CHAPTER 16
The Muslim Empires
Focus Questions
The Ottoman Empire
• What was the ethnic composition of the
Ottoman Empire, and how did the
government of the sultan administers such
a diverse population?
Identifications: Ottoman
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Ottoman Turks
Queen Mother
Grand Vezir
Beys
Religious Freedom
Sultan
Millet
Janisarries
Women’s Status
Factors of Decline
Harem
Devishirme
Critical Thinking
• What were the main characteristics of
each of the Muslim Empires, and in what
ways did they resemble each other?
• How were they distinct from their
European counterparts?
The Ottoman Empire
• Seljuk Turks:
– Turkic Speaking people who spread westward
from Central Asia, 9 -11th Centuries
• Ottoman Turks
– 13th C Osman (1280 – 1326) began to
consolidate power Anatolian Penninsula
– Expanded to found the Osmanli Dynasty
• Later known as the Ottoman
• Capital at Bursa
Rise of Empire
• Orkhan I (1326 – 1360)
– Expanded into Byzantine Empire
– Beys assumed position of landlords and
collected taxes from Slavic peasants
• Provincial governors in the ottoman empire
“knights”
– Ottoman leader claimed title of Sultan
• Sovereign of his domain
Rise of Empire
• Murad I succeeded his father, 1360
– Consolidated power in the Balkans
• Capital at Edirne
• Defeated Serbs at Battle of Kosovo, 1389
– Ended Serbian Hegemony
• Modern Military Administration
– Recruited Christians into an elite Guard
– Janissaries “New Troops”
• Converted to Islam
• Foot soldiers, administrators
• Loyal to the Sultan
Expansion of Empire:
Constantinople
• Bayazid I (1389 – 1402)
– Expanded North
• Annexed Bulgaria
• Mehmet II (1451 – 1481)
– Controlled Dardenelles
– Sieged Constantinople, 1453
• New capital of Ottoman Dynasty
• Renamed Istanbul
– Now a dominant force in the Balkans and Anatolia
Peninsula
The Turkish
Conquest of
Constantinople
Under Mehmet II
became capital of
Ottoman Empire:
Istanbul
© The Bridgeman Art Library
Expansion of Empire:
Western Asia & Africa
• 1514 Emperor Selim 1 (1512 – 1520)
– Consolidated Turkish control over
Mesopotamia & North Africa
– 1516, Mamluks defeated in Syria
– 1517 Cairo defeated
• Selim, New Caliph or successor to Muhammad
Expansion of Empire: Europe
• Suleyman I the Magnificent (1520 -1566)
– 1521, Seized Belgrade
– 1526, Battle of Mohacs, Danube
• Major victory over Hungarians
– 1571 repulsed by Spanish forces in Vienna
• Ottoman Empire treated like a European
power in the early 17th C
– European rulers sought alliances and trade
concessions
Turks fight Christians at the
Battle of Moha´cs
© The Art Archive/ Topkapi Museum, Istanbul/Gianni Dagli Orti
Late 17th C: Europe
• Grand Vezirs (Chief Executive)
– Began new expansion
• 1683 again repelled in Vienna
– Ended Turkish threat in Europe
• Ottoman Survived the 18th C
– Under threat of growing Austrian empire in
South Eastern Europe
– New Russian Empire in the North
Nature of Turkish Rule
• 1. The Role of the Sultan
– Supreme authority, political and military
– Hereditary
– Administrative Center & residence
• Topkapi Palace, Instanbul
• 2. The Harem “sacred place”
– Administrative center & residence
• Status of Queen given to mother of first son
– Queen Mother when her son became sultan
» Advisor to the throne & diplomat
» Power in affairs of state & administration of imperial
household
Merit system
•sought to recruit its
officials on the basis of
merit.
•Devshirme/collection’
youth selected from
the non-Muslim
population
•extensive academic
and military training.
© The Bridgeman Art Library
Ottoman Ruling Elite
• Sunni Muslims,
– sultans claimed the title of caliph or defender
of the faith since the 16th C.
• Technically responsible for maintaining Islamic law
or the Shari’a.
– Sultan assigned these duties to a supreme religious
authority who administered the law and maintained the
educational system
Treatment of Minorities
• Islamic Law and customs were applied to all
Muslims in the empire.
– Religious Freedom
– Loyalty
• Non Muslims:
– Orthodox Christian’s
– Greek and Slavic,
– Jews and Armenian
» head tax in compensation for their exemption from military
service
» permitted to practice their religion or convert to Islam.
European areas remained Christian, Balkans; (Boznia and
Herzegovina today) many converted to Islam.
Millet
• Religious groups organized as a Millet
(nation or community)
– own patriarch, priest or grand rabbi
• intermediary with the government
• administered the community according to its own
laws.
– System of justice, educational politics, welfare for needy
• The leaders of the individual nations
– responsible to the sultan and his officials for
the behavior of the subjects,
– collected taxes for the government.
Social Classes
• Subjects divided by occupation & place of
residence
– 4 occupational groups
• Artisans
– Organized by craft Guilds
• Merchants
– Most privileged outside of the ruing elite
– Exempt from government regulation & taxes
• Peasants
– Tilled land leased by the state/use rights inherited
• Pastoral peoples
Religion and Society:
Position of Women
• Women’s Status in the Ottoman Empire
• Non Muslim women
– subject to the laws and customs of their own
religions:
• Orthodox Christian, Armenian Christian, Jewish
women were spared some of the restrictions
applied to Muslim women.
Religion and Society:
Position of Women
• Islamic laws as applied to the ottoman
empire defined the legal position of
women comparatively tolerantly
– allowed to inherit property, including their
dowries
– Could not be forced to marry
– permitted to seek divorce
– Politically influential
– Senior officials, governors of provinces
th
17
C factors of decline
• Devshirme system transformed from a
meritocratic administrative elite into a privileged
and often degenerate hereditary caste
– Local administrators were corrupted, Taxes rose
– Imperial treasury depleted, wars
– Transport and communication networks neglected
– interest in science and technology in decline,
• the hallmark of the Arab empire
– Decline in competence of rulers
– Declining morality – western influence
– Diversion of trade routes, price inflation due to
American silver
Focus Question:
The Safavids
• What Problems did the empire face and
how did their rulers attempt to solve them?
How did their approaches compare with
other Muslim Empires?
The Safavids
• Dynasty of Persia 16th C
• Shah Ismail (1487 – 1524) he was a
descendant of Sheikh Safi al-Din
– Safi developed the activist Shi’ite faith
• 1501 claimed modern Iraq & Iran proclaimed
himself Shah
• Shah Abbas (1587 – 1629)
– Dynasty reached Zenith
– Established system similar to Jannisaries
– Built up army/expansion and warfare
The Ottoman and Safavid
Empires, c. 1683
Safavid Politics & Society
• Ethnic, linguistic and religious diversity
• Shi’ite Faith used to unify Iranians &
Nomadic Turks
• Merit based appointment system in
government
• Shahs involved in commercial and
manufacturing, enforced honesty &
fairness
• Good transportation and communication
Factors of Collapse of Safavids
 Succession conflict following Abbas death
(1629)
Power of Militant Shi’ite increased
Intellectual freedom curtailed under rise of
orthodoxy
Women’s freedoms restricted
Veiling & seclusion imposed
Religious toleration replaced with
repression
Unrest and revolt (collapse in 1723)
Focus Question: The Grandeur
of the Mughals
• What Role did Islam play in the Mughal
Empire, and how did the Mughals
approach to religion compare with that of
the Ottomans and the Safavids? Explain
the similarities and differences?
Mughal Empire: Babur
• Muslims & foreigners brought India to
peak of political power & cultural
achievements
– United continent under one government
– Common culture
• Babur founded dynasty through political
manuevering & military capability
– Greatest empire in 2000 years (Mauryan)
The Mughal Empire
Akbar & Indo-Muslim Civilization
• Socially Sophisticated Ruler
– Humane ruler
– Respected diversity of Indian Society
– Religious Tolerance
– Abolished Hindu restrictions
• Sophisticated Administration
– Non-Muslims & Hindus appointed
– Zaminders collected taxes
Akbar & Indo-Muslim Civilization
 Legal system
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Tolerant
Muslims – Shari’a/ Hindu- Dharmashastra
Rescinded Jizya (1579) (non-Muslim poll tax)
Mild punishment, impartially & efficiently
administered
 Harmonious Society
 Ideal social order
 Laws of Islam, caste system (Ottoman)
Beginning of Decline
The Reign of Shan Jahan (1628-1658)
 increase in imperial control
Decline in competence & intentions of ruler
Increase in poverty and internal problems
• Rule of Aurangzeb (1658-1707)
– Attempted to eliminate some social evils
– Reversed previous policies of religious
tolerance
• Domestic unrest/revolt
The Taj Mahal, Constructed
under reign of Shan Jahan
© Ian Bell
Final Decline
• 18th C Internal revolts
– Gentry & merchants began to erode power
– Poverty & famine
– Economic disparity & religious intolerance
• 18th C External
– Europeans gained control of regional trade
– Influenced internal politics
– Divided and overcame empire
Western Power in India
• England Established textile factories
(1616)
• Gained Authority to collect taxes (1757)
• Seized Mughal Emperor (1767)
• By 1858 subcontinent under company
control
India in
1805
•By the early
nineteenth
century, much
of the Indian
subcontinent
had fallen
under British
domination.