LEQ Muslim Gunpowder Empires

What are the 3 empires?

Mughal, Ottoman, Safavid

What are 3 ways the gunpowder empires expanded?

Using gunpowder, efficient tax collection, and legitimizing their rule through religion.

What are 3 ways why they stopped expanding?

Powerful neighboring empires, corruption within tax systems, and religious rifts.

What happened prior to 1450?

Prior to 1450, Tamerlane, a powerful conqueror with Mongol ancestry conquered many lands in Central Asia, Persia, and parts of India. He held the Ghazi Ideal, which encouraged Muslim warriors to fight for Islam and kept them loyal to their respective empires. Tamerlane set the stage for the Ottoman empire and the Ghazi Ideal was an ideal that drove the Muslim gunpowder empires to fight.

What will your thesis be?

The three land-based Muslim gunpowder empires were the Ottoman, Safavid, and the Mughal empires. They expanded their power by using gunpowder, efficient tax collection systems, and legitimizing their rule through religion. However, later on they stopped expanding due to powerful neighboring empires, corruption within tax systems, and religious rifts.

First way of expansion?

The first way the Muslim gunpowder empires expanded from 1450-1750 was through the use of gunpowder. Mehmed the second was able to conquer Constantinople to expand the Ottoman Empire using gunpowder. He turned Constantinople into Istanbul and made it a major trading hub and unlocked trade routes for wealth that was used to further expand the empire through more gunpowder. Babur from the Mughal empire defeated the Delhi Sultanate in the 1500s allowing him to take over Delhi, another major trading city by using gunpowder for military might. The Mughal empire was now able to get wealth to further expand their empire by being able to generate more revenue, unlocking additional trade routes to China, and controlling more of India. However, one empire that eventually stops expanding even though they used gunpowder is the Safavid empire. Since Safavids are Shi’a and they’re surrounded by Ottomans to the west and Mughals to east who are both Sunni, the Safavid empire stopped expanding due to tension between the two empires and the Safavids. Additionally, the Safavids did not have a powerful navy leaving them landlocked.

Second way of expansion?

The second way the Muslim gunpowder empires expanded from 1450-1750 was through efficient tax collection systems. The Ottoman empire employed tax farmers who collected taxes from the public and sent some of that money to the empire. Similarly in the Mughal empire, Zamindars were employed to also collect taxes from the public. These efficient and structured tax collection systems of Zamindars (Mughals) and tax farmers (Ottomans) allowed the empires to generate lots of wealth for expansion to new territories by utilizing it in military, infrastructure, and resources. However, over time these tax collectors overtaxed the public and kept large portions of the taxes to themselves. This meant less wealth could go to the empires and limited their expansions. Many tax farmers and Zamindars kept so much money that they attempted to secede and break away from their respective empires hindering the empire's growth through internal rebellions.

Third way of expansion?

The third way Muslim land-based gunpowder empires expanded was through legitimizing their rule through religion. The Ottoman empire had many sultans who were caliphs. They claimed that they had the right to rule because of Islam. In the Mughal empire, Akbar, despite being Muslim, was tolerant toward the majority Hindu population that was being ruled. The caliph helped legitimize his rule and unify the Ottoman empire and Akbar was able to prevent internal uprisings because of his tolerance which created stability allowing for the focus to be on expansion to new territories. However, later when Akbar’s reign ends Aurangzeb rules after. Aurangzeb was not tolerant towards the majority Hindu population of Mughal India and forced them to pay the jizya tax (tax for non-Muslims). This created internal uprising, fractures, and instability which later the British East India company took advantage to conquer parts of India and stop the expansion of the Mughal empire.