How to Use caliph in a Sentence

caliph

noun

• One of the rules for choosing a caliph is that he must be descended from the lineage of the prophet.
  — Rukmini Callimachi, New York Times, 2 Nov. 2017
• Fate follows a beggar king, his daughter, a dancer, and the caliph and grand vizier of Baghdad.
  — Ed Stockly, Los Angeles Times, 9 Apr. 2021
• Yazid was the second Umayyad caliph, which means deputy of God, and the ruler of the early Islamic empire.
  — Eric Lob, The Conversation, 2 Mar. 2026
• Already in 2012, people were living as if Baghdadi was the caliph.
  — Karl Vick, Time, 25 Feb. 2021
• Only men who are descended from the family of the Prophet Muhammad are eligible to be named caliph.
  — Rukmini Callimachi, New York Times, 1 Aug. 2019
• The caliphate may have lost its caliph; this week brought a new flurry of speculation about the fate of the group’s chieftain, Abu Bakr Baghdadi.
  — Nabih Bulos, latimes.com, 14 July 2017
• For four centuries, the sultan in Istanbul was also the religious leader, or caliph, of the entire Muslim world.
  — Yaroslav Trofimov, WSJ, 26 Oct. 2018
• But Hussein was the head of the Hashemite clan, keeper of Islam’s holy places and a man with good claim to the title of caliph, leader of Muslims.
  — Anthony Sattin, WSJ, 6 Apr. 2018
• Mohammed designated no successor (caliph); his squabbling heirs split Islam into rival sects.
  — Lily Rothman, Time, 10 July 2017
• The persistence of some sort of Ottoman caliph would have had more immediate implications for modern Turkey.
  — Ishaan Tharoor, Washington Post, 6 Mar. 2024
• The sultan got to keep the title of caliph, commander of the Sunni Muslim faithful, which his ancestors had acquired four centuries earlier.
  — The Economist, 13 July 2017
• One popular story points to personal animus between Hasan and the caliph’s Armenian viziers.
  — Nicholas Liu, Smithsonian Magazine, 10 Oct. 2023
• The caliph — not wholly unlike the pontiff in Rome for Catholics — was the leading, unifying temporal authority of the Muslim world.
  — Ishaan Tharoor, Washington Post, 6 Mar. 2024
• As khalifa, or caliph, of the Islamic State, Baghdadi never granted an interview to anyone.
  — Ben Wedeman, CNN, 28 Oct. 2019
• In accordance with the Mongol prohibition against spilling royal blood, the last caliph with wide acceptance among a majority of Muslims was wrapped in a carpet and trampled to death.
  — Aatish Taseer, New York Times, 9 Nov. 2023
• That lineage became even more important after 2014, when ISIS declared its caliphate and appointed a caliph.
  — Rukmini Callimachi, New York Times, 1 Aug. 2019
• It can be written or recorded as audio or video, but the pledge is supposed to be to addressed to an individual, in this case the caliph of the Islamic State, and not to the organization overall.
  — Rukmini Callimachi, New York Times, 2 Nov. 2017
• Hussain had been invited by the inhabitants of Kufa, which was a garrison town near Najaf, to come and lead them in a revolt against the Umayyad caliph in Damascus.
  — Edith Szanto, The Conversation, 9 Sep. 2020
• Yet despite being named caliph of an actual territory, Baghdadi never reached bin Laden’s status within the global jihadist movement, and is unlikely ever to do so.
  — Rick Noack, Washington Post, 2 Nov. 2017
• Hussein’s killing is seen as having cemented the schism between Sunnis and Shiites, which stems from the early days of Islam and arguments over Muhammad’s successors as caliph, or leader.
  — ABC News, 25 June 2026
• Hussein led an uprising against the succession of Islam’s new caliph, Yazid, on the basis that his rule was corrupt and unjust, and in Karbala his small force was confronted by Yazid’s massive army and slaughtered.
  — Farnaz Fassihi, BostonGlobe.com, 13 Aug. 2023
• For example, Mutawakkil, a caliph of the Abbasid dynasty, which ruled over a vast Islamic empire from the eighth to the 13th century, feared that the rituals inflamed anti-regime fervor.
  — Edith Szanto, The Conversation, 9 Sep. 2020
• Named after Egypt’s first Fatimid caliph in the 10th century, the street is lined with palaces, mosques, and monuments of Fatimid, Ayyubid, Mamluk, and Ottoman rulers.
  — Nada El Sawy, Condé Nast Traveler, 21 Nov. 2023
• That glittering opulence may have been an allusion to the story of King Solomon’s glass palace, but the appearance of al-Mu’tasim’s audience chamber also created a physical manifestation of the caliph’s power.
  — Kiona N. Smith, Ars Technica, 31 Aug. 2018
• The mosque was first built in the early seventh century and named after Islam’s second caliph, Umar ibn al-Khattab, a successor to the Prophet Muhammad and leader of the early Islamic community.
  — Stephennie Mulder, The Conversation, 17 Jan. 2024
• Similarly, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, the caliph of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, has long warned of global conflict and emphasized that only justice and peace can prevent it.
  — Chicago Tribune, 11 Apr. 2026
• Given its abundant agricultural and maritime riches, Gaza has known conquest by nearly every powerful empire, including the ancient Egyptians, the Romans, the early Islamic caliphs, the Crusaders and the Mongols.
  — Stephennie Mulder, The Conversation, 17 Jan. 2024
• The 10th of Muharram is recorded as the date on which Ḥusayn and a group of his followers were killed in the Battle of Karbala (October 10, 680 ce), at the hands of an army sent by the Umayyad caliph Yazīd I.
  — Charles Preston, Encyclopedia Britannica, 22 May 2026
• In 639 ce ʿUmar I, the second caliph, introduced the Hijrah era—the starting point of the Muslim calendar dating from the Prophet Muhammad’s migration in 622 ce from Mecca to Yathrib (Medina).
  — Charles Preston, Encyclopedia Britannica, 22 May 2026