Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A leader of an Islamic polity, regarded as a successor of Muhammad and by tradition always male.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. See calif, califate.
Wiktionary
- n. The political leader of the Muslim world, successor of Muhammad's political authority, not religious or spiritual
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Successor or vicar; the civil and religious leader of a Muslim state; -- a title of the successors of Mohammed both as temporal and spiritual rulers, used formerly by the sultans of Turkey.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the civil and religious leader of a Muslim state considered to be a representative of Allah on earth
Etymologies
- Middle English calife, from Old French, from Arabic ḫalīfa, successor (to Muhammad), caliph, from ḫalafa, to succeed; see ḫlp in Semitic roots.
Examples
“The Ottoman sultans then claimed the title of caliph and brandished it for four centuries until Kamal Ataturk, founder of the Turkish Republic, abolished it in 1924.”
“The Ottoman sultan seized the title of caliph from the Arabs and moved the capital of the Islamic empire to Istanbul formerly Constantinople.”
“The caliph was the “commander of the faithful,” the political and military leader of the worldwide community of Muslims, and the city where he lived was the caliphate—the capital of the Muslim world.”
“In these times, to be called a caliph you must have money.”
“He was called the caliph, a word which means SUCCESSOR; and this title has been borne ever since by the religious chief of the Mohammedans.”
“Effendi, do you think that a man can conquer Syria, who is not called a caliph?”
“Founded by Michael E. Porter, an economics professor at Harvard Business School whom the Financial Times once dubbed the "caliph of competitiveness," Monitor set up shop in Tripoli.”
“Scheich Ibrahim sung, and the caliph was the more surprised, because till that moment he never knew of his drinking wine, but always took him for a grave, solid man, as he seemed to be to outward appearance.”
“Their moral and political writings might have gradually unlocked the fetters of Eastern despotism, diffused a liberal spirit of inquiry and toleration, and encouraged the Arabian sages to suspect that their caliph was a tyrant, and their prophet an impostor.”
History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 5
“I swear that I stealthily crept to the computer and looked up the site of this (Shiite) Imam, this so called caliph in his land.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘caliph’.
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Arabian Nights
scheherazade, sinbad, bazaar, magic carpet, bedouin, leviathan, aladdin, ali baba, open sesame, 40 thieves, baghdad, ceylon and 32 more...
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The Aleph
Words found in a collection of short stories by Jorge Luis Borges.
travail, magnanimous, troglodyte, euphorbia, satyr, lascivious, caustic, frontispiece, temerity, vertiginous, frieze, cupola and 72 more...
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