著者

斎藤 淑子

出版者

一般社団法人 日本オリエント学会

雑誌

オリエント (ISSN:00305219)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.13, no.1-2, pp.43-74,187, 1970 (Released:2010-03-12)

被引用文献数

1

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In the Islamic World, the highest title kept by a sovereign was “Caliph” or “Sultan”. Originally the successors or agents of the prophet Muhammad claimed to be “Caliph”. They held, in the earlier periods, the supreme power either in the secular or in the religious affiars. Only with the lapse of time, they lost their secular power and became mere religious leaders. This took place especially in the late-Abbasids. Consequently the “Sultan” appeared on the stage as a person of power who had replaced the “Caliph” in the secular affairs. In short, these two titles which are important in the Islamic history underwent some changes. But, in the Ottoman empire, they were again unified under the so-called Sultan-Caliph System. It is said that in 1517, the Sultan Selim I inherited, on the occasion of his conquest of Egypt, the title “Caliph” from the Caliph al-Mutawwakil, who was a descendent of the Abbasids and eked out a bare existence under the protection of the Mamluk Sultan Tuman Bey in Cairo. That is the origin generally accepted of the Sultan-Caliph System. But we have no evidence to support such a story in the contemporary sources. Accordingly scholars tend at the present to attribute this legend, at least for its first mention, to a work of M. d'Ohsson (Tableau Général de l'Empire Ottoman, pp. 269-70, t. l, 1788) written two centuries and half later than the reign of Selim I. Moreover, d'Ohsson himself states that the abdication in question is not as a historical fact, but as a leagal theory.That is why we may doubt a fictious character of the above-mentioned story. On the other hand, we should not overlook the fact that the Ottoman Sultan was recognized in general as Caliph in the Muslim world as well as in Europe from the 18th untill the 20th century. Why could the fiction be accepted as a reality?At first, it is necessary to examine the problem from Islamic point of view. In this case, the conquest of Egypt under the Mamlukids and the following occupation of Mecca and Medina, the two holy cities of Islam, by Selim are very important.Secondly, we must consider the idea of sovereignity among the Turks together with the particularities of their faith. Up to the present, the study of the Sultan-Caliph System has been limited into the scope of Islamic history. Now, isn't it required for us to take a step into the new scope, that is the history of Turks as a whole? The comparative study on their traditions, institutions or ideas in the pre-Islamic periods will be much effective for the solution of our problem.