Just a hundred years ago now, the world had witnessed the fall of the Ottoman Caliphate. Caliphate means an Islamic ruling system.
The administrative system that symbolizes the unity of the Muslim Ummah and acts as a political representative is known as the ‘Caliphate System,’ and the central figure of this system is called the ‘Caliph.’.
The holy journey of Khilafah set off its sail through Abu Bakar (R.), the closest collaborator of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), and lasted approximately 1300 years long until the Usmani Khilafah came to an end. However, after ruining Baghdad in 1258, barbarous Mongolians abolished the Khilafah system through outrage, although they retained the glory of the Khilafah within 3 years in 1261. But now, more than a century has passed since the great Usmani Khilafah had been abolished, and no sign appears to reinstall it.
How did the Ottoman Caliphate end in smoke?
Having observed the anniversary of the abolition of the Usmani Khilafah, the Muslim world has recalled the nightmare of retreating from the ruling track.
On March 3, 1924, Atatürk’s government formally abolished the Caliphate, tracing it as the religious and political leadership of the Muslim world. Thus, the 636 years of glorious history of the Ottoman Sultanate had been dissolved.
A visionary Muslim warrior, Artugrul Gazi, son-in-law of the Seljuk Dynasty, dreamed of an independent Islamic sultanate, sowed the seed of the Ottoman Empire, and climbed to power after his father’s death in 1288 and compounded more areas, reinforcing his strength. However, it was named after Usman Gazi, the third son of Artugrul Gazi, as it occupied Bursa from the Roman Empire and brought a strong shiver in the heart of the superpowers then. With time, his successors conquered many lands in Europe, Africa, and Asia, including Türkiye, Serbia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Greece, Albania, Egypt, Macedonia, Romania, Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, a part of Saudi Arabia, and a fraction of North Africa. The Sultanate enjoyed the golden period during the reign of Sultan Suleiman, the Magnificent.
The Ottoman Sultanate established a caliphate system across the wide area of Europe through the conquest of Hungary in 1526, and this triumph went on irresistibly. That’s why the 16th and 17th centuries are rightly identified as the ‘Emerging period of the Ottoman Caliphate.’. Particularly, Sultan Suleiman gripped a wide arena, including Southeast Europe, the Black Sea of Russia in the north, Asia, Northern Africa, the Caucasian region, the Middle East, etc., and ruled a dynamic empire of ‘multiracial’ and ‘multilingual’—divided into 36 provinces and some obedient nations.
At least 49 states from the Balkans and Middle East came to public appearance after World War I, the abolition of the Ottoman Sultanate.
It hadn’t been overnight; rather, the arrangement had been pursued for long. As a vital part of this, in 1876, Sultan Abdul Hamid II came to the throne of Sultanate —crippled by internal complexities and worn out by international debt. Taking liability, he focused on reinforcing his visionary leadership and made a successive approach to reviving the Islamic revolution.
Constitution of the Committee of Union and Progress
‘Al Ettihad-E-Usmani Jamiate’ or ‘Committee of Ottoman Union’ had been constituted in 1889—in disguise—to block the channel of the Muslim Renaissance under the leadership of Sultan Abdul Hamid II, which was named ‘Committee of Union and Progress’ later. Under the banner of this committee, West-backed Turkish nationalists were being gathered.
Economically worn out by the burden of debt, the Ottoman Caliphate also faced an offer from Zionists to sell out Palestine on the condition of exemption from debt.
Theodore Herzl, the chief political leader among Zionists, confirmed salvation from all sorts of debt if ‘Al-Quds City’ was handed over to them. However, the Caliph alleged the claim, refusing instantly.
Military Upheaval by ‘Young Turk’
Following the rejection of the conspiratorial proposal of Herzl, Emmanuel Karasu started creating revolt groups amid military force against the Ottoman Sultanate. Within a very short time, by 1906, they successfully pushed anti-caliphate ideology to thousands of young soldiers—popularly known as ‘Young Turks.’.
Young community graduates from Western universities yearned for a democratic atmosphere instead of a caliphate system where Sultan’s post would be constitutional and the state would function by democracy. Amid the Ottoman military, Young Turks were hugely influenced by this concept, led by Anwar Pasha, Talat Pasha, and Jamal Pasha.
As an utter consequence, a military coup against Sultan Abdul Hamid II took place under the leadership of Anwar Pasha, and they compelled the Sultan to acknowledge the ‘Constitutional Caliphate.’. They constituted the ‘Chamber of Deputy,’ who were nominated by-election. Subsequently, they threw Sultan Abdul Hamid away from the throne on April 27, 1909, and installed Mehmed V to the power—pulling him up from behind. During his reign, Italy occupied Libya in 1911, and the Sultanate lost Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, and Greece one after another in 1912. At this, the Ottoman Sultanate lost its last control over Europe.
Bloomer in World War I
The tripartite Pashas led another coup against Sultan Mehmed V in 1913, and state power was monopolized for the next five years. At this time, the Sultan had just emptied of executive power.
By this time, in 1914, World War I spread out, and Europe came to the battlefield, being segregated into two poles. ‘Tripartite Pasha’ made a self-destructive decision like joining battle amid two Christian majority powers. The Ottomans sided with the Central Powers (Bulgaria, Germany, and Austria-Hungary) in World War I, but they were defeated by the Allies (including Britain, France, Romania, Italy, Japan, America, and Russia). The war devastated the Ottoman Empire, leading to the loss of much of its territory. Following, the defeat, the British Empire, America, France, Italy, and the Allies, divided the Ottomans’ lost territory among themselves. Getting all the doors closed, ‘Tripartite Pashas’—fostered nationalism and secularism—started forcing the Sultan to urge for ‘Jihad,’ but the approach was in vain. In response to the call of Caliph Mehmed V, only a meager amount of Muslims joined in the battle but completed an unsuccessful mission. To escape the defeat, ‘Tripartite Pasha’ fled away from Istanbul with a warship. In the meantime, Caliph Mehmed V died in 1918, a few days before World War I came to an end, and Caliph Mehmed VI ascended to the throne. British soldiers invaded Istanbul and occupied the Sultan’s palace on October 30, 1918. By this, the Ottoman military formally surrendered to the British military. Britain and Allied forces possessed most of the Arabian territory of the Caliphate (including Baghdad, Damascus, and Jerusalem) and divided it among themselves.
Emergence of Kamal Pasha
In January 1920, the delegates of the Caliph signed an agreement with Allied Power named ‘Treaty of Savarage.’. According to the agreement, Middle-East territories were divided into Britain and France and the Mediterranean coast went to Italy’s share, Greece acquired the Asean coast, the Turkish Strait was handed over to international superpowers and a big portion of Armenia appeared as an independent country. The young Turk raged in fury at the embarrassing treaty and started protesting in different cities. To suppress the revolts, Sultan Mehmed VI assigned Mustafa Kamal Ataturk to Anatolia, but he rather became a nationalist leader among them. Under his leadership, Young Turks refused the agreement and constituted a ‘New Government’ in Ankara on April 23 of the same year, electing him as ‘Prime Minister.’. His ‘New Government’ successfully met the special force sent by Greece to Anatolia in 1919. Their battle for independence set sail, as Greece sent an armed force to take over Anatolia in May 1919.
Turkish nationalists formed a force with young men who loved their nationalism profoundly and were determined to fight for their independence from Greece, Britain, Armenia, and France.
Russia aided Turkish nationalists with all sorts of financial and military assistance as an anti-Allied power. Now, Turkish nationalists constituted the ‘Grand National Assembly, a counter-government in Ankara.
This time, the nationalists had been able to make the Greeks and the French flee from Turkey. However, the British were still embezzling Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire. After a sum of battle, the British occupying force signed the agreement of ‘Armistices of Mudanaya,’ where they admitted the independence of Turkey. Thus, Mustafa Kamal Pasha was famed as ‘Ataturk,’ meaning ‘Father of the Turkish Nation.’.
Ruling out of the Ottoman Dynasty
Later, he put forth a proposal for the abolition of the Ottoman Sultanate of the Grand National Assembly.
On November 1, 1922, Mustafa Kamal delivered a declaration of the abolition of the Ottoman Sultanate from the Grand National Assembly. Whereby, Mustafa Kamal Ataturk struck the last nail at the urn of the Ottoman Empire. The designation of Sultan had been ruled out with the annihilation of the Sultanate, which reigned for around six hundred years after its establishment in 1288.
Although the Sultan’s post was abolished, Kamal Pasha preserved the designation of Caliph initially. After that, Caliph Mehmed VI was exiled to Malta from the capital of the caliphate, Istanbul, and Caliph Abdulmejid II was replaced on November 19. Assigning Caliph, Kamal Pasha signed a historical agreement, ‘The Treaty of Losan,’ with the Associated Power on July 24, 1923. The agreement declares Turkey as a ‘Republic State’ and acknowledges Ankara as the capital. Caliph Abdulmejid II opposed the decision, and Shykh-Al-Islam announced the approach of making a secular state as ‘anti-Islamic.’. However, later on, the caliph arranged an election, being pressured by Kamal Pasha. In the election, the nationalists—led by Kamal Pasha—earned a majority, as expected before.
In the meantime, when the caliphate system was abolished in Turkey, the ‘Caliphate Movement’ started raging within Hindustani Muslims to pursue it. As a part of this, caliphate-related leaflets were provided to Turkish people to reawaken them. But Kamal’s government described the move as detrimental to sovereignty and a threat to state security. Making the event a tool, the Turkish Parliament announced the nullification of the Ottoman Caliphate on May 3, 1924, and Kamal Pasha stripped every member of the imperial family of their Turkish citizenship, sent them into exile, confiscated their palaces, and ordered them to liquidate their private property within a year.
In exile, Abdulmejid II spent his final years in France, living quietly until he died in 1944.
The abolition of the Caliphate was a critical part of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s reforms to secularize Turkey, dismantle the Ottoman imperial system, and establish a modern republic based on national sovereignty rather than religious or imperial rule.
History says the Ottoman Empire has been declining its grandeur since the 16th century. They were defeated in the second raid in Vienna in 1683, giving a command to fall. Through a gradual decline, it experienced the ultimate fate after World War I. Alongside, the reliance on the Ottoman Empire also went down, as the New World was introduced and the Indo-China Navy route was explored. Moreover, the increase of naval power of Portugal, Spain, and Britain, the loss of different territories in several battles, the ascension of some inept sultans to power, the emergence of nationalism in several countries, excessive reliance on agriculture, and the multilateral conspiracy of the rivals played an important role in the fall of the Ottoman Sultanate.
