KlahowyaSecondary School

THE ISLAMIC EMPIRES

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