Chapter 1 examines the concept of the Caliphate and focuses on how the Ottoman caliphal discourse became a global idea. After discussing the Caliphate’s role in earlier periods, I argue that the idea of the Caliphate began to appear as a global phenomenon in the 1860s by taking up the case of an Ottoman scholar who travelled from Istanbul to South Africa in 1862. I then examine the transnational and intercontinental networks of the Caliphate via examples of people who travelled on steamships and railways from all over the world. In contrast to the popular belief that the Caliphate and Pan-Islamist missions were engendered through the policies of Sultan Abdülhamid II, I claim that such ambitions began before his reign and also continued after him. I discuss the globalization of the Caliphate as a process that took place in parallel with the spread of steam and print in the Ottoman Empire and demonstrate how Ottoman rulers and ulema used printing presses in the service of the caliphal idea. In this regard, I situate the Hejaz, where thousands of Muslims gathered for the Hajj, as a major hub for the communication of ideas and I point out how it was crucial for the Ottomans.