Download Islamic Empires

Islamic Empires
AKA Gunpowder Empires… or Black-Powder 
Safavid Empire
How did the Safavid Empire
emerge?
• Safavid Empire arose in the Persia region
following the short-lived empire of Timur
(Tamerlane)
• Emerged with Mongol/Turkic roots
• Founder Shah Ismail (reigned 1501-1524)
claimed ancient Persian title of shah.
• Adopted Persian language
• Proclaimed Shia Islam the official religion;
imposed it on Sunni population
• Traced origins to twelve ancient Shiite imams
• Ismail believed to be the twelfth, or “hidden,”
imam, or even an incarnation of Allah
How did the Safavid Empire relate
to other Islamic empires?
• Sunni Ottoman Empire and Shia
Safavid Empire fought
periodically between 1534 and
1639
• Battle of Chaldiran (1514)
• Sunni Ottomans persecuted
Shiites within Ottoman Empire
• Safavids considered gunpowder
and firearms unmanly; were
crushed by Ottomans at Chaldiran
• Prevented Safavid expansion into
west
How did the Safavid Empire
expand to significance?
• Shah Abbas I the Great (1588-1629)
revitalized the Safavid empire
• Modernized military; sought
European alliances against Ottomans
• Involved in Afro-Eurasian trade
networks
• New capital at Isfahan; centralized
administration
• Strong push by Abbas to beautify and
culturally advance Isfahan
• Particularly fond of mosques
Why did Safavid Empire
decline?
• Steppe tradition of removing power rivals made succession
difficult
• Death of Abbas caused period of internal disorder
Ottoman Empire
What was the Ottoman Empire?
• The Islamic world’s most important empire
in the early modern period.
• In power from 1289 – 1923 – 634 years!
• Huge territory: Anatolia, eastern Europe,
much of Middle Each, North African coast,
lands around Black Sea
• Founded by Osman Bey in 1289, who led
Muslim religious warriors (ghazi)
• Sultans claimed the title “caliph” and the
legacy of the Abbasids
• Effort to bring new unity to Islamic world
How did the Ottoman Empire expand to
cover such a large territory?
• Aggressive toward western Christian lands (Byzantine)
• Organized ghazi into formidable military machine
• Central role of the Janissaries
• Slave troops forcibly conscripted from Balkan populations
• Given control over artillery and firearms  extremely potent
fights force
• Janissaries rose into high positions in Ottoman court policies
• Effective use of gunpowder in battles and sieges
• Mehmed II the Conqueror (reigned 1451 – 1481)
• Captured Constantinople in 1453; it became Istanbul, the
Ottoman capital
• Absolute monarchy; centralized state
• Expanded to Serbia, Greece, Albania; attacked Italy
• Suleiman the Magnificent (reigned 1520 – 1566)
• Suleiman the Magnificent expanded into southwest Asia and
central Europe
• Famous 1529 siege of Vienna
• Europeans feared Turkish expansion
• Suleiman also built a navy powerful enough to challenge
European fleets
• Controlled eastern Mediterranean
How did the Ottoman Empire affect
cultural exchanges?
• In Anatolia (modern-day Turkey), most of the
conquered Christians converted to Islam
• In the Balkans, Christian subjects mostly remained
Christian
• Ottomans accommodated the Christian churches
• Many Christians welcomed Ottoman conquest
• Ottomans taxed less and were less oppressive
• Christian churches received considerable autonomy
• Balkan elites were accepted among the Ottoman elite
without conversion
• Jewish refugee from Spain had more opportunities in
the Ottoman Empire
• Devshirme: Tribute of boys paid by Christian Balkan
communities
• Boys were converted to Islam, trained to serve the state
• The devshirme was a means of social mobility
• Some Europeans admired Ottoman rule
• Philosopher Jean Bodin (16th century) praised Ottoman
religious tolerance
• Ottoman women enjoyed relative freedom
What caused the fall of the Ottoman
Empire?
• Janissaries were resistant to military
technology improvements – that may
have weakened their hold on power
• Overextension in the 17th century
caused contraction of empire
boundaries
• Reliance on expansion meant
weaknesses were revealed
• Increased taxes to offset the lack of
expansion
• In 1571, a defeat at Lepanto to
European Christian coalition signaled
the end of their dominance of the
Mediterranean
• However, they still held their empire
into the 20th century (the picture to the
right is of an actual Ottoman janissary
from the early 20th century… first
photograph in WHAP!)
Mughal Empire
How did the Mughal Empire arise?
• Babur (1523 – 1530), founder of the Mughal (“Mongol”)
dynasty in India
• Central Asian Turkish adventurers invaded India in 1523, seized
Delhi in 1526
• By his death in 1530, the Mughal Empire embraced most of
India
• Akbar (reigned 1556 – 1605), a brilliant charismatic ruler
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Created a centralized, absolutist government
Expanded to most of the rest of India
Significantly improved conditions of both women and the poor
Encouraged religious tolerance between Muslims and Hindus
Championed notion of a syncretic religion called “divine faith,”
and a hybrid Indian-Persian-Turkic culture
• Encouraged intermarriage of Hindu & Muslim elites
• Eliminated use of the jizya (per capita tax levied on a section of an
Islamic state's non-Muslim citizens, who meet certain criteria) by nonMuslims
• Brought many Hindus into political-military elite
• Huge reason for long-term success of the empire
How did the Mughal Empire fall?
• Aurangzeb (1659 –
1707)
• Expanded the empire to
almost the entire Indian
subcontinent
• Revoked policies of
toleration
• Hindus were taxed,
temples were
destroyed, imposed
the jizya
• Almost 20% of the
population was
Muslim; most of the
rest were Hindu
• Opposition movements
fatally weakened the
Mughal Empire after
1707
Islamic Empires
Compared
What did all three empires have in
common?
• All three Islamic empires were military creations
• Authority of rulers derived from military prowess of rulers
• Relied on power of gunpowder – known as “Gunpowder Empires”
• Devotion to Islam encouraged rulers to extend their faith to new
lands
• To varying degrees, however
• Continued steppe traditions
• Autocratic: emperors imposed their will on the state
• Ongoing problems with royal succession
• Ottoman rulers could legally kill his brothers after taking the throne
• Royal women often wielded great influence on politics
• Toleration of religious diversity – generally
• In Ottoman Empire, conquered peoples were protected, granted religious
& civil autonomy in their own communities
• In India, the Muslim rulers closely cooperated with Hindu majority
What did all three empires have in
common? Continued…
• Food – crops were the basis of all three empires
• Wheat & rice
• Little impact by new American crops
• Imports of coffee & tobacco were very popular
• Significant cultural patronage of Islamic emperors
• All three sponsored arts & public works: mosques, palaces, schools,
hospitals, etc.
• Istanbul, the ottoman capital, a bustling city of a million people
• Encouraged blending of Islamic & Byzantine architectural elements
• Commissioned Christian churches as Islamic mosques – most famous example
Hagia Sophia  Aya Sofia
• Isfahan, Safavid capital, the “queen of Persian cities”
• The Taj Mahal, exquisite example of Mughal architecture
How did the three Islamic
Empires differ?
• Overall, population growth in the three empires was less
dramatic than in China or Europe
• Significant population growth in India from more intense agriculture
• Less dramatic growth in Safavid and Ottoman realms
• Long-distance trade important to all three empires
• Ottoman and Safavid empires even shared segments of the eastwest trade routes
• Safavids offered silk, carpets, and ceramics to European trading
companies
• The Mughal empire less attentive to foreign or maritime trading
• Mughals permitted stations for English, French, and Dutch trading
companies
How did all three decline?
• Dynastic decline caused by negligent rulers, factions, and government corruption
• Tensions increased when religious conservatives abandoned policies of tolerance
• Ottoman conservatives resisted innovations like the telescope and printing press
• In Safavid empire: Shiite leaders urged the shahs to persecute Sunnis, non-Muslims, and even
the Sufis
• In Mughal India, Aurangzeb's policies provoked deep animosity of Hindus
• Economic and military decline
• Strong economies in sixteenth century; stagnated by eighteenth century
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End of territorial expansion; difficult to support armies and bureaucrats
Series of long and costly wars
Officials resorted to raising taxes or corruption to deal with financial problems
Failure to develop trade and industry; lost revenue to European merchants
• Military decline
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Importing European weapons only promoted European weapon industries
Imported arsenals outdated
Ottomans even purchased military vessels from abroad
• Resistance to cultural progress - insularity
• Cultural conservatism
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Muslims seldom traveled to the West, confident of their superiority
Ignorant of European technological developments--hostile to telescope, 1703
• Resistance to printing press
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Introduced by Jewish refugees to Anatolia, late fifteenth century
At first, Ottoman authorities banned printing in Turkish and Arabic
Ban lifted in 1729, but conservatives forced closure of a Turkish press in 1742
In India, Mughal rulers showed little interest in printing technology
• Foreign cultural innovations seen as a threat to political stability