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Mehmed II (ruled 1444-1446 and 1451-1481), often known as Mehmed “the Conqueror,” ushered in the era of the Ottoman Empire’s greatest age. Although Mehmed II used the royal title of “sultan,” he was the first Ottoman ruler to see himself as a caliph because he conquered most of the Islamic world, including the holy cities. In 1453 Mehmed II conquered Constantinople and ended the Byzantine Empire, which essentially eliminated any major rivals in the region. Mehmed II’s successors conquered the Balkans and other kingdoms in southeast Europe in the early sixteenth century before turning their eyes back toward the Islamic world. Suleiman I (ruled 1520-1566), also known as Suleiman “the Magnificent,” conquered Algiers in 1529 and besieged but failed to take Vienna that same year. By the late fifteenth century the entire Islamic world west of Persia was under Ottoman control, which included Medina and Mecca. <ref> Lapidus, Ira M. “Sultunates and Gunpowder Empires.” In <i>The Oxford History of Islam.</i> Edited by John L. Esposito. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), p. 374</ref>

Mehmed II may have ruled in a style that was modeled on the earlier caliphs, but Suleiman I was the first Ottoman sultan to call himself “caliph of the world.” From Sulieman I’s rule onward, the Ottoman sultans ruled over most of the world’s Muslim population and controlled Mecca and Medina, making the Ottoman Dynasty the third true Islamic caliphate.