A Sultan with Swat Remembering Abdul Hamid II, a pro-American
caliph. Dec 26, 2005, Vol. 11, No. 15 • By MUSTAFA AKYOL AL
QAEDA'S STATED GOAL--to reestablish the caliphate, the political
leadership of worldwide Islam embodied first in the successors
of the Prophet Muhammad and most recently in the four-century
rule of the Ottoman dynasty--is pure, ahistorical fantasy. One
way to appreciate this is to revisit the 33-year reign of the
most remarkable modern caliph, Sultan Abdul Hamid II
(1876-1909). An ally neither of bigoted Islamists nor of the
radical secularists who ultimately deposed him, Abdul Hamid was
an Islamic modernizer--and, interestingly, a friend of the
United States. Abdul Hamid emphasized the role of Islam inside
the Ottoman Empire, and he emerged as the protector of Muslims
around the world, from India to sub-Saharan Africa. He pressed
for a new railway to the holy places of Mecca and Medina and
sent emissaries to distant countries preaching Islam. Because of
these policies, once called "pan-Is