The ultra radical Islamist group, ISIS, has announced the restoration of the Caliphate.
What is a caliphate?
Who chooses the Caliph?
Unfortunately the prophet did not leave a successor. His empire, consisting then only of Arabia, had until then been been governed under the prophet and his interpretation of the law… The Quran.
Of course this led to a struggle when the prophet died. The result was a succession of people chosen under the claim that they were close to Mohammed and therefore could speak as the prophet would . These successors were the first Caliphs.
The system worked amazingly well and led to the conquest of a huge span of what had been Byzantium, the Christian world ruled from Constantinople . Within less than half a century, Islamic flags flew from Andalusia to northern India . All under the guidance ef men who climed ot be the successors to the Muhamud’s authority to understand God’s book.
That claim had a lot of merit. The barbaric rule of Rome under its state religion Christianity was very unpopular. Islam and the Quran brought a real claim to justice.
Exposed to the law derived from the Quran, with greater equality even for nonbelievers, the people of the invaded lands welcomed the invading troops.
Today’s devout Muslims look back on the caliphate not to a bloody conquest but to a system that was not only fair but given by God.
SOMEONE had to speak for Mohammed !
The system broke when there was a conflict over who should be the Caliph. That conflict, largely based on whether the Caliph had to be a relative of the prophet, led to a horrific battle in what is now Iraq and to the establishment of the schism between Shia and Sunni .
The Sunni won that conflict with the assassination of the prophet’s son in law, Ali, and the establishment of a Caliphate based on a new family.
Sunni Caliphs were not necessarily the secular rulers as much as they were the legal and religious authorities . The Caliph’s interpretation of law was defended by a secular head, the Sultan.
Centuries later, the Japanese Empire would develop a similar system where the Emperor sat as the choice of God while the Shogun actually governed.
So, the question facing any modern Caliphate must be: Who will choose the successor to Mohammed ?
That question is not at all clear . The last Caliphs were Turkish and were chosen by Islamic Imans as much under the influence of the Sultan in Istanbul as the Roman Church was under the influence of the Emperor in Constantinople.