Monday marked the 100th anniversary of the abolition of the Ottoman caliphate—the formal successor to the prophet Mohammad and the nominal leader of Islam—by the secular Turkish government. Martin Kramer reproduces some firsthand accounts of the event itself, and analyzes its consequences:
The last century has witnessed the occasional attempt to revive the caliphate. Indeed, it began as soon as Turkey abolished it. There was a pop-up caliphate in Arabia in 1924 (it didn’t last long), and a caliphate congress in Cairo in 1926 (it ended in an impasse). . . . So far, the fringe attempt to revive the caliphate has sputtered, and it seems doubtful that a caliphate could gain momentum in modern conditions. But its absence remains a cruel reminder to some Muslims of just how far they’ve fallen away from the unity and power they enjoyed in their golden age.
The late Bernard Lewis called the caliphate “a potent symbol of Muslim unity, even identity,” adding that since its abolition, “many Muslims are still painfully conscious of this void.” Just how many remains an open question.
Yet perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the end of the Ottomans, given their own history, was this: their passing didn’t exact even one drop of blood.
Read more on Sandbox: https://martinkramer.org/2024/03/04/a-century-without-a-caliph/