Abu Dawud

Benefits and Issues:
The wording of this narration in Sahih Bukhari, Book of Rulings, is as follows: (There will be twelve leaders, all of them from Quraysh) (Hadith 7222, 7223). In Sahih Muslim, Book of Leadership, it is stated: The affairs of the people will continue to be established.
And in another narration, the wording is: Islam will remain dominant. In the narration of Tabarani (6 / 415): The affairs of my Ummah will remain righteous and excellent.
The narrations with this content are general; their true interpretation is best known to Allah. All the scholars of hadith have explained it in various ways; this discussion can be seen in Fath al-Bari, Book of Rulings.
One explanation is that there are two possibilities in this matter: one is that these caliphs will be immediately after the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.
The second is that they will appear throughout the period until the Day of Judgment, and these will be special caliphs upon whom the people will be united, and Islam will be fully implemented and its blessings will manifest.
Hafiz Ibn Hajar rahimahullah inclines to the view that these caliphs are those immediately after the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. From Abu Bakr al-Siddiq radi Allahu anhu up to Abdullah ibn Abd al-Aziz rahimahullah (101 AH), there were a total of fourteen caliphs.
Among them, the rule of Muawiyah ibn Yazid and Marwan ibn Hakam was neither valid nor of long duration.
After Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz, the circumstances changed greatly, and with him, even the first generation (century) of the best generations (khayr al-qurun) came to an end.
In this period, an objection arises regarding the era of Hasan ibn Ali and Abdullah ibn Zubayr radi Allahu anhum, that there was no consensus upon them, although their rule was rightful. However, Sayyiduna Hasan relinquished the caliphate after only six months.
And Abdullah ibn Zubayr was martyred, so the matter became consolidated with the second party.
Thus, regarding the rest, this period is minor and not considered significant, but Islam, in general, remained dominant, honored, and the affairs of the Ummah remained righteous.
Here, another issue arises: the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam has stated in another hadith that the caliphate will last for thirty years. Apparently, this seems to contradict the hadith under discussion, and people also use this as evidence to claim that the caliphates after thirty years are not valid or that they are monarchies, but this is not correct.
Neither are these two hadiths contradictory, nor is the aforementioned claim correct.
The wording in the hadith is: The caliphate of Prophethood will last for thirty years, then there will be kingship; Allah, the Exalted, will give it to whomever He wills.
(Sunan Abu Dawud, Hadith: 4646) This means that the caliphate upon the methodology of Prophethood will last for thirty years, but in the caliphates established afterward, there will be some deviation from the methodology of Prophethood; otherwise, the caliphate will remain, and Islam will also remain established and dominant, and this is what happened.
(For further details, see the benefits of Hadith: 4646 ahead.)