An Islamic religious leader and political ruler; a variant spelling of caliph, the successor to the Prophet Muhammad who leads the Muslim community.
From Arabic khalifah meaning 'successor' or 'caliph,' which entered European languages through medieval contact with Islamic civilization. This English spelling variant reflects how 14th-century scholars adapted the Arabic word.
The spelling variation between 'calif' and 'caliph' reveals how English speakers of different eras heard the same Arabic word differently—it's like linguistic time travel showing how pronunciation changed over centuries of cross-cultural contact.
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