The end of the caliphate (1924)

Part oneFrom sultanate to republic

When the Ottoman Empire lost the First World War, Allied troops occupied Istanbul and the victors planned to divide even Anatolia. In 1919 Mustafa Kemal, the hero of Gallipoli, left the capital and led a national movement from the interior. A Grand National Assembly met at Ankara in 1920. Over the next two years its armies, many of them led by officers who had fought in the World War, defeated the Armenian, French and Greek forces, and the Allies agreed to withdraw.

Muslims far beyond Turkey had followed the struggle with hope. In India, a mass movement called the Khilafat Movement raised money and organised protests to defend the Ottoman caliph. Many Muslims in Anatolia fought believing they were saving the caliphate and the faith.

In November 1922 the Assembly abolished the Ottoman sultanate. The last sultan, Mehmed VI, left Istanbul on a British warship. His cousin, Abdulmejid II, a painter and scholar, was chosen as caliph, but with no political power. The Treaty of Lausanne in July 1923 recognised the new Turkish state, and on 29 October 1923 the Republic of Turkey was declared, with Mustafa Kemal as president and Ankara as its capital.

Part two3 March 1924

The new government saw the caliph as a rival. He still drew respect and letters from Muslims abroad, and some in Turkey hoped he would become a focus for opposition. On 3 March 1924 the Grand National Assembly voted to abolish the caliphate. The members of the Ottoman family were ordered to leave the country, and Abdulmejid II left for exile in Europe the next day. He died in Paris in 1944.

For the first time since the companions chose Abu Bakr at Saqifah in 632, there was no caliph whom large numbers of Muslims recognised. The office had passed through the Umayyads, the Abbasids in Baghdad and Cairo, and the Ottomans. Its power had often been limited, but the idea of one leader for the ummah had lasted for thirteen centuries.

Muslims abroad were shocked. Conferences met in Cairo and Makkah in 1926 to discuss a new caliphate, but they could not agree on who should hold it or how. The Khilafat Movement in India lost its purpose. From now on Muslims would live in separate nation-states.

Part threeAtaturk's Turkey

In Turkey, the Assembly went further. The Sharia courts and Sufi lodges were closed. In 1925 the fez was banned, and in 1928 Islam was removed from the constitution as the state religion. That year the Arabic script was replaced with the Latin alphabet, and Arabic and Persian words were removed from Turkish where possible. Religious life was placed under a state directorate. In 1934 citizens were required to take surnames, and Mustafa Kemal was given the name Ataturk, "Father of the Turks". Women were given the vote the same year.

The reforms were imposed from above, and many Turks, especially in the countryside, never accepted them. Ataturk died in 1938. In the decades after him, Turkey moved to a multi-party system, and the place of Islam in public life has been argued over ever since.

For thirteen centuries there had always been a caliph. On 3 March 1924 there was not.

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The mapWhere it happened

• Ankara
• Istanbul
• Samsun
• Lausanne
• Delhi
• Cairo
• Makkah

This map is a simple sketch to help you picture where events took place. Positions, distances and borders are approximate, so please use it for reference only, not as an accurate map.

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