Question

3. Who was the Khalifa of Islam during the First World War?​

Answer 1

Answer:

Ottoman Caliphate

Explanation:

Ottoman Caliphate, under the Ottoman dynasty of the Ottoman Empire, was the last Islamic caliphate of the late medieval and the early modern era. During the period of Ottoman expansion, Ottoman rulers claimed caliphal authority since the conquest and unification of Muslim lands under Selim I between 1516 and 1517, which bestowed the title of Defender of the Holy Cities of Mecca and Medina upon him and strengthened the Ottoman claim to caliphate in the Muslim world.

The demise of the Ottoman Caliphate took place because of a slow erosion of power in relation to Western Europe, and because of the end of the Ottoman state in consequence of the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire by the League of Nations mandate. Abdülmecid II, the last Ottoman caliph, held his caliphal position for a couple of years after the partitioning, but with Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's secular reforms and the subsequent exile of the royal Osmanoğlu family from the Republic of Turkey in 1924, the caliphal position was abolished.

As World War I broke out in Europe, the Young Turks struck an alliance with Germany, a move that would have disastrous consequences. The Empire entered the war on the side of the Central Powers in November 1914, and Britain, France, and Russia immediately declared war on Ottoman Empire. During the development of the war, the empire's position continued to deteriorate, and even in the Middle East – the very heartland of the Islamic world – would soon be lost.