Muslim Gunpowder Empire ID Terms

Gunpowder Empires

large multiethnic states in Southwest, Central, and South Asia that relied on firearms to conquer and control their territories

Tamerlane (Timur the Lame)

\_________ was a Mongol-Turkic ruler of the late 14th century. His invasion of Central Asia and the Middle East set the stage for the rise of the Turkic empires.

Ghazi ideal

The \_____ \_____ was a model for warrior life that blended the cooperative values of nomadic culture with the willingness to serve as a holy fighter for Islam. This ideal served for centuries as the model for warriors who participated in the rise of the Gunpowder Empires, and it was a model that fit Tamerlane well.

Ottoman Empire

Extending into modern-day Turkey as well as to the Balkan areas of Europe and parts of North Africa and Southeast Asia, the \_______ \______ was the largest and most enduring of the great Islamic empires of this period. It was founded by the Osman Dynasty in the 1300s and lasted until its defeat in 1918 by the Allies in WWI.

sultan

Military and political leader with absolute authority over a Muslim country; term used for Ottoman political leaders

Mehmed II

Called "the Conqueror", \_____ \__ (ruled 1451 - 1481) firmly established the Ottoman Empire's capital after his forces besieged Constantinople (once the center of the Byzantine Empire) in 1453. Under \______ __'s rule, the city - its name changed to Istanbul - prospered due to its location, which was a nexus for trade. He strengthened the Ottoman navy and attacked various areas of Italy, and forced the city of Venice to pay him a yearly tax.

Istanbul

Capital of the Ottoman Empire; named this after 1453 and the sack of Constantinople.

Devshirme

To staff their military and their government, the Ottoman sultans used a selection system called \_________, begun in the late 14th century and expanded in the the 15th and 16th centuries. Through this system, Christian boys who were subjects of the empire were recruited by force to serve in the Ottoman government. Boys ages 8 to 20 were taken each year from conquered Christian lands in Europe. After converting to Islam, they were taught various skills in politics, the arts, and the military.

Janissaries

The most group of the devshirme system, called \___________, formed elite forces in the Ottoman army. Becoming \___________ provided a path of upward mobility in the Ottoman Empire, even though the \___________ continued to be called "slaves of the state." Some parents even wanted their sons to be recruited into the service.

Suleiman I

The Ottoman Empire reached its peak under \________ _ (ruled 1520 - 1566). His armies overran Hungary in 1526 and, by 1529, were hammering at the gates of Vienna, the main city in Austria. \________ _ ordered many mosques, forts, and other great buildings constructed in the cities under his control. He also reformed the empire's legal system and thus came to be called "the Lawgiver."

Suleimani Mosque

Suleiman I ordered the construction of the magnificent \_________ \______, which can be seen from the Golden Horn promontory that juts into the Black Sea at its convergence with the Bosporus.

Middlemen

Ottoman trade was energized in its early years by repeated expansion through conquest. Rulers forced people in occupied areas to send monetary tribute as well as goods to the central government in Istanbul. The Ottoman navy allowed traders to serve as \_________, handling goods from both direction and receiving profit in exchange, in much the same way that the Dutch served as \_________ in Western Europe. In this way, some European styles and furnishings became popular in the empire.

coffeehouses

Many business agreements were signed in the empire's \____________, settings not only of business transactions but also of cultural events such as poetry recitations and scholarly debates. They also hosted trade meetings with representatives of such areas as Yemen, the major exporter of coffee. Trade agreements made by the sultans allowed European importers to purchase coffee through the Ottoman Empire at rates cheaper than direct purchase from Yemen.

Dhimmi

Non-muslims. "protected people". Only had to pay jizya (small tax) and retained personal freedom.

millets

self-governing religious communities

jizya

Poll tax that non-Muslims had to pay when living within a Muslim empire

Ulama

The Ottoman social system was built around a warrior aristocracy that soon began to compete for positions in the bureaucracy with the \_____ (scholars and experts in Islamic law.

viziers

As Sultans became less effective and less capable, strong advisors called these came to occupy influential positions in government, where they spoke for the Sultan.

Harem

Women also played social and political roles at court. Many wives and concubines of the sultan tried to promote their own children as likely heirs to the throne, giving rise to "\_____ politics," a reference to the \_____, a residence where a man's wives and concubines lived.

impressed

Some people were \_________, or forced into service, in the navy as galley slaves \-- estimates of the number of people \_________ go as high as a million or more between the 16th and 19th centuries.

Sick Man of Europe

After the reign of Suleiman, the Ottomans fell victim to weak sultans and strong European neighbors. In time, the empire became known as the "\____ \___ \__ \______." The Ottoman Empire grew as a whole less tolerant of non-Muslims and more insular. Slavery there continued into the 20th century.

shariah

After the fall of Constantinople, the Byzantine Empire's Justinian Law was replaced by \_______. \_______ is a system of Islamic jurisprudence that deals with all aspects of life, such as criminal justice, marital laws, and issues of inheritance, to name a few.

tax farming

To generate money for territorial expansion rulers used new methods to get money like Tribute systems and \_____ \_____. Under this system the government hires private individuals to go out and collect taxes for them.

Safavid Empire

Sandwiched between the other Islamic Gunpowder Empires, the \_______ \_______ had 2 problems: first, they were on the Arabian Sea but had no real navy; and second, they lacked natural defenses. Nevertheless, they rose to power in the 1500s due to their military might and strong leadership.

Ismail

An early Safavid military hero who's ethnic background is much disputed, conquered most of Persia and pushed into Iraq. Although only 14 or 15 years old, he soon conquered all of Iran and was proclaimed shah in 1501. Using Shia Islam as a unifying force, Shah \______ built a power base that supported his rule and denied legitimacy to any Sunni.

Qizilbash

Swordsmen calvary of the Safavid, the \_________ fought against Janissaries in a great religious conflict, the Battle of Chaldiran.

Shah

Safavid equivalent to king or emperor

Abbas I

\_____ _ (ruled 1587 - 1629) presided over the Safavid Empire at its height. His troops, conscripted in ways similar to the Janissaries of the Ottoman Empire, included soldiers from as far northwest as Georgia in Russia. \_____ _ imported weaponry from Europe and also relied on Europeans to advise his troops about this newly acquired military technology.

Babur

\_____, a descendent of Tamerlane, founded a 300-year dynasty in the 1520s, during a time when India was in disarray. He completed conquests in northern India and, under the new Mughal name, formed a central government similar to those of Suleiman in Turkey and Ivan the Terrible in Russia.

Akbar

Ruling from 1556 to 1605, \_____ proved to be the most capable of the Mughal rulers. For the first 40 years of his rule, he defeated Hindu armies and extended his empire southward and westward. From his capital in Delhi, \_____ established an efficient government and a system of fairly administered laws.

Zamindars

Paid government officials in charge of specific duties, such as taxation, construction, and water supply were called \_________. Later, they were given grants of land rather than salaries but were permitted to keep a portion of the taxes paid by local peasants, who contributed 1/3 of their produce to the government. Under the rulers who came after Akbar, the \_________ began to keep more of the taxes they collected to build personal armies.

Isfahan

Abbas beautified the Safavid capital city of \_______, adding broad avenues, parks, and numerous mosques and schools.

Mughal Empire

an Islamic imperial power that ruled a large portion of Indian subcontinent which began in 1526, invaded and ruled most of South Asia by the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and ended in the mid-19th century

sikhism

Akbar provided land grants for the relatively new religion of \_______, which developed from Hinduism and, some believe, may have been influenced by the Islamic mysticism known as Sufism.

Din-i-llahi

Akbar died in 1605 without successfully converting his Hindu and Islamic subjects to the religion called \___________, or "divine faith," which he had created for the purpose of reconciling Hinduism and Islam.

sati

Akbar is also noteworthy for trying (in vain) to prohibit child marriages and \____, the ritual in which widows killed themselves by jumping on the funeral pyres of their husbands.

castes

\______ are social groupings in India, usually associated with specific occupations. Members of the merchant castes were allowed to participate in banking and the production of handicrafts.

Shah Jahan

Mughal India flourished from Babur's time through the early 18th century. Magnificent architectural accomplishments included the Taj Mahal, built by \____ \_____ (ruled 1627 - 1658) as a tomb for his wife.

Taj Mahal

a beautiful tomb built by the Mughal ruler Shah Jahan to honor his wife