Chapter 19
Southwest Asia and
the Indian Ocean,
1500-1750
I. Ottoman Empire to 1750
A. Expansion and Frontiers
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NW. Anatolia - Turkish nomad horsemen, founder Osman
Gallipoli key link - Asia/Europe
Army -Turkish cavalry and gunpowder
1402 - most of Anatolia/SE Europe under Ottoman control,
setback by Mongol Timur
1453 - Sultan Mehmed II captured Constantinople and
renamed it Istanbul
1514 - Battle of Chaldiran, Selim I ended Safavid threat, soon
conquered Mamluk Egypt
Suleiman the Magnificent (1520-1566) – further expansion
into S/E Europe, failed siege of Vienna in 1529
Conflict with Venice over control of Mediterranean
B. Central Institutions
• Balkans -Christian POW’s forced to fight in
army
• Janissaries – convert to Islam, foot soldiers,
guns
• devshirme – new system imposed a regular
levy on male children in Christian villages
• Opportunities – education
• Cosmopolitan empire – language and military
• Askeri – military/bureaucracy, no taxes, paid
by sultan
• 1500s – conflict with Charles V and Phillip II
• 1580 - capture Cyprus from Venice
• Cavalrymen maintained order, collected taxes,
of rural areas of the empire
• Central gov. seldom involved with subjects;
justice sought in religious courts
C. Crisis of the Military State 1585-1650
• Cavalry shrank, firearms/cannons -•
Janissaries grew in importance
• Mid-16thC. Sultan reduced
landholding of cavalry to pay for
janissaries
• Late-16thC. problems with silver, •
lack of Ottoman sultans’ response
• Students/professionals in
madrasas hard to live with limited
endowment
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Government levied emergency
surtaxes to pay jan./bur. -added
partially trained soldiers to army
who were out of work once the
summer campaigns ended.
Revolts/banditry resulted in 15901610; former cavalrymen,
peasants, and short term soldiers,
and impoverished students
Janissaries started to marry and
engage in business; previously
not allowed
D. Economic Change and Growing weakness 1650-1750
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Sultans – hostages, fratricide
Sultan’s mother/chief Eunuch
Grand viziers
(Devshirme discontinued) Janissaries power grew/positions
hereditary
Became involved in crafts/trading
Land grants for service stopped; tax farming instead
Imperial government came to rely on provincial
governors/wealthy men for administration of lands
Subsistent farmers switched from grain to cotton/tobacco
Power of military fell; Janissaries hired ill-trained substitutes
to fight instead
1683 – second failed attempt to take Vienna
1718-1730 “Tulip Period”
1730 Janissary revolt and Sultan Ahmed III abdicates,
Patrona Halil governs till captured/killed
Mid 18thC. Mamluks regained dominance in Egypt; Arabia,
Sunni movement led by Abd al-Wahhab rose
II. The Safavid Empire
A. The Rise of the Safavids
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Death of Timur - Ismail claimed himself Shah of Iran in 1502
Shi’ite Islam - Sunni beliefs to be abandoned (majority Sunni)
Ismail’s Sufi brotherhood, fought on his behalf, known as the Qizilbash.
Iranian subjects resisted, and neighboring lands gave refugee to Sunnis
Ismail’s son Tahmasp successful - Shi’ite Iran
B. Society And Religion
• By 1500 a library of legal/theological
writings; epic, lyric, and poetry
• Iranian scholars/writers knew both
Arabic/Persian
• Iran made contacts with India, where
Muslim rulers made Persian language
of the government
• Persian Poets Hafez(1319-1389) and
Sa’di(1215-1291) made morally
instructive/allegorical poetry popular
• All Muslim areas had
mosques/madrasas that trained the
Ulama to interpret the Shari’a, but local
understandings of traditions varied
• Impact of Shi’ism in Iran significant;
Shi’ite doctrine says that temporal
rulers are stand-ins for the “Hidden
Imam” the twelfth descendent of Ali
C. A Tale of Two Cities: Isfahan and Istanbul
ISFAHAN - Safavid
• became Iran’s capitol in
1598 by decree of Shah
Abbas I (1587-1629) ;
• featured brick domes
covered with tiles, and
unobtrusive minarets
• far from the sea, traded
more with
Jews/Hindus/Armenians
• located away from
danger in the center of
Iran
BOTH
• No wheeled vehicles,
used camels
• Both cities had guilds
that were
socially/economically
bonded
• Women seldom in
public; women’s
quarters in Iran =
anderun “interior” and
in Istanbul called
harem or “forbidden
area”
• Islamic law, unlike
European codes,
allowed women to
hold property after
marriage, and could
testify in court.
ISTANBUL - Ottoman
• built on seven hills
had lots of gray lead
domed mosques
and pointed
minarets including
Aya Sophya (Hagia
Sophia)
• traded with
European often due
to harbor
D. Economic Crisis & Political Collapse
• Silk from N. Iran main foreign trade; manufacturing carpets made by
yarn/threads associated with Iran: different carpets per city (Women/child)
• Most of shah’s subjects lived by subsistence farming or herding
• Shah grants large sections of land to Qizilbash nomads in return for warriors
• Safavids had difficulty paying troops armed with firearms; needed
firearms/artillery to fight of Ottomans/Uzbeks
• Nomad warriors refused to trade arrows for guns; Shah had to employ slave
corps of annul soldiers armed with guns
• Christian converts to Islam added to troops and grew to hold power
• Late 1500s -inflation caused by cheap silver spread into Iran; overland trade
declined due to mismanagement of silk due to death of shah Abbas (1629)
• Removal of nomads from their land proved difficult (needed the taxes)
• 1722 - Afghan’s captured Isfahan/ended Safavid rule
• Safavids never possessed a navy and (Portuguese captured Gulf island of
Hormuz)
• Shah relied on English/Dutch naval support; Nadir shah unified Iran briefly
between 1736-1747, purchased naval vessels from English
III. Mughal Empire 1526-1761
A. Political Foundations
• Descendent of Timur, Babur (1483-1530) founded Mughal Empire; invaded
from C. Asia and defeated sultan of Delhi at Battle of Panipat in 1526
• India = primary area of Mughal accomplishment; Babur’s grandson Akbar
(1556-1605) established the central administration of the state
• Akbar granted land revenues (mansabs) to military officers/government
officials in return for service. (nonhereditary)
• Economy was based on cotton cloth, and administration; foreign trade
boomed at port of Surat in NW, also point of embarkation to Mecca
• Mughals had no navy, Indian merchant ships were privately owned
B. Hindus and Muslims
• Muslim destruction of Hindus cultural monuments, the expansion of Muslim
territory, and POW’s/forced converts horrified Hindus
• 70% of mansabdars(officials who had land grants) under Akbar, were
Muslim soldiers born outside of India, 15% Hindus from the N (Rajputs)
• Akbar strived for social harmony, not just territory/revenues; married a Hindu
Rajput princess and welcomed her family to court
Hindus And Muslims continued
• Akbar ruled that in legal disputes between 2 Hindus, dispute would be
decided by village customs or Hindu law; Muslims followed Shari’a law
• 1579 - Akbar made himself last resort in legal court ; also made himself
center of “Divine Faith” incorporated
Muslim/Hindu/Zoroastrian/Sikh/Christian ideas
• Akbar’s court culture lasted until his zealous great-grandson Aurangzeb
• Mughal/Rajput depictions of people in portraits, frowned upon by Muslims
• Lead painters were Hindu; Persian poetry favored at court, language Urdu
• Most Muslim converts occurred in Indus River valley
• Introduction of Sikhism in Punjab (NW India)
• Nanak (1469-1539) 1st guru; stressed mediation and combined
Muslim/Hindu beliefs; no caste system
• Auranzeb had 9th guru beheaded in 1675 for refusing to convert to Islam
• 10th guru reorganized followers “the army of the pure” for revenge
Central Decay and Regional challenges 1707-1761
• Mughal power fell after death of Aurangzeb in 1707; land grant
system one cause of this; decline of imperial authority
• Aurangzeb failed to integrate new Mughal territories into the imperial
structure and regional military leaders challenged Mughal supremacy
• The Marathas took territory across India’s middle, and Sikhs, Hindu
Rajputs, and Muslim Afghans exerted pressure from the NW
• 1739 Nadir Shah sacked Delhi, and took the crown jewels
• 1723 Nizam al-Mulk, the vizier of the sultan, gave up on the central
government and established independent state at Hyderabad in E.
Deccan
• Other officials (nawabs) became independent in Bengal/Oudh in NE,
and Marathas W, NW Afghans set up an independent kingdom
• Joseph Francois Dupleix took over stronghold of Pondicherry in 1741
and captured the English trading center of Madras, after 1754 – open
for British colonization