Unlettered Mohammedans, who, ignorant of the modern point of view, went on assigning an important place to the Caliphate legend in their framework of the political system, were, however, often presented with panislamic visions in order to retain, fictitiously, at least, what had long vanished from real life. And these visions were often big with ambition. How completely at odds the Caliphate idea is with modern international relations appeared when the Turkish Government, seduced by its alliance with Germany, brought it to the fore, anew. The first outward and visible sign of the renaissance of the Caliphate was the declaration of the “Holy War,” accompanied by an appeal to all the Mohammedans in the world to participate therein, irrespective of the political authority they were bound to obey. Next came a series of official and officious publications, all based on the hypothesis that the Turkish Sultan-Caliph is the man who, under all circumstances, controls the political policy of the Mohammedans. Taking all these points into consideration, it becomes hardly needful to reply to the question as to how the Shereef of Mecca might, perhaps, try to become a rival of the Sultan Mehmed Reshad as a pretender to the Caliphate. A Caliphate, no matter who holds the dignity, is wholly incompatible with modern political conditions. And this will be as true after the present war as it was before. Only as an empty title can it be tolerated at all. For the rest, it can be seen, from what we have already written about the history and the current condition of the Shereefate, that any lofty aspirations would be especially ill adapted for local principalities. The idea of a Caliphate of the Shereefs of Mecca has been ventilated, more than once, by this or that European writer on Islam, but, in the Moslem world, it has never been broached, and no one of the Shereefs from the House of Katada――rulers in Mecca and in varying portions of West Arabia ever since the year 1200 A.D.――ever thought of such a thing. It is improbable that even foreign influence could prevail on a Shereef of Mecca to attempt to gamble for the Caliphate. They all know too well how little chance of success there would be in such an attempt, and they feel themselves limited by tradition and by their resources to the Hijaz.