused the
stranger to be recognized by the Ulema,
and thus began q new series Of puppet
Caliphs, calling themselves Abbassides,
which lasted for more than two centu-
res and a half Q25O-151O. When
Egypt was conquered by the Turks in
1917, the Sultan Sclim made the puppet
Caliph of the moment cede to him his
oaliphate rights, and ever since that
time the Ottoman Sultans. who have no
pretensions to being descendants of the
Prophet, have had the title of Caliph.- -
ConStd,atinoDte Cor. London Times.