Chapter 1 examines the concept of the Caliphate and focuses on how the Ottoman caliphal discourse became a global idea. After discussing the Caliphate’s role in earlier periods, I argue that the idea of the Caliphate began to appear as a global phenomenon in the 1860s by taking up the case of an Ottoman scholar who travelled from Istanbul to South Africa in 1862. I then examine the transnational and intercontinental networks of the Caliphate via examples of people who travelled on steamships and railways from all over the world. In contrast to the popular belief that the Caliphate and Pan-Islamist missions were engendered through the policies of Sultan Abdülhamid II, I claim that such ambitions began before his reign and also continued after him. I discuss the globalization of the Caliphate as a process that took place in parallel with the spread of steam and print in the Ottoman Empire and demonstrate how Ottoman rulers and ulema used printing presses in the service of the caliphal idea. In this regard, I situate the Hejaz, where thousands of Muslims gathered for the Hajj, as a major hub for the communication of ideas and I point out how it was crucial for the Ottomans.

Chapter 6 focuses on Ottoman political reactions to the two opposition movements. Since the main means of spreading word about them was carried out by missionary activities, this chapter examines how Ottoman rulers reacted to Wahhabis and Mahdists in Ottoman lands. I examine in detail various cases through Ottoman archival materials, classifying them according to region as a means of showcasing the political measures implemented to stop the spread of the two movements in the centres (Istanbul and the Hejaz), in the core regions (Anatolia and Rumelia) and in the periphery (Arab regions, such as Damascus and Baghdad). This chapter shows that the severity of punishments decreased from the centre to the periphery, even though the main concern was maintaining public order in all the territories of the empire. The cases in the chapter also reveal how the telegraph and steamship helped in the central management of all the territories through the responses of the Ottoman rulers in Istanbul to incidents in the periphery.

Chapter 3 provides a comparison to show the differences between the new era and the previous period. This chapter discusses the centre–periphery relationship through Wahhabism in what I call “the age of caravans and manuscripts”. Accordingly, I constructed this chapter around three stories: the story of a person, a pamphlet and a land. The first is about a scholar from Istanbul who was sent to speak with the Wahhabis in 1803. It shows just how far away the capital city was from their location, as the journey to Mecca took about six months. The second is about a pamphlet that was penned by Ottoman ulema who had once served in the Hejaz. It demonstrates that one pamphlet could have provided more than enough information about the Wahhabi movement even during the peak of the rebellion. The third is about the Hejaz, and it shows how Wahhabism was perceived as an illegitimate faction by examining news about the Hejaz occupation as a key point. Through the detailed examples in these three stories, I argue that the Ottomans saw Wahhabism as a local problem before the age of steam and print, as the centre and periphery were very far from each other.

Following unsuccessful attempts to keep the descendants of Nebuchadnezzar II on the throne, the usurper Nabonidus became king. Persian tribes had moved into Elamite lands, and the Medes made Harran a dangerous city; Nabonidus‘ mother, an aged acolyte of Ashurbanipal, resided there. His lengthy inscriptions are informative about his deeds and his character. He dedicated his daughter to the Moon-god at Ur according to precedent, and spent ten years in Arabia, leaving his son Belshazzar in charge in Babylon. He returned and restored the temple in Harran. Cyrus the Great brought his rule to an end, but continued to employ some high officials. Cyrus was probably of mixed Elamite and Persian descent. The Cyrus Cylinder, inscribed in Babylonian cuneiform for a Babylonian audience, used traditional denigration of the previous king Nabonidus, and acknowledged Marduk as Babylon’s god. In another cuneiform text, Nabonidus was mocked for his scholarly pretensions and for sacrilegious acts. Babylon continued to be the centre where all subsequent kings felt obliged to celebrate the New Year festival to be accepted as legitimate rulers. Old monuments were not defaced. Cyrus may have been responsible for an imitation of Babylon’s glazed bricks at Persepolis. He made his son Cambyses co-regent.