[German version]

(ḫalı̄fa). ‘Successor’, ‘representative’, elliptical for ‘successor of the Prophet’  Muhammad, since the Umayyads (661-750; contested, perhaps even earlier) ‘representative of Allah’. The following caliphs were regarded as ‘rightfully appointed’ (by election; Muhammad did not leave any regulations):  Abu Bakr (632-634),  Omar (634-644), who was the first to also hold the title ‘ruler of the believers’,  Othman (644-656), and  Ali (656-661). Since the  Umayyads, we find hereditary succession. The postulates of the  Abbasids (750-1258) required that th…