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The Abolition of the Ottoman Sultanate

The Ottoman Empire, which had existed since 1299, was abolished by the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TGNA) on 1 November 1922. The Grand National Assembly's sovereignty over Turkey as administered by the parliament in Angora (Ankara) was acknowledged on November 11 at the Treaty of Lausanne. On November 17, 1922, Mehmed VI, the last Ottoman sultan, left Constantinople, the seat of the Empire. The Treaty of Lausanne was concluded on July 24, 1923, solidifying the legal situation. Later, in March 1924 the caliphate was abolished which gave a signal of the end of the Ottoman hegemony and with this there would no longer be a caliph of Islam anywhere. 

Mehmed VI Vahdettin became the 36th and last Ottoman Sultan, soon after the end of World War I, but he did not hold the position for very long. At the end of the war, months after his reign was established, allied forces occupied Constantinople, sparking a Turkish national uprising under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

Mustafa Kemal Pasha, a young Ottoman officer serving under Mehmed VI, was organising a national opposition in Anatolia against the Allied Powers. Mustafa Kemal consequently rejected the Treaty of Sevres and launched the Turkish War of Independence against the Allied Forces.

After the success of the Ataturk movement, Mehmed VI and his government attempted to negotiate with the movement's Ankara-based leaders. But the last sultan of the empire had already lost his political legitimacy.

Later, when the Allied Powers invited representatives from both the Turkish National Assembly led by Mustafa Kemal and the imperial government led by Mehmed VI to a significant peace conference in Lausanne, the Turkish Nationalists formally announced the end of the imperial rule and disintegrated the sultanate.

The gold currency unit of 25 Kurush was produced during the time of Mehmed VI, the last Ottoman Sultan. This coin was produced by the Constantinople Mint in the year 1336 AH. A coin's obverse features the Arabic text in stunning Tughra calligraphy. The reverse of a coin, however, bears the inscription "1336 Az Nasrah Zarb Fi Qustuntuniyah."

Ottoman Empire in Early Stage

Osman I (1259–1326) was a Turkish Muslim ruler in Bithynia who created his own ruling line about the year 1300. He was successful in his conquest of neighboring provinces that had been held by the Seljuq dynasty in the past. His empire would later be known as the Ottoman Empire.

In 1324, Osman and his son Orhan conquered Bursa (some sources claims its date in 1326.) Soon after, Orhan is successful in capturing the three last Byzantine towns in the northwestern part of Anatolia:  Iznik (1331), Izmit (1337) and Uskundar (1338).

In 1345, Ottoman armies entered Europe for the first time, storming over the Balkans. Despite being defeated by Timur in 1402, the Ottomans, led by Mehmed II (the Conqueror), overthrew the Byzantine Empire and took its city, Constantinople (now Istanbul), which became the Ottoman capital.

The Ottoman Empire reached its zenith under the reigns of Selim I (reigned 1512–20) and his son Suleyman I (reigned 1520–66), also known as "the Magnificent." Suleyman ruled areas of Persia, Arabia, Hungary, and the Balkans. By the early 16th century, the Ottomans had destroyed the Mamluk dynasty in Syria and Egypt, and its navy under Barbarossa seized much of the Barbary Coast.


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