WI: Kemel doesn't abolish the Ottoman Caliphate?

Hopefully this won't come across as controversial. For those of you who don't know, the Caliphate is a government type that's similar to both the Papacy and the original form of the Holy Roman Empire, in that its leader, the Caliph, is considered the political and religious successor to the Prophet Muhammad and leads the entire Muslim community/world. As an institution the Caliphate and the Caliph existed for nearly 1300 years, from the Prophet Muhammad's death in 632 to its abolishment by Turkey's first President Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in 1924. So my question is this: what if President Kemel never abolished the Caliphate?

It could be because the Turkish Grand assembly refused to do so, because the British put pressure on the Turks to keep the institution alive (the Khilafat Movement, dedicated to preserving the Caliphate, was based in India and tried to get the British to intervene OTL) or because Kemel, despite his vocal criticism of the Ottoman dynasty and its Islamic orientation, is able to see the benefits of controlling such an important religious office and keeps it. The why doesn't really matter.

What would the long-term religious and political effects of a surviving Caliphate be for both Turkey and the Muslim world? Would it be beneficial to the middle east or cause more problems? Also, what about the Islamic terrorists? Would an existing Caliphate undercut some of their support or strengthen it because the Caliph is Turk? Please discuss!
 
Sigh.

The whole POINT of Kemel Ataturk's revolution was to make a Turkish state out of the remains of the Ottoman one. 'purify'ing Turkish of Persian, etc., influence, changing the alphabet used, etc., etc.

Retaining the 'caliphate' is a claim to universal rule, which he did NOT want, as that would have diluted the Turkishness of the state.
 
Sigh.

The whole POINT of Kemel Ataturk's revolution was to make a Turkish state out of the remains of the Ottoman one. 'purify'ing Turkish of Persian, etc., influence, changing the alphabet used, etc., etc.

Retaining the 'caliphate' is a claim to universal rule, which he did NOT want, as that would have diluted the Turkishness of the state.

I get all that but is there a way to keep the Caliphate alive? Like what if Kemel doesn't have much of a choice? As I said above, maybe the Grand Assembly decides to keep the Caliphate or fears the consequences of abolishing it. Or perhaps the Khilafat Movement convinces the British to put pressure on Kemel to keep the institution.
 
Maybe Turkey becomes a constitutional monarchy instead of a republic. The Sultan is reduced to a similar position to that of the Japanese Emperor is now, a ceremonial figurehead, who nevertheless has great cultural and religious significance.

Also, maybe the Ottoman remnant manages to hold onto more of northern Syria and Iraq, thus making it less explicitly Turkish? (With a side-order of large Kurdish minority.)
 
Best I can figure, ditch the Ottoman caliphate and try for a new one someplace else. Not sure if there was any realistic candidate though. Someone pointed out no one missed it till it was gone.
 
Maybe Turkey becomes a constitutional monarchy instead of a republic. The Sultan is reduced to a similar position to that of the Japanese Emperor is now, a ceremonial figurehead, who nevertheless has great cultural and religious significance.

Also, maybe the Ottoman remnant manages to hold onto more of northern Syria and Iraq, thus making it less explicitly Turkish? (With a side-order of large Kurdish minority.)

That would involve an entirely different scenario with a POD of 1914 at the latest. The nationalists would have to see the Ottoman dynasty as a solution rather than a problem. It would also necessitate a more fair peace treaty with the allies, as Britain and France had already claimed Syria and Iraq for themselves.

Best I can figure, ditch the Ottoman caliphate and try for a new one someplace else. Not sure if there was any realistic candidate though. Someone pointed out no one missed it till it was gone.

That was attempted in the '20s after Kemel abolished the Caliphate but never went anywhere. First the King of Hejaz, Hussein bin Ali, proclaimed himself Caliph in 1925 but wasn't acknowledged as such by any other Muslim nation and in any event his kingdom fell to the Saudis a year later. Later there was a summit in Cairo in 1926 to discuss the election of a new Caliph but again most Muslim nations didn't send representatives and no steps were taken to implement the resolutions made.

The only viable candidates I can think of would be the descendants of the Abbasid and Umayyad Caliphs and considering how many centuries separated those dynasties from power, it would be next to impossible to prove decent. Hm, maybe the British decide to keep the Ottoman Caliphate by simply moving Caliph Abdülmecid II into their territory and establishing him somewhere else (Samarra?). Could work.

I wonder if something like the Lateran treaty could be created between the Caliphate and the Turkish government, only without the sovereignty. Could be very interesting.
 

Grimbald

Monthly Donor
What about a Vatican like compromise with the Caliphate having a few acres around the Blue Mosque in Istanbul?
 
Can anyone tell me when the last significant action of the Caliph took place? Isn't it likely that if there was a need (or at least a place) for the office, the Caliphate would have been revived someplace else.
Ataturk's abolition of the Caliphate after the abolition of the Sultanate, was quite a significant act in terms of internal Turkish politics: it symbolizes the watershed between the old Ottoman world and the new, non-confessional Turkish republic. As far as the rest of the world was concerned, the presence or the absence of an ineffectual title-holder was irrelevant.
 
Declaring Jihad on the Entente in 1915 was perhaps the last internationally significant act he did, other than surrendering at the end in 1918 of course.
How about the Greco-Turkish war goes badly for Turkey, with Thrace and Smyrna added to Greece (though not Constantinople). The conflict takes even more of a religious tone, such that the idea of turkish nationalism become inseparable from fundamental Islam ( unpleasant to think about, I know). Such a devastated and vengeful state would most likely prop up a Caliph, as they never move towards secularism. Though IMO the that would be a huge failure for Kemal Mustafa.
Other than that you could always have an exiled puppet Caliph in Mecca supported by the British.(However they ignored both the Khilafat movement and the subsequent Non-cooperation movement so don't know how likely this is.)
 
Declaring Jihad on the Entente in 1915 was perhaps the last internationally significant act he did, other than surrendering at the end in 1918 of course.
I should have excepted the declaration of Jihad of 1914, which has been discussed at length last week and anyway did not have any measurable impact either in the Ottoman empire or internationally. In a way it is a very clear demonstration that the office Caliphate had no more meaning or influence
 
Yes other than some rebels in Libya the declaration of Jihad went ignored. The major problem with this is that the Ottoman Empire had eroded the dignity and authority of the office, such that by the first world war few outside or even inside the Ottoman Empire considered him to be a figure of authority.The Sultan/Caliph had long became figureheads with people like Enver Pasha running the show.
It was one of those things people miss only when they have lost it.
 
What about a public response, like rioting or something like that after the assembly abolishes the Caliphate? Could public demonstrations in favor of the Caliphate force/frighten the Turkish government into keeping the Caliph, at least for the moment? Long term, could we see the Caliphate and Turkey normalize relations, not unlike Italy and the Papacy? Or is such a scenario unlikely?
 
OK another thought: what if the Treaty of Sévres is much less harsh than OTL and the Ottoman Empire retains the borders of the later Treaty of Lausanne. Would this be enough to allow a continued Ottoman Empire/ Sultanate of Turkey or no?
 
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