Califate Congress

From South and West Africa, Morocco, Mesopotamia, Transjordania, Tripoli, Tunis, Syria, Libya, Java, India there came to Cairo last week grave and potent Mohammedans, who solemnly entered and squatted within the mosque of Islam's most ancient university, El Azhar

The Grand Sheik of El Azhar called this assembly to order. It began to debate: 1) Who shall be recognized or elected Calif of Islam? 2) What shall be held to be the true and orthodox qualifications of the Calif? 3) If Islam is to have an elected Calif, who may be deemed at present eligible?

The wise and venerable representatives of Islam who debated these momentous issues were given pause by the following considerations: 1) In 1922 the Turkish Parliament abolished the Sultanate, deposed the Sultan-Calif Mohammed VI and conferred the Califate upon his cousin, Prince Abdul Mejid. Subsequently (1924) it abolished the Califate and banished from Turkey all members of the House of Osman, which had ruled as Sultan and Calif since 1517. Thereupon King Husein of the Hejaz was somewhat irregularly "elected" Calif by his adherents, but abdicated as King in favor of his son Ali, who was subsequently conquered and deposed by Sultan Ibn Saud of Nejd. 2) None of these three disgruntled Califs possesses all three of the traditional qualifications: descent from Mohammed; the status of an independent sovereign; possession of the Holy Cities of Mecca and Medina. 3) None of the at present outstanding Mohammedan potentates possesses all three qualifications. 4) Should one or more qualifications be waived, the following potentates might well precipitate innumerable struggles in an effort to obtain the Califate: King Fuad of Egypt, King Feisal of Irak, President Mustafa Kemal of Turkey, Shah Reza of Persia, the Aga Kahn of Bombay, the Sultan of Morocco, King Abdulla of Transjordania, Imam Yahya of Yemen, the Idrisi of Asir, Sultan Ibn Saud of Nejd and the Hejaz, Sheik Achmet of the Senussites and Abd-El-Krim. ... 5) The Califate Congress which met last week has already been repudiated by Sultan Ibn Saud, who has summoned a rival Califate Congress to meet at Mecca, next month -- presumably on the theory that he seized the Califate from the Kings of the Hejaz when he overthrew them last year.

Significance. In these circumstances it appeared unlikely that the deliberations at Cairo will have any immediate effect. The Calif or Khalifa is, of course, the "Successor" or "Representative" of Mohammed, and is theoretically the temporal and spiritual sovereign of all Mohammedans. Strictly orthodox Mohammedans contend that the Turkish Sultans were never "true califs," charging that they were not actually descended from Mohammed. Since the Sultans of Turkey "assumed" (bought) the Califate in 1517, it may fairly be said to be "extinct" or "lost," at present, if their claims were invalid.

Possibilities. The extreme nebulosity of the Califate, in a legal sense, does not prevent thousands of ignorant Mohammedan peasants from manifesting a desire to fight in the name of the Prophet under the banner of almost anyone who is judiciously proclaimed and trumpeted as Calif.

The danger that a well propagandized new Calif would become the focus of troublesome "holy wars" might well cause the following Great Powers to "take steps": Great Britain, if the "Green Mantle of the Prophet" should descend upon King Fuad of Egypt, King Feisal of Irak or the Aga Kahn; Italy, if Sheik Achmet of the Senussites should receive the "Sacred Sword" and begin swishing it near Italian Tripoli; France, if the "Holy Standard" (the third emblem of the Calif) should be unfurled in the Riff by Abd-El-Krim, or by one of the Sultans in the vicinity of Syria.

Host. Tranquil, intellectual Ahmed Fuad, Sultan of Egypt, Knight Grand Cross of the Bath, extended formal hospitality to the Califate Congress, but entertained no credulous hopes that he is likely to become temporal and spiritual overlord of Islam should the Conference indorse his claims. Though the British "protectorate" over Egypt terminated in 1922, Britain will tolerate no uprisings in Egypt which might threaten the Suez Canal --"the route to India."

Ahmad Fuad therefore bestirred himself little during the week. Upon his knee he caressed now and then the Princesses Fawzieh and Faiza, aged five and three, his daughters.

Mohammed VI. At San Remo, Italy, the deposed Sultan Mohammed VI kept in close touch with the doings of the Cairo conference. When he ascended the Turkish throne (1918) his subjects numbered 12 millions. His realm embraced both Turkey in Europe and Turkey in Asia -- nearly half a million square miles, including Anatolia, Arabia, Palestine, Mesopotamia and Kurdistan. The Turkish Republic now holds in Europe only the zone of Constantinople, and in Asia little more than Anatolia and Kurdistan.

As the deposed Sultan pondered these matters at San Remo last week, a long-standing illness of the heart stole upon him and he died.

Of the 270,000,000 Moslems in the world, perhaps 50 millions mourned him as the "True Calif."