Approaching the West — Page 26
A pproaching the West—26 And We desired to show favor unto those [Israelites] who were considered weak in the earth [land of Pharoah], and to make them leaders and to make them inheritors of Our favors. (28:6) Political Khil ā fat in Isl ā mic History Most of the Muslim rulers throughout Isl ā mic history used the title Khal ī fah, but in fact many of them digressed from following the moral precepts of Prophethood. The Umayyah family initiated a new phase in the history of Isl ā m, changing the election of Khil ā fat by mutual consultation to a system of inherited monarchy. The House of Umayyad ruled the Muslim world for almost a century. After them the Abbasid retained the political power for next five centuries. The Umayyad and Abbasid kings kept the title of Khal ī fah. When the Mongols attacked Baghdad in 1258, the then “Khal ī fah” al-Musta‘ ṣ im was executed. Three years later, a surviving member of the Abbasid family was installed as a Khal ī fah at Cairo under the patronage of the Maml ū k Sultanate; but it remained a “shadow” Khil ā fat, mostly limited to ceremonial and religious matters. The Turkish Ottoman Muslim rulers preferred to use the title “Sultan” for themselves, but the seventh Sultan of Ottoman dynasty Ma ḥ m ū d II and his son Sal ī m I claimed to be the Khal ī fahs to justify their conquest of Isl ā mic heartland. The last Abbasid Khal ī fah at Cairo, al-Mutawakkil III, was imprisoned and taken to Istanbul, where he reportedly “surrendered” the Khil ā fat to Sal ī m I in 1517. But gradually the institution of Khil ā fat lost much of its legitimacy in the