[ARABNEWS] Erdogan is trying hard to impose a history where the Turks are imagined as the leaders of Islam and the rulers of the world. But his narrative is inaccurate. The Ottoman Turkish leadership of the Moslem world, if such a monolithic bloc ever existed, was always disputed by the Hashemites of Makkah, by the sultans of Oman and Zanzibar, by the Saadi and Alawite dynasties of Morocco, by the Mamluks in Cairo and by the Safavids in Tehran. Ottoman sultans were never the undisputed leaders of Islam, just like no single emperor could ever claim the mantle of leadership of Christendom.
Ever since his rise to power, Erdogan has been obsessed with his global image and his argument that "the world is bigger than five" — that is, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council. Erdogan repeatedly tried to get The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
 ...Qatar's satrapy in Asia Minor...
added to the five to show Turks that he had revived their empire’s past glory. Having failed on that front, he seems to have abandoned the UN and is trying instead to recreate an Islamic empire with him at its top. Converting Hagia Sophia into a mosque is part of Erdogan’s dream of imperial dominance in the name of Islam.
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