The paramount prestige of the title "padishah" in Islam and beyond becomes clearly apparent from the Ottoman Empire's dealings with the (predominantly Christian) European powers. For example, one of the terms of the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca in 1774 was that the defeated Ottoman Empire refer to Empress Catherine the Great of Russia, and all other Russian monarchs after her, as a "Padishah" in all official correspondence (including in the treaty itself). This was a symbolic acknowledgement that Christian emperors were in all diplomatic and corollary capacities the equal of the Turkish ruler, who by his religious paramount office in Islam (Caliph) had a theoretical claim of universal sovereignty (at least among Sunnites).