Mehmed VI

Mehmed VI was the last sultan of the Ottoman Empire and the penultimate caliph of Islam. He was the brother of Mehmed V, who died in 1918, and became the heir to the throne as the eldest male member of the House of Osman. He was girded with the Sword of Osman on 4 July 1918 as the 36th padishah and 115th Islamic caliph. His reign began with the Ottoman Empire suffering defeat in the First World War and the subsequent occupation of Istanbul and other parts of the empire by the Allies. He tried to follow a conciliatory policy with the victorious powers, but faced opposition from the nationalist movement led by Mustafa Kemal Pasha (Atatürk), who wanted to establish a modern and secular Turkish republic. Mehmed VI's most significant act as sultan was dispatching Mustafa Kemal to Anatolia to reassert government control, but this backfired as Mustafa Kemal became the leader of the resistance against the sultan and his allies. In 1922, after the Turkish victory in the Greco-Turkish War, Mehmed VI was forced to abdicate and leave the country. He went into exile in Malta and then Italy, where he died in 1926. He was buried in Damascus, Syria, as the Turkish authorities did not allow his body to be returned to Istanbul. He was the last ruler of a dynasty that lasted for over six centuries.