Isis: The Origins of Violence Page #3

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and claimed the allegiance of

Muslims across the world.

But then, a century ago, came the

fall.

The Royal Navy in the Bosphorus

marked the end of the

First World War.

Allied troops occupied Istanbul.

A new Turkish strongman arrived,

Ataturk,

a moderniser with little time for

Islam.

In 1924 his assault on Islamic

tradition reached a seismic climax.

This is the Dolmabahce Palace. It

was built in the mid-19th century.

Now, the reason that it is a museum

these days is because the dynasty

for which it was built, the Ottoman

caliphs, no longer exists.

And the reason for that is that

on 3rd March, 1924,

the caliphate itself was abolished.

So, a line of caliphs that stretched

all the way back

to the lifetime of

those who'd known Muhammad himself

was terminated.

And that evening,

the prefect of police came to the

palace and told the Caliph,

Abdulmejid II, that

it was all over,

that he had to leave,

and that he had to pack his bags and

go that very night.

The last caliph left Istanbul at

5.30 in the morning.

His journey into exile took him

across the Galata Bridge.

He headed north through the aqueduct

of Valens...

...along the ancient walls

and out through the Edirne Gate...

...where, almost 500 years before,

the sultan who had conquered

Constantinople

first entered the city.

The Caliph and his family were

dumped here...

...a provincial railway station,

30 miles outside Istanbul,

by authorities who wanted as few

people as possible to know

what was happening.

He waited at the station house for

13 hours.

The train, when it arrived, was the

Orient Express...

...ironically enough, then, as now,

one of the most flamboyant symbols

of Western wealth and reach.

An extra carriage had been added for

his luggage and his wives.

He left with a Swiss visa

and 2,000 British pounds.

He never came back.

In the West, no-one remembers this

moment.

But Osama bin Laden did.

When he destroyed

the World Trade Center

it was the end of the caliphate

that was uppermost in his mind.

"Our nation," he declared,

"has been tasting this humiliation

and contempt"

"for more than 80 years."

The caliphate is the kind of ideal

that never completely disappears.

For years it was locked-up in

history's left luggage.

But then, someone picked up the key.

In 2014, Isis declared a new

caliphate.

Their leader, al-Baghdadi, became

the new caliph.

This is the Monastery of Mar Mattai,

St Matthew.

Founded in the fourth century, it's

the oldest monastery in Iraq.

Once there were thousands of monks

here.

Now, only a handful.

And when I came here a few months

ago,

it was not hard to find the reason

why.

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