Selim I

He extended Ottoman territory by placing Syria, Palestine, Egypt and the holy cities of Mecca and Medina under his control. After the invasion of the latter two cities, he announced himself to be the Caliph (in Arabic meaning "successor" of Mohammed); the "guardian of Islam", considered to be the chief civil and religious ruler of all Islam. The title had been in abeyance since the Mongol onslaught on the Abbasid caliphate at Baghdad in the 13th century.