Definition of "caliph" [ca•liph]

• A leader of an Islamic polity, regarded as a successor of Muhammad and by tradition always male. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The Ottoman sultans then claimed the title of caliph and brandished it for four centuries until Kamal Ataturk, founder of the Turkish Republic, abolished it in 1924."
• "The Ottoman sultan seized the title of caliph from the Arabs and moved the capital of the Islamic empire to Istanbul formerly Constantinople."
• "The caliph was the “commander of the faithful,” the political and military leader of the worldwide community of Muslims, and the city where he lived was the caliphate—the capital of the Muslim world."