Chapter 15 - Islamic Empires

• Autocratic governing style

• Problems with succession

• Harem politics - women influenced policies and succession

• Sufis, devotion to Islam

• Gunpowder weapons - ‘Gunpowder Empires’, developed by the Mongols

• Coffee and Tobacco

• Jizya tax on other religions

• Istanbul, Isfahan, and Fatehpur Sikri

• Empires never developed their own artillery, instead bought it from Europe -> decline

• Decline of military, economy, and religious troubles led to the decline of Empires

Ottoman Empire:

• Started on the borders of the Byzantine empire, expanded a lot

• Dissolved in 1923

• Janissaries - Christian boys who converted and became warriors, very loyal to the sultan

  • Devshirme System; janissaries but not all of them become janissaries

• Mehmed the II the Conqueror - took Constantinople -> Istanbul, Wallachia & Vlad Dracula; 1444-1481

  • 1453 - Conquest of Constantinople

• Suleyman the Magnificent - Baghdad, fought the Hapsburgs, naval expansion, Malta and Rhodes; 1520-1566

• Sunni

• Strangulation - Ottomans legally kill brothers after taking the throne

• Kanun - legalities

• Many other religions and types of people, military expansion, trade, arts and stuff

• Millet System; each community is responsible for taxes, education, legality, etc

• Sultanate of Women 1533-1656

  • Valide Sultan - title awarded to mother of the current sultan

  • Hurrem Sultana - Roxelana, wife of Suleyman, became a diplomat

Safavid Empire:

• Shia Muslims

• Twelver Shiism - there were 11 infallible imams after Muhammad, 12th will eventually be revealed

• Shah Ismail - founder

• Quizilbash - red-heads - wore red hats with 12 pleats and believed in Safavid propaganda that others didn’t

• Fought with the Ottomans - Sunni/Shia differences

• Battle of Chaldiran - Safavids lost bad

• Shah Abbas the Great revitalized the empire after Chaldiran

• Alliance with Europe - Europe is after land and goods, Safavids want to slight the Ottomans

  • Traded with the English and French East India companies and Dutch VOC

• Ended in 1722
  

Mughal Empire:

• Babur - claimed descendancy from Chinggis Khan and Tamerlane

  • Never had any great religious zeal

  • Only ever got as far as Afghanistan, so he turned to India

  • Loose empire

• Grandson Akbar - good leader, centralized, most tolerant - din-i-ilahi (moral code created by akbar)

• Aurangzeb - converted to Islam, didn’t tolerate religious freedom

• Tension between Hindus and Muslims

• Taj Mahal - built by Shah Jahan for his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal

• India is still very regional

• Cultural diffusion: Urdu is written in Persian script, but can be understood by Hindi speakers