caliph
noun/ˈkeɪlɪf/ · /ˈkælɪf/
Etymology From Middle English calife, caliphe, from Old French caliphe, from Medieval Latin calipha, from Arabic خَلِيفَة (ḵalīfa, “caliph”) and خَلِيف (ḵalīf, “successor”).
1
The holder of a monarchical title based on a claim to be a successor of Muhammad.
- The Abbasid caliphs patronized art and science beside religious developments ushering in the Islamic Golden Age when their capital Baghdad began to flourish as a center of knowledge, culture and trade.
- It carries us to the East, and the stately halls of the caliphs rise on the mind's eye; and we think over the thousand and one stories which made our childhood so happy, and stored up a world of unconscious poetry for our future years:...1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “The Coronation”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, pages 148-149:
- Derived terms
- anticaliph, Calipha, caliphal, caliphate, caliphdom, Caliphess, caliphhood, caliphian, Caliphism, Caliphist, caliphship, Klaliff