Chapter 28


  1. Formation of the Islamic empires
  2. The Ottoman empire (1289-1923)
  3. Founded by OsmanBey in 1289, who led Muslim religious warriors (ghazi)
  4. Ottoman expansion into Byzantine empire
  5. Seized city of Bursa, then into the Balkans
  6. Organized ghazi into formidable military machine
  7. Central role of the Janissaries (slave troops)
  8. Effective use of gunpowder in battles and sieges
  9. Mehmed the Conqueror (reigned 1451-1481)
  10. Captured Constantinople in 1453; it became Istanbul, the Ottoman capital
  11. Absolute monarchy; centralized state
  12. Expanded to Serbia, Greece, Albania; attacked Italy
  13. Suleyman the Magnificent (reigned 1520-1566)
  14. Sultan Selim the Grim (reigned 1512-1520) occupied Syria and Egypt
  15. Suleyman the Magnificent expanded into southwest Asia and central Europe
  16. Suleyman also built a navy powerful enough to challenge European fleets
  17. The Safavid empire
  18. The Safavids, Turkish conquerors of Persia and Mesopotamia
  19. Founder Shah Ismail (reigned 1501-1524) claimed ancient Persian title of shah.
  20. Proclaimed TwelverShiism the official religion; imposed it on Sunni population
  21. Followers known as qizilbash (or "Red Hats")
  22. TwelverShiism
  23. Traced origins to twelve ancient Shiite imams
  24. Ismail believed to be the twelfth, or "hidden," imam, or even an incarnation of Allah
  25. Battle of Chaldiran (1514)
  26. Sunni Ottomans persecuted Shiites within Ottoman empire
  27. Qizilbash considered firearms unmanly; were crushed by Ottomans at Chadiran
  28. Shah Abbas the Great (1588-1629) revitalized the Safavid empire
  29. modernized military; sought European alliances against Ottomans
  30. new capital at Isfahan; centralized administration
  31. The Mughal empire
  32. Babur (1523-1530), founder of Mughal ("Mongol") dynasty in India
  33. Central Asian Turkish adventurer invaded India in 1523, seized Delhi in 1526
  34. By his death in 1530, Mughal empire embraced most of India
  35. Akbar (reigned 1556-1605), a brilliant charismatic ruler
  36. Created a centralized, absolutist government
  37. Expanded to Gujurat, Bengal, and southern India
  38. Encouraged religious tolerance between Muslims and Hindus
  39. Developed a syncretic religion called "divine faith"
  40. Aurangzeb (1659-1707)
  41. Expanded the empire to almost the entire Indian subcontinent
  42. Revoked policies of toleration: Hindus taxed, temples destroyed
  43. His rule troubled by religious tensions and hostility
  44. Imperial Islamic society
  45. The dynastic state
  46. The emperors and Islam
  47. All three Islamic empires were military creations
  48. Authority of dynasty derived from personal piety and military prowess of rulers
  49. Devotion to Islam encouraged rulers to extend their faith to new lands
  50. Steppe traditions
  51. Autocratic: emperors imposed their will on the state
  52. Ongoing problems with royal succession
  53. Ottoman rulers could legally kill his brothers after taking the throne
  54. Royal women often wielded great influence on politics
  55. Agriculture and trade
  56. Food crops the basis of all three empires
  57. Major crops: wheat and rice
  58. Little impacted by new American crops
  59. Imports of coffee and tobacco very popular
  60. Population growth in the three empires less dramatic than in China or Europe
  61. Significant population growth in India from more intense agriculture
  62. Less dramatic growth in Safavid and Ottoman realms
  63. Long-distance trade important to all three empires
  64. Ottoman and Safavid empires shared segments of the east-west trade routes
  65. Safavids offered silk, carpets, and ceramics to European trading companies
  66. The Mughal empire less attentive to foreign or maritime trading
  67. Mughals permitted stations for English, French, and Dutch trading companies
  68. Religious affairs in the Islamic empires
  69. Religious diversity created challenges to the rule of the empires
  70. Religious diversity in India under the rule of Akbar
  71. Portuguese Goa was the center of Christian missions
  72. Jesuits welcomed at court of Akbar, but he was not interested in an exclusive faith
  73. Akbar tolerated Sikhism, a new faith combining elements of Hinduism and Islam
  74. Advocated syncretic "divine faith," emphasizing loyalty to emperor
  75. Religious minorities generally tolerated in Islamic states
  76. In Ottoman empire, conquered peoples protected, granted religious and civil autonomy in their owncommunities
  77. In India, the Muslim rulers closely cooperated with Hindu majority
  78. Under Aurangzeb: Islam proclaimed official state religion, nonbelievers taxed
  79. Cultural patronage of the Islamic Emperors
  80. All three sponsored arts and public works: mosques, palaces, schools, hospitals, etc.
  81. Istanbul, the Ottoman capital, a bustling city of a million people
  82. Topkapi palace housed government offices and sultan's residence
  83. The Suleymaniye blended Islamic and Byzantine architectural elements
  84. Isfahan, Safavid capital, the "queen of Persian cities"
  85. FatehpurSikri, Mughal capital, created by Akbar
  86. Combined Islamic style with Indian elements
  87. Site abandoned because of bad water supply
  88. The TajMahal, exquisite example of Mughal architecture

  III.        The empires in transition

  1. The deterioration of imperial leadership, the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries
  2. Dynastic decline caused by negligent rulers, factions, and government corruption
  3. Tensions increased when religious conservatives abandoned policies of tolerance
  4. Ottoman conservatives resisted innovations like the telescope and printing press
  5. In Safavid empire: Shiite leaders urged the shahs to persecute Sunnis, non-Muslims, and even the Sufis
  6. In Mughal India, Aurangzeb's policies provoked deep animosity of Hindus
  7. Economic and military decline
  8. Strong economies in sixteenth century; stagnated by eighteenth century
  9. End of territorial expansion; difficult to support armies and bureaucrats
  10. Series of long and costly wars
  11. Officials resorted to raising taxes or corruption to deal with financial problems
  12. Failure to develop trade and industry; lost initiative to European merchants
  13. Military decline
  14. Importing European weapons only promoted European weapon industries
  15. Imported arsenals outdated
  16. Ottomans even purchased military vessels from abroad
  17. Cultural insularity
  18. Cultural conservatism
  19. Ottoman cartographer, Piri Reis, gathered together European maps
  20. Muslims seldom traveled to the West, confident of their superiority
  21. Ignorant of European technological developments--hostile to telescope, 1703
  22. Resistance to printing press
  23. Introduced by Jewish refugees to Anatolia, late fifteenth century
  24. At first, Ottoman authorities banned printing in Turkish and Arabic
  25. Ban lifted in 1729, but conservatives forced closure of a Turkish press in 1742
  26. In India, Mughal rulers showed little interest in printing technology
  27. Foreign cultural innovations seen as a threat to political stability