How was a muslim caliph similar to a byzantine emperor?

Question: How was a muslim caliph similar to a byzantine emperor!?
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I think the question of what the differences were, would better serve to highlight the similarities!.

While the Caliph was the equivalent of Pope and Emperor, the Byzantine Emperor was not even the Ecumenical Patriarch, let alone Pope!.

I'd cite fundamental differences between Islam and Christianity for this, as Jesus, it could be argued, declares a separation of church and state by building a kingdom of heaven, not of this world, and declaring that what was Caesar's be rendered unto Caesar, and what was God's, unto God!.

Islam by comparison, is meant to be a state religion, as historically it's early leaders were both spiritual and temporal leaders!.

Conversely at it's outset Christianity was persecuted by the state, and considerably changed once it became the official creed of Byzantium!.

According to the books about the Abbasid Caliphs, key differences between them and European kings included their literacy!. It seems that many were very much scholars as well as warriors!.

Once the Turks took the Calipate, you could say that reigning in Istanbul was a similarity they shared with the Byzantine Emperor!. But the Calphate existed well before the 1400s when Byzantium fell!. For most of their history, the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphs ruled from Damascus, and then Baghdad!. Www@QuestionHome@Com

Well the both were powerful leaders and the caliph for the last 400 years was based in Constantinople, where the Byzantine emperor also lived!. Each had religious power but neither was formally part of the religious hierarchy!. Each ruled over an empire that was very diverse, both ethnically and religiously, although in each case there was clearly a dominant group (Turkish Muslims or Greek Orthodox Christians, respectively)!.Www@QuestionHome@Com