THE CALIPHATE AND THE ISLÂMIC

THE

RENAISSANCE

'HE recent election of a new Caliph as the religious head of the vast millions who belong to the Sunni communion of Islâm has stimulated widespread interest in the history and significance of this unique dignity. The followers of Islâm constitute an immense population stretching from the western coast of Africa to the easternmost part of China, from the Khirgiz Steppes of Central Asia to the Malayan Archipelago. All are animated by one common sentiment of unity of faith and doctrine. Even the long-standing feud between Sunni and Shiah has now disappeared as a factor in practical politics. But the Sunnis form by far the largest section of the Islamic population. Taking 300 millions as a moderate estimate of the followers of Islâm among the world's inhabitants (the Moslems themselves place the figure considerably higher) some 270 millions profess the Sunni doctrine. The Shiahs barely exceed thirty millions, of whom about twelve millions inhabit Persia, the principal Shiah State; some ten millions dwell in India; the rest live dispersed in various Asiatic countries and North Africa. The Sunni population extends in a solid mass from the shores of the Atlantic to the confines of China, with Persia only to interrupt the continuity of the chain. The land of Confucius is reported to contain some thirty-five millions of Moslems, all of whom belong to the Sunni communion, and all of whom look to Constantinople as the seat of their religious head. The chief causes which led to this startling disparity in the numbers of the two sects need not be discussed here.

Among the moral forces which govern the lives and conduct of human beings the mystical element is one of the strongest. Both Sunnis and Shiahs recognise the strength of this mystical element in their religious conceptions; both believe that the spiritual leadership of Islâm (the Imamate) is the nexus which links the Founder of the Faith with his followers. But they differ in their conception of the right to the Imâmate. The Shiahs believe in divine appointment: they hold that the spiritual leadership belongs exclusively to the House of Mohammed; that it descended in the direct line of his rightful successors until it came

to the 12th Imâm, who disappeared in a cavern in Mesopotamia in the year 878 A.D. They believe that he is alive and will re-appear towards the end of the world to redeem mankind from sin and sorrow. He is therefore called the Ghaib (the ' absent '), the Mahdi (the 'guide') and the Muntazzar (the ‘awaited'). He is believed to be always present in spirit at the devotions of his fold. The expounders of law and the ministers of religion are his representatives on earth; and the temporal chiefs are his delegates in the secular affairs of the world. The Shiahs also believe that the Imâm must be sinless or immaculate, and the most excellent ' of mankind.'

The conception of the Sunnis is quite different. They believe the promised Guide is not yet born, and for that reason it is essential under the sacred law to have a Vice-gerent (Khalifa) of the Prophet elected to that office by the voice of the people. To the Sunnis the vox vox populi is the vox dei. According to their doctrines, among the qualifications necessary for occupying the pontifical throne, the first and most essential is that the Caliph should be a Moslem and should belong to the Sunni persuasion. He must also be a man of good character, possessed of the capacity to transact affairs of State and competent to lead the prayers. The Sunnis further insist that the Caliph should be an independent ruler, not subject to a foreign Power. His responsibility for the proper use of the powers vested in him is necessarily associated with his office and dignity.

*I am speaking here of the principal Shiah sect, the followers of the twelve Imâms. A group of Shiahs succeeded in building up in the 10th century a rival Caliphate in North Africa and founded esoteric centres for the diffusion of their peculiar cult. The representatives of this sect are now to be found in fragments in different parts of Asia and Africa. One of their centres was the Eagle's Nest 'whence the Old Man of the Mountain' waged relentless war against Sunni orthodoxy and society in general through his devoted disciples and emissaries. †The early doctors, on the authority of a reported saying of the Prophet, included another condition among the qualities necessary for the Imâmate, namely, that the Caliph-Imâm should be a Koreish by birth. Ibn Khaldun's explanation shows the exact meaning of the Prophet's saying. At the time the Islamic Dispensation was given to the world, a qualified and capable ruler of the Faithful could only be found among the Koreish, who were the most advanced and powerful of the tribes of Arabia. And the Prophet therefore recommended that the Caliph and Imâm should be chosen from among them. This view is now universally accepted by Moslem scholars and divines.

There is little or no analogy between the Pontiff of the Church of Rome and the Caliph of Sunni Islâm. The Caliph's temporal powers involve certain duties, e.g., the defence of the Empire, administration of the State, questions of peace and war, foreign relations. But all these can be entrusted to 'deputies,' to a Council, or, in the language of modern Europe, to a Parliament. If the Caliph transgresses the laws he runs the risk of being deposed by the constituted law officers. The Sunni religious law insists that the Imâm must be actually present in person to impart religious efficacy to the devotions of the Faithful; and that, where it is not possible for him personally to lead the prayers, he should be represented by properly qualified persons.

These doctrines are enunciated in detail in most works on jurisprudence and scholastic theology. The Khilafat, it is explained, is the Vice-gerency of the Prophet; it is ordained by Divine Law for the perpetuation of Islâm and the continued observance of its ordinances and rules. For the existence of Islâm, therefore, there must always be a Caliph, an actual and direct representative of the Master. The Imámate is the spiritual leadership; but the two dignities are inseparable, for as the Vice-gerent of the Prophet, the Caliph is the only person entitled to lead the prayers-that is, when he can himself be present. No one else can assume his functions unless directly or indirectly deputed' by him. Between the Imâm and the congregation there is a spiritual tie which binds the one to the other in fealty to the Faith. There is no inconsistency between this dogma and the rule that there is no priesthood in Islâm. Each man pleads for himself before his Lord, and each soul holds communion with God without the intermediation of any other human being. The Imâm forms only the link between the individual worshipper and the evangel of Islâm.

Under the first four Caliphs, secular and religious affairs were conducted by the Caliph, assisted by a Council of Elders consisting of the principal Companions of the Prophet (the Sahába). The tribal chiefs and ordinary citizens often attended the sittings in the Mosque. Under the Ommeyyades, who held the Caliphate from 661 to 757 A.D., the semblance of a Council was maintained; but in reality the holder of the dignity was a despotic monarch controlled to some extent by the expounders of the law. Under the Abbasides, the rule enunciated by the Prophet that everything

connected with the commonwealth should be transacted in consultation with the people, was more strictly observed. Under the later Abbasides, however, the direction of temporal matters passed gradually into the hands of 'delegates' of the Caliph who always, in theory at least, had a Council to assist in their decisions. On the death of Mohammed, Abû Bakr, who by virtue of his age and the position he had held at Mecca occupied a high place in the estimation of the Arabs, was elected as the Vice-gerent of the Prophet. He was recognised as a man of wisdom and moderation, and his election was accepted by the Prophet's family. After the multitude had taken the oath of fealty to him the newly elected head of the Commonwealth of Islâm said :—

'Behold me charged with the cares of government. I am not the best among you; I need all your advice and all your help. If I do well, support me; if I mistake, counsel me. To tell truth to a person commissioned to rule is faithful allegiance; to conceal it is treason. In my sight, the powerful and the weak are alike; and to both I wish to render justice. As I obey God and His Prophet, obey me; if I neglect the laws of God and the Prophet, I have no more right to your obedience.'

Abû Bakr died in 634 A.D., and was succeeded by the great Omar. The same procedure of election was followed in his case. Omar in his first pontifical address is reported to have said :—

'My brethren, I owe you several duties and you have several rights over me. One of them is that you should see that I do not misuse the income of the State, that I do not adopt wrong measures in the assessment of the dues to the State; that I should protect the frontiers; that

I should not involve you in unnecessary wars. Whenever I err, you have a right to stop me and take me to task.'

How many modern statesmen may not take a lesson from the words of this wise ruler ?

This was the Caliph who received, soon after his accession, the capitulation of Jerusalem. Sophronius, the patriarch who was defending the city, refused to surrender the place to any but the Caliph himself. Omar acceded to the request and travelling with a single attendant, without escort and without any pomp or ceremony, arrived at Jabia, where he was met by a deputation from Jerusalem. To them he accorded the free exercise of their religion, and the possession of their churches and their property, subject to a light tax. He then proceeded with the deputation

towards Jerusalem. On the capitulation of the city he granted to the inhabitants similar immunities.

Omar was succeeded first by Osman and then by Ali. Both were elected, as their predecessors had been. It is for this reason that the first four Caliphs of the Sunnis bear the designation of the true Caliphs,' since they fulfilled in their persons the Sunni ideal of elevation to the office by the suffrage of the people. With the assassination of Ali, the democratic rule came to an end. Of this first republic of Islâm, a philosophical French scholar says:

Thus vanished the popular régime, which had for its basis a patriarchal simplicity, never again to appear among any Musulmân nation; only the jurisprudence and the rules which depended on the Korân survived the fall of the elective Government. Some of the republican passion, however, which gave to the small States a certain grandeur, and to the great an excess of force, maintained itself in the nation in spite of the armies of the usurpers.'

On the assassination of Ali, the Caliphate was seized by Muâwiyah of the House of Ommeyya (an offshoot of the Koreish), who converted it into an hereditary sovereign office. Thus began the Ommeyade dynasty. On the death of Muâwiyah's grandson, the Caliphate passed into another branch of the same family, which produced some great rulers. North Africa and Spain were conquered in the reign of the sixth Caliph belonging to this dynasty. The eighth, Omar bin Abdul Aziz, has been deservedly called the Marcus Aurelius of the Arabs.' But with his exception the Ommeyyades were absolute monarchs. Although the form of election was maintained, the succession was in fact governed by the nomination of the preceding Caliph. The Ommeyyades ruled for less than a century, but within that space of time the expansion of Islâm was marvellous. Their capital was Damascus, and their authority stretched from the Indus to the Pyrenees, and from the Jaxartes to the Indian Ocean. In 757 A.D. the Ommeyyade dynasty closed tragically and the Abbasides came into the possession of the Caliphate. In the Abbaside family it remained until it passed into the hands of the House of Osman in 1517 A.D.

*Oelsner, Des Effets de la Religion de Mahomet.'

+For the events connected with the fall of the Ommeyyades see 'History of the Saracens.' (Macmillan.)