Turkey keeps office of caliph intact after Ottoman Empire falls

What would have happened if the Turks maintained the office of the caliph in the Turkish Republic? Many countries supposedly did not want the office abolished.
 
With the Kemalist regime in place, I don't see this as likely.

Now, the Hashemites had a claim of patrilineal descendance from Muhammad and could have therefore laid claim to the title. The legitimacy of such claims is not a field in which I have an overwhelming amount of knowledge regarding, but I am assuming that the Hashemites had their reasons for not doing so.
 

Philip

Donor
but I am assuming that the Hashemites had their reasons for not doing so.

They did. The Saudis. Atatürk had the office abolished in 1924. The Saudis invaded the Hejaz the same year. By 1926, Ibn Saud had control of the Two Holy Cities and was King of Hejaz. At that point it would have been rather awkward for the Hashemites to claim the title.
 
Last edited:
You'd have to get rid of not only Ataturk, but the whole Young Turk movement, and thus 'Turkey'.

A 'caliph' is a claim to rule, or at least be hegemon over, all of Islam.
A specifically ethnic Turkish state would, at best, make a mockery of such a claim.

A rump 'empire' that held claim to the former territory, even if it was a Republic and overwhelmingly ethnically Turkish, could. But such a state wouldn't be CALLED Turkey.
 
Top