Cheyenne transporter. [volume] (Darlington, Indian Terr.) 1879-1886, 1882-07-10
The Sultan's Title.


claim to spiritual supremacy: The idea
of united Islam under the rule of a
single caliph being a fundamental con.
ception of the Mussulman religion, is
as old as that religion itself, and was
during more than century practically
realized. Under the early caliphs Islam
was not merely an abstract religious
system but highly organized social
and political community, with mon
archical form of government which
rapidly developed into an unlimited
despotism. The known world was di
vided into two parts, the Daru u Islam
and the Daru i Harb-the land of the
faithful and the land of the infidel-
and throughout the whole extent of
the former the caliph exercised uncon-
trolled temporal and spiritual author
ity. Such was the caliphate of the
Ommeyades, with Damascus as its cap
ital. With the fall Of that dynasty,
about 100 years after the death of the
prophet. the political unity of Islam
came to an end. When the Abbassides
seized the supreme power and removed
the seat of government 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
a third independent caliphate was
founded in Egypt 10y the so called Fati-
mite dynasty. Thus the Mussulman
world was split into three parts, and
since that moment it has never been
politically united. 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
caiphs in the old sense of the term.
Ambitious provincial governments and
insubordinate Tartar chieftans had
created for themselves and their de-
Gcendants semi-independent sovereign.
ties, and the little central authority
that remained was welded by "a band
of PI2torians, or by a vizier resem-
bling 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 legal
izing successful usurpatiOn by perform
ing the ceremony of investiture for
those who had made themselves prac-
tically independent rulers. The caliph-
ate had become, in fact, a loose confed-
Grafton OF practically independent
states under the nominal sovereignty
of a spiritual head, and might be COM
pared iii some respects to medieval
Chr rstendom under the spiritual sOver-
eighty of the pope. In this ethereal
ized form it has continued to survive
TO the present day. Extinguished in
Bagd I'd by the great Tartar invasion of
The thirteenth century, it was revived
immediately afterward in Egypt. A
mysterious Individual, protesting to be
IN Abbdssde who had escaped the mas
sacre of his family in Blgdad, appeared
in Cairo and declai ed himself to be the
legitimate representative of the vener-
ated dynasty. The Mameluke sultan
of the lime, parceiving the advantages
of having IA caliph of his own, caused
the stranger to be recognized 10y the
ul9ma. and thus began new series of
puppet caliphs, calling themselves
Abbassides, which lasted more than
two centuries and half Q250-I5l0
When Egypt was conquered by the
Turks in 1917, the Sultan Slim made
the puppet caliph of the moment cede
to him his caliphate rights, and ever
since that time the Ottoman sultans,
who have no pretentions to being de-
az .arcralct J..