Chapter 16: The Muslim Empires

Conclusions

Chapter Outline and Focus Questions

1. What was the ethnic and religious makeup of the Ottoman Empire and how did the government of the sultan administer such a diverse population? How did Ottoman policy compare with Europe?

2. What problems did the Safavid Empire face, and how did its rulers attempt to solve them? How did their approaches compare with other Muslim empires?

3. What role did Islam play in the Mughal Empire and how did the Mughals approach compare with that of the Ottomans and the Safavids?

• Ottomans, Safavids, Mughals emerged among Turkic, Mongol tribes of Central Asia
• Military states with Persianate (Persian-influenced) societies
• Based on military expansion, used gunpowder weapons
• Ottomans conquer Byzantine Empire, Mamluk Sultanate, rule Middle East, Southeastern Europe, North Africa, declines after 1700
• Safavids first Islamic Persian Empire, Shia Islam the state religion, wars with Ottomans
• Mughals conquer India, Akbar promotes Persianized imperial culture to unite Muslims and Hindu majority, later rulers attempt to impose Islam, empire declines after 1700

Chapter 16: The Muslim Empires

Istanbul (Constantinople), from the Bosporhuous Strait

Her abilities were uncommon; for she rendered herself absolute, in a government in which women are thought incapable of bearing any part. Their power, it is true, is sometimes exerted in the harem; but, like the virtues of the magnet, it is silent and unperceived. Nur Jahan stood forth in public; she broke through all restraint and custom, and acquired power by her own address, more than by the weakness of Janahgir

Her former and present supporters have been well rewarded, so that now most of the men who are near the King owe their promotion to her, and are under obligations to her. the King's orders are not certainties, being of no value until they have been approved by the Queen

Remarks of an English visitor, Nur Jahan: Empress in Mughal India

Nur Jahan, Mughal Empress-consort (1611-27) ruled on behalf of husband, emperor Jahangir, addicted to alcohol and opium

Taj Mahal, built 1632-53 under Shah Jahan, as tomb of his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal

India Before the Mughals

Rise of the Ottoman Turks

Ottoman Expansion

Alai Gate and Qutb Minar, Delhi

Ikhlas Khan, African minister, Deccan

Virpakashu temples, Hampi (Vijayanagara)

Ottoman Empire

• Turkic, Afghan Muslim Mamluks conquer northern India in 1200s, Delhi Sultanate
• Hindu Vijaynagara Empire emerges in 1300s to fight Muslim invasions, unifies southern India
• New Sultanates break away from Delhi (Gujarat, Bengal, Deccan)

Mughal Empire

• Seljuk Turks ruled Anatolia (Asian Turkey) in 1000s, 1100s
• New group of Turks emerged under Osman I (1280-1326)
• Emirate on border with Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire
• Mongol invasion brought Muslim refugees
• Ghazi warriors conquer land from weakened Byzantines
• In 1345, during Black Plague, Ottomans cross into Europe

Cannons used in the Siege of Constantinople

Launched stone balls up to 1,200 pounds

Mehmet the Conqueror, 1454

Selim the Grim (1512-20)

• 1389 battle of Kosovo conquest of Serbia, Bulgarian Empire, Ottoman rule over southeastern Europe (Balkans)
• Ottomans conquer Constantinople in 1453
• Turkish beys (knights) rule Slavic, Greek peasants
• Conquest of Mamluk Syria, Egypt by 1517
• Sultan Selim claims title of Caliph, successor to Muhammad
• Army of Janissaries ("new soldiers")
• Christian boys from conquered territories, converted to Islam, trained as administrators, soldiers
• Infantry with muskets, artillery

Skanderbeg (1406-68)

Vlad Tepes (Dracula) (1428-77)

Vlad Dracula in Romania and Skanderbeg in Albania waged wars against Ottoman Turks

Mughal Society and Culture

Grandeur of the Mughals

Bibi-Khanym Mosque

Tajikistan, Uzbekistan

Timur Mausoleum

Ottoman Art

Mughals used artillery to defeat the Sultanate of Delhi at First Battle of Panipat (1526)

• Babur ruled Fergana, Samarkand, descendent of Turco-Mongol ruler Timur (1370-1405)
• Subjects primarily Tajiks (eastern Persians)
• Conquered by Uzbek khanate in 1505

Red Fort, Delhi

• Like many rulers in northern India Mughals of foreign origin
• Descendents of Mongols who settled in Central Asia
• Babur conquered Delhi in 1526
• Artillery, mobile cavalry
• Son Humayun faced rebellions, fled to Persia, returned with Persian aid
• Hindu general Hemu briefly ruled Delhi in 1556
• Akbar (1556-1605) brought Mughal rule to all of northern and central India

Evening Concert, 1660 Mughal painting

Mughal-era banquet

Boti lamb kebab, example of the Persian and Turkic influences in Mughal food

Battle of Mohács , 1526

Süleiman the Magnificent (1520-1566)

• Magnificent mosques built in sixteenth-century
• Inspired by Byzantine churches
• Turkish tile art, textiles and rugs

• Synthesis of Muslim, Persian, Hindu cultures
• Hindus defended religious practices
• Sufi preachers and missionaries made converts to Islam
• Women could inherit land and titles
• High-caste Hindus adopt purdah (veiling women)
• Sati (widow-burning) outlawed, still practiced
• Architecture, painting combine Persian, Indian styles
• Urdu poetry, Hindu devotional literature in Tamil, Hindi

Roxelana (Hürrem Sultan)

Aleksandra Liskowa Ukrainian slave, chief consort and wife of Süleiman

Negotiated an alliance with the king of Poland

Veiled Rajput women

• Height under Süleiman (1520-66)
• Conquests in Hungary (Central Europe), North Africa
• North Africa indirectly ruled through pashas (governors)
• Barbary pirates raid European coasts for slaves
• Ottoman fleet destroyed by Spanish-Venetian fleet at Battle of Lepanto (1571) preventing expansion into western Mediterranean, Turks conquer island of Cyprus
• Failed 1683 siege of Vienna marks end of Turkish expansion in Europe

Blue Mosque

Destruction of Stari Most, Bosnian War, 1993

Mostar, Bosnia & Herzegovina

Baklava, developed in the kitchens of the Ottoman court

Siege of Vienna, 1683

The Impact of European Power in India

Akbar and Indo-Muslim Civilization

Wahabbism, an Islamic fundamentalist movement, emerges in central Arabia, opposed to Ottomans

Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab allies with Ibn Saud, founds first Saudi state in 1744

Jalal ud-din Muhammad Akbar

1556-1605

The Nature of Turkish Rule

India, 1765

Fort William and the "Black Hole" of Calcutta

Ottoman Decline

• Akbar sought to unite Hindus and Muslims
• Queen-consort was Rajput (Hindu warrior-caste) princess
• Abolished tax on Hindu majority, limited power of Muslim clergy
• Encouraged religious debate, opened to learned men of all religions
• Failed attempt to create a new religion, the Divine Faith
• Centralized government, administered by warrior-aristocrats (mansabdars) Muslims and Hindus (mostly Rajputs)
• Local officials (zamindar) collect taxes
• Export textiles, spices, foreign trade carried by Arab traders

• Dutch, English enter India in 1600s, compete with Portuguese in trade for Indian cotton cloth, spices, tea, indigo, hemp, saltpetre (gunpowder)
• East India Company factories (warehouses and markets) Fort St. George, Chennai, Tamil Nadu; Bombay (Mumbai); Fort William (Calcutta), Bengal
• Presence grows as Mughals decline, rivalry with French East India Co.
• British, East India Co. sepoys defeat pro-French Nawab of Bengal in 1757
• Company rule in name of powerless Mughal court
• Taxation, land confiscation, 10 million die in Great Bengal famine of 1770

Divan, or Imperial Council

Sultans Harem

• Sultan supreme ruler
• Harem of wives, servants, concubines
• Devshirme (blood tax), Christian boys became Janissaries, women trained for service in harem
• Female slaves used to produce royal heirs
• Women of harem wield political power
• Imperial council, led by grand vizier
• Land granted to senior officials, turned over to cavalry Sipahis
• Women had more rights, due to Turkish tribal traditions
• Could own property, could not be forced into marriage
• Religious groups millet (nation), subject to laws of their own religion
• Greeks, Armenians, Jews merchants, financiers
• Ottoman Turks embraced mystical form of Islam, Sufism

Ottoman military band (Mehteran)

Mevlvevi Sema ceremony, whirling dervishes

Jodhaa Akbar (2008)

Akbar's Successors

• After 1700, internal decay
• Breakdown of devshirme system
• Treasury depleted by constant wars
• Diversion of trade away from eastern Mediterranean, price inflation due to silver from Americas
• Weak sultans, palace intrigue
• Elites adopt European culture, conflicts with traditional Muslims

Decline of the Mughals

Turhan Sultan (1651-86)

Nurbanu Sultan (1574-83)

Kösem Sultan (1623-51)

Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror with Patriarch Gennadios II, head of Orthodox Christian millet

Jewish cemetary, Thessaoliniki, Greece, "la madre de Israel" 20,000 Sephardic Jews expelled from Spain in 1492 immigrated to Greece, Jewish millet

Sultanate of Women, beginning with Hürrem Sultan, a period of extraordinary political power held by the wives and mothers of the Sultans

Banda Bahadur's Sikh Rebellion, 1710-16

Shivaji Marathi (1628-70) founder of Maratha Empire (Mahrashtra)

Throne of Shah Jahan Red Fort, Delhi

Aurangzeb reading Quran

Shah Jahan on Peacock Throne

• Jahangir, addicted to opium, relied on Persian-born wife Nur Jahan
• Shah Jahan (1628-57) showed leadership of grandfather
• Successful campaigns in Deccan Plateau and Samarkand
• Wars, expensive building projects (Taj Mahal) drain treasury
• Aurangzeb (1658-1707) devout Muslim, implemented Sharia law, restored tax on Hindus, conquered Deccan sultanates
• India became the world's largest economy, 25% of global GDP
• Revival of Hindu religious fervor, militant Sikhism in Punjab

• Mughal power collapses after Aurangzeb's death
• Growing autonomy of local gentry, merchants
• Rebellions from Deccan to Punjab
• Martahas, Hindu warrior caste, dominate central India
• Sikhs, Hindu Rajputs, Muslim Afghans struggle in northern India
• Independent states (Nizam of Hyderbad, Nawab of Bengal)
• Nader Shah, Persians sack Delhi in 1739

Khwaju Bridge, Isfahan

Navid Shaharan, Video of Isfahan

Persia under Safavids

Muhteşem Yüzil (Magnificent Century)

Safavid Art and Literature

Capture of Tabriz by Safavids, 1603

Battle of Chaldiran, 1514

Ottoman Jannisaries wiped out Safavid cavalry

Led Safavids to adopt firearms

Baghdad captured by Persians 1624, retaken by Ottomans 1639

Sultan Murad IV

Rice with sour cherries

Rice was a specialty of Safavid court cuisine

Safavid pottery, carpet

Shah Abbas

(1588-1629)

Ottomans, Safavids, Uzbeks

• Flowering of the arts under Shah Abbas
• Architectural wonders of Isfahan
• Ceramics imitated Chinese designs
• Silk and carpet weaving
• Portraiture in painting

• Collapse of Turco-Mongol empire of Timur in 1400s, Uzbek invasions
• Sufi order founded by Sheikh Safi ad-Din spreads Shia Islam among Turkic Azeris
• By 1501, Safavid leader Ismail conquers Iran, Iraq, Shah of new Persian state, Persians adopt Shia Islam, Ottomans conquer Iraq
• Shah Tahmasp (1524-76) peace with Ottomans, Persian rug industry
• Shah Abbas (1588-1629) modernizes bureaucracy, army with Armenian, Georgian ghulams (slaves), English advisers, regains lost territories
• Weakened by wars with Ottomans, Uzbeks, religious leaders (ayatollahs) reduce freedoms
• Ottomans, Russia seize Persian lands in Treaty of Constantinople (1724)

Safavid Empire

Robert Shirley, English advisor to Shah Abbas, with Circassian wife Teresia Sampsonia, ca. 1624

Afsharid Empire

Afghan general Nader Shah conquered the Safavid Empire in 1736

Safavid Politics and Society

Court of Shah Abbas

• Shia Islam unified nomadic Turkic tribes, sedentary Persian population
• Shah acquired an almost divine quality, spiritual leader of Shia Islam
• Worthy heir to ancient Persian empires, weaker than neighbors
• Hemmed in by sea power of Europeans to the south and land power of Ottomans to the west
• Persian brocades, carpets, leather goods prized throughout the world