مصطفى كمال أتاتورك

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, an Ottoman officer and then the leader of the Turkish resistance. After the First World War he led the movement of secular transformation in Turkey, and the caliphate was abolished in his time in 1924 CE. ²

When the Greeks occupied Izmir in 1338 AH, with British consent, and advanced into Anatolia, Mustafa Kemal stirred the spirit of jihad among the Turks and drove the Greeks back. He was titled Ghazi, and Ahmad Shawqi praised him and linked him with Khalid ibn al-Walid (may God be pleased with him), and likened his victory to Badr. ³

He called the Constituent Assembly on 3 March 1924, which approved the decision to abolish the caliphate, and the caliph was exiled the next day. ⁴ The Ministry of Awqaf was abolished in 1343 AH / 1924 CE, and the Gregorian calendar replaced the Hijri calendar in 1926 CE. ⁵

Al-Salabi holds that Britain fabricated Mustafa Kemal's heroism through British intelligence, to make it easier to strike the caliphate. This is the author's interpretation, and it is recorded here attributed to him. ²

• The entry is based on al-Salabi's summary of his book, which gives a critical reading of Mustafa Kemal's role. A judgement on this role needs review against Turkish and British sources, which have not yet been checked.
• Many of these events overlap in time; the Hijri and Gregorian dates are given as they appear, and have not yet been verified.