re once more dragged out
publicly to serve a political purpose. The Hanefite arguments are on
this account interesting, and I have been at pains to ascertain and
understand them; but perhaps before I state them in detail it will be
best first briefly to run over the Caliphal history of an earlier age
and describe the state of things which Selim's act superseded.

Orthodox Mussulman writers recognize four distinct phases which the
office of Khalifeh has undergone, and four distinct periods of its
history. The word Khalifeh, derived from the Arabic root _khalafa_, to
"leave behind," signifies literally one left behind, and in the legal
sense the relict or successor of the prophet and heir to his temporal
and spiritual power.

The _first_ historical phase noticed is one of pure theocracy, in which
the Caliph or successor of Mohammed was saint as well as priest and
king, and was to a certain extent inspired. It lasted thirty years only,
and is represented by the four great Caliphs--Abu Bekr, Omar, Othman,
and Ali--who receive from the faithful when they speak of them the
title of Seydna, or Our Lord.

The _second_ phase, which lasted nearly six hundred years, is that of
the Arabian monarchy, in which the Caliphate took the shape of
hereditary temporal dominion. Its representatives are neither saints nor
doctors of the law, and stand on a quite different footing from those
who precede them. They begin with Mawiyeh ibn Ommiyah, founder of the
Ommiad dynasty, and end with Mostasem Billah, the last Sultan of the
Abbasides.

The _third_ period is a phase of temporal inter-regnum during which for
nearly three hundred years the Khalifeh exercised no sovereign rights,
and resided as a spiritual chief only, or as we should now say Sheykh el
Islam, at Cairo. The temporal authority of Islam, which is theoretically
supposed to have been continued without break even during this period,
was then in delegation with the Memluk Sultans of Egypt and other
Mussulman princes.

The _last_ phase is that of the Ottoman Caliphate.

As nearly all modern arguments respecting the Caliphate appeal to
examples in the earliest period, it will be well to consider the origin
of its institution and the political basis of Islam itself. Mohammedan
doctors affirm that the Apostle of God, Mohammed (on whose name be
peace), when he fled from Mecca, did so not as a rebellious citizen but
as a pretender to authority. He was by birth a prince of the princel