caliph

See also: Caliph

English

Alternative forms

• khalifa, khalīfa (stricter transliterations)
• caleef, calif, kaleefa, kalif, kaliph, khalif, khaleefeh (all archaic)

Etymology

From Middle English calife, caliphe, from Old French caliphe, from Medieval Latin calipha, from Arabic خَلِيفَة (ḵalīfa, “caliph”) and خَلِيف (ḵalīf, “successor”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkeɪlɪf/, /ˈkælɪf/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪlɪf

Noun

caliph (plural caliphs)

1. The political leader of the Muslim world; the successor of the prophet Muhammad's political authority.

   Hypernym: cleric

   The Abbasid caliphs patronized art and science beside religious developments ushering in the Islamic Golden Age when their capital Baghdad began to flourish as a center of knowledge, culture and trade.

   • 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “The Coronation”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, pages 148-149:

     It carries us to the East, and the stately halls of the caliphs rise on the mind's eye; and we think over the thousand and one stories which made our childhood so happy, and stored up a world of unconscious poetry for our future years:...

Derived terms

• anticaliph
• Calipha
• caliphal
• caliphate
• caliphdom
• Caliphess
• caliphhood
• caliphian
• Caliphism
• Caliphist
• caliphship

 

Translations

political leader of the Muslim world

• Albanian: kalif (sq) m
• Amharic: ኸሊፍ (xälif)
• Arabic: خَلِيفَة m (ḵalīfa)

  Egyptian Arabic: خليفة m (ḵalīfa)

• Armenian: խալիֆ (hy) (xalif), ամիրապետ (hy) (amirapet)
• Azerbaijani: xəlifə (az)
• Bashkir: хәлифә (xəlifə)
• Belarusian: халі́ф m (xalíf)
• Bengali: খলিফা (bn) (kholipha)
• Bulgarian: хали́ф m (halíf)
• Catalan: califa (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 哈里發 (zh) (hālǐfā)

• Crimean Tatar: halife
• Czech: kalif (cs), chalífa (cs)
• Danish: kalif c
• Dutch: kalief (nl) m
• Esperanto: kalifo, ĥalifo
• Estonian: kaliif
• Faroese: kaliffur m
• Finnish: kalifi (fi)
• French: calife (fr) m
• Georgian: ხალიფა (xalipa)
• German: Kalif (de) m, Kalifin f (cf. Päpstin)
• Greek: χαλίφης (el) m (chalífis)

  Ancient: χαλιφᾶς m (khaliphâs)

• Hebrew: ח׳ליפה m, חָלִיף m (khalif), כָּלִיף m (kalif)
• Hindi: ख़लीफ़ा m (xalīfā), खलीफा (hi) m (khalīphā)
• Hungarian: kalifa (hu)
• Ido: kalifo (io)
• Indonesian: khalifah (id)
• Interlingua: califa
• Irish: cailif m
• Italian: califfo (it) m
• Japanese: カリフ (karifu), ハリーファ (harīfā)
• Kazakh: халиф (xalif)
• Korean: 칼리파 (kallipa)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: خەلیفە (xelîfe)

  Northern Kurdish: xelîfe (ku) m

• Kyrgyz: халиф (halif), калиф (kalif), калыйпа (ky) (kalıypa)
• Latvian: kalifs (lv) m
• Lithuanian: kalifas m
• Macedonian: калиф m (kalif), халиф m (halif)
• Malay: khalifah
• Maranao: halipa
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: kalif m

  Nynorsk: kalif m

• Pashto: خليفه (ps) m (xalifá)
• Persian: خلیفه (fa) (xalife)
• Polish: kalif (pl) m
• Portuguese: califa m
• Russian: хали́ф (ru) m (xalíf), кали́ф (ru) m (kalíf)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: калиф m, халиф m

  Roman: kalif (sh) m, halif (sh) m

• Slovak: kalif (sk) m
• Slovene: kalif (sl) m
• Spanish: califa (es) m
• Swahili: khalifa
• Swedish: kalif (sv) c
• Tagalog: halipa
• Tajik: халифа (xalifa)
• Tatar: хәлифә (xälifä)
• Turkish: halife (tr)
• Turkmen: halif
• Ukrainian: халі́ф m (xalíf)
• Urdu: خلیفہ m (xalīfā)
• Uyghur: خەلىپە (xelipe)
• Uzbek: xalifa (uz)

Anagrams

• chapli, haplic