A few months ago, I read an extraordinary article by Imran Mulla. On a hill above the Ellora Caves, he revealed, stands the abandoned Tomb of the Last Ottoman Caliph.

Its a fascinating symbol of Ellora’ global past, and in my opinion the Turkish Embassy should try and restore it. It’s a fascinating symbol of Turkish-Indian ties.

To understand why it’s here, we have to go back to the early 20th century, when Ellora’s suburb of Khuldabad was the spiritual centre of the Nizamate of Hyderabad.

In 1931, the Nizam of Hyderabad married his sons to the daughters of the deposed Ottoman caliph Abdulmecid II. Then, a week later, he purportedly secured a deed from the last Caliph, nominating their joint grandchildren as the next Caliphs of Islam.

To signify the revival of the caliphate in Hyderabad, he then began constructing a grand Ottoman tomb for Abdulmecid II at Ellora.

Just as the Nizam and Caliph hoped, Hyderabad soon came to be regarded as “the most prominent Muslim city outside of the Holy Land,” and uttered in the same breath as Mecca and Jerusalem.

But the Caliph would never be buried here. War would soon sweep across Europe, and by 1948 Hyderabad state had itself been extinguished.

The tomb built for the Caliph was all but forgotten, and now lies abandoned on a hill, the last great monument ever built at Ellora.

-Sam Dalrymple. (Full article in his paid substack, would recommend if youre interested in the topics he covers)