Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is in the news. At his brazen public debut in Mosul a few days ago, he was introduced as “your new caliph, Ibrahim.” Clad in black and wearing a black turban, he had a rather short sermon. “I am not better than you or more virtuous than you,” he said. “If you see me on the right path, help me. If you see me on the wrong path, advise me and halt me.” But then he turned practical: “And obey me as far as I obey God.” Born as Ibrahim Awad al-Badari in 1971 near Samarra, a city some fifty miles north of Baghdad, he took a master’s and a doctorate degree in Islamic studies at the University of Islamic Sciences in the Baghdad suburb of Adhamiya. He was not a brilliant student, his teachers say now. Baghdadi had little new to say in his sermon, relying heavily on verses from the Koran and the words of other caliphs, in particular Abu Bakr Saddiq, the first caliph, who led the Islamic world after the death of the prophet Muhammad. As everyone knows, the first caliph was an exemplary man. Scholars in Baghdad say the fact that al-Baghdadi can trace his lineage back to the Muslim prophet gives him significant leverage under sharia law, making it difficult for any senior cleric to contest his legitimacy as an Islamic leader. And that is about all we know about caliph Ibrahim at this stage. For my sins, I am eager to learn about his ties to Harun al-Rashid, my caliph of choice.