ISIS and the Caliphate

The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria or ISIS, also known as ISIL, the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, or just the Islamic State, started as an al Qaeda splinter group. Its aim is to create an Islamic state across Sunni areas of Iraq and Syria and is known for killing dozens of people at a time and carrying out public executions. The group currently controls hundreds of square miles in Iraq and Syria. On June 29, 2014, ISIS announced the creation of a caliphate, claiming to erase all state borders and declaring leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi the authority over the world’s estimated 1.5 billion Muslims. While you have likely been following news coverage of ISIS, you may not know the history of the caliphate in the Middle East. Today on Humanities Viewpoints, Dr. Charles Wilkins, Associate Professor of History at Wake Forest University, outlines the history of the caliphate in the Middle East, providing historical and cultural context that illustrates how al-Baghdadi’s claim as caliph is a distorted misrepresentation of this history. Charles Wilkins joined the Wake Forest faculty in 2006 as Assistant Professor of Middle Eastern history. He is the author of Forging Urban Solidarities: Ottoman Aleppo, 1640-1700. His research is concerned with the social history of the Ottoman Empire in the Early Modern Period (1500-1800). His specific research interests include Ottoman empire-building in the Arab provinces, war and society, the family, and Islamic legal practices. Before coming to Wake Forest in 2006, Wilkins taught Middle Eastern history at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Colorado College. He graduated from Duke University in 1988 and, after serving in the US Army, received his masters degree in Islamic History at Ohio State University and doctoral degree in History and Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University (2006). He is currently working on a book project entitled, “Early Modern Empires and the Ottoman Incorporation of Syria, 1516-1760.”