In the late medieval and the early modern era the Ottoman Caliphate was in existence.
The first political (rather than religious) usage of the title caliph, however, would not occur until 1774, when the Ottomans needed to counter the Russians, who announced that they needed to protect Orthodox Christians under the Ottoman Empire, by making a similar claim about the Muslims living in Russia
 After over 600 years, the Ottoman Empire had officially ceased to exist

