Forms: 5 calyphee, -iffe, -yffe(e, 5–7 caliphe, 6 calipha, 7 chalif, -iph, 7– calif, 8– khalif, caliph. [ME. califfe, caliphe, etc., a. F. caliphe, calife, ad. med.L. calīpha, ad. Arab. khalīfah, successor (f. khalafa to succeed, be behind), assumed by Abu-bekr after the death of Mohammed. Later forms attach themselves more directly to the Arabic: orientalists now favor Khalîf.]
The title given in Mohammedan countries to the chief civil and religious ruler, as successor of Mohammed.
1393. Gower, Conf., I. 245. Ayein the caliphe of Egipte.
c. 1400. Maundev., v. 36. Sahaladyn that toke the Califfe of Egypte and slough him. Ibid., xxi. 230. The Calyphee of Baldah.
1586. T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad. (1594), 597. The Caliphaes of the Sarasins were kings & chiefe bishops. Ibid., 754. Called by the calipha and inhabitants of Caire.
1613. Purchas, Pilgr., I. I. xiii. 63. The story of this Bagded or Baldach and her Chalifs [also written chalipha].
1614. Raleigh, Hist. World, II. 199. The state of the Caliphe.
1615. Bedwell, Arab. Trudg. One of the Chalifs.
1734. Sale, Koran, Prelim Disc. 181. The third Khalif of the race of al Abbâs.
1758. Johnson, Idler, No. 101, ¶ 1. The favour of three successive califs.
1784. Henley, in Beckford’s Vathek (1868), 123, note. Caliph … comprehends the concrete character of prophet, priest, and king.
1837. Whewell, Hist. Induct. Sc. (1857), III. 228. The califs of Bagdad.
1849. W. Irving, Mahomed’s Success., ii. He contented himself … with the modest title of Caliph, that is to say, successor, by which the Arab sovereigns have ever since been designated.
