Islamic Gunpowder Empires: 1450 – 1750
I.
Dynastic States
a. The Ottoman, Safavid, Mughal rulers and Islam
i. All three Islamic empires were military creations
ii. Called Gunpowder empires as guns were critical to rise of empire
b. Military prowess of rulers, elite units critical
c. Authority of dynasty derived from personal piety
d. Devotion to Islam led rulers to extend faith to new lands
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II.
Steppe traditions
a. All three were Turkish in origin; two were Shia
b. Autocratic: emperors imposed their will on the state
i. Ongoing problems with royal succession
ii. Ottoman rulers legally killed brothers after taking the throne
c. Royal women often wielded great influence on politics
i. Wives, sisters, daughters, aunts, mother of sultan lived in harem
ii. Eunuchs protected women; both eunuchs, women had influence
iii. Children raised in harem; often not allowed out until teenager
iv. Harem politics: women often influenced policies, selections
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III.
Rise of the Ottoman State
a. Anatolian clan of the Seljuk Turks
i. Frontier Emirate Founded 1289
a. Founder was Osman Bey
b. Led Muslim religious warriors (ghazi)
ii. Mehmed the Conqueror (reigned 1451-1481)
a. Captured Constantinople in 1453
b. Renamed city Istanbul, the Ottoman capital
c. Absolute monarchy; centralized state
d. Expanded to Serbia, Greece, Albania
e. Attacked Italy
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b. Turkish Social Structure
i. Four social groupings in settled, urban environment
a. The men of the pen
b. Judges, imams (prayer leaders), other intellectuals
c. Men of the sword: military
d. Men of negotiations, such as merchants
ii. Men of husbandry: farmers, livestock raisers
a. Life on the frontier was far less structured
b. Society there was divided into two groups
a. Askeri (the military)
i. Consisted of the men of pen, religion, sword
ii. Protected the realm, raya
iii. Conquered new territories
b. Raya (the subjects)
i. In the early days
1. Possible for raya to cross over, become askeri
2. Through outstanding military service
ii. Over time
1. Separation between askeri and raya became
more rigid
2. Military became almost hereditary
c. Women had no rights aside from tradition, class, husbands’
wishes
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c. Timur and the Land Survey
i. Timar system
a. Askeri was given a share of the agricultural taxes of a designated region
i. Usually consisting of several villages
ii. In return for military service as cavalryman, assisted in
provincial government
iii. At height Ottomans put more than 100,000 cavalrymen
into the field
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iv. Gradually became hereditary
b. Timar was not feudalism
b. Timar-holder did not dispense justice
i. Justice was the sultan’s prerogative
c. European feudalism: government on local level in absence of central
government
d. Ottoman Empire: Central government was active and crucial
a. Timar more like Japanese shogun fief system
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d. Suleiman the Magnificent
i. Empire at its height under Suleyman
a. Reigned 1520-1566
b. Conquered lands in Europe, Asia, Africa
c. Built powerful navy to rule Mediterranean
d. Encouraged development of arts
e. Beautified Constantinople with mosques
ii. Empire began a slow decline after Suleiman
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e. The Turkish Millet
i. Each millet
a. Was headed by its own religious dignitary
b. Chief rabbi in the case of the Jews
c. Patriarchs for the Greek Orthodox, Armenian communities
ii. Heads of millet were responsible to Turkish sultan
a. Advised sultan on affairs in the community
b. Was punished by sultan for problems of the community
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IV.
V.
iii. Later expanded to other ethnic communities
iv. Muslims had no millet
a. Muslims ruled by Quran, sharia
v. In the millet system
a. Each community was responsible for
a. The allocation and collection of its taxes
b. Its educational arrangements
c. Internal legal matters pertaining to marriage, divorce,
inheritance
f. In the pre-modern Middle East
i. Identity was largely based on religion
ii. System functioned well until rise of European nationalism
iii. Most cities were divided into quarters based on religion, language
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Safavid Persia
a. Turkish conquerors of Persia and Mesopotamia
b. Founder Shah Ismail (reigned 1501-1524)
i. Claimed ancient Persian title of shah.
ii. Proclaimed Twelver Shiism official religion
iii. Imposed it on Sunni population
c. Twelver Shiism
i. Traced origins to 12 ancient Shiite imams
ii. Ismail believed to be twelfth, or "hidden," imam
d. Shah Abbas the Great (1588-1629)
i. Revitalized the Safavid empire
ii. Modernized military
iii. Sought European alliances
iv. Permitted European merchants, missionaries
e. New capital at Isfahan
f. Centralized administration
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VI.
Mughal Empire
a. Commerce and Demography
i. Food crops
a. Agriculture: the basis of all three empires
ii. Major crops: wheat, rice
a. Little impacted by new American crops
b. Imports of coffee, tobacco very popular
a. Coffee discovered in Jaffa Province (Ethiopia)
b. Coffee houses developed, a major social tradition
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iii. Peasants
a. Tended to be overtaxed, overworked by nobles
b. Many so mistreated that they abandoned their lands
iv. Demographics
a. Population growth less dramatic than in China, Europe
b. India: significant growth due to intense agriculture
c. Less dramatic growth in Safavid and Ottoman realms
d. All empires were multi-national, multi-religious
v. Commerce
a. Long-distance trade important to all three empires
a. Minorities controlled trade in all three states in trade diasporas
b. Trade goods tended to be traditional arts, crafts; little
manufacturing
c. Ottomans, Safavids shared parts of east-west trade routes
vi. Safavids offered silk, carpets, ceramics to Europeans
vii. Mughal empires less attentive to foreign or maritime trading
a. Mughals permitted stations for English, French, Dutch
b. Europeans gradually exclude Indian influence
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b. Religious Affairs
i. Religious diversity
a. Created challenges to rule of empires
b. Uniformity hard with religious differences
ii. Religious minorities
a. Generally tolerated in Islamic states
iii. In Ottoman empire
a. Conquered peoples protected, granted religious, civil autonomy
b. Organized into quasi-legal millets to regulate own affairs
c. Much of population was Christian, Jewish
d. Each communities had own millet which handled judicial affairs
iv. In India
a. Majority of population was Hindu
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VII.
b. Early Muslim rulers closely cooperated with Hindu majority
c. Under Aurangzeb: Islam proclaimed state religion, nonbelievers taxed
v. In Persia
a. Shia were fanatical
b. Enforced articles of faith
vi. Religious diversity in India under the rule of Akbar
a. Akbar encouraged religious tolerance
b. Advocated syncretic "divine faith“ called Din i-ilahi
a. Emphasizing loyalty to emperor
c. Catholic missionaries welcomed at court of Akbar
d. Tolerated Sikhism
e. A new faith arose by combing elements of Islam, Hinduism
a. Egalitarian faith whose members were soldiers, merchants
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Cultural Patronage of the Islamic Gunpowder Empires
a. Sponsored arts and public works
i. Golden Age of Islamic art, architecture
ii. Mosques, palaces, schools, hospitals, caravanserais
iii. Miniature painting flourished in Iran, Mughals
b. Istanbul
i. Ottoman capital, a bustling city of a million people
ii. Topkapi palace housed government, sultan's residence
iii. Suleymaniye blended Islamic, Byzantine architecture
c. Isfahan
i. Safavid capital
ii. The "queen of Persian cities“
iii. The central mosque is a wonder of architecture
d. Fatehpur Sikri, Mughal capital, created by Akbar
i. Combined Islamic style with Indian elements
ii. Site abandoned because of bad water supply
iii. Taj Mahal, exquisite example of Mughal architecture
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VIII.
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Deterioration
a. Dynastic decline
i. Caused by negligent rulers, factions
ii. Constant competition between factions within government
iii. Former elite military units often became threats
iv. Government corruption
a. Bribery became way of doing business
b. Many officials pocketed taxes, overtaxed, etc.
v. Harem politics
a. Rulers raised in harems let sex carry them away
b. Rulers took to drinking, partying too much
c. Rulers’ mothers, wives jockeyed for position, sons
vi. Tensions increased
a. Religious conservatives abandoned tolerance
vii. Ottoman conservatives
a. Resisted innovations like the telescope, printing press
b. Resisted western military innovations, industrialization
c. Discouraged merchants, commercialism
viii. Safavid Empire
a. Shiite leaders urged shahs to persecute Sunnis, Sufis
b. Non-Muslims lost many protections
ix. Mughal India
a. Aurangzeb's policies provoked deep animosity of Hindus
b. Rise of Sikhs
c. Rise of Christians with coming of Europeans
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IX.
Reasons for Decline
a. Economy and Military Expansion
i. Each conquest provided booty to state to help development
ii. End of territorial expansion meant no booty
iii. Difficult to support armies and bureaucrats
a. Series of long and costly wars with no financial support
b. Economy Stagnated by eighteenth century
i. Officials resorted to raising taxes to deal with financial problems
ii. Official, unofficial corruption lost millions in revenue to state
iii. Failure to develop trade and industry
c. Commerce had always been in hands of Jews, Armenians
i. Lost initiative to European merchants
d. Military decline
i. Imported European weapons but never made their own
ii. Arsenals outdated; tactics outdated; systems outdated
e. Ottoman Empire
i. Even purchased military vessels from abroad
f. Europeans developed extremely modern militaries
i. 1689: Austrians raise 2nd siege of Vienna, liberate Hungary
g. India
i. Rise of Marhattas, Rajputs in India
ii. Mughals refused to build a navy, let Europeans rule seas
iii. Led to loss of Mughal provinces
a. Local princes, rulers assumed control, defied Mughals
iv. Rise of Banditry, Piracy
a. In countryside, many poor peasants took to banditry
b. On seas, many ports and merchants too to piracy
c. Trade disrupted, made Europeans mad who often retaliated
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X.
Cultural Insularity
a. Cultural conservatism
i. Ottoman cartographer, Piri Reis, gathered together European maps
ii. Muslims seldom traveled to the West, confident of their superiority
iii. Science, technology ignored as it is western, threat
iv. Ignorant of European technological developments
a. Hostile to European, Christian inventions, institutions
b. Social conservatism
i. Middle classes failed to develop in Muslim states
a. Growing gap between ruling elite, peasants/slaves
ii. Growing antagonism between religious elites, ruling elites
iii. Resistance to printing press
a. Introduced by Jewish, late fifteenth century
b. At first, Ottomans banned printing in Turkish, Arabic
c. Ban lifted in 1729; conservatives closed Turkish press in 1742
d. In India, Mughals showed little interest in printing technology
iv. Xenophobia becomes a cultural trait of Islam
a. Foreign cultural innovations seen as a threat to political stability
b. Inability to grasp aspects of modern politics, state structures
c. Muslims cannot believe what is happening to them
i. More irritating that it is the Christian Europeans who are ruling
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