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'The Supposed Spiritual Authority of the Caliph' [‎9v] (7/10)

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The record is made up of 1 file (4 folios). It was created in 28 Dec 1918. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .

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0
„„ w ,«.........h».
any other sphere, a ® M PH\ v jtb tho = Turkish Government. Even m the 1'ur to
had never come into touch \\itL t 'r nr v;q>i Sultan under the name ol Uaja
sr.; ss: ■~fVr' tyat; JrSi.-
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of the earth must be either his vassals 01 his tnemu ^
of a political ]v - ' 1 „ r pi T) urelv spiritual affairs of Islam have for the
last'^ S centuries Teen dealt with by the learned in the various (X.nnlries, and ih. y
could avail themselves of any part that they chose of the light kindled hy theu lelaA s
in other lands, but were not bound to anything by any oecumenical lepiesentation o
all Muslims.
ttt t; Sxouck Hurgbonje : The Holy War made in (icnnanii. W lit a uoi l "J
1 introduction hj It J. H. GoUheil {New 11)15), J0-18, 27-29.
When in 1258 Baghdad was destroyed by the Mongols and the Ai-assitle
Caliphate, dating" more than five centuries back, ^as uipcd out, the ^Jciiianiinf(tan
world was not lifted from its hinges, as would have happened il the Caliphate still
had had anything to do with ths central government of the Mohammedans. In i'act,
this princely house had already been living three centuries and a half on the faint
afterglow of its ephemeral splendour; and if during that time it was not crowded
out by one of the very powerful sultans, its very practical insignificance was the
main reason for that. So insignificant had these Caliphs in name become that certain
European writers sometimes have felt induced to represent them as a kind of religious
princes of Islam, who voluntarily or not had transferred their secular power to the
many territorial princes in the wide dominion of Islam. To them the total lack of
secular authority, coupled with the often-manifested reverence of the Moslim for the
Caliphate, appeared unintelligible except on the assumption of a spiritual authority,
a sort of Mohammedan papacy. Still, such a thing there never was, and Islam,
which knows neither priests nor sacraments, could not have had occasion for it.
Here, as elsewhere, the multitude preferred legend to fact; they imagined the
successor of the Prophet as still watching over the whole of the Moslim community ;
as according to historical tradition, he really did during the (irst two centuries
following the Hijrah, and this long after the institution of the Caliphate had
disappeared in thp political degeneration of Islam. However, they did not imagine
him as a Pope, but as a supreme ruler; above all, as the amir-al-miivunin,
commander of the legions of Islam, which some time would make the whole world
bend to its power.
Probably without intention, some European statesmen and writers have oiven a
certain support to the Panislamic idea by their consideration, based on an Absolute
misunderstanding, of the Caliphate as a kind of Mohammedan papacy. Most of all
did tins conception find adherents in England at the time when that country was
still considered to be the protector of the Turk against danger threatened bv Uns^ia
It was thought useful to make the British-Indian Moslim believe that the l!,lti?h
^ ov ®i Dmen ' was on terms of intimate friendship with the head of their church.
.Cuikish statesmen made clever use of this error Of course thpv r»rml 1 + i •
before their European friends the real theory of tl o cZhatl with i Ti ^
uniting all the faithful under its banner in o^der to mako^ nl 0 n all I t , 0f
rejoiced all the more to see that these had formed about tli-,/in^t . • " ^ey
which, to be sure, was false, but for fc a rye^ n J.iKl " Slltutl0 " ? conception
They took good care not to correct it, for they were sntisfied iT'w" 8-
their co-rehgiomsts, to point to the fact that even amoti" the l,efore
powers the claim of the Ottomans to the Caliphate was recJgnfs^d

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This printed report consists primarily of a Note by Dr Thomas Walker Arnold concerning the spiritual authority of the Caliph ( khalīfah ) in relation to contemporary events. It is prefaced by extracts from a correspondence between the Foreign Office and Sir Reginald Wingate, dated 3 and 17 December 1918. There is a concluding remark on Arnold's note by Sir Frederic Arthur Hirtzel of the India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. , dated 28 August 1918. There is an appendix entitled 'Pièces Justificatives' which appears to give extracts from sources consulted by Arnold. They include Christaan Snouck Hurgonje's Mohammedanism (New York and London, 1916), Nederland en de Islam (Leiden, 1915) and The Holy War "Made in Germany". With a Word of Introduction by R. J. H. Gottheil (New York, 1915); Martin Hartmann in Die Welt des Islams , I (Berlin, 1913); Carl Heinrich Becker's 'Islampolitik' in Die Welt des Islams , III (Berlin, 1915); Abel Pavet de Courteille and Abdolonyme Ubicini, État présent de l'Empire Ottoman (Paris, 1875); and Carlo Alfonso Nallino, Appunti sulla natura del "califfato" in genere e sul presunto "califfato ottomano" (Rome, 1917).

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1 file (4 folios)
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Foliation: The foliation for this sequence commences at folio 7, and terminates at folio 10, as it is part of a larger physical volume; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio. An additional foliation sequence is also present in parallel between folios 7-153; these numbers are also written in pencil, but are not circled, and can be found in the same position as the main sequence.

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'The Supposed Spiritual Authority of the Caliph' [‎9v] (7/10), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/18/B307, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100023830620.0x000009> [accessed 29 March 2024]

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