A.P. World - Chapter 22

Mullahs

Local mosque officials and prayer leaders within the Safavid empire; agents of Safavid religious campaign to convert all of population to Shi'ism.

Taj Mahal

Most famous architectural achievement of Mughal India; originally built as a mausoleum for the wife of Shah Jahan, Mumtaz Mahal

Mehmed II

(1432-1481) Ottoman sultan called the "Conqueror"; responsible for conquest of Constantinople in 1453; destroyed what remained of Byzantine Empire.

Akbar

-(1542-1605) -Son and successor of Humayan; oversaw building of military and administrative systems that became typical of Mughal rule in India; pursued policy of cooperation with Hindu princes; attempted to create new religion to bind Muslim and Hindu populations of India -Proved to be one of the greatest leaders in world history -Fine military commander with great personal courage -Had a vision of empire and sense of mission that hinged on uniting India under his rule. -A workaholic who seldom slept more than three hours a night, Akbar personally oversaw the building of the military and administrative systems that would form the backbone of the Mughal empire for centuries. -Patronized the arts and entered into complex religious and philosophical discussions with learned scholars from throughout the Muslim, Christian, and Hindu worlds. -Found time to carry out social reforms and invent his own universalistic religion -Illiterate

Nur Jahan

-(1577-1645) -Wife of Jahanfir; amassed power in court and created faction of male relatives who dominated Mughal empire during later years of Jahangir's reign -Big spender, but not only on pomp and luxury. She became a major patron of much-needed charities in the major cities.

Mumtaz Mahal

-(1593-1631) -Wife of Shah Jahan; took an active political role in Mughal court; entombed in Taj Mahal -Shah Jahan was a much more engaged and able ruler than Jahangir, and thus her opportunities to amass power behind the throne were more limited -She is remembered not for her political acumen but for the love and devotion Shah Jahan bestowed upon her

Nadir Khan Afshar

-(1688-1747) -Soldier-adventurer following fall of Safavid dynasty in 1722; proclaimed himself shah in 1736; established short-lived dynasty in reduced kingdom

Babur Accomplishments

-A fine military strategist and fierce fighter who went into battle alongside his troops. -Cultivated a taste for the arts and music over the course of the decades -He wrote one of the great histories of India, was a fine musician, and designed wonderful gardens for his new capital at Delhi. -Better conqueror than adminstrator; did little to reform the very ineffective Lodi bureaucracy he had taken over

Problems with Ottoman Administration

-From the 17th century onward, the forces that undermined the empire from below were compounded by growing problems at the center of imperial administration. -The early practice of assigning the royal princes administrative or military positions to prepare them to rule died out. Instead, possible successors to the throne were kept like hostages in special sections of the palaces, where they remained until one of them ascended the throne. -The other princes and potential rivals were also, in effect, imprisoned for life in the palace. -Although it might have made the reigning sultan more secure, this solution to the problem, of contested succession produced monarchs far less prepared to rule than those in the formative centuries of the dynasty. -

Red Heads

-Name given to Safavid followers because of their distinctive red headgear -As the numbers of the Red Head grew, and as they began in the mid-15th century to preach Shi'a doctrines, their enemies multiplied. -After decades office local struggles in which three successive Safavid leaders perished, a surviving Sufi commander, Ismail, led his Turkic followers to a strip of victories on the battlefield.

Imams

According to Shi'ism, rulers who could trace descent from the successors of Ali.

Mosques in Isfahan

-Above all, the great mosques that Abbas I had built at Isfahan were the glory of his reign. -The vividly colored ceramic tiles, which Iranian builders had begun to use centuries earlier, turned the massive domes and graceful minarets of Safavid mosques and royals tombs into creations of stunning beauty. -Geometric designs, floral patterns, and verses from the Qur'an written in stylized Arabic added movement and texture to the deep blue tiles that distinguished the monumental construction of the Safavid era. -Gardens and reflecting pools were built near the mosques and rest houses. By combining graceful arches, greenery, and colorful designs, Persian architects and artisans created lush, cool refuges in a land that is dry, dusty, and gray-brown for much of the year.

Isma'il Succession

-After his defeat at Chaldiran, Isma'il, once a courageous warrior and a popular leader, retreated to his palace and tried to escape his troubles through drink. -His seclusion, along with struggles between the factions backing each of his sons for the right to succeed him, left openings for subordinate Turkic chiefs to attempt to seize power. -After years of turmoil, a new shah, Tahmasp I, won the throne and set about restoring the power of the dynasty. The Turkic chiefs were foiled in their bids for supreme power, and the Ozbegs were again and again driven from the Safavid domains. -Under Shah Abbas, the empire reached the height of its strength and prosperity, although the territories it controlled remained roughly equivalent to those ruled by Isma'il and Tahmasp I.

Mughal India after Akbar

-Akbar died a lonely and discouraged man -Although neither of his successors, Jahangir nor Shah Jahan, added much territory to the empire Akbar had left them, in their reigns Mughal India reached the peak of its splendor. -European visitors marveled at the size and opulence of the chief Mughal cities: Delhi, Agra, and Lahore. -The huge Mughal armies, replete with elephant and artillery corps, dwarfed those of even the most powerful European rulers at the time. -Lower classes in both town and countryside lived in poverty, lack of discipline and training of most of the soldiers in the Mughal armies -India had fallen far behind western Europe in invention and the sciences

Akbar Social Changes

-Akbar pushed for social changes that he believed would greatly benefit his subjects. -Beyond the public works typically favored by able Muslim rulers, Akbar sought to improve the calendar, to establish living quarters for the large population of beggars and vagabonds in the large cities, and to regulate the consumption of alcohol. -Encouraged widow remarriage, at that point taboo for both Hindus and Muslims, and discouraged child marriages. -The latter were so widespread among the upper classes that he did not try to outlaw them, and it is doubtful that his disapproval did much to curb the practice.

Abbas I Accomplishments

-Although earlier rulers had built or restored mosques and religious schools and financed public works projects, Abbas I surpassed them all. -After securing his political position with a string of military victories, Abbas I set about establishing his empire as a major center of international trade and Islamic culture. -He had a network of roads and rest houses built, and he strove to make merchants and travelers safe within his domains. -He set up workshops to manufacture the silk textiles and splendid Persian carpets that were in great demand both within the Safavid empire and in lands as distant as those in Europe and southeast Asia. -Abbas I encouraged Iranian merchants to trade not only with their Muslim neighbors and India and China to the east but also with the Portugese - and later the Dutch and English - whose war and merchant ships were becoming a familiar site in the Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea.

Ottoman and Safavid: Social Class Similarities

-Although the Ottomans and Safavids were bitter political rivals and religious adversaries, the social system that developed under the two dynasties had much in common. -Both were dominated, particularly in their earliest phases, by warrior aristocracies, which shared power with the absolutist monarchs of each empire and enjoyed prestige and luxury in the capital and on rural estates. -In both cases, the warrior aristocrats gradually retreated to the estates, making life increasingly difficult for the peasants on whom they depended for the support of their grand households and many retainers. -As the real power of the rulers of each empire diminished and as population increases reduced the uncultivated lands to which peasants might flee, the demands of the landlord class grew harsher. -Foreign invasions, civil strife, and the breakdown in vital services once provided by the state added to the growing misery of the peasantry. -The resulting spread of banditry, peasant uprisings, and flight from the land further drained the resources of both empires and undermined their legitimacy.

Women's Role in Mughal Empire

-Although the position of women at the Mughal court improved in the middle years of the dynasty's power, that of women in the rest of Indian society declined. -Child marriage grew more popular, and the age limit was lowered. -Widow remarriage among Hindus nearly died out. -Seclusion was more and more strictly enforced for upper-caste women, both Hindu and Muslim. -Muslim women rarely ventured forth from their homes unveiled, and those who did risked verbal and even physical abuse. -Among upper-caste Hindus, the practice of sati spread despite Shah Jahan's renewed efforts to outlaw it. -The dwindling scope of productive roles left to women, combined with the burden of the dowry that had to be paid to marry them off, meant that the birth of a girl was increasingly seen as an inauspicious event.

Ottoman Diversity

-An empire that encompassed so many and such diverse cultures from Europe, Africa, and Asia naturally varied greatly from one province to the next in its social arrangements, artistic production, and physical appearance. -The Ottoman's ancient and cosmopolitan capital at Constantinople richly combined the disparate elements of their extensive territories. -Constantinople had fallen on hard times in the centuries before the Ottoman conquest in 1453. -Soon after Mehmed II's armies captured and sacked the city, the Ottoman ruler set about restoring its ancient glory.

Mughal Decline

-Aurangzeb, Shah Jahan's son and successor, seized control of an empire that was threatened by internal decay and growing dangers from external enemies. -For decades, the need for essential administrative, military, and social reforms had been ignored. The Mughal bureaucracy had grown bloated and corrupt. -The army was equally bloated and backward in weaponry and tactics. -Peasants and urban workers had seen their productivity and living standards fall steadily. -The Taj Mahal and other wonders of the Mughal artistic imagination had been paid for by the mass of the people at a very high price. -The long wars of expansion occupied much of Aurangzeb's time and energies, diverting him from the administrative tasks and reforms essential to the dynasty's continued strength. -While he was leading his massive armies in the south, there were peasant uprisings and revolts by Muslim and Hindu princes in the north. -Perhaps even more harmful to the imperial system was the growing autonomy of local leaders, who diverted more and more revenue from the central administration into their own coffers. -On the northern borders, incursions by Persian and Afghan warrior bands were increasing. -By the end of Aurangzeb's reign, the Mughal empire was far larger than it had been under any of the earlier emperors, but it was also more unstable.

Humayan

-Babur's son -Inherited the newly founded Mughal kingdom -Like his father, Humayan was a good soldier -Babur's death was the signal for his enemies to strike from all sides. One of Humayan's brothers disputed his succession, and armies from Afghanistan and the Rajput states of western India marched on the capital -By 1540, with his armies shattered, Humayan was forced to flee to Persia -There he remained in exile, an uneasy guest at the Safavid court, for nearly a decade. -Having gained a foothold at Kabul in 1545, Humayan launched a series of campaigns into India that restored Mughal rule to the northern plains by 1556. -Died shortly after -Son and successor of Babul; expelled from India in 1540, but restored Mughal rule by 1556; died shortly thereafter

Indian Textiles

-Because they were easily washed and inexpensive, Indian textiles firs won a large market among the working and middle classes in Britain and elsewhere in Europe.

Ottoman Merchant and Artisan Classes

-Beneath the ruling classes, a sizable portion of the population of Constantinople and other Ottoman cities belonged to the merchant and artisan classes. -The Ottoman regime closely regulated commercial exchanges and handicraft production. -Government inspectors were employed to ensure the standard weights and measures were used and to license the opening of new shops. -They also regulated the entry of apprentice artisans into the trades and monitored the quality of the goods they produced. -Artisans were organized into guilds. Guild officers set craft standards, arbitrated disputes between their members, and provided financial assistance for needy members. They even arranged popular entertainments, often linked to religious festivals.

Jahanfir and Shah Jahan - Art

-Best remembered as two of the greatest patrons of the fine arts in human history. -Expanded the painting workshops that had been started by the early Mughals so that thousands of exquisite miniature paintings could be produced during their reigns. -Both Jahangir and Shah Jahan also devoted massive resources to building some of the most stunning architectural works of all time, such as the Tak Mahal.

Jahanfir and Shah Jahan

-Both Jahangir and Shah Jahan continued Akbar's policy of tolerance toward the Hindu majority and retained most of the alliances he had forged with Hindu princes and local leaders. -They made little attempt to change the administrative apparatus they had inherited from Akbar, and they fought their wars in the same way as the founders of the dynasty had. -Both mounted campaigns to crush potential enemies and in some cases to enlarge the empire. -Neither was as interested in conquest and politics as in enjoying the good life. -Both were fond of drink, female dances, and the pleasure gardens they had laid out from Kashmir to Allahabad. -Both were delighted by polo matches, ox and tiger or elephant fights, and games of pachisi. -Both took great pleasure in the elaborate court ceremonies that blended Indian and Persian precedents, lavish state processions, their palaces and jewel-studded wardrobes, and the scented and sweetened ices that were rushed from the cool mountains in the north to their capitals on the sweltering plains.

Ottoman Expansion

-By 1350s, the Ottomans had advanced from their strongholds in Asia Minor across the Bosporous straits into Europe. Thrace was quickly conquered, and by the end of the century large portions of the Balkans had been added to their rapidly expanding territories. -In moving into Europe in the mid-14th century, the Ottomans had bypassed rather than conquered the great city of Constantinople, long the capital of the once powerful Byzantine Empire. -By the 15th century, the Ottomans were strong enough to undertake the capture of the city. -In the two centuries after the conquest of Constantinople, the armies of a succession of able Ottoman rulers extended the empire into Syria and Egypt and across North Africa, thus bringing uner their rule the bulk of the Arab world. -The empire also spread through the Balkans into Hungary in Europe and around the Black and Red seas.

Mughal India Trade

-By the late 17th century Mughal India became one of the major overseas destinations for European traders. -They brought products from throughout Asia, although little from Europe itself, to exchange for a variety of Indian manufacturers, particularly the subcontinent's famed cotton textiles. -The trade deficit that the demand for Indian cotton cloth and clothing had created in the Mediterranean region in Roman times persisted millennia later. -The importance of the Indian textile trade to the West is suggested by the names we stull use for different kinds of cotton cloth, from calico to chintz and muslin, as well as by our names for cotton clothes, such as pajamas.

Safavid Religion

-Changes in the status accorded to the Safavid rulers were paralleled by shifts in the religion impulses that had been so critical to their rise to power. -The militant, expansive cast of Shi'a ideology was modified as the faith became a major pillar of dynasty and empire. -The early Safavids imported Arabic-speaking Shi'a religious experts. -But later shahs came to rely on Persian religious scholars who entered into the service of the state and were paid by the government. -All religious leaders were required to curse the first three caliphs and mention the Safavid ruler in the Friday sermon. -Teaching in the mosque schools was also planned and directed by state religious officials. -Through these agents, the bulk of the Iranian population was converted to Shi'ism during the centuries of Safavid rule. -Sunni Muslims, Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians, and the followers of Sufi preachers were pressured to convert to Shi'ism.

Constantinople's Coffehouses

-Coffeehouses - places where men gathered to drink, smoke tobacco, gossip, do business, and play chess - were found in all sections of the city. -They were pivotal to the social life of the capital -The coffeehouses also played a major role in the cultural life of Constantinople as places where poets and scholars could congregate, read their latest works aloud, and debate about politics and the merits of each other's ideas.

Decline of the Safavid Empire

-Collapse was stunningly rapid -Abba's fears of usurpation by one of his sons had led to the death or blinding of all who could legitimately succeed him. -A grandson, who was weak and thus thought by high state officials to be easily manipulated, was placed on the throne after Abbas's death. -From this point, the dynasty's fortunes decline. -The practice of confining the princes to the atmosphere of luxury and intrigue that permeated the court led to a sharp fall in the quality of the Safavid rulers. -Able Shahs were too few to halt the decline of the imperial administration or to deal effectively with the many foreign threats to the empire. -Factional disputes and rebellions shook the empire from within, and nomadic raiders and Ottoman and Mughal armies steadily reduced the territory the Safavids could tap for labor and revenue. -In March 1722, Isfahan was besieged by Afghani tribes. -In October, after over 80,000 of the capital's inhabitants had died of starvation and disease, the city fell and Safavid power was ended. -The area that had once made up the Safavid empire was reduced for generations to a battleground for its powerful neighbors and a tempting target for nomadic raiders.

Constantinople's Bazaars

-Constantinople's great bazaars were filled with merchants and travelers from throughout the empire and places as distant as England and Malaya. -They offered all manner of commodities, from the spices of the East Indies and the ivory of Africa to slaves and forest products from Russia and fine carpets from Persia.

Ottoman Military

-Debilitating changes within the empire were occurring at a time when challenges from without were growing rapidly. -The Ottomans had made very effective use of artillery and firearms in building their empire. But their reliance on huge siege guns, and the Janissaries' determination to block all military changes that might jeopardize the power they had gained within the state, caused the Ottomans to fall farther and farther behind their European rivals in the critical art of waging war. -With the widespread introduction of light field artillery into the armies of the European powers in the 17th century, Ottoman losses on the battlefield multiplied rapidly, and the threat they posed for the West began to recede.

Sail al-Din

-Early 14th century Sufi mystic; began campaign to purify Islam; first member of Safaviddynasty -In the early 14th century, one of these Sufis, Sail al-Din, who gave the dynasty its name, began a militant campaign to purify and reform Islam and spread Muslim teachings among the Trukic tribes of the region. -In the chaos that followed the collapse of Mongol authority in the mid-14th century, Sail al-Din and other Safavid Sufi leaders gained increasing support.

Babur

-Founder of Mughal dynasty in India; descended from Turkic warriors; first led invasion of India in 1526; died in 1530 -Motives for conquest and empire building had little to do with religious fervor. -Originally directed raids into the fertile and heavily populated plains of north India only to gain booty to support his campaigns to win back his lost kingdom, Ferghana. -Babur cared little for India. After he conquered, he continued to long for his central Asian birthplace. -After decades of war on the steppes that repeatedly ended in defeat, he was forced to give up his dream of reclaiming his homeland and to turn his full energies to the conquest of northern India. -Within two years, his armies had conquered large portions of the Indus and Ganges plains and he had laid the foundations for a dynasty that would last more than 300 years.

Ottoman Perseverance in Decline

-From one perspective, the long Ottoman decline, which officials and court historians actively discussed from the mid-17th century onward, reflects the great strength of the institutions on which the empire was built. -Despite internal revolts and periodic conflicts with such powerful foreign rivals, as the Russian, Austrian, Spanish, and Safavid empires, the Ottomans ruled into the 20th century. -Yet the empire had reached the limits of its expansive power centuries earlier, and by the late 17th century the long retreat from Russia, Europe, and the Arab lands had begun. -In a sense, some contraction was inevitable. -Even when it was at the height of its power, the empire was too large to be maintained, given the resource base that the sultans had at their disposal and the primitive state of transportation and communications in the preindustrial era.

Chaldiran

-In August 1514, at Chaldiran in northwest Persia, the armies of the two empires met in one of the most fateful battles in Islamic history. -Chaldiran was more than a battle between the two most powerful dynasties in the Islamic world at the time. It was a clash between th champions of the Shi'a and Sunni variants of Islam. The religious fervor with which both sides fought the battle was intensified by the long-standing Safavid persecutions of the Sunnis and the slaughter of Shi'a living in the Ottoman territories by the forces of the Ottoman sultan, selim. -The battle also demonstrated the importance of muskets and field cannon in the gunpowder age. --Because his artillery was still engaged against enemies far to the east, Ismail hoped to delay a decisive confrontation with the Ottoman forces under the Sultan Selim. -When battle could not be avoided, Ismail threw his cavalry against the cannon and massed muskets of the Ottoman forces. Despite desperate attempts to make up through clever maneuvers what he lacked in firepower, Ismail's cavalry proved no match for the well-armed Ottomans. -Site of battle between Safavids and Ottomans in 1514; Safavids severely defeated by Ottomans; checked Western advance of Safavid empire.

Aurangzeb

-Mughal emperor who succeeded Shah Jahan -Known for his religious zealotry -Although not the cruel bigot as he is often portrayed, he was not the man to restore the dynasty's declining fortunes. -Driven by two ambitions that proved disastorous to to his schemes to strengthen the Mughal Empire. -He was determined to extend Mughal control over the whole of the Indian subcontinent, and he believed that it was his duty to purify Indian Islam and rid it of the Hindu influences he was convinced were steadily corrupting it. -The first ambition increased the number of the empire's adversaries, strained the allegiance of its vassals and allies, and greatly overextended its huge but obsolete military forces. -By the time of his death in 1707, he had conquered most of the subcontinent, and extended Mughal control as far North as Kabul in what is now Afghanistan. -The almost endless warfare of his years in power drained the treasury and further enlarged an inefficient bureaucracy and army without gaining corresponding increases in revenues to support them.

Muslim & Hindu Warrior Aristocrats

-Muslim & Hindu warrior aristocrats who formed the core of the supporters of the Mughal dynasty were granted peasant villages for their support. -In turn, they were required to maintain a specified number of cavalry and to be on call if the emperor needed their services. -The court and the central bureaucracy were supported by revenues drawn from the tribute paid by the military retainers and from taxes on lands set aside for the support of the imperial household. -Because of a shortage of administrators, in most areas local notables, many of whom were Hindu, were left in place as long as they swore allegiance to the Mughal rulers and paid their taxes on time. -These arrangements left the control and welfare of the village population largely in the hands of the military retainers of the dynasty and local power brokers.

Ottoman Sultans & Court

-Normally, the Ottoman rulers were absolute monarchs. But even the most powerful sultan maintained his position by playing factions in the warrior elite off eachother and pitting the warriors as a whole against the Janissaries and other groups. -Chief among the other groups were the Islamic religious scholars and legal experts, who retained many of the administrative functions they had held under the Arab caliphs of earlier centuries. -In addition to Muslim traders, commerce within the empire was in the hands of Christian and Jewish merchants, who as dhimmis, or "people of the book", were under the protection of the Ottoman rulers. -Some Ottoman sultans, especially in the early centuries of their sway, were very capable rulers. -Ottoman conquest often meant effective administration and tax relief for the peoples of areas annexed to the empire. -The Ottoman sultans grew more and more distant from their subjects as their empire increased in size and wealth. Ottoman rulers followed elaborate court rituals based on those of earlier Byzantine, Persian, an Arab dynasties.

Sherley Brothers

-Of special importance were the Sherley brothers from England. They provided instruction in the casting of cannons and trained Abbas's slave infantry and a special regiment of musketeers recruited from the Iranian peasantry. -By the end of his reign, Abbas had built up a standing army of nearly 40,000 troops and an elite bodyguard. -These measures to strengthen his armies and his victories on the battlefield appeared to promise security for the Safavid domains for decades to come - a promise that was not fulfilled.

Ottoman Sea Power

-On the sea, the Ottomans were eclipsed as early as the 16th century. -The end of their dominance was presaged by theyr defeat by a combined Spanish andVenetian fleet at Lepanto in 1571. -Although the Ottomans had completely rebuilt their war fleet within a year after Lepanto and soon launched an assault on North Africa that preserved that area for Islam, their control of the eastern Mediterranean had been lost. -The failure in the early 1500s of the Ottomans and their Muslim allies in the Indian Ocean to drive the Portuguese from Asian waters proved far more harmful in the long run than Ottoman defeats in the Mediterranean.

Janissaries

-Ottoman infantry divisions that dominated Ottoman armies -Translated military service into political influence, particularly after 15th century. -Most of the Janissaries had been forcibly recruited as adolescent boys in conquered areas, such as the Balkans, where the majority of the population etained its Christian faith. -Sometimes the boys' parents willingly turned their sons over to the Ottoman recruiters became of the opportunities for advancement that came with service to the Ottoman sultans. -Although legally slaves, the youths were given fairly extensive schooling for the time and converted to Islam. -Some of them went on to serve in the palace or bureaucracy, but most became Janissaries. -Because the Janissaries controlled the artillery and firearms that became increasingly vital to Ottoman success in warfare with Christian and Muslim adversaries, they rapidly became the most powerful component in the Ottoman military machine. -Their growing importance was another factor contributing to the steady decline of the role of the aristocratic cavalry. -By the late 15th century they were deeply involved in court politics; by the mid-16th century they had the power to depose sultans an decide which one of a dying ruler's sons would mount the throne.

Persian Influence on Safavid Empire

-Persian influences were also felt in the organization of court rituals and in the more and more exalted position of the Safavid shahs. -Abandoning all pretense of the egalitarian camaraderie that marked their earlier dealings with the warrior chiefs, the Safavids took grand titles, such as padishah, or king of kings, often derived from those used by the ancient Persian emperors. -Like the Ottoman rulers, the Safavids presided from their high thrones over opulent palace complexes crowded with servants and courtiers. -The pattern of palace life was set by elaborate court rituals and social interaction governed by a refined sense of etiquette and decorum. -Although the later Safavid shahs played down claims to divinity that had been set forth under Isma'il and his predecessors, they continued to claim descent from one of the Shi'a imams or successors of Ali.

Decline of Ottoman Fleet

-Portugese naval victories in the Indian Ocean revealed the decline of the Ottoman galley fleets and Mediterranean-style warships more generally. -The trading goods, particularly spices, that the Portuguese carried around Africa and back to Europe enriched the Ottomans' Christian rivals. In addition, because a algae portion of the flow of these products were no longer transmitted to European ports through Muslim trading centers in the eastern Mediterranean, merchants, and tax collectors in the Ottoman empire lost critical revenues. -As if this were not enough, from the late 16th century on, large amounts of silver flowed into the Ottomans' lands from mines worked by Native American laborers in the Spanish empire in Peru and Mexico. The sudden influx of bullion into the rigid and slow-growing economy of the Ottoman empire set off a long-term inflationary trend that further undermined the finances and economic solvency of the empire.

Din-i-Ilahi

-Religion initiated by Akbar in Mughal India; blended elements of the many faiths of the subcontinent; key to efforts to reconcile Hindus and Muslims in India, but failed. -Akbar viewed tolerance as merely the first stage in a longer strategy to put an end to sectarian divisions in the subcontinent

Akbar Reforms & Policies

-Routed the enemies who had hoped to capitalize on the Mughal's misfortunes. -In the decades after 1560, when he took charge of the government, Akbar's armies greatly extended the empire with conquests throughout north and central India. -It was Akbar's social policies and administrative genius that made it possible to establish the foundations of a lasting dominion in the subcontinent. -Pursued a policy of reconciliation and cooperation with the Hindu princes and the Hindu majority of the population of his realm. -He encouraged intermarriage between the Mughal aristocracy and the families of the Hindu Rajput rulers. -Abolished the much-hated jizya, or head tax, that earlier Muslim rulers had levied on Hindu unbelievers. -Promoted Hindus to the highest ranks in the government, ended a long-standing ban on the building of new Hindu temples, and ordered Muslims to respect cows, which the Hindu majority viewed as sacred.

Isfahan

-Safavid capital under Abbas the Great; planned city laid out according to shah's plan; example of Safavid architecture -Although Abbas I undertook building projects throughout his empire, he devoted special attention to his capital as Isfahan. -The splendid seat of Safavid power was laid out around a great square, which was line with two-story shops interspersed with great mosques, government offices, and soaring arches that opened onto formal gardens. -Abbas I founded several colleges and oversaw the construction of numerous public baths and rest houses. -He patronized workshops where intricately detailed and brilliantly colored miniatures were produced by master painters and their apprentices.

Abbas the Great

-Safavid ruler from 1587 to 1629; extended Safavid domain to greatest extent; created slave regiments based on captured Russians, who monopolized firearms within Safavidarmies; incorporated Western military technology -Of all the Safavid shahs, Abbas I, known also as Abbas the Great, made the most extensive use of the youths who were captured in Russia and then educated and converted to Islam. -They not only came to form the backbone of his military forces but were granted provincial governorships and high offices at court. -Like the Janissaries, slave regiments, which were wholly dependent on Abbas's support, monopolized the firearms that had become increasingly prominent in Safavid armies. -The Persians had artillery and handguns long before the arrival of the Portugese by sea in the early 16th century. -But Abbas and his succesors showed little reluctance to call on the knowledgable but infidel Europeans for their assistance in their wars with the Ottomans.

Sikhs

-Sect in northwest India; early leaders tried to bridge differences between Hindu and Muslim, but Mughal persecution led to anti-Muslim feeling -The rise of the Sikhs further strained the declining resources of an imperial system that was clearly overextended. -Sikhism eventually transformed into a staunchly anti-Muslim force within the subcontinent. -In addition, Muslim kingdoms in central and east India continued to resist Mughal hegemony, and Islamic invaders waited at the poorly guarded passes through the Himalays to strike and plunder once it was clear that Mughals could no longer fend them off.

Efforts to bring back Ottoman Power

-Several able Sultans took measures to shore up the empire in the 17th century. The collapse of the Safavid dynasty in Persia and conflicts between the European powers at this time also gave the Ottomans hope that their earlier dominance might be restored. -Their reprieve was temporary. With the scientific, technological, and commercial transformations occurring in Europe, the Ottomans were falling behind their Christian rivals in most areas.

Isma'il

-Sufi commander who conquered city of Tabriz in 1501; first Safavid to be proclaimed shah or emperor -Led his Turkic followers to a string of victories on the battlefield. In 1501, Isma'il's armies captured the city of Tabriz, where he was proclaimed shah, or emperor. -In the next decade, Ismail's followers conquered most of Persia, drove the Safavid's ancient enemies, the Ozbegs - neighboring nomadic people of Turkic stock - back into the central Asian steppes, and advanced into what is now Iraq. -The Safavid successes and the support their followers received in the Ottoman borderlands from Turkic-soeaking peoples brought them into conflict with Ottoman rulers.

Ottoman Corruption

-The Ottoman state had been built on war and steady territorial expansion. As possibilities for new conquests ran out and lands began to be lost to the Ottomans' Christian and Muslim enemies, the means of maintaining the oversized bureaucracy and army shrank. -The decline in the effectiveness of the administrative system that held the empire together was signaled by the rampant growth of corruption among Ottoman officials. -The corruption and incompetence of state bureaucrats prompted region and local officials to retain more revenue for their own purposes. -Poorly regulated by the central government, many local officials, who also controlled large landed estates, squeezed the peasants and the laborers who worked their lands for additional taxes and services. -At times the oppressive demands of local officials and estate owners sparked rebellions. -Peasant uprisings and flight resulted in the abandonment of cultivated lands and in social dislocations that further drained the resources of the empire.

Ottoman Naval Power

-The Ottomans became a fomidable naval power in the Mediterranean Sea. -Powerful Ottoman galley fleets made possible the capture of major island bases on Rhodes, Cretes, and Cyprus. -The Ottoman armies also drove the Venetians and Genoese from much of the eastern Mediterranean and threatened southern Italy with invasion on several occasions.

Ottoman decline in Trade and Warfare

-The Ottomans inherited from their Arab, Persian, and Turkic predecessors the conviction that little of what happened in Europe was important. -This belief, which is seen as a major cause of Ottoman decline by the traveler Abu Taleb quoted in the Document feature, prevented them from taking seriously the revolutionary changes that were transforming western Europe. -The intense conservatism of powerful groups such as the Janissaries, and to a lesser extent the religious scholars, reinforced this misguided attitude. -Through much of the 17th century and 8th, these groups blocked most of the Western-inspired innovations that reform-minded sultans and their advisors tried to introduce. As a result of these narrow and potentially dangerous forces, the isolated Ottoman imperial system proved incapable of checking the weaknesses that were steadily destroying it.

Why did the Ottoman suffer?

-The Ottomans suffered greatly because they inherited Islamic principles of political succession that remained vague and contested. -The existence of many talented and experienced claimants to the throne meant constant danger of civil strife -The death of a sultan could, and increasingly did, lead to warfare among his sons

Safavid Dynasty Origin

-The Safavid dynasty arose from the struggles of rival Turkic nomadic groups in the wake of the Mongol and Timurid invasions of the 13th century and 14th century. -Also like the Ottomans, the Safavids rose to prominence as the frontier warrior champions of a highly militant strain of Islam. But unlike the Ottomans, who became the champions of the Sunni majority of the Muslim faithful, the Safavids espoused the Shi'a variant of Islam. -The long rivalry between the Sunni Ottomans na the Shi'a Safavids proved to be one of the most pivotal episodes in the long history of these sectarian struggles. -The Safavid dynasty had its origins in a family of Sufi mystic and religious preachers, whose shrine center was at Ardabil near the Caspian Sea.

Safavid Writing

-The Safavid family was originally of Turkic stock, and early shahs such as Isma'il wrote in Turkish, unlike their Ottoman rivals, who preferred to write in Persian. -After Chaldiran, however, Persian gradually supplanted Turkish as the language of the court and bureaucracy.

Ottoman Victory at Chaldiran

-The Safavids were dealt a devastating defeat, and the Ottoman victory at Chaldiran buttressed their efforts to build the most powerful empire in the Islamic world. -The Ottomans could not follow up the battle with conquests that would have put an end to their Safavid rivals. The latter's capital at Tabriz was too far from Ottoman supply areas to be held through the approaching winter. -The withdrawal of the Ottoman armies gave the Safavids the breathing space they needed to regroup their forces and reoccupy much of the territory they had originally conquered. Nonetheless, defeat at Chaldiran put an end to Isma'il's dreams of further westward expansions, and most critically, it checked the rapid spread of conversions to Shi'a Islam in the western borderlands that had resulted from the Safavid's recent successes in battle. -The outcome at Chaldiran determined that Shi'ism would be concentrated mainly in Persia, or present-day Iran, and neighboring areas in what is today southern Iraq.

Ottoman Architecture

-The cathedral of Saint Sophia converted into one of the grandest mosques in the Islamic world, and new mosques and palaces were built throughout the city. -This construction benefited greatly from architectural advances the Ottomans derived from the Byzantine heritage. -AAqueducts were built from the surrounding hills to supply the growing population with water, markets were reopened, and the city's defenses were repaired. -Each sultan who ruled strove to be remembered for his efforts to beautify the capital. -The most prominent additions were further mosques that represent some of the must sublime contributions of the Ottomans to Islamic and human civilization. -The most spectacular of these was the Suleymaniye. -In addition to the mosques, sultans and powerful administrators built mansions ,rest houses, religious schools, and hospitals throughout the city. -Both public and private gardens further beautified the capital, which Ottoman writers compared to paradise itself. -The city and its suburbs stretched along both sides of the Bosporous. -Its harbors and the Golden Horn, a triangular bay that formed the northern boundary of the city, were crowded with merchant ships from ports throughout the region.

Anatolia

-The collapse of the Seljuk Turkic kingdom of Rum in eastern Anatolia in Asia, after the invasion by the Mongols in 1243, opened the way for the Ottomans to seize power in their own right. -The Mongols raided but did not directly rule Anatolia, which fell into a chaotic period of warfare. -Turkic peoples, both fleeing the Mongols and in search of easy booty, flooded into the region in the last decades of the 13th century. -One of these peopl, the Ottomans, came to dominate the rest, and within decades they had begun to build a new empire based in Anatolia.

Ottoman Language

-The early Ottomans had written in Persian, and Arabic remained an important language for works on law and religious throughout the empire's history. -But by the 17th century, the Turkish language of the Ottoman court had become the preferred mode of expression for poets and historians as well as the language of the Ottoman bureaucracy. -In writing as in the fine arts, the Ottomans achievements have been somewhat overshadowed by those of their contemporary Persia and Indian rivals. -Nonetheless, the authors, artists, and artisans of the Ottoman empire left a considerable legacy, particularly in poetry, miniature painting, ceramics, carpet manufacturing, and above all in architecture.

Ottoman Safavid: Economic Similarities

-The early rulers of both the Ottoman and the Safavid empires encouraged the growth of handicraft production and trade in their realms. Both dynasties established imperial workshops where products ranging from miniature paintings and rugs to weapons and metal utensils were manufactured. -The rulers of each empire lavishly patronized public works projects that provided reasonably well-paid work for engineers, stonemasons, carpenters, and other sorts of artisans. -Some of the more able emperors of these dynasties also pursued policies that they believed would increase both internal and international trade. -In these endeavors, the Ottomans gained in the short run from the fact that large-scale traders in their empire often were from minority groups, such as Christians and Jews, who had extensive contacts with overseas traders that the bazaar merchants of the Safavid realm normally lacked. -Although Safavid cooperation with Portuguese traders remedied this shortcoming to some extent, the Safavid economy remained much more constricted, less market oriented, and more technically backward than that of their Ottoman rivals.

Ottoman Economy

-The economy of the empire was geared to warfare and expansion.

Muslim Empires - Weapons

-The great Muslim dynasties of the premodern era came to power with the support of nomadic warrior peoples. -Each based the military forces that won and sustained its empire on massed cavalry. -The Mongols were the first to realize the potential of gundpower and the new type of weaponry based on explosive formulas. -Mongols continued to build their armies around swift cavalry and their skill as mountaed archers.

Ottoman warrior-emperors

-The great warrior emperors of early Ottoman history gave way, with some important exceptions, to weak and indolent rulers, addicted to drink, drugs, and the pleasure of the harem. -In many instances, the later sultans were little more than pawns in the power struggles of the viziers and other powerful officials with the leaders of the increasingly influential Janissary corps. -Because the imperial apparatus had been geared to strong and absolute rulers, the decline in the caliber of Ottoman emperors had devastating effects on the empire as a whole. -Civil strife increased, and the discipline and leadership of the armies on which the empire depended for survival deteriorated.

Sati

-The practice followed by small minorities, usually upper caste, of Indians of burning widows on the funeral pyres of their deceased husbands. -Akbar legally prohibited it -Risky move since so deeply entrenched among the Rajput princes and warrior classes

Purdah

-The seclusion of Indian women in their homes -Akbar tried to provide relief for women trapped by encouraging the merchants of Delhi and other cities to set aside special market days for women only.

Politics under Jahanfir and Shah Jahan

-Two rulers who were so absorbed in the arts and the pursuit of please left most of the mundane tasks of day-to-day administration largely in the hands of subordinates. -In both cases, strong-willed wives took advantage of their husbands' neglect of politics to win positions of power and influence at the Mughal court.

Safavid Politics

-Under Tahmasp I and his successors, repeated efforts were made to bring the Turkic chiefs under control. They were gradually transformed into a warrior nobility comparable to that in the Ottoman domains. -Like their Ottoman counterparts, the Safavid warrior nobles were assigned villages, whose peasants were required to supply them and their troops with food and labor. -The most powerful of the warrior leaders occupied key posts in the imperial administration, and from the defeat at Chaldiran onward they posed a constant threat to the Safavid monarchs. -To counterbalance this threat, Safavid rulers recruited Persians for positions at the court and in the rapidly expanding imperial bureaucracy. -THe struggle for power and influence between Turkic and Persian notables were further complicated by the practice, initiated by Isma'il's successor, Tahmasp I, of recruiting into the bureaucracy and army slave boys who were captured in campaigns in southern Russia. -Like the Janissaries, the slave regiments soon became a major force in Safavid political struggles.

Marattas

-Western India peoples who rebelled against Mughal control early in 18th century. -Internal rebellions, particularly those mounted by the Marattas in western India, put an end to effective Mughal control over large areas.

Aurangzeb's Religious Policies

-While his military campaigns strained the resources of the empire, his religious policies gravely weakened the internal alliances and disrupted the social peace Akbar had so skillfully established. -Continued to employ Hindus in the imperial service, but non-Muslims were given far fewer posts at the upper levels of the bureaucracy, and their personal contact with the emperor was severely restricted. -Took measures that he and his religious advisors felt would help rid their Muslim faith and culture of hte Hindu influences that had permeated it over the centuries. -He forbade the building of new temples and put an end to Hindu religious festivals at court. -He reinstated the hated head tax on unbelievers - a measure he hoped might prod them to convert to Islam. The tax fell heavily on the Hindu poor and in some cases drove them to support sectarian movements that rose up to resist him.

Ottoman Safavid: Role of Women Similarities

-Women in Islamic societies under Ottoman or Safavid rule faced legal and social disadvantages comparable to those we have encountered in most civilized areas so far. -Within the family, women were subordinated to their fathers and husbands. -They seldom had political or religious power, and they had surprisingly meager outlets for artistic or scholarly expression. -Even women of nomadic Turkic and Mongol backgrounds gradually lost their independence when they settled in the towns of conquered areas. -There, the dictates of increasingly patriarchal codes and restrictive practices such as seclusion and veiling were imposed on women of all classes, but most strictly on those of the elite. -However, recent evidence suggests that many women in the Islamic heartlands in this era, perhaps clinging to the memory of the lives led by their nomadic predecessors, struggled against these restrictions. -Travelers to Persia in the time of Abbas I remarked on the brightly colored robes worn by women in the capital and elsewhere, and noted that many women made no effort to cover their faces in public. -At both the Ottoman and Safavid courts, the wives and concubines of the rulers and royal princes continued to exert influence behind the throne and remained deeply involved in palace conspiracies. -More important for ordinary women in each of these societies was the fact that many were active in trade and some in money-lending. -Court records also suggest that women often could invoke provisions in Islamic law that protected their rights to inheritance, decent treatment by their spouses, and even divorce in marital situations that had become intolerable.

Mughal Empire

Established by Babur in India in 1526; the name is taken from the supposed Mongol descent of Babur, but there is little indication of any Mongol influence in the dynasty; became weak after rule of Aurangzeb in first decades of 18th century.

Ottoman

A dynasty established beginning in the 13th century by Turkic peoples from Central Asia. Though most of their empire's early territory was in Asia Minor, the Ottomans eventually captured Constantinople an made it the capital of an empire that spanned three continents and lasted over 600 years.

Mughal Architecture

At its best, Mughal architecture blends what is finest in the Persian and Hindu traditions. -It fuses the Islamic genius for domes, arches, and minarets and the balance among them with the Hindu love of ornament. -In place of the ceramic tiles that the Persians used to finish their mosques and tombs, Indian artisans substituted gleaming white marble, inset with semiprecious stones arranged in floral and geometric patterns. -Extensive use was also made of marble reflecting pools, the most famous of which mirrors the beauty of the Taj Mahal. -Those who served the Mughal rulers strove to create paradise on earth.

Ottoman Literature

Much of the literature on the Ottoman empire concentrates on its slow decline from the champion of the Muslim world and the most important adversary of Christendom to the "sick man" of Europe in the 18th century and 19th centuries. -This approach provides a skewed view of Ottoman history as whole. -Traced from its origins in the late 13th century, the Ottoman state is one of the great success stories in human political history. -Vigorous and expansive until the late 17th century, the Ottomans were able to ward off the powerful enemies who surrounded their domains on all sides for nearly four centuries. The dynasty endured for more than 600 years, a feat matched by no other in all human history.

Safavid Dynasty

Originally a Turkic nomadic group; family originate in Sufi mystic group; espoused Shi'ism; conquered territory and established kingdom in region equivalent to modern Iran; last until 1722

Vizier

Ottoman equivalent of the Abbasid wazir; head of the Ottoman bureaucracy; after 5th century often more powerful than sultan -Day-to-day administration was carried out by a large bureaucracy headed by a grand vizier -The vizier was the overall head of the imperial administration, and he often held more real power than the sultan -Early sultans, however, took an active role in political decisions and often personally led their armies into battle

Shi'a Religious Festivals

Shi'a religious festivals, such as that commemorating the martyrdom of Husayn ( a son of Ali ) and involving public flagellation and passion plays, and pilgrimages to Shi'a shrines, such as that at Karbala i central Iraq, became the focal points of popular religion in Iraq. -Thus, Shi'ism not only provided ideological and institutional support for the Safavid dynasty but also came to be an integral part of Iranian identity, setting the people of the region off from most of their Arab and Turkic neighbors.

Turkic Cavalry

The Turkic Cavalry, chiefly responsible for the Ottomans' early conquests from the 13th to 16th centuries, gradually developed into a warrior aristocracy. -They were granted control over the land and peasant producers in annexed areas for the support of their households andmilitary retainers. -From the 15th century onward, members of the warrior class also vied with religious leaders and adminstrators drawn from other social groups for control of the expanding Ottoman bureaucracy. -As the power of the warrior aristocracy shrank at the center, they built up regional and local bases of support. These inevitably competed with the sultans an the central bueaucracy for revenue and labor control.