The Caliphate Congresses and the Ottoman Sultans

Nicola Melis

2024-01-01

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Abstract

In the aftermath of the First World War, with the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire and the subsequent removal of the caliphate in 1924, pan-Islamists shifted their focus to Cairo and Mecca rather than Jerusalem as potential sites for a revived caliphate. In this historical context, several meetings were convened to discuss the future of Islam. Notably, none of them produced a consensus or resolved the contentious issue of the caliphate. This chapter revisits the contentious theoretical debates surrounding political and diplomatic efforts related to the caliphate question. It centres primarily on the 1926 Cairo Congress, the only assembly that overtly addressed the caliphate issue. Additionally, this article seeks to delineate the roles played by the last Ottoman claimants to the title, specifically the dethroned Mehmed VI Vahideddin (1861–1926), who reigned from 1918 to 1922 as both Ottoman sultan and caliph, and his cousin Abdülmecid Efendi (1868–1944), who held the position of caliph from 1922 to 1924, marking the conclusion of the Ottoman dynasty’s caliphate legacy.