Plural of caliphate; the Islamic territories or governments that were ruled by a caliph or the period of time during which a caliph ruled.
From caliph plus -ate (a suffix indicating office or domain); caliphate became the standard term for these Islamic states and their territories.
The history of caliphates is the history of some of the world's largest empires—from the Umayyad to the Ottoman—covering continents and centuries, all claiming descent from the original Islamic state.
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