D. S. Margoliouth

“ In modern Europe, owing to the popularity of The Arabian Nights, the word Caliphate naturally suggests Baghdad ; but the Abbasid dynasty, with that city as capital for nearly the whole of its duration, was at no time in control of the whole Moslem community ; the family which they had displaced founded a dynasty in Spain and North Africa, and presently felt strong enough to resume the title of Caliph, and ere longTyet another Caliphate was established in Egypt. It is an accident that the fame of these Caliphates has found little echo in modern Europe. ”

“ Possibly the ex-King of the Hejaz still clings to his title Caliph because he hopes he may be able to restore the situation. Certainly any real Caliph would be compelled to clear it up. For the Sanctuary of Islam ought not to be in the hands of a sect which, in proportion to the others, is exceedingly small and notoriously fanatical in its attitude towards those others. When this difficulty is pointed out to Moslems, they reply that the duty of pilgrimage is in the Koran made conditional on ability ”

“ In Baghdad, where the Abbasid family represented the founders of the city, the Caliph was revered by the population, and, though the foreign usurpers thought little of deposing and blinding a Caliph who gave trouble, they found it worth their while ordinarily to keep on good terms with the Caliph, and were eager to ally themselves by marriage with the imperial family. ”

“ The North African Caliph lost his independence in 1911 ; and it would appear that no other potentate of consequence holds the office. The conference summoned to meet in Cairo in March 1925 has been postponed for a year ; should it, on convening, succeed in making an appointment, and should that appointment obtain recognition among Sunni communities, the fact will be that for many months the Islamic world will have remained without an independent Caliph. This has not happened since the death of the Prophet ; many a dynasty which claimed the Caliphate has fallen ”

“ The persons who attend such a congress will certainly be unaccompanied by forces which would enable them to resist legislation of which they disapprove, and it is unlikely that those whom they represent would be in a position to back them up. It is asserted that the Wahhabis, on their entry into the Sacred City, proceeded to perform a series of acts which would certainly move the indignation of the bulk of the Moslem world ”

“ Sometimes those adherents were few in number ; in several cases, as in those of the South Arabian and in some of the African dynasties, the terri- tory over which they ruled was neither extensive nor thickly peopled ; but the title which was won by the sword was defended by argument. One who is a member of the Moslem community may well hold that one dynasty was legitimate and another usurping ; but those who are outside the community have no criterion whereby they can thus distinguish them. ”

“ The business of the foreign representatives will, then, at best be to communicate to those who despatch them the conditions on which the Wahhabi conqueror intends in future to permit the pilgrimage. Those conditions may be acceptable to the Moslem community, or they may be otherwise. ”