Mehmed VI Vahideddin, also known as Şahbaba among the Osmanoğlu family, was the last sultan of the Ottoman Empire and the penultimate Ottoman caliph, reigning from 4 July 1918 until 1 November 1922, when the Ottoman sultanate was abolished and replaced by the Republic of Turkey on 29 October 1923.
Mehmed VI in 1918
Mehmed, Resimli Kitab, 1909
Mehmed VI prays with Shaykh al-Islām Nuri Efendi and Grand Vizier Ahmed Tevfik Pasha before leaving Istanbul, 17 November 1922
Mehmed VI arrives in Malta on a British warship, 9 December 1922. On the left, 10-year-old Prince Mehmed Ertuğrul Efendi
The caliphate of the Ottoman Empire was the claim of the heads of the Turkish Ottoman dynasty to be the caliphs of Islam in the late medieval and early modern era. During the period of Ottoman expansion, Ottoman rulers claimed caliphal authority after the conquest of Mamluk Egypt by sultan Selim I in 1517 and the abolition of the Mamluk-controlled Abbasid Caliphate. This left Selim as the Defender of the Holy Cities of Mecca and Medina and strengthened the Ottoman claim to leadership in the Muslim world.
The Battle of Marj Dabiq between the Ottoman and Mamluk armies
Commemorative plaque where the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca was signed
Abdulmejid II, the last Ottoman caliph
