All Caliphates and Sultanates

Islamic monarchical states whose ruler held religious as well as political authority, as caliph, sultan or an equivalent title rooted in Islamic law and succession. Belongs here: the Rashidun Caliphate, the Abbasid Caliphate and the Ayyubid Sultanate. Does not belong here: an Islamic-ruled state classed by historians primarily as an empire on grounds of scope and conquest, such as the Ottoman Empire or the Mughal Empire, filed under Empires and Imperial States, and a present-day monarchy in the Islamic world, such as Saudi Arabia or Kuwait, filed under Modern Monarchies.