This form of succession is held by most Sunite doctors to be the
authentic form intended by the Prophet, nor did the three following
elections differ from it in any essential point. It is only noticed that
Abu Bekr designated Omar as the most fitting person to succeed him, and
so in a measure directed the choice of the Ahl el agde. The Caliph was
in each instance elected by the elders at Medina, and the choice
confirmed by its general acknowledgment elsewhere.
In the time of Ali, however, a new principle began to make its
appearance, which foreshadowed a change in the nature of the Caliphate.
The election of Abu Bekr, as I have said, was determined by the
predominant religious feeling of the day. He was the holiest man in
Islam, and his government was throughout strictly theocratic. He not
only administered the religious law, but was its interpreter and
architect. He sat every day in the _mejlis_, or open court of justice,
and decided there questions of divinity as well as of jurisprudence. He
publicly led the prayer in the Mosque, expounded the Koran, and preached
every Friday from the pulpit. He combined in his person all the
functions now divided between the Sheykh el Islam, the grand Mufti, and
the executive authorities.
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