Everyone else was prevented from performing Tawaf so that the Caliph could do it alone, undisturbed. A nomadic man, however, proceeded ahead of Harun al-Rashid to perform the circumambulation. The ...

As the last shred of Islamic State territory in Syria fell to Kurdish-backed forces this month, thousands of people, including fighters, fled the enclave or surrendered. Yet when the exodus was over ...

From the early seventh century, the question of succession became the thorniest, most divisive and indeed the bloodiest issue in Islamic history. Of the first four caliphs, the rulers of the faith ...

A careful study of the first caliphate (632-661 C.E.) demonstrates that the ISIS caliphate launched by Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi in Iraq is a non-starter. A viable Islamic caliphate would most certainly ...

Al-Baghdadi can keep touting himself as the new caliph, but most Muslims know enough history to recognize him for what he is - a murderous tyrant using religion as to acquire rank political power. So ...

The ‘Splainer (as in “You’ve got some ‘splaining to do”) is an occasional online feature in which Kimberly Winston and other RNS staff give you everything you need to know about current events to hold ...

The Arabic word for "caliphate" Editor at Large Most Westerners have only the dimmest idea of what the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) claims to have set up on the desert flats and ...