Caliphate

The unflinching dispatches of an embedded war reporter covering ISIS and the unlikely alliance of forces who came together to defeat it.

VICE's team gained unique access at Camp al-Hol in Northeastern Syria, where tens of thousands of women and children who once lived under ISIS are currently being held. Correspondent Hind Hassan investigates how a power vacuum has left brigades of radicalized ISIS women revolting against Kurdish security personnel, fighting for a resurgence of the terror group in the region. The debut episode will also give an inside look at the hidden arena of cell phone hacking, as correspondent Krishna Andavolu investigates how young video-gamers-turned-criminals are devastating their victims' lives, stealing millions of dollars through an underground practice known as SIM swapping.

The medieval theory of the caliphate, epitomized by the Abbasids (750–1258), was the construct of jurists who conceived it as a contractual leadership of the Muslim community in succession to the Prophet Muhammed’s political authority. In this book, Hüseyin Yilmaz traces how a new conception of the caliphate emerged under the Ottomans, who redefined the caliph as at once a ruler, a spiritual guide, and a lawmaker corresponding to the prophet’s three natures.