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The Sunnis and Shiites differ as to whom was the first Caliph of Islam. According to Sunni thought, the first Caliph was Abu Bakr as-Siddiq, the father-in-law of Muhammad, who was elected into power in 632. The Shiites, on the other hand, believe that the honour should go to Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law Ali Ben Abu Talib on the basis of his blood relation to the Prophet himself.

Following the conflict between the Fatimids and the Abbasids, other Muslim rulers began to claim the caliphal title. With the defeat of these peripheral caliphates, the caliphate of the Ottomans began increasingly to be considered the undisputed primary caliphate. Thus, by the eve of the First World War the Ottoman caliphate represented the largest and most powerful independent Islamicate political entity.

The English word "caliph" comes from Arabic via French, which got it from LatinAlternative meanings: See Latin (disambiguation Latin was the language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. It gained great importance as the formal language of the Roman Empire. All Romance languages are descended from Latin, and ma (calipha), which romanizedA Romanization or Latinization is a system for representing a word or language with the Latin alphabet, where the original word or language used a writing system other than the Roman alphabet. Three methods may be used to carry out Romanization: translite the Arabic word, Khalifa (probably خليفة), literally "Successor of the Prophet". Khalifa originates from the verbA verb is a part of speech that usually denotes action ("bring", "read"), occurrence ("to decompose" (itself), "to glitter"), or a state of being ("exist", "live", "soak", "stand"). Depending on the language, a verb may vary in form according to many fact khalafa, meaning "to succeed" or "to be behind". Some Orientalists wrote it as Khalîf. Some movements in modern Islamic philosophyModern Islamic philosophy revives some of the trends of medieval Islamic philosophy, notably the tension between Mutazilite and Asharite view of ethics in science and law, and the duty of Muslims and role of Islam in the sociology of knowledge and in form justify religious leadership via khalifaIn common use, Khalifa is the Arabic word translated into English as Caliph. See the latter entry for a discussion of the leadership post. Khalifa is Arabic for " stewardship" of nature and family, a key obligation of a Muslim (one accepting Islam). By co, meaning roughly "to steward" or "to protect the same things as God", and propose this to renew the Caliphate. Today no such state exists, since the last Ottoman (Uthmani) Khilafah collapsed on 3rd March 1924. There is no longer one ruler of the Muslims, which is considered to be a violation of the Islamic legislations, the Shariah.

Note: The Caliphate is the application of Messengership of Prophets ( Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses until Jesus and Muhammad) as the institution to protect and order the Muslims according the Law of God (in the Quran and the Universe), with the structure imitating the structure of Heaven (Mulkiyah/Government) and Earth (Ummah/People).

See Also: History of Islam