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Post Classical Era:
The Second Flowering of Islam
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In this Packet you will learn about:
 The Ottomans
 The Safavid Empire
 The Songhai Empire
 The Mughal Empire
The Islamic Heartland: The Ottoman and Safavid Empires:
 By the sixteenth century, Turkish warriors had transformed the
major Islamic areas of the world into vast regional empires.
 The Islamic empires began as small warrior principalities in
frontier areas. They expanded at varying rates and with varying
degrees of success at the expense of neighboring states.
The Ottomans:
 Founded by Osman Bey founder of the dynasty that continued in
unbroken succession from 1289 until its dissolution in 1923.
o He was the chief of a band of semi-nomadic Turks who
migrated to northwestern Anatolia in the thirteenth
century.
o Osman and his followers sought above all to become ghazi,
Muslim religious warriors.
 The Ottomans’ location on the borders of the Byzantine empire
afforded them amble opportunity to wage holy war.
 Their first great success cam in 1326 with the capture of the
Anatolian city of Bursa, which became the capital of the Ottoman
principality.
 Around 1352 they established a foothold in Europe when they
seized the fortress to Gallipoli
 The city of Edirne (Adriaople) became a second Ottoman capital
and served as a based for further expansion into the Balkans.
 As warriors settled in frontier districts and pushed their
boundaries forward, they took spoils and gathered revenues that
enriched both the ghazi and the central government.
 A formidable military machine drove Ottoman expansion.
 As the Ottoman state became more firmly established, it added a
professional cavalry force equipped with heavy armor and
financed by land grants. After expanding into the Balkans, the
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Ottomans created a supremely important force composed of slave
troops. Through an institution known as the devshirme, the
Ottomans required the Christian population of the Balkans to
contribute young boys to become slaves of the sultan.
The boys received special training, learned Turkish, and
converted to Islam
According to individual ability, they entered either the Ottoman
civilian administration or the military. Those who became soldiers
were known as Janissaries, (new troop).
o Had a reputation for loyalty to the sulta, readiness to
employ new military technology
Mehmed the Conqueror: the capture of Constantinople in 1453
by Mehmed II (1451-81)opened a new chapter in Ottoman
expansion.
o With the superb location and illustrious heritage,
Constantinople became the new Ottoman capital,
subsequently known as Istanbul, and Mehmed worked
energetically to stimulate its role as a commercial center.
o WTI the capture of the great city behind him, Mehmed
presented himself not as a warrior-sultan but as a true
emperor of two lands (Europe and Asia)
o He laid the foundation for a tightly centralized, absolute
monarchy, and his army faced no serious rival. He
conquered Serbia, Greece, Albania and eliminated the last
Byzantine outpost in Trebizond. He captured Genoese and
Crimea. Toward the end of his life he launched an invasion
of Italy but his ultimately failed to take over Western
Europe.
Suleyman the Magnificent: Ottoman
imperialism climaxed in the reign of Suleyman
the Magnificent (1520-66). He promoted
Ottoman expansion both in southwest Asia and
in Europe. In 1534 he conquered Baghdad and
added the Tigris and Euphrates valleys to the
Ottoman domain. He defeated and killed the
king of Hungary and consolidated Ottoman
power north of the Danube. In 1529 he
subjected the Habsburg empire’s city of Vienna
to their rule. (Habsburgs circled)
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 Europeans would say they feared the “Terror of the Turk”
 Under Suleyman the Ottomans became a great naval power.
 The Ottoman Empire was a state of enormous signifance in the
world of the fifteenth century and beyond.
 In its huge territory, long duration, incorporation of many
peoples, and economic and cultural sophistication, it was one of
the great empires of world history.
 The empire represented the emergence of the Turks as the
dominant people of the Islamic world, ruling now over many
Arabs, who had initiated the new faith more than 9—years before.
 Ottoman sultans believed they were the successor to the prophet
(caliphs).
 The conquest of the Turks was the opposite of the Crusades. Now,
the seizure of Constantinople in 1453 marked the final demise
of Christian Byzantium and allowed Ottoman rulers to see
themselves as successors to the Roman empire.
Safavids:
 Next to the Ottomans, in the Persian lands to the east, The Islamic
 Empire of the Safavids began.
 Its leadership was also Turkic
 Emerged from Sufi religious order
 They ofred Shia version of Islam as the official religion of the state.
This came to define the unique identity of Persian culture
(Iranian).
 This posed a SHARP divide in the heart of the Islamic world
between both factions
o Most other Muslims were Sunni
o This hostility is still a divide in the Islamic world.
 Shah Abbas the Great: moved the capital to the more central
location of Isfahan. Encouraged trade in other lands, and reformed
the administrative and military institutions of the empire.
o He increased the use of gunpowder weapons and sought
European assistance against the t Ottomans and the
Portuguese in the Persian Gulf.
o His military campaigns brought most of the Caucasus,
Mesopotamia and northwestern Iran into the Empire.
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The Frontiers of Islam: The Songhai and the Mughal Empires
WEST AFRICA: Sudanic Empires
 On the frontiers of the faith—all the way out west and east.
 Between 640 and 670 Muslims swept across North Africa from
Suez to Morocco’s’ Atlantic shore. By 670 Muslims most of Africa.
 The message of Islam found fertile ground among the populations
of North Africa.
 Conversions took place rapidly within certain political unity
provided by the Abbasids. This unity eventually broke down, and
North Africa divided into several separate states and competing
groups.
 Islam offered many attractions within Africa. Its fundamental
teachings that all Muslims were equal within the community of
believers made the acceptance of conquerors and new rulers
easier.
 The Islamic tradition of uniting the powers of the state and
religion in the person of the ruler or caliph appealed to some
African kings as a way of reinforcing their authority.
 Ghana: from 100-200 c.e. Camels were introduced for trade in the
Sahara and at around 300 we see the rise of the kingdom of
Ghana. It reached the height of its power in 1000
 Mali: the empire of Mali centered between the Senegal and Niger
rivers was the creation of the Malinke peoples who in the 13th
century broke away from the control of Ghana, which was by then
in decline.
o Mali was one of the greatest states in the world at the
beginning of the 14th century. It had taken control of the
salt and gold trades across the Sahara which had formed the
wealth of the kingdom of Ghana.
According to its king, Kankan Musa who
expanded the kigdom and became very
wealthy, his kingdom was “about one
year” in size.
o It stretched from the salt mines on the
northern edge of the Sahara to the gold
mines in the savannah to the south, from
the Atlantic in the west to the copper
mines of Takedda and beyond in the east.
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Some of the principal cities were Djenne and Timbuktu.
When he went on pilgrimage in 1342, he took 500 slaves
with him, each one carrying a staff of gold weighing about
three kilograms. Trade in cloth spread throughout the
region, with people dressed in cloth from Kano over an
enormous area.
 The cities of Mali became centers of commerce, religion and
learning, and attracted many scholars.
o
http://library.thinkquest.org/C002739/AfricaSite/LMwestmali.htm
 Songhai Empire rose in the second half of the fifteenth century. It
was the most impressive state that operated at a crucial
intersection of the trans Saharan trade routes and that derived
much of their reve nue from taxing that commerce.
 It is considered the successor state to Mali
 It was traditionally made up of farmers, herders, and fishers.
 Dominated by Mali for a while, in the
14th century, Songhai had established
its independence again and began to
thrive as a new source of gold from the
west African forests
 The city of Gao was large with a
resident foreign merchant community
and several mosques.
 Sunni Ali: a great tactical commander
and ruthless leader. He seized the
traditional trading cities of Timbuktu
and Jenne.
 Songhai remained the dominant power in the region until the
end of the 16th century. In 1591, a Muslim army from Morocco,
equipped with muskets, crossed the Sahara and defeated the
forces of Songhai. This sign of weakness stimulated internal
revolts against the ruling family and eventually the old empire
broke away.
Culture:
 Life in the Songhai Empire followed many of the patterns
established in the previous savanna states. The fusion of Islamic
and pagan populations and traditions continued. Muslim clerics
and jurists sometimes were upset by the pagan beliefs and
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practices that continued among the population and even more by
the local interpretation of Islamic law.
Islam was fused with the existing traditions and beliefs. Rulership
and authority were still based on the ability to intercede in local
spirits
Islam in the early states in this area tended to accommodate
pagan practices and beliefs.
Large populations of Mali and Songhai never converted to Islam
We can see the fusion of traditions clearly in the position of
women.
Several Sudanic societies were matrilineal, and some recognized
the role of women within the lines of kinship, contrary to the
normal patrilineal customs inscribed in the Sharia or Islamic law.
Outsiders who were Muslim were shocked to see the easy
familiarity between men and women and the freedom of women.
Slavery: The slaver trade between black Africa and the rest of the
Islamic world had a major impact on women and children.
Various forms of slavery and dependent labor had existed in
Africa before Islam was introduced. Although we know little about
slavery in central Africa in this period, slavery had been a
marginal aspect of these states. Africans had been enslaved by
others before but with the Muslim conquest of north Africa and
commercial penetration to the south, slavery became a more
widely diffused phenomenon, and a slave trade in African
developed on a new scale.
o Slaves were used as domestic servants and laborers and
soldiers and administrators. They were used as eunuchs
and concubines (hence an emphasis on enslaving children
and women)
o This was a major way Islamic civilization changed sub
Saharan Africa.
Political:
 The village communities, clans, and various ethnic groups
continued to organize many aspects of life in the savanna. The
development of unified states provided an overarching structure
that allowed the various groups and communities to coexist.
 The large states usually represented the political aims and power
of a particular group and often of a dominant family
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 Islam provided a universalistic faith that served the interests of
many groups. Common religion and law provided solidarity and
trust to the merchants who lived in the cities and whose caravans
brought goods to and from the savanna.
 The ruling families used Islamic titles like caliph to reinforce their
authority. The surrounded themselves with literate Muslim
scholars.
 The Muslims concept
of a ruler who united
civil and religious
authority reinforced
traditional ideas of
kingship.
NOTE THE SPREAD OF
ISLAM THROUGHOUT
AFRICA 
Mughal Empire:
 India:
o Descended from the Mongol khans and Turks was the
founder. His name was Babur. This was a Muslim empire in
a predominantly Hindu world.
o He was a better conqueror than an administrator.
o His grandson Akbar was a greater ruler. In the decades
after 1560 when Akbar took control of the government his
armies greatly extended the empire with conquests
throughout the north and central India.
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o He was a social and political genius. He pursued a policy of
reconciliation and cooperation iwht Hindu princes and the
Hindu majority of the population of his realm. He
encouraged intermarriage between Mughal and Hindu
rulers. He abolished the jizya.
o He was very tolerant and tried to end the sectarian division
between Hindus and Muslims.
 Religion had little to do with empire building.
 The new capital of the Mughal Empire was
Delhi.
 The most famous architectural achievement
of the Mughal Dynasty was the Taj Mahal
(pictured).
 Mughal leaders were great patrons of the
arts. Art blended the finest Persian and Hindu traditions with the
Islamic genius of domes, arches, and minarets.
 Women: child marriage grew more popular and the age limit was
lowered. It was not unheard of for girls to be married at age nine.
Widow remarriage among Hindus nearly died out. Seclusion was
more and more strictly enforced for upper caste women, Hindu
and Muslim. Muslim women rarely ventured forth from their
homes unveiled, and those who did risked verbal and physical
abuse. Among Hindus, the practice of sati grew. (Sati is when
Hindu widows self immolated). Only the birth of a son was
greeted with feasting and celebration.
Decline:
 Over time the Mughal bureaucracy grew corrupt. For decades the
need for essential administrative, military, and social reforms had
been ignored. The army also had backwards weaponry.
 Aurangzeb can be contrasted with Akbar. He lived from 16181707. Ruled from 1658-1707 and was the last of the Mughal
emperors.
o He was largely intolerant of non Muslims and tried to
Islamify India. (bad idea).
o The British succeeded in the ruling of India.
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Ottomans
SOCIAL
POLITICAL
ECONOMIC
ENVIRONMENTAL
SOCIAL
POLITICAL
ECONOMIC
ENVIRONMENTAL
Safavid
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Sudanic
SOCIAL
POLITICAL
ECONOMIC
ENVIRONMENTAL
SOCIAL
POLITICAL
ECONOMIC
ENVIRONMENTAL
India: Mughal
Vocabulary
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Ottoman
Osman Bey
Ghazi
devshirme
Janissaries
Mehmed the
Conqueror
Suleyman the
Magnificent
seizure of
Constantinople
in 1453
Ghana
Mali
Songhai
Baber
Akbar
Taj Mahal
Aurangzeb
Definition