Brustad, KristenAl-Batal, Mahmoud2015-11-122018-01-222015-11-122018-01-222015-05May 2015http://hdl.handle.net/2152/32400textThe phenomenon of the Islamic state of Iraq and Syria, ISIS, purports to be a resurrection of the caliphate. This paper investigates the linguistic and rhetorical performance of this caliphate by analyzing the only two public speeches given by the self-proclaimed caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The first appearance is his sermon in Mosul in July 2014, in which he formally announces his caliphate (khilafa), and the second is a recorded statement from November 2014. My analysis of these speeches focuses on their performative aspects; that is, the features not normally found in unmarked speech that appear to be deliberately chosen for their extralinguistic meanings. By investigating these features, I aim to uncover these extralinguistic, performative messages, and show how they represent a linguistic "performance" of this caliphate.application/pdfenISISCaliphThesis2015-11-12