Republic of Turkey

Successor state to the Ottoman Empire; abolished the caliphate in 1924.

☾ The Coming of Islam

From Turkic conversion to Anatolia

The Turkic peoples largely embraced Islam in Central Asia from around the 10th century; the Seljuk victory at Manzikert (1071) opened Anatolia to Turkish-Muslim settlement, and the Ottomans later made it the core of an empire whose sultan bore the title of caliph until 1924.

☾ Religious Composition

A Sunni-Ḥanafī majority in a secular republic

Turkey is overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim of the Ḥanafī school, with a large Alevi minority whose tradition is distinct; the republic founded in 1923 is constitutionally secular, having abolished the Ottoman caliphate in 1924.

Demographic shares are approximate.

▤ Scholars & Institutions

Istanbul and the Ottoman religious establishment

As the Ottoman capital, Istanbul housed the empire's great mosque-complexes and the office of the Shaykh al-Islām, and it remains a major centre of Islamic heritage and learning.

At a glance