CHAPTER 28: THE ISLAMIC EMPIRES

Formation of the Islamic empires

A. The Ottoman empire (1289-1923)
1.
With a successful frontier state
2.
Osman was chief of the semi nomadic Turks who migrated to
Northwestern anatolia the 13th century
3.
Founded by Osman Bey in 1289, who led Muslim religious
warriors (ghazi)
a. Servants of God to purify the earth
b.
Sorwd of God
c. Protector and the refuge of the believers
4.
Ottoman expansion into Byzantine empire
a. Seized city of Bursa, then into the Balkans
I.
Captured and 1326
II.
Became the capital
III.
Became a major commercial and intellectual center
b.
On the borders of the Byzantine Empire
c. To establish a foot hold in Europe when they seized
gallipoli
d.
Organized ghazi into formidable military machine
I.
Two forces a light cavalry and a volunteer infantry
II.
Later added a professional cavalry with heavy
armor financed by land grants
III.
After expanding into the Balkans they created a
force of slave troops
e. City of attorney became a second capital and serve as a
base for expansion into the Balkans
f.
Central role of the Janissaries (slave troops)
I.
Known for loyalty to the Sultan and readiness to
employee new military technology
g.
Devshire
I.
Required the Christian population of the Balkans to
contribute Youngs boys to become slaves of the
sultan
II.
They received special training learned Turkish and
converted to Islam
III.
Then they entered either the Ottoman civilian
administration or the military
IV. The soldiers were known as janissaries
h.
Effective use of gunpowder in battles and sieges
5.
Mehmed the Conqueror (reigned 1451-1481)
a. Captured Constantinople in 1453; it became Istanbul, the
Ottoman capital
I.
Became a commercial center

b.

B.

Mehmed presented himself as a warrior Sultan and a true

emperor ruler of the true lands in Europe and Asia and the
two seas-Black Sea in Mediterranean
c. Absolute monarchy; centralized state
d.
Faced no serious rivals
e. Expanded to Serbia, Greece, Albania; attacked Italy
I.
Eliminated last Byzantine outpost at trebizond
II.
Capture ports in the Crimea
III.
Initiated a naval war with Venice
IV. Wanted to capture the pope himself
6.
Suleyman the Magnificent (reigned 1520-1566)
a. Sultan Selim the Grim (reigned 1512-1520) occupied Syria
and Egypt
b.
Automating imperialism climax
c. Suleyman the Magnificent expanded into southwest Asia
and central Europe
d.
Concord Baghdad and added the Tigris and euphrates
valleys to the Ottoman Domain
e. Kept hasburg on the defensive
f.
Captured Belgrade, Hugary, Danube, Vienna
g.
Became a major naval power
I.
In here inherited the Navy of the mamluk rulers
h.
Suleyman also built a navy powerful enough to challenge
European fleets
i. Khayr al-Din Barbarosa Pasha
I.
Places pirate fleet under the Ottoman flag
II.
Became leading admiral
III.
Able to challenge Christian vessels
IV. Seized the island of Rhodes, besieged Malta,
security Yemen and Aden
The Safavid empire
1.
The Safavids, Turkish conquerors of Persia and Mesopotamia
a. Founder Shah Ismail (reigned 1501-1524) claimed ancient
Persian title of shah.
I.
Lived in the swamps for five years to seek revenge
II.
Loves to change the story when it would help them
b.
Proclaimed Twelver Shiism the official religion; imposed it
on Sunni population
c. Trace ancestry back to Safi Al-din
I.
Leader of Sufis in Persia
II.
His tomb enshrinement became the home of his
family, the headquarters of his religious movement
and the center of a conspiracy to to win political
power for his descendents

III.

2.

3.

The safavids often changed religious preferences to

gain popularity before settling on a form of Shiism
that appealed to the nomadic Turkish tribes
d.
Followers known as qizilbash (or "Red Hats")
Twelver Shiism
a. Traced origins to twelve ancient Shiite imams
b.
Civilly there have been 12 infallible in moms after
Mohammed
c. 12th one went into hiding in 874
d.
Ismail believed to be the twelfth, or "hidden," imam, or
even an incarnation of Allah
I.
Father told them to aware of Red Hat with 12 pleats
in memory of the 12 imams
II.
They became known as the Qizilbash or redheads
e. Most Muslims would not agree with their beliefs
f.
Resembled traditional Turkish conceptions of leadership
that associated military leaders with divinity
g.
Believed that this mail would make them invincible in
battle and became loyal to the safavid cause
h.
Distinctive identity
i. Powerful enemies
I.
Sunni Ottomans
I.
Fear the spread of propaganda among the
nomadic Turks in their own state
II.
When Salim the Grim became sultan he
launched a persecution of Shiites in the
Ottoman Empire and prepared for a full
scale invasion
Battle of Chaldiran (1514)
a. Sunni Ottomans persecuted Shiites within Ottoman empire
b.
Qizilbash considered firearms unmanly; were crushed by
Ottomans at Chadiran
c. Ottomans deployed heavy artillery and thousands of
janissaries
d.
Safavids Didnt use gunpowder technology because they
saw them as unreliable and unmanly
I.
Trusting in the shah ismail they fearlessly attacked
the on line and lost
II.
The Ottomans temporarily occupied his capital at
Tabriz
III.
Ottomans badly damaged damage the state lacked
the resources to destroy it completely
IV. The empires remained in intermittent conflict for
the next 2 centuries

e.

C.

Later safavid rulers relied more on perisan bureaucracy and

abandoned the extreme ideology that associated emperors
with allah in favor of more conventional Twelver Shiism
I.
Legitimacy as descendants
II.
Assignment land grants to officers to maintain
loyalty and give them a stake in the survival of the
regime
4.
Shah Abbas the Great (1588-1629) revitalized the Safavid empire
a. modernized military; sought European alliances against
Ottomans
b.
new capital at Isfahan; centralized administration
c. Encourage trade
d.
Reformed the administrative and military institutions of the
Empire
e. Incorporated slaves of the Royal household into the army
f.
Increased use of gunpowder
g.
Sought European assistance against Ottomans and
Portuguese
h.
Led the Safavids to numerous victories
i. Defeated the Izbeks, expelled the Portugues, and harassed
the ottomans
j. Brought northwestern Iran , the caucuses and Mesopotamia
under Safavid rule
The Mughal empire
1.
Babur (1523-1530), founder of Mughal ("Mongol") dynasty in
India
a. Central Asian Turkish adventurer invaded India in 1523,
seized Delhi in 1526
b.
Claimed descendent of Chinggis Khan and Tamerlane
c. Only wanted to be an adventurer and soldier of Fortune
d.
Wanted to transform his inheritance into a glorious central
Asian empire
e. Relatives and enemies frustrated his ambitions
f.
Couldnt expand beyond Kabul and Kandahar
g.
With hardship and only a handful of followers he turned his
attention to India
h.
With gunpowder he mounted invasions into Delhi
i. Most of his entourage wanted to take the spoils of war and
leave the climate which ruined their bow but Babur elected
to say
j. Hopes to use the wealth of India to build the best central
Asian empire like that of Tamerlane
k.
By his death in 1530, Mughal empire embraced most of
India
2.
Akbar (reigned 1556-1605), a brilliant charismatic ruler
a. Created a centralized, absolutist government

II.

I.
Ministries of regulating various provinces
b.
Baburs grandsom
c. Gathered reins of power after an argument with Adham
Khan
d.
Akbar took personal control of the government and didnt
tolerate challenges to his rule
e. Expanded to Gujurat, Bengal, and southern India
I.
Destroyed the kingdom of Vijayanagar
f.
Deeply interested in religion and philosophy
g.
Encouraged religious tolerance between Muslims and
Hindus
h.
He was illiterate but extremely intelligent and have books
read to him daily
i. Developed a syncretic religion called "divine faith"
I.
Didnt force Islam on his subjects
II.
Focus attention on the emperor as a ruler common
to all religions ethnic and social groups
3.
Aurangzeb (1659-1707)
a. Mughal empire reached its greatest extent
b.
Expanded the empire to almost the entire Indian
subcontinent
c. Waged campaigns to push Mughal authority deep into
southern India
d.
Faced rebellions and generated religious conflicts between
Hindus and Muslims
I.
He was a devout Muslim and broke previous policy
of religious toleration
II.
He demolished several temples and replace them
with more mosques
III.
Impose a tax on Hindus to encourage conversion to
Islam
IV. His promotion of Islam appealed to the Muslims
themselves but provoked deep hostility among
Hindus
e. Revoked policies of toleration: Hindus taxed, temples
destroyed
f.
His rule troubled by religious tensions and hostility
Imperial Islamic society
A. The dynastic state
1.
Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal regarded as personal possessions by
conquest
2.
Exercise personal command and controlled all the land and granted
it to the peasant families on a hereditary basis in return for
payment of taxes
3.
The emperors and Islam
a. All three Islamic empires were military creations

b.

4.

5.

Authority of dynasty derived from personal piety and

military prowess of rulers
c. Safavids Were prominent leaders of the Sufi religious order
d.
Ottomans and Mughals Associated closely with Sufis
e. Devotion to Islam encouraged rulers to extend their faith to
new lands
f.
Ghazi Ideal of spreading Islam by fighting resonated with
traditions of Turkish and Mongolian people
g.
Fighting was routine and successful worriers became
charismatic leaders
Steppe traditions
a. Autocratic: emperors imposed their will on the state
b.
The early emperors did as they pleased
c. The Ottoman sultans issued numerous legal edicts
I.
Greatest=Kanun(sulleyman)
I.
Safavid and Mughal went even further in
asserting their spiritual authority
II.
Shah Ismail forced shitte religion on his
subjects
III.
Akbar Issued a decree in 1579 claiming
authority and religious matters and
promoting his own religion
d.
In this step empires the rulers relatives often manage
components of the states in succession to the throne
became a contest between members
I.
Especially in the new goal Empire
II.
And the safavid rulers kept killing eachother
e. Ongoing problems with royal succession
f.
Ottoman rulers could legally kill his brothers after taking
the throne
I.
Declared by mehmed the conqueror
II.
His successors observed this tradition in Turkomongol style by strangling a victim with Silk string
III.
After an event where the sultan executed 19
brothers and 15 mothers other sultans kept their
sons in special places
g.
Early Ottomans assigned provinces for the Sultan son to
administer it kept it tightly unified
h.
After the 15th century the sultans of laminated family rivals
Royal women often wielded great influence on politics
a. Women should have no role and public affairs
b.
Many emperors followed the example of chinggis khan
who loved his mother and wife
c. And Islamic empires the mother or wife enjoyed special
privileges and authority
d.
Ottoman courtiers Believed woman should have power

e.

B.

Suleyman Was seduced by a woman and did whatever she

wanted
f.
Executed his oldest son for her
g.
In safavid, Mahd-e Olya was the de facto ruler-tried to limit
power of qizilbash but they murdered her
h.
Mughal-Jahangir was content to let Nur Jahan run the
empire
i. Taj Mahal-Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal
Agriculture and trade
1.
Food crops the basis of all three empires
a. Surplus was used to finance armies and bureaucracies
b.
Major crops: wheat and rice
c. Little impacted by new American crops
I.
Potatoes appeared in curries
II.
Maize did not appeal to human but became popular
as animal feed
d.
Imports of coffee and tobacco very popular
I.
Columbian exchange strongly urged consumption
of coffee and tabacco
II.
Coffee did not become popular until the 16th century
III.
Tobacco introduced around 1600 for medicinal
purposes
IV. The increased popularity of coffee and tobacco
encouraged businessman to establish coffeehouses
V. This provoked protests from more or less who
worried that these popular attractions distracted man
from religious duties
VI.
Pechivi Complained about the hideous odor of
tobacco in the danger
VII.
Religious leaders complain that coffee was an
illegal beverage
2.
Population growth in the three empires less dramatic than in China
or Europe
a. Significant population growth in India from more intense
agriculture
b.
Less dramatic growth in Safavid and Ottoman realms
3.

c. Ottoman decline Due to loss of territory

Long-distance trade important to all three empires
a. Ottoman and Safavid empires shared segments of the eastwest trade routes
b.
Bursa was a caravan route
c. Ottomans Granted special concessions to merchants from
England and France to cement alliances against enemies in
Spain in central Europe

d.

C.

Aleppo Became an emporium for foreign merchants in the

spice trade
e. Safavids offered silk, carpets, and ceramics to European
trading companies
f.
Isfahan Was promoted as a commercial center
I.
Allowed Christian monastic orders the submissions
to create a favorable environment for trade
I.
Europeans wanted raw silk, carpets, and
craft items
g.
The English East India Company the French East India
Company in the Dutch via see all traded actively with the
safavids
h.
The English company since military advisors to help
introduce gunpowder weapons to Safavid to help them
overtake the Portuguese
i. The Mughal empire less attentive to foreign or maritime
trading
j. Partly due to size and productivity of the domestic
economy
k.
Concentrated on land empire and had no interest in
maritime affairs
l. Still derived great income from foreign trade
m.
Allowed creation of trading stations and merchant colonies
n.
Mughals permitted stations for English, French, and Dutch
trading companies
Religious affairs in the Islamic empires
1.
Religious diversity created challenges to the rule of the empires
2.
Ottoman empire included Christians and Jews in the Balkans,
Armenia, Lebanon, and Egypt
3.
Safavid Empire-Zoroastrian and Jewish, but Christian in the
Caucasus
4.
Mughal-Most hindus, but a lot of muslims along with other smaller
communities
5.
Religious diversity in India under the rule of Akbar
a. Portuguese Goa was the center of Christian missions
b.
Establish schools that provided religious instruction for
Indian kids
c. Jesuits welcomed at court of Akbar, but he was not
interested in an exclusive faith
I.
jesuits wanted to convert the Emperor
II.
This did not happen
III.
Welcomed participation in his court but declined to
commit to an exclusive faith
IV. Akbar wanted to find A religious synthesis
supported the efforts of the early Sikhs who
combined Hinduism and Islam

d.

D.

Akbar tolerated Sikhism, a new faith combining elements

of Hinduism and Islam
e. Advocated syncretic "divine faith," emphasizing loyalty to
emperor
6.
Religious minorities generally tolerated in Islamic states
a. Do not require conquered peoples to convert to Islam but
extended to them the status of the protected people
b.
In return for loyalty and payment of a tax, dhimmi for
chaser personal freedom kept the property practice the
religion and handled their own legal errors
c. In Ottoman empire, conquered peoples protected, granted
religious and civil autonomy in their own communities
I.
Known as millet
d.
Mughal rulers reserve the most powerful positions for
Muslims to take a day affairs Muslims and Hindus worked
closely
I.
Akbar Wanted to integrate Muslim and Hindu elites
II.
Eliminted the Jizya
e. In India, the Muslim rulers closely cooperated with Hindu
majority
f.
Under Aurangzeb: Islam proclaimed official state religion,
nonbelievers taxed
I.
Policies of religious tolerance were not popular with
Muslims
II.
Reinstated the jizya
III.
Insisted that the new goals create an Islamic state
based on Islamic law
IV. Cause tension among Hindus
Cultural patronage of the Islamic Emperors
1.
All three sponsored arts and public works: mosques, palaces,
schools, hospitals, etc.
2.
Capital cities were the most visible expressions of Imperial
Majesty
3.
Ottomans=Bursa and Edirne
4.
Istanbul, the Ottoman capital, a bustling city of a million people
a. Topkapi palace housed government offices and sultan's
residence (at the heart)
b.
Was revived and became a bustling city
c. The Suleymaniye blended Islamic and Byzantine
architectural elements
I.
Built the Hagia Sophia
5.
Isfahan, Safavid capital, the "queen of Persian cities"
a. Shah Abbas made capital
b.
Concentrated markets the palace and the royal mosque
around a polo field and public square
c. Bridges and avenues with suburbs around

d.
e.

III.

Monumental entryways
The Safavid palaces were small and emphasized natural
settings
I.
Much more open
II.
Enable the shah to serve outside activities and
emphasize his visibility and accessibility
f.
In accordance with steepe traditions, Mughals believed
capital was were the ruler, but they came to sponsor urban
development and blended Asian traditions with Hindu
architecture
6.
Fatehpur Sikri, Mughal capital, created by Akbar
a. Commemorated his conquest of Gujarat
b.
Showed strength and imperial ambitions
c. Was also private residence and retreat for the ruler
d.
Display of Mughal piety and devotion centered on the
cathedral mosque and the Mausoleum of Shaykh Christi
e. Combined Islamic style with Indian elements
f.
Site abandoned because of bad water supply
7.
The Taj Mahal, exquisite example of Mughal architecture
a. Most famous Mughal monument
b.
Was going to build a black one for himself, but his son
deposed him prior
The empires in transition
A. The deterioration of imperial leadership, the sixteenth to eighteenth
centuries
1.
Dynastic decline caused by negligent rulers, factions, and
government corruption
a. Allowed institutions to become dysfunctional and social
order to breakdown
b.
Rulers love to spend money on personal pleasures instead
of affairs of the state
c. All the redundancies faced difficulty because of fighting
among competing members of the ruling houses
d.
Ottomans confined princes to the palace but than the
princes had no opportunity to gain experience and were
exposed to plot the various factions maneuvering to bring a
candidate to the throne
e. Problem Rulers-Selim the Sot, Ibrahim the Crazy
f.
After late 17th century weak rule provoked mutinies in the
army, revolts, political corruption, economic oppression
and insecurity throughout the Ottoman realm
2.
Tensions increased when religious conservatives abandoned
policies of tolerance
a. Political troubles arose from religious tensions
b.
Muslim clerics objected to policies they considered affronts
to Islam

c.

B.

C.

Muslim leaders had a monopoly of education and

involvement in every day lives and legal affairs of ordinary
people
d.
Clerics miss trusted emperors interest and protested against
anything non Islamic
e. And Ottoman Empire disaffected religious students join the
janissaries
f.
Wahhabi Movement denounced the Ottomans
g.
Ottoman conservatives resisted innovations like the
telescope and printing press
h.
In Safavid empire: Shiite leaders urged the shahs to
persecute Sunnis, non-Muslims, and even the Sufis
I.
Crushing Sunni authorities
i. In Mughal India, Aurangzeb's policies provoked deep
animosity of Hindus
Economic and military decline
1.
Strong economies in sixteenth century; stagnated by eighteenth
century
a. End of territorial expansion; difficult to support armies and
bureaucrats
b.
As long as they were expanding they were able to finance
with fresh resources from new lands
c. When expansion slowed they fixed the problem of
supporting with limited resources
d.
Series of long and costly wars
I.
Ottomans with Habsburg, Ottomans and Safavid in
Mesopotamia, and Aurangzeb in southern India
II.
Ottomans Tried to pay janissaries in debased
coinage and provoked a revolt
e. Officials resorted to raising taxes or corruption to deal with
financial problems
I.
Did long-term damage
f.
Failure to develop trade and industry; lost initiative to
European merchants
2.
Military decline
a. Did not seek to improve military technology
b.
Relied on European acknowledging
c. Importing European weapons only promoted European
weapon industries
I.
European technology is advancing so rapidly that
the Islamic empires cannot keep pace
d.
Imported arsenals outdated
e. Ottomans even purchased military vessels from abroad
Cultural insularity
1.
Neglected cultural developments

a.

2.

3.

4.

Europeans who visited tried to learn as much about the

Islamic empires and published accounts of their travels
Cultural conservatism
a. And Muslims traveled to the infidel lands of the Franks
b.
Muslim rulers believed in their superiority and believe that
they had nothing to learn from Europeans
I.
Remained oblivious to cultural and technological
developments
c. Ottoman cartographer, Piri Reis, gathered together
European maps
d.
Muslims seldom traveled to the West, confident of their
superiority
e. Ignorant of European technological developments--hostile
to telescope, 1703
Resistance to printing press
a. Introduced by Jewish refugees to Anatolia, late fifteenth
century
b.
At first, Ottoman authorities banned printing in Turkish and
Arabic
c. Ban lifted in 1729, but conservatives forced closure of a
Turkish press in 1742
I.
Printed 17 books dealing with history geography
and languages
II.
Opened another printing press in 1784
d.
In India, Mughal rulers showed little interest in printing
technology
I.
Caught on slowly
II.
Didnt become prominent until the establishment of
British colonial rule in Bengal
e. Just to missionaries and go up publish books including
translations of the Bible
Foreign cultural innovations seen as a threat to political stability
a. Like Imperial China and Tokugawa Japan, the Islamic
empires resisted the introduction of cultural influences
from European societies. Rulers accepted gunpowder
weapons, but drew little inspiration from the European
religion science or ideas. Under the influence of
conservative religious leadersm Islamic authorities
discourage the circulation of writings that might pose
challenges to the order of Islamic empires
b.
Like the Ming, Qing, and Tokugawa rulers, the Ottoman,
Safavid, and Mughal emperors preferred political and
social stability

1. The Mughal ruler who constructed the Taj Mahal was Shah Jahan.
2. The Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal empires were all Islamic.
3. The Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal empires all originally came from nomadic,
Turkish-speaking tribes.
4. The founder of the Ottoman dynasty was Osman Bey.
5. The word ghazi refers to Muslim religious warriors.
6. Which of the following empires was inspired by its status as an Islamic outpost on the
border of the Christian world? Ottoman
7. The Ottoman institution that provided Balkan slaves for the formation of the
Janissaries was the devshirme.
8. The Ottoman ruler who captured Constantinople was Mehmed II.
9. In the sixteenth century, the Ottomans captured Egypt and Syria.
10. Sleyman the Magnificent won his greatest victory and killed the king of Hungary at
the battle of Mohcs.
11. Khayr al-Din Barbarossa Pasha was the admiral who carried Ottoman naval power
into the Mediterranean Sea and Indian Ocean.
12. The Islamic leader who converted to Twelver Shiism was Shah Ismail.
13. Central to the belief of Twelver Shiism was the idea that the twelfth infallible imam
was still alive and would return to spread his faith.
14. The Safavids traced their ancestry back to the leader Safi al-Din, who was what
religion? Sufi
15. Shah Ismail received the greatest support for his conversion to Twelver Shiism from
thethe qizilbash.
16. At the battle of Chaldiran in 1514, the Ottomans defeated the Safavids.
17. The leader of the Safavid empire at its peak was Shah Abbas.
18. Zahir al-Din Muhammads main inspiration for conquering India was to win fame and
conquer territory like his ancestor Chinggis Khan.

19. The founder of the Mughal dynasty, and a descendant of Chinggis Khan and
Tamerlane, was Zahir al-Din Muhammad.
20. Which of the following rulers displayed the greatest amount of religious toleration?
Akbar
21. Akbars answer to the religious diversity and tension of India was to create a
syncretic religion called the divine faith that all could worship.
22. The Mughal empire reached its greatest geographic extent during the reign of
Aurangzeb.
23. The Mughal emperor Aurangzeb reversed the religious toleration of Akbar and began
to tax the Hindus.
24. The steppe tradition that caused the greatest problem for the Islamic empires was the
bloody competition among heirs to the throne.
25. Hrrem Sultana was a concubine who had tremendous influence over Sleyman the
Magnificent.
26. Because of protests from moralists, the Ottoman sultan Murad IV outlawed coffee
and tobacco.
27. In the three hundred years after 1500, the population of India grew from 105 million
to 190 million.
28. Sikhism was a syncretic combination of Hinduism and Islam.
29. The jizya was the tax paid by non-Muslims for being in an Islamic country.
30. The Islamic leader who abolished the jizya was Akbar.
31. Sleyman the Magnificent called on Sinan Pasha to create the religious complex
known as the Sleymaniye.
32. The Ottomans took the Byzantine cathedral Hagia Sofia and converted it into the
mosque of Aya Sofya.
33. What Islamic city was the most precious jewel for urban architectural development?
Isfahan
34. Fatehpur Sikri was the capital city that Akbar built.

35. Shah Jahan was unable to finish the construction of the Taj Mahal because he was
overthrown by his son Aurangzeb.
36. Which of the following factors was NOT one of the reasons for the decline of the
Islamic empires? a collapse in the centuries-old civil service examination system
37. Piri Reis was responsible for preparing the Book of Seafaring.