The fact is, we may assume the Caliphate
was clean forgotten at the time Selim bethought him of it as an
instrument of power.
It must, then, have been an interesting and startling novelty with
Mussulmans to hear of this new pretender to the ancient
dignity--interesting, because the name Khalifeh was connected with so
many of the bygone glories of Islam; startling, because he who claimed
it seemed by birth incapable of doing so. The Hanefite Ulema, however,
as I have said, undertook Selim's defence, or rather that of his
successors, for Selim himself died not a year afterwards, and succeeded
in proving, to the satisfaction of the majority of Sunites, that the
house of Othman had a good and valid title to the rank they had assumed.
Their chief arguments were as follows. The house of Othman, they
asserted, ruled spiritually by--
1. _The right of the sword_, that is to say, the _de facto_ possession
of the sovereign title. It was argued that, the Caliphate being a
necessity (and this all orthodox Mussulmans admit), it was also
necessary that the _de facto_ holder of the title should be recognized
as legally the Caliph, _until a claimant with a better title should
appear_. Now the first qualification of a claimant was that he should
claim, and the second that he should be supported by a party; and Selim
had both claimed the Caliphate and supported his pretensions at the head
of an army.
Pages:
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81