What is the Caliphate...

The caliphate was, in essence, a shirt of fire.

Prophet Muhammad used this title out of necessity to govern the Arab society that was consuming itself.

He did not designate anyone after him by saying, "let this person be the caliph." However, according to the hadiths of Bukhari and Muslim, it was said that while he was taking his last breath, he pointed to Abu Bakr, who had given him his 9-year-old daughter Aisha as a wife.

Abu Bakr had given him his virgin daughter.

The caliphate was given to Abu Bakr. But there were three different opinions on this matter. 

Everyone wanted the power of the Caliphate. That is why the disagreement was at its peak.

Abu Bakr became Caliph, but he did not live long due to his old age. Near his death, knowing the difficulties in the Caliphate election, he pointed to Umar as the Caliph.

Because he was the most important person supporting him.

The era of Caliph Umar passed with conquests and the wealth brought by the spoils of those conquests. But this wealth caused corruption and infighting over the spoils. Umar was very anxious in this regard. At the same time, he felt responsible and was practically crushed under this responsibility. He was also quite disturbed by the internal conflicts that had been ongoing since the death of Prophet Muhammad.

That is why, as he was dying, they suggested that his son become the Caliph. But he refused, saying, "one sacrifice from a household is enough." He called Abdurrahman Bin Awf. He offered him the Caliphate, but he also refused, saying, "I will never get involved in this business."

Umar could not point to anyone before he died. After he died, influential figures and some people gathered in the mosque and appointed Uthman as caliph.

And that is when everything happened. The divisions that had been simmering insidiously since Prophet Muhammad suddenly came to light. Fights began. Poor Uthman fell into a helpless state. Those who did not want him to be Caliph rose up. The ignorant Arab public, who had risen up everywhere, entered his house in Medina and killed Uthman next to his wife.

When he was killed, the Caliphate was given to Ali. But the Islamic geography was also divided into many pieces. Iraq, Basra, and Yemen were all singing a different tune. Muawiyah, the Governor of Damascus, was accusing Ali of Uthman's blood and did not recognize Ali.

In the end, Muawiyah defeated Ali through a ploy and declared himself Caliph. He also had Ali, who continued to perform his duties as Caliph, killed in the mosque and eliminated every influential relative of Prophet Muhammad's lineage. 

Thus, the Caliphate passed from the Arabs to the Umayyads, and the Islamic sultanate dangerously transformed into a personal sultanate.

Interestingly, the Umayyad sultanate, along with its great expansions, was the scene of bloody and tragic events from beginning to end. The Arabs suffered the most from these tragic events and persecutions.  Finally, in 750 AD, Abu Muslim al-Khurasani emerged and moved the Caliphate to the Abbasids.

The Caliphate had passed to the Abbasids, but during the same periods, there were dozens of people in Andalusia who had reigned for centuries under the titles of "Caliph of the Messenger of Allah and Commander of the Faithful." And they did not recognize the Abbasids as caliphs; they recognized themselves.

The Caliphate was in a state of complete chaos. It was unclear who was a caliph and who was not.

The Caliphate was divided into 4 parts after Prophet Muhammad, and into forty parts four centuries later.

When the Turks were forcibly converted to Islam, the direction of the Caliphate changed.

When the Arab commander Qutayba ibn Muslim massacred tens of thousands of innocent Turks in the name of converting them to Islam, this time Genghis's grandson Hulagu Khan appeared on the stage of history in 1258.

He eliminated the Abbasids. He executed the Abbasid caliph Al-Musta'sim Billah. He put 800 thousand people, including women and children, to the sword along with the people of Baghdad. He made a mountain-like pile from the skulls of thousands of Arabs. He destroyed the Caliphate and everything else.

He annihilated it. 

Three years later, in 1261, a person named Al-Mustansir, who claimed to be a descendant of the Abbasid caliphs, escaped from Hulagu and fled to Egypt. He took refuge with the Egyptian government. The Egyptian sultan accepted him and recognized him as caliph. Subsequently, 17 other people took the title of Caliph without any authority or influence.

These little Caliphs lived their lives under the protection of the Egyptian government, taking each other's places in the Alhambra Palace.

However, there was, of course, a price for being protected in the Palace.

They were condemned to never leave the palace gates. This was a form of house arrest. They were subjected to many painful and dramatic consequences of the palace intrigues of the Alhambra Palace.

The Caliphate was an empty business where many ineffective people declared themselves Caliph.

Yavuz conquered Egypt in 1517 and executed the Egyptian ruler Tumanbay.

He found a poor man named Al-Mutawakkil, who used the title of Caliph in the Alhambra Palace, and forcibly brought him to Istanbul. He threw him into the Yedikule dungeons.

In fact, Yavuz Sultan Selim had not defined himself as the Islamic caliph in a spiritual sense.

However, his son Suleiman the Magnificent declared himself Caliph in 1520 by writing a letter to the Sharif of Mecca stating that "he had been brought to the position of caliphate and sultanate by Allah."

He also sent Al-Mutawakkil, who was brought from Egypt, back to Egypt by granting him a small salary.

However, Mutawakkil never agreed to the Caliphate being taken away from him.

Of course, he did not stay quiet in Egypt. In 1524, he incited the Governor of Egypt, Ahmed Pasha, and declared himself caliph and Ahmed Pasha the sultan in Egypt. Neither of them recognized Suleiman's Caliphate. However, when Suleiman crushed and defeated them, the rebellion was suppressed and Ahmed Pasha was killed.

But the former Caliph Mutawakkil was nowhere to be found.

He had escaped.

The office of the Caliphate remained with the Ottoman state in this way.

It is debatable, but the Caliphate provided no benefit to the Ottomans. On the contrary, the office of the caliphate imposed bans on all technological developments in the Ottoman Empire and the world, causing the Ottomans to fail to keep up with the times and fall behind. It also caused the Turkish Nation, which formed the main element of the Ottoman subjects, to break away from its essence and national identity and undergo Arab assimilation.

That is why the Ottoman Empire was on the verge of collapse.

Finally, Vahdettin took the throne, became Caliph, and sold out the Turkish Nation. He made a secret agreement with the British to save himself and the Caliphate. Furthermore, he stood against the Turkish People who were fighting the War of Independence in Anatolia. Under the title of "Army of Muhammad," he formed mercenary groups and armies, joined forces with the British, and fired bullets at Turkish soldiers. 

In the end, he paid the price for his betrayal and had to leave the country. While fleeing, he handed over some of his wives, whom he had taken from his harem, to the British Commander on the Malaya ship.

If you ask what the Caliphate is, this is exactly what it is.

After the death of Prophet Muhammad, the first caliph, Abu Bakr, lived a quiet life. However, the second caliph, Umar, died in pain, realizing that it was impossible to stop the internal conflicts caused by the Caliphate. He could not appoint anyone to replace him.

Uthman could not protect the Caliphate, Ali could not protect it. The Umayyads ruled for more than ninety years, they could not protect the caliphate. The Abbasids could not protect it. The Mamluks could not protect it. The Ottomans could not protect it. The Caliphate was needed only once by the Ottomans, and that was at the beginning of the First World War, when the Great Jihad (Cihat-ı Ekber) was declared, but no Islamic country participated in this call.

Umar was right in his anxiety. 

The Caliphate was actually causing internal conflicts.

Now, some morons in Istanbul, Antep, Hatay, and here and there are clamoring for the Caliphate with cries of Sharia.

My friend, all states sank and disappeared because of the Caliphate.

I listed them above. This matter is that clear.

The Caliphate is the most painful betrayal inflicted upon the Turkish Nation.