Pan-Islam and the Caliphate

This paper examines the struggle over Pan-Islamism and the Caliphate between 1880 and 1930, highlighting the interplay of colonial power, psychological control, and Muslim self-determination. Through a comparative analysis of Count Léon Ostrorog’s The British Empire and the Mohammedans (1918) and Shakib Arslan’s Islam and Nationalism (1930), the study contrasts imperial and Pan-Islamist perspectives on Islam’s role in modernity. Ostrorog represents European colonial paternalism, advocating Western-led reform of Islamic governance to secure geopolitical dominance, while Arslan exposes the manipulative strategies undermining Muslim unity and self-confidence, advocating for revival through autonomy, economic self-sufficiency, and religious fidelity. Together, these works illustrate how colonial narratives reshaped Muslim governance, identity, and perceptions of modernity, demonstrating that the decline of Pan-Islamism and the Caliphate was as much a psychological and ideological project as a political one.