C A L 



tlie JcHni'^ion of the calipliate, tlie Maliometan princes 

 have a pnrticiilai- cfTicer appointee! in tlitir nfpeolive donii- 

 rions, who fullains the lacred authnrity ot caliph. In 

 Turkey he is denominated Mufti, and in Perlla Sadie. 



One of the principal I'unttions nf the cahph, in quality 

 of Imam or chitf pr'cft of the MufTulman rclifjio;!, was tliat 

 of bef»innin;T the public prayers eveiy Friday in the chief 

 mofque, and of dtliverinp- the hhothbah, which wa? a kind of 

 fcrmiin. In later times they had deputies or alTillants who 

 performed the fecond fervice ; but the firll was aKvavs ap- 

 propriated to the caliph in perfon. He was alfo obliged 

 to conduct the pilgrims to Mecca, and to inarch at the 

 head of the armies of his empire. The cali])h3 alfo grant- 

 ed letters-pater.t of invelliture, as wcU as fworjs, llandards, 

 robes, &c. to the Maliometan princes, wlio, though they 

 had thrown off the yoke of the caliphate, ncverthclefs held 

 of it as vafTaU. 



The caliphs ufually went to the mofques mounted on 

 ifnules ; and the fultans Se'giucides, although mailers of 

 Eacjdad, held their I'irrups, and led their muh-s by the bri- 

 dles for fomc diftance on toot, til! fuch time as they received 

 intimations fri>m the caliphs to mount on horfe-back. At 

 one ,of the windows of the caliph's palace, there always 

 hung a piece of black velvet, 20 cubits long, which reached 

 to the ground, and was called the " caliph's fleeve ;" and 

 the grandees of his court never failed to kifs it with great 

 refptdl every day. The honours pSi.^to the caliphs were 

 cxctflive, and produced in them a degree of pride, of which 

 they did not c.-afe to exhibit tokens, even when their autho- 

 rity liad declined and was reduced to its lowcfl ftate of de- 

 gradation. )n the period of their power, they afFeifted very 

 extraordinary magnificence- and fplendour. Abultaragius re- 

 lates, that tlie caliph Motazem had 700 women in his fe- 

 raglio, and 3C0 eunuchs to guard them. But this fplendour 

 was much diminilhtd, and, indeed, almoft annihilated 

 during the reign of the Bouides in Perfia, who ftripped 

 them of every thing, depriving them of their vifirs, and 

 allowing them to retain no officer of higher rank than a fe- 

 cretary to take care ot their afiairs. At lergth, aud parti- 

 cularly under the reign of Radi Billah, the 20th caliph of 

 the Abafliks, A.D. 934, the territories of the Mjhometan 

 empire were 10 dilmembcred and divided, that this caliph 

 was reduced to the fole dignity of tlie caliphate, and the 

 poffeffion of the city of Bagdad. But Baffora, Vafllth, and 

 Ahouaz, were under the dominion of the Bouides. They 

 occupied the whole of Perfia ; the Hamadanites reigned in 

 Moful and Mefcpotamia ; Akfchid was mafter of Egypt 

 and Syria ; the Fatimites poffelTcd Africa ; the Ommiadcs 

 governed Spain ; the Samanides had Khorafau ; the Car- 

 mathii were in peaceable poOeflion of Aiabia Felix and Ara- 

 bia Petrsa ; and the caliphs paid them tribute for the fe- 

 curity of the pilgrims of Mecca : and, moreover, the Dile- 

 mites were the foverei^ns of Georgia and Tabnftan. Such 

 was the ftate of the caliphate in the 325th year of the 

 hegira, A. D. 936. After the Bouides made themfelves 

 mafters of Bagdad, they were reduced to the mere exercife 

 of the funftions of the mofque ; and thcfe princes advanced 

 or dethroned them at their pleafure. At length, thj period 

 of their total overthrow by the Tartars, under the caliphate 

 of Motazem, arrived, as we have already related ; and their 

 temporal power became exiinft. Herbelot, Bib. Or. Gib- 

 bon's Hift. vols. ix. X. xi. Mod. Un. Hift. vols. i. ii. iii. 



CALIPOS, or Calipus, in Ancient Geogrpphy , Sadao, 

 a river of Lufitania, which rofe to the fouth 01 the moun- 

 tains on the northern boundary of Cuneus, and running 

 northwards, watered the town of Salaria, and then tuiuing 

 to the weft, difcharged itfclf into the fea. 



C A L 



CA-LIPPIA, an i.linj of the /Ejeaii Sea. Antonin. 

 Marit. Itin. 



CWl.l PPIC ^fr/W, in Chronology, 3 fetits of fevcitty- 

 fix year-i, perpetually recurring ; winch tlapfcd, the n, id- 

 die of tlie liew and full moons, as its inventor Cahppus, an 

 Athenian, imagined, retuins the fame day of tlic folar 

 year. 



Melon, a hundred years before, had inventi'd tlie period, 

 or cycle, of nineteen years (fee Meloiiic Cycle) ; affuming 

 the quantity of the folar year 36^^'' 6'' 18' 56'' 50^ 31* 34' ; 

 and the 1 inar month 29" i.;'' 45' 47" 26' 48* 30* : but Ca- 

 lippus, cunfidcring that the Metonic quantity of ifcc foI.Tr 

 year was not exaiit, multiplied Mcton's period by four, and 

 thence arofe a period of p6 years, called the Calippic. 



At the end of this term it was necedary to ittreiich u day : 

 fo that his period was compofcd of four of thofc of Mcton, 

 three of v/hich coufillcd of ''1940 days each, and one of 6939 

 da)s. For this purpofe, it was fullieitnt to change in the 

 revolution of four periods one of the months from 30 to 29 

 days, 'i he efleCl of this correction was to retard the anti- 

 cipation of the new moons for more than 300 years, and at 

 the fame time to render the whole period more corrclpondtnt 

 to the motion of the fun. The Calippic period, thcivfore, 

 or the interval of four Metonic or lunar cycles, dixinifiud 

 by a day, contains 2;r759 days ; and finee the lunar cycle 

 contains 2 ;^ liiiiations, and the Calippic period is quadruple 

 of this, it contains 940 lunations, ce-nfillmg of about 2 77j3 

 days 18' 8'; and 76 revolutions of the fun cornpofe a film 

 of about 27..7JS days 10'' 4'. Th.e Calippic period be^an in 

 the thiid year of the I I2tli olympiad, or the 4jS4th of the 

 Julian peril, d, B. C. '^^o, the 7th yearof the i(A\\ Metonic 

 cycle. It is demoiiftrated, however, that the Calippic pe- 

 riod itfelf is not accurate ; that it does not bring the new 

 and full moons precifcly to their places: 8'' 3' ^2" 60'", 

 being the exccfs of 940 lunations above 76 folar years ; but 

 brings them too late, by a whole day, in 225 years. 



This period was adopted by ailronomers, and is frequently 

 mentioned by Ptolemy. It cori-efponds to our lunar cycle, 

 combined with onr Julian years, 76 of which form the Ca- 

 lippic period ; and the anticipation of the moon is the fame 

 in both. This anticipation, together with that of the equi- 

 noxes, gave rife to the reformation of the calendar, A. D. 

 1582. See CALENDAR. The ancients were not iinapprized 

 of the defect of the palippic period : at leall, it did i-ot ef- 

 cape the penetrating fagacity of Hipparchus, who under- 

 took to correfl it. His obfervations led him to perceive, 

 that the folar and lunar years were fomewhat lefs than Ca- 

 lippus had fuppofed them to be ; and purluing his calcula- 

 tion, which he conceived to be fufficicntly exadl with regard 

 to the moon, but more erroneous with relpett to the fun, 

 he found that the anticipation of the one and of the other 

 was about a day in four periods. FIc therefore quadrupled 

 the cycle of Calippus, and retrenched from it the day which 

 he had found m cxcefs during four revolutions. This new 

 period had the advantage of correfpondiug more exactly 

 with the motion of the moon, which was not retarded more 

 than half an hour in 304 years. But it anticipated the mo- 

 tion of the fun about a day and a quarter, whitii was an er- 

 ror only eq'ial to that of Calippus in a double interval. 

 However, this invention fnared the fate of many others, no 

 Icfs ufcful and ahke neglefted. The Grecians, accultomed 

 to the cycles of Meton and of Calippus, dilregarded that ot ' 

 Hipparchus, although it was more pcrltcl. 



CALISIA, in yincient dography, a town placed by 

 Ptolemy in the callern part of (jcrmany, and fuppofed by 

 Cluvier to be Kalilcli in Poland. 



CALISPERMUM, in Botany, (K»io,-, beautiful, and 



C-Tr,-.U51, 



