[4] His caliphate was opposed by the British and French Empires, Zionists, and Wahhabis,[5] but he received support from a large part of the Muslim population at the time,[6][7][8][9] as well as from Mehmed VI.

[18] Towards the end of the 19th century, the prospects for a potential Sharifian Caliphate grew more realistic due to the decline of the Ottoman Empire, which had been heavily defeated in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878.

[2] During this period, an increasing number of Muslim and Arab thinkers began to advocate for the idea of a caliphate returning to the Quraysh, such as Abd al-Rahman al-Kawakibi.

[14] According to Israeli historian Joshua Teitelbaum,[14] there is little evidence, that the idea of a Sharifian Caliphate ever gained wide grassroots support in the Middle East or anywhere else for that matter.

[15] However, Saudi researcher Mai Yamani supports that the idea "became extensively debated in the Arab world in the waning years of the Ottoman Empire.

[22] On 1 November 1916, as the British sought to inquire about Hussein bin Ali's stance on the caliphate issue, he expressed through his son that he aligned himself with the opinion of the ulama of Mecca, who would have deemed it illegitimate.

The people of the Holy Land have proclaimed him their King simply because, in so doing, they would be serving their religion and country.Despite this Hussein continued to attack the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) while sparing the Ottoman caliph.

[27] For example, in a statement published in 1917, Hussein declared: "It will be the opening of our disassociation from it, except for the name of its Sultan, which we have kept sacred until now, in reverence to the legacy of his ancestors and in the hope of someone emerging to rescue his country from the dominance of the Turanian faction.

In their declaration, the inhabitants affirmed: "The Muslim residents of Jaffa gathered in their grand mosque and pledged their allegiance to Your Majesty, the Islamic caliphate.

They recited benevolent prayers to support your glorious Arab throne and expressed gratitude to the Almighty, who restored the sacred caliphate to its rightful owners.

Those who wish to participate in this great endeavor should express their intentions to our representatives in Mecca.In the same perspective, he financially supported the members of the exiled Ottoman dynasty to prevent them from being ruined.

[30] Other accounts, such as a Reuters dispatch, instead set the date as 7 March 1924, and describe Hussein bin Ali being elected as a caliph by Muslims from "Mesopotamia, Transjordan, and Hejaz.

It is also conditioned that no actions contradict the public interest of Muslims, and that decisions regarding the affairs of Palestine, its government structure, and its opinions are made only with the consent of its people.A third counting of the official date takes place when he received the homage of the majority of the Arab population in Amman as the caliph, on March 11, 1924.

The Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Rai also assigns the date of the caliphate to March 1924 and mentions the proclamation made by Hussein in Amman,[32] followed by a pledge of allegiance from the Muslims.

This was in lieu of observing religious rituals and the fasting prescribed by clear legislation, due to the inadmissibility for Muslims to remain without an imam for more than three days, as explicitly stated in the recommendations of the venerable Farouk [= nickname of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb].He also started a program of restorations of religious buildings, starting with the mosques of Palestine, most notably the al-Aqsa mosque, for which he funded 26,672 liras.

[46] They believed that having a new influential caliph could risk reviving pan-Islamism, causing instability in French Muslim colonies in the event of a conflict, and potentially giving the Red Sea to the British.

[48] In practice, the caliphate quickly came to an end when the Hashemite family had to flee the Hejaz after its capture by the Ikhwan forces of Ibn Saud, the founder of Saudi Arabia, in 1924–1925, preventing any long-term establishment.