Caliphates

Refers to the offices, reigns, or dominions of caliphs. The caliphate, a political-religious state, became a Muslim institution after the death of Muhammad in 632. Through conquest the caliphate grew rapidly for the first few hundred years but ultimately ceased to exist after the defeat of Baghdad by the Mongols in 1258. Even when declining in power, the caliphate remained a symbolic focus of Muslim unity and there have been attempts to revive it.