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After the Mongols conquered the Abbasid Caliphate, the Mamluks instituted a sort of puppet Caliph in Cairo, ostensibly also of the Abbasid Dynasty.

Is there any possibility, after WW1 and the fall of the Ottoman Caliphate, that an imperial power of the time could establish, or rather bring about the establishment or continuation of the caliphate?

This would perhaps need to be an imperial power like Britain that had the means either to annex or to provide security to the Hejaz, so that this Caliph could claim the authority of the necessary holy sites and also probably be based there. Perhaps Britain may also see this as some way of legitimizing its rule in the eyes of its Muslim subjects in India and elsewhere.

The candidate for Caliph is presumably either someone from the House of Osman or someone who can claim to be descended from Mohammad's family in some way.

I'm thinking that this is almost certainly 'Alien Space Bat' territory but I thought it was worth testing the idea with those better-versed in the period.

It occurred to me after reading that the USA requested that the Ottoman Caliph write to the Philippine Sulus telling them to accept American rule.
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