The office, dignity, or government of a caliph or of the caliphs.

Harkens back to a time when one Islamic leader ruled the Muslim world. Islamists wish to return to this state.

the era of Islam's ascendaancy from the death of Mohammed until the 13th century; some Moslems still maintain that the Moslem world must always have a calif as head of the community; "their goal was to reestablish the Caliphate"

a government under the strict control of a Caliph, a single spiritual leader

an ideal Islamic polity governed by God's law

The administration of a Caliph, title of Islamic empire. Ar.

A caliphate (Arabic خلافة) is an Islamic federal government representing the political unity of the Muslim world despite theological differences, with the head of state (caliph) as the heir of Muhammad's political, not religious, authority. From the time of Muhammad until 1924, it provided varying degrees of unity among the diverse nations that adopted Islam. The caliphate is the only form of government that has full approval in early Islamic theology, and "is the core political concept of Sunni Islam, by the consensus of the Muslim majority in the early centuries."