Ottomans, Safavids, and Mughals

What is a gunpowder empire?

An empire that uses guns to control enemies, build empires, and maintain control

Who were the Ottomans?

A Turkic group founded by Osman after the Mongols left the Anatolian Peninsula

Semi-nomadic

What victory made the Ottomans seem invincible to Europe?

Conquering Constantinople

What was the political system of the Ottomans?

Ruled by a sultan (military and political leader)

Who was Suleiman the Magnificent and what was he known for?

Ottoman sultan

Laid siege to Vienna but had to retreat before the onset of winter

Why did the Ottomans let Venice stay in control of its islands but pay tribute?

Because they never considered that a sea empire could rival a great land empire with a strong army

What was the devshirme system?

Captured Christian boys to stay at the palace of the sultan

Learned military training and Islam --> became janissary soldiers and heads of government

What were janissaries?

An elite military group that replaced tribal warriors, gave the Ottomans military flexibility (Christian prisoner converts)

What was the advantage of janissary soldiers?

Didn't have qualms about fighting Turks and Muslims in wars for expansion

Accepted fighting on food and using guns, unlike Turks whose horsemanship and bow use was part of culture

Who was a vizier?

The head of the bureaucracy, who eventually gained more power than the sultan

What was the economic system of the Ottomans?

Black and Mediterranean Sea trade

Maintenance of large empire had huge costs --> peasant revolts

Sharia limited tax reform

What was the culture of the Ottomans?

Sunni Muslims

Expanded to include Jews and Christians

Insulated from new culture and technology changes, viewed Europe as backwards

How did the Ottomans begin to decline?

Janissaries began to intermarry (growing power) but deteriorated as a military force, necessitating hiring more troops --> membership became hereditary

Tax farming replaces land grants for military service --> hurts rural administration

Sultan stayed in palace. while the grand viziers oversaw government

Where were the Safavids?

Persia and Iran

Who were the Safavids?

A Turkic nomadic group of Shi'ite Muslims

Who united the Safavid Empire?

Ismail, the hereditary leader of a Sufi brotherhood

What was the Battle of Chaldaran?

Between the Ottomans (cannons and muskets) and the Safavids (archers and swords)

Safavids lose

What was the importance of the Battle of Chaldaran?

Raalized that they needed European technology

What was the political system of the Safavid Empire?

Led by a shah

Dominated by Turks

Sharia is legal code

Who was Shah Abbas and what did he do?

Safavid ruler

Established Isfahan as the capital --> good public image, only occasionally visited by Europeans

What was the Safavid army like?

Russian boys are captured to be slave infantrymen

Learned military tech from Europe

No navy (land-based power)

Sufism blended with military aims to spread beliefs

What is Sufism?

An aspect/dimension of Islam

Brotherhoods

Truth through personal experience with Allah

What is mysticism?

Union with absolute, ultimate spiritual awareness through meditation and self-surrender (whirling dervishes)

How did ancient Persia shape Safavid politics?

Shahs took titles like "king of kings"

What was the Safavid economy like?

Tensions between Persians and Turkic groups disrupt trade

Shahs promote trade

Silk and deep pile carpets

What was Safavid society like?

Armenians are segregated outside the city

Embrace poetry

What was the role of women in the Safavid Empire?

Not entirely cut off from the outside world (could sell real estate)

Veiled outside the home but it was the same as men

Public life was dominated by men

How did the Safavid Empire decline?

Turkic and Afghani attacks

Sunni/Shi'a conflicts

Inflation caused by cheap silver, mismanaged silk monopoly led to decline in overland trade

More difficult to unseat nomads from land to regain tax control than stop land-grant system in the ottomans

Where was the Mughal Empire?

India and modern Pakistan

Why was Mughal rule different from the Ottomans and Safavids?

Far from the Muslim homeland

Ruled by a Muslim minority, resented by Hindus

What was the Delhi Sultanate?

After the Gupta Empire, divided northwest India is subject to raids by Afghan warlords

Muslim warrior invaders spread Islam and conquer kingdoms

How did the Turkish rulers of the Delhi Sultanate try to control the Hindu majority/

Terror --> harsh military reprisals to put down rebellion

Pillage and high taxes to sustain ruling elite

How was Islam spread during the Delhi Sultanate?

Merchants and Sufis tried to convert

Indians of lower castes welcomed

Most remained Hindus

Why was there conflict between Islam and Hinduism?

Islam --> equality, monotheism

Hinduism --> monotheism, hierarchical system, saw Islam as upstart that shouldn't be respected

Led to wars over religion

Who defeated the Muslim sultan of Delhi to found the Mughal Empire?

Babur (Turkic, not Mongol origin)

What was the Mughal Empire?

A mixture of Mongol and Turkic Muslims

What was the political system of the Mughals?

Power based on Islam and military (but no navy)

Constant warfare among regional princes

How did Akbar reform the system of warring regional princes?

He put Hindu rajas in the highest bureaucratic positions

What were Akbar's reforms to facilitate better Hindu-Muslim relations?

Encouraged intermarriage (married a Rajput)

Ended Babur's ban on Hindu temples

Ordered Muslims to respect the cow

Set tax rates on potential for wealth rather than status

Hindu local leaders kept positions

What else did Akbar achieve?

Expansion of the empire up to the southern tip of India

Led empire to its height

More tolerant of Hindus in order to maintain power

What was the Mughal economy?

Cotton, indigo, and silk trade

Cotton is traded with Europe

Land grants to officials based on merit-given mansabs (ranks)

What was the social structure of the Mughals?

Patriarchy

Women could have power (Mumtaz Mahal)

What was sati?

Ritual suicide of women by jumping onto their husband's funeral pyres

Encouraged in society

Who was Mumtaz Mahal?

Wife of Shah Jahan

Died, Taj Majal built as her tomb

What was the Divine Faith?

Akbar is the center

Mixture of Muslim, Hindu, Zoroastrian, Sikh, and Christian beliefs

What did Aurangzeb do to religious freedom?

Reinstated many restrictions on Hindus that Akbar had gotten rid of

Who was Nanak?

The founder of Sikhism

Sought to blend Islamic and Hindu beliefs

First guru

What was the "army of the pure"?

Religious order to defend Sikh beliefs after religious persecution by the shah

What is Sikhism?

Meditation to seek enlightenment

Syncretism of Hinduism (moksha, reincarnation) and Islam (monotheism, rejection of idols)

What did Shah Jahan do for culture?

Patron of the arts (miniature paintings)