A year after declaring his caliphate, it is clear that the secret of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's success is the army and state he has built from the remnants of Saddam Hussein's military, and the allegiance he has won or coerced from alienated Sunni Muslims in Iraq, Syria, and beyond.
In that year, the self-appointed caliph has expanded his turf from eastern Syria and western Iraq to include adherents in pockets of war-racked Libya and Egypt's lawless Sinai Peninsula.
He has set his sights on Saudi Arabia, birthplace of Islam, and his Islamic State has launched an online magazine for Turks, who have volunteered for his jihad in the hundreds if not thousands.