caliphate.
I don't understand the definition of it.
5 Answers
It is an arabic term. A caliphate is a region or country, rules by a caliph and it was the first kind of goverment used by Islam. Nowadays the only caliphate is the Islamic State but it is not recognized by other countries.
The more famous caliphates in the antiquity (at least for me) were: Caliphate of Cordoba, Caliphate Omeya, Caliphate Abassi, etc..
Nowadays the only caliphate is the Islamic State but it is not recognized by other countries.
I have to disagree. Iran has been a caliphate since 1979.
The "Islamic State" is not a state at all, but an army of barbarians whose goal is to murder, enslave and to rape. It is nothing more than a haven for loosers in their 20s with no education, no job, and no hope of achieving anything in their miserable lives other than killing people.
The Sunni branch of Islam stipulates that, as a head of state, a Caliph should be elected by Muslims or their representatives.[3] Followers of Shia Islam, however, believe a Caliph should be an Imam chosen by God from the Ahl al-Bayt (the "Family of the House", Muhammad's direct descendants). In 2014, the extremist group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant declared itself a Caliphate;[4] nonetheless, its authority remains unrecognised by any country.
Difference between caliphate and democracy
In a democracy, laws are made by an assembly elected by the people; in a caliphate, the sources of legislation are supposed to be the Qur'an and the Sunnah? Concerning the supremacy of God in making laws rather than people, the Qur'an states:
In a democracy, laws are made by an assembly elected by the people; in a caliphate, the sources of legislation are supposed to be the Qur'an and the Sunnah? Concerning the supremacy of God in making laws rather than people, the Qur'an states:
Main Caliphates
Rashidun Caliphate (632–661)
Umayyad Caliphate (661–750)
Abbasid Caliphate (750–1258, 1261–1517)
Ottoman Caliphate (1517–1924)
Parallel Caliphates
Fatimid Caliphate (909–1171)
Caliphate of Córdoba (929–1137)
Almohad Caliphate (1147–1269)
Ottoman Caliphate (1453–1517)
Neither did I mate! I've just had a google around and I think, in Islamic terms, a Caliphate is the area that is governed by a Caliph.
This is a quote from the BBC News website........."In June the leader of Islamic State declared the creation of a caliphate stretching across parts of Syria and Iraq - Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi named himself the caliph or leader."
In other words, it's an area of land (country, city or whatever) with an appointed leader or governor (ie a Caliph).
It's a kind of theocracy (teocracia) & there's nothing new about that. Historically much of the world was ruled by theocracies of which one of the biggest, most important & most destructive was Christendom. Christendom, which should not be confused with the Christian faith, was the European equivalent of the Islamic Caliphate. For practical purposes, it might be considered as having endured from AD962–1806, which represents the reign of the Holy Roman Emperors (equivalent to the Caliphs), although it became much less important towards the latter part of this period owing to the rise and eventual predominance of nation states (although these too are now becoming less important again).
Ironically, the HRE was a kind of political successor to the Roman Empire (although the dates don't exactly match (the last Roman Emperor in the West was Julius Nepos, who died circa AD480, while the Roman Empire in the East survived till the mid-15th century AD). I say ironically because the Roman Empire originally wasn't much interested in formal religion and only really adopted Christianity as an adjunct to political power.
Although the HRE didn't impose church law in the same way that a caliphate might impose the Quran, nonetheless the Church of Rome was of ultimate authority, and Christendom declared wars in the name of the Church of Rome in efforts to expand Christian society and to impose its values on non-Christians, including, largely, Muslims.
Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose...
