Its Role in Islam: The Effect of the Kemalist Decree Writing on October 11 a special correspondent of the ' Morning Post" said It is not surprising that the Sultan has questioned the legality of the resolution of the Angora Assembly to suppress the Sultanate, whilst maintaining the Caliphate in the house of Osman, or that Moslems in Egypt and India are startled at this decision. According to Islamic theory, the Caliph, or "Successor" of the Prophet, in-hents the kingly powers which were wielded by. Mol as King, but not those peculiar to him as Pro phet. There is thus no analogy between the Caliphate and Papacy. The Caliph is the temporal leader of all Moslems, but possesses no spiritual prerogatives, as does the Pope when speaking ex cathedra, to add to or explain Mohammedan doctrine. He is the Defender of the Faith, and can call all Moslems to rise in its defence, which the Osmanli Sultan abused in 1914 when he proclaimed the jrhad, or holy war, against ourselves. But he can add or detract nothing from the immutable dogmas of the Islamic Faith as stated in the Koran and interpreted by theological traditions.
The Caliph faineant is, of course, nothing new in Moslem history. The Abbassid Caliphs remained the fount of power until Al Mutwakkil, the last of the line, was, succeeded in his office by Sultan Selim. Beybars, the great ruler of Egypt, shows how strong was_ this feeling of reverence for the Caliphate when in 1258 be brought a representative of the Abbassids to Cairo and received at his hands the purple robe and black turban, the golden chain and anklets which were the insignia of a Mohammedan Sovereign recognized by the Prophet's successor.
The Turkish Assembly by its recent decision has acted in a contrary sense and gone far to prove the traditional Arab saying that the Turk is no true Moslem.
For if future Caliphs are to derive their authority from the Turkish Parliament, those Mchammedans who still accept the Os-manu Sultan as Caliph, or in Abu Bekr's phase, the Caliph of the Prophet of Allah, are faced with something utterly new to Mohammedan traditions.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.