Chapter 21
Review and Discussion
Islam Penetrates Europe
The Ottoman
Empire
Ottoman and Safavid Empires
1453–1629
5
The End of the Byzantine Empire
• The Byzantine empire
drew to a close in 1453
when forces from the
Muslim Ottoman Empire
surrounded and
conquered
Constantinople.
• renamed Istanbul and
became the capital of the
Ottoman Empire.
expansion of the Ottoman Empire, beginning around 1300?
• The three major factors were
– the shrewdness of the Ottoman founder Osman and his descendants
– the control of the link between Europe and Asia
– the creation of an army that combined the traditional skills of the Turkish
horseman with new technologies, particularly firearms.
• Ottomans slowly expanded their rule across the region
– Brought at end to the Byzantine after capturing Constantinople in 1453
– Became the longest lasting post-Mongol Muslim Empire
– The conquests of Egypt, Syria, and other areas followed.
• Trade wars with Venice in the 15th century
– pointed to the economic importance of the Ottoman trade empire in the
Mediterranean.
• Balanced military
– Possessed a) a galley-equipped navy manned by Greek, Turkish, Algerian, and
Tunisian sailors, b) a light cavalry (armed with bows) and c) foot soldiers, or
Janissaries (Christian Prisoners of war equipped with firearms)
• Land Grant System
– gave control and power to the cavalrymen, who dispensed justice, raised taxes,
and fought in the military.
Suleiman
Ottoman Empire’s
Golden Age
•“Suleiman the
Magnificent” to
Westerners
•“The Lawgiver” to his
own people
The Ottoman Empire
and Suleiman
GOVERNMENT
Suleiman had
absolute power.
Ottoman law was
based on Sharia.
The Ottomans
recruited
government and
military officers from
conquered people.
SOCIETY
Society was divided
into four classes, with
“men of the pen” and
“men of the sword” at
the top.
Non-Muslims were
organized into millets,
or religious
communities.
ARTS
Poets produced works
in the Turkish
language.
Painters produced
detailed miniatures
and illuminated
manuscripts.
The royal architect
Sinan designed
magnificent mosques
and palaces.
Explain the economic and military crisis that had a severe impact on the
Ottoman Empire.
• The essence of the crisis was
– growing world economy and new military technologies made payment of parttime soldiers by land grants economically unfeasible and obsolete.
• Economy
– Inflation which resulted from New World silver flooding east from Europe.
– The remaining landholders saw their fixed incomes from taxes decrease in the face
of rising inflation, Consequently, land returned to the state. Others on fixed
incomes, such as scholars and holy men, also suffered financially.
• Military
– Cannon and lighter-weight firearms altered military strategies. The Janissary corps
increased in size, raising the cost of government.
– The role of the elite cavalry diminished correspondingly. The government reduced
the number of land grants to the cavalry, who became displaced and disgruntled.
• The result
– was widespread rebellion
– Deterioration in the quality of the growing Janissary corps—who often hired
substitutes
– the continued evolution of military technology meant an increasing reliance on
supplemental and part-time troops.
Describe in detail the major similarities between the Safavid and
Ottoman Empires and the differences that distinguished the Safavid
Empire.
Similarities
– included the military reliance on an elite cavalry paid through the
land-grant system; the Safavid orientation away from the sea and
toward a large land-based empire; and the linguistic diversity of the
people.
The most significant difference
– Safavid Empire’s embrace of Shi’ite Islam and its abandonment of
Sunnism.
– Since it alone adopted that form of Islam, a deep chasm developed
between Safavid Iran and other nations. Consequently, Safavid Iran
remained separate and distinct, even from its Islamic neighbors.
– The Persian language (second language of Islam), too, distinguished
the Safavids, and it defined literary, architectural, theological, and
other cultural differences.
Compare and contrast the two important cities, Istanbul and
Isfahan, in terms of their culture and society.
Cities
– Istanbul was a great seaport; Isfahan was built well inland.
– Both cities were designed for walking. Wheeled vehicles were rare in
Istanbul and nonexistent in Isfahan, as Isfahan was in an area
dominated by camel transport.
Women’s roles
– were similar—and restricted—in both Istanbul and Isfahan. Women
were seldom seen in public and had special quarters in the home,
called anderun in Iran and harem in Istanbul.
– Nevertheless, women were accepted in business and trade, although
within certain well-defined and accepted boundaries.
Cosmopolitan or not
– Isfahan, the later capital of the Iranian empire, was located
geographically in the middle of the empire and was not very diverse
socially or culturally.
– Istanbul, on the other hand, was a geographic crossroads and reflected
the diversity of its many different peoples.
The Mughal
Empire
(1526-1761)
Illustration from a
Mughal Manuscript
The Origins of Mughal Empire
• The Mughals descended from
Mongol stock in Turkestan. They
were, however, quite distant from
their original ancestors. The
Mughals were Muslim, for the
Middle Eastern Mongol invaders
had converted to Islam long
before. They had also thoroughly
absorbed Middle Eastern culture,
especially Persian culture (the
Persian word for Mongol is
“Mughal”)and their wars of
invasion spread Persian culture
throughout India.
A. Political Foundations
• The founder of the
Mughal dynasty was
Babur, who ruled
from 1483 to 1530.
• Attacked and
defeated the Dehli
Sultanate in 1526.
What was the primary feature that distinguished the Mughal Empire from the
Ottomans and Safavids?
• India (Mughal)
– was first and foremost a Hindu land, although controlled by a Muslim minority.
– Because India was geographically far from the Islamic homelands, distance
lessened Muslim dominance and power.
– Centuries of separation and seclusion had consolidated Hindu culture, which did
not easily adapt to Islam.
– The Mughals—their name taken from the Persian word for Mongol—also
patterned many of their institutions after their Mongol forebears.
• Militarily (Mughal)
– were more concerned with the sea than the Ottomans or Safavids, and had
closer links to the vast Indian Ocean and Southeast Asian trade network.
– had others fight most of their sea battles for them
• Religion
– Differences between Muslim and Hindu were the defining factor.
– The most successful of the Mughal emperors, Akbar, overcame those differences
by marrying into a Hindu family, elimination of tax on non-Muslims and effecting
a reconciliation between the two groups.

Expanded
boundaries
through war.
Akbar, r. 1556-1605



The most successful of
the Mughal emperors
Promoted religious
tolerance
marrying into a Hindu
family, eliminated a tax on
non-Muslims and effecting
a reconciliation between
the Hindu and Muslims
Millennium
Video Clip

Akbar strives for
Social Harmony.

Art flourishes, especially miniature paintings . .
.

Regional powers
challenge Mughal
authority
Akbar’s Successors
• Akbar’s son, Jahangir, was weaker than Akbar.
His wife Nur Jahan handled the details of the
government. She was the most powerful
women in India.
• Shah Jahan, Akbar’s grandson, built the Taj
Mahal , one of the greatest monuments of the
Mughal Empire. He built it for his wife and the
mother of his 14 children after she died.
Decline
• In the late 1600’s Akbar’s great-grandson,
Aurangzeb, resumed persecution of the
Hindus, and raised taxes.
• These changes increased discontent among
the people and sparked revolts around the
empire.
– Led to the rise of regional powers and princely
states
• Europeans started mobilizing against the
weakened empire.
Hinduism and Islam
Clash and Blend
Why did the trade empires in the Indian Ocean region
succeed and the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal
Empires decline?
• changes in the world economy and military
– technologies undermined the land-grant system, which was the
basis of the large land-based empires.
• In the seafaring empires
– by contrast, improved technology in firearms, gunpowder, ship
design, and navigation
• The influx of New World silver and the development of
joint-stock companies
– provided an economic edge for Europeans.
• For non-European traders in the Indian Ocean
– Islam created a common bond and cemented diverse peoples into
a cohesive trading network.
– Islam also strengthened resistance and solidarity against the
Europeans.