Prelude

Betrothed to Pop Culture never looked into the Khalifa in Wiz Khalifa’s name.

But, now with was is on TV, I am forced to look elsewhere.

Caliphate

Wikipedia
A caliphate (Arabic: خِلافة‎‎ khilāfa) is an area containing an Islamic steward known as a caliph (Arabic: خَليفة‎‎ khalīfah )—a person considered a religious successor to the Islamic prophet, Muhammad (Muhammad ibn ʿAbdullāh), and a leader of the entire Muslim community.  

The Rashidun caliphs, who directly succeeded Muhammad as leaders of the Muslim community, were chosen through shura, a process of community consultation that some consider loosely to be an early form of Islamic democracy.  During the history of Islam after the Rashidun period, many Muslim states, almost all of them hereditary monarchies, have claimed to be caliphates. Even though caliphs were thought to go back to Muhammad, they were not thought of as having the same prophetic power as he did.

The Sunni branch of Islam stipulates that, as a head of state, a caliph should be elected by Muslims or their representatives.  Followers of Shia Islam, however, believe a caliph should be an Imam chosen by God from the Ahl al-Bayt (the “Family of the House”, Muhammad’s direct descendants).

Videos

1. The Caliph – Part 1: Foundation
   Link
2. The Caliph – Part 2: Division
   Link
3. The Caliph – Part 3: Decline
   Link

Indepth

Part 2: Division

1. Iraq become the center and hub of Civilization
   • Transcribed Cultural & Scientific work of past civilization
     • Medicine
       • Translated into Latin
   • Will later become the roots of Europe Renaissance
2. Caliph 8
   • Move Embassy to Iraq
3. Turkey installed the 10th Caliph
4. An Army that will soon erode the Power of the Caliph
5. For a century to come that will effectively rule the Caliph
   • Installing and Deposing twelve Caliphs who were nothing more than puppets

Part 3: Decline

1. Lasted for almost 13 centuries
   • Death of Prophet in the 6th Century
   • Till fall of Ottoman Dynasty in 1924
2. By 11th Century, Caliph started losing control
   • Controlled wrestled by Political & Military Elite
3. Pope Urban Ii
   • Christian campaign to get get back Jerusalem from the muslim
   • Pope reasserted his authority to declare War
4. 1096 – Pope Urban II orders first Crusade ( Link )
   • On November 27, 1095, Pope Urban II makes perhaps the most influential speech of the Middle Ages, giving rise to the Crusades by calling all Christians in Europe to war against Muslims in order to reclaim the Holy Land, with a cry of “Deus vult!” or “God wills it!”
   • Born Odo of Lagery in 1042, Urban was a protege of the great reformer Pope Gregory VII. Like Gregory, he made internal reform his main focus, railing against simony (the selling of church offices) and other clerical abuses prevalent during the Middle Ages. Urban showed himself to be an adept and powerful cleric, and when he was elected pope in 1088, he applied his statecraft to weakening support for his rivals, notably Clement III.
   • By the end of the 11th century, the Holy Land—the area now commonly referred to as the Middle East—had become a point of conflict for European Christians. Since the 6th century, Christians frequently made pilgrimages to the birthplace of their religion, but when the Seljuk Turks took control of Jerusalem, Christians were barred from the Holy City. When the Turks then threatened to invade the Byzantine Empire and take Constantinople, Byzantine Emperor Alexius I made a special appeal to Urban for help. This was not the first appeal of its kind, but it came at an important time for Urban. Wanting to reinforce the power of the papacy, Urban seized the opportunity to unite Christian Europe under him as he fought to take back the Holy Land from the Turks.
   • At the Council of Clermont, in France, at which several hundred clerics and noblemen gathered, Urban delivered a rousing speech summoning rich and poor alike to stop their in-fighting and embark on a righteous war to help their fellow Christians in the East and take back Jerusalem. Urban denigrated the Muslims, exaggerating stories of their anti-Christian acts, and promised absolution and remission of sins for all who died in the service of Christ.
   • Urban’s war cry caught fire, mobilizing clerics to drum up support throughout Europe for the crusade against the Muslims. All told, between 60,000 and 100,000 people responded to Urban’s call to march on Jerusalem. Not all who responded did so out of piety: European nobles were tempted by the prospect of increased land holdings and riches to be gained from the conquest. These nobles were responsible for the death of a great many innocents both on the way to and in the Holy Land, absorbing the riches and estates of those they conveniently deemed opponents to their cause. Adding to the death toll was the inexperience and lack of discipline of the Christian peasants against the trained, professional armies of the Muslims. As a result, the Christians were initially beaten back, and only through sheer force of numbers were they eventually able to triumph.
   • Urban died in 1099, two weeks after the fall of Jerusalem but before news of the Christian victory made it back to Europe. His was the first of seven major military campaigns fought over the next two centuries known as the Crusades, the bloody repercussions of which are still felt today. Urban was beatified by the Roman Catholic Church in 1881.
5. Prophet Muhammad, Blessings and Peace of Allah be upon him
   • In 571, Born in Mecca, Saudi Arabia
   • Born into Banu Hashim clan, part of the Quraysh tribe