Note 30 — Chapter VI · THE SULTAN AND THE SUBLIME PORTE.

From a descendant of Dahir Billah, the thirty-fifth caliph of Bagdad, Sultan Selim I. “procured the cession of his claims, and obtained the right to deem himself the shadow of God upon earth. Since then the Ottoman padishah has been held to inherit the rights of Omar and Haroun, and to be the legitimate commander of the faithful, and, as such, possessed of plenary temporal and spiritual authority over the followers of Mohammed.”[31] The Persians and Moors, however, reject this claim, and at the close of the Russian War not a few of the Arab muftis declared that the caliphate had been forfeited by the inglorious defeat of the Turks, and should now return to the Arab family of Koreish.