It is difficult to ascertain the precise position of these titular
Caliphs under the Mameluke monarchy in Egypt. That they were little
known to the world in general is certain; and one is sometimes tempted
to suspect the complete authenticity of the succession preserved through
them. Contemporary Christian writers do not mention them, and it is
evident from Sir John Mandeville and others that in Egypt the Egyptian
Sultan himself was talked of as head of the Mussulman religion. I have
heard their position compared with that of the present Sheykhs el Islam
at Constantinople--that is to say, they were appointed by the Sultan,
and were made use of by him as a means of securing Mussulman
allegiance--and I believe this to have been all their real status. They
are cited, however, as in some sense sovereigns by Hanefite teachers,
whose argument it is that the succession of the Prophet has never
lapsed, or Islam been without a recognized temporal head. The Sultans,
neither of Egypt nor of India, nor till Selim's time of the Turkish
Empire, ever claimed for themselves the title of Khalifeh, nor did the
Sherifal family of Mecca, who alone of them might have claimed it
legally as Koreysh. Neither did Tamerlane nor any of the Mussulman
Mongols who reigned at Bagdad.
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