1/21/2023 0 Comments Ck2 how to become caliph![]() Like the similarly abused sharia-which includes but goes beyond Islamic law-the caliphate was a diverse and complex thing, evolving according to the demands of time and place. To be caliph meant to be “a successor of the Prophet of God.” Meanwhile, the concept of the caliphate, Kennedy tells us in the book’s rather inviting first page, “offers an idea of leadership which is about the just ordering of Muslim society according to the will of God.” Abu Bakr, Omar, Uthman and Ali, the close companions of the prophet, founded an empire. The prophet Muhammad succeeded in founding a new religious community and a fledgling state. We come to know the “righteously guided” caliphs with a kind of intimacy that belies the passing of time. Most Muslims, myself included, grow up with at least pieces of this history. In the appropriately titled “Caliphate: The History of an Idea,” British historian Hugh Kennedy takes it upon himself to recover the caliphate’s meaning, and he succeeds with welcome doses of erudition, accuracy and, when necessary, empathy. Even before the Islamic State dominated our headlines, the specter of a caliphate had become an easy stand-in for anti-Muslim posturing on the American and European far right.
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