The destruction of the Caliphate on the 3rd of March, 1924 was, it may be said, largely formal. Real authority had been removed from the office of the Caliph several years prior. The machinations of Mustafa Kemal had been successful in relegating the Caliphal office to a largely symbolic, inept one that provided only a tenuous link back in time to the Islamically vested Ottoman political authority.
Nonetheless, this formal abolition on the 3rd of March 1924 did nonetheless make headlines around the world, for its significance was not lost on many. The end of the 7 centuries or so of Ottoman rule, and ind31eed a continuous lines of Caliphs going back to the time of the Prophet Muhammad, was a significant event that finally saw the modern nation state model forced into the Muslim world.
Below are the headlines in Australia on that day, from both The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. They make for some poignant reading.
