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.

   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 (xälifä)
• Belarusian: халі́ф m (xalíf)
• Bengali: খলিফা (kholipha)
• Bulgarian: хали́ф m (halíf)
• Catalan: califa (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 哈里發／哈里发 (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