The caliphs are the successors of the Prophet. They claim ot be able to interpret and rule on the Quran and Hadith. The last person claiming to be caliph was Mehmed V, 1909–18. Abu Baghdaia, the leader of DAISH claims to be the new Caliph.
DESPITE RUSSIAN AND IRAQI SOURCES, KURDISH SECURITY SAYS CALIPH IS STILL ALIVE
Sources in Russia and now in Iraq said Baghdadi has now been killed. Because the Caliph is supposed to be the designate of Allah, if true, this would be one of the biggest blows yet to the jihadist group. However, a top Kurdish counter-terrorism official said on Monday he was 99 percent sure that Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is alive and located south of the Syrian city of Raqqa,.
Death of al Baghdadi has literally epochal importance. His claim is in the Sunni tradition of a caliph following Muhammad as leader of Islam. The Shia/Sunni split originated a millennium ago when Sunni forces massacred the Caliph Ali, the last relative of the Prophet to become Caliph.
Iran today is at the head of the Shia movement and has been a bigger force behind the Iraqi conquest of the Caliphate. The Shia/Sunni war is now a millennium old. Given that the Iraqui forces are supported by Iran, Baghdadi may be remembered as a Sunni saint. Worse, the Sunnis themselves, led by the Muslim brotherhood, regard the Saudi family as the illegitimate heirs of Islam, an illegitimate force not of the Prophets tribe, the Queyreshi, who took over Mecca under the grace of the heathen west.