Transcript Lecture, 17 September

Crisis and Recovery 1
The Black Death
Islamic Dynasties:
Ottomans, Safavids, Mughals
1300-1500
The retreat of the Mongols
• The retreat of the Mongols opened
opportunities for new leaders and elites to
fill the political vacuum
• What emerge are a set of dynasties that in
many cases will lay strong foundations
and last into the modern period
• Each of these new dynasties has to decide
how it is going to approach the integrated
world that had been formalized by the
Mongol Conquest
Mongol Empire at its height
Unintended integration: Disease
• One thing that all cultures shared was a lack of
resistance to the bubonic plague
• Without understanding its causes, people made
up all sorts of explanations for the plague: a
punishment from God or a sign that the end of
the world was at hand
• One of the risks of interaction with far-away
places was that it could introduce diseases
against which the immune systems of others had
not built up a defence
What was the bubonic plague?
• A bacterium that attacks the lymphatic
system
• Passed through fleas travelling on rats
• Originated in Central Asia and travelled
with traders along trade routes into China
in 1333 and for there became a world
pandemic, reaching Europe by 1348
Black death in European art
The Death Toll
• Historians estimate that world population
before the Black Death stood at about 450
million. By 1400, that figure had dropped
to between 350-375 million – a drop of
over 20 per cent
• Such quick decimation of the population
lead to a society in the short term that was
unstable and insecure
Islamic dynasties
• In the wake of Mongol successor states,
three powerful dynasties were established
in the Muslim world
• These new dynasties formalized the
disintegration of a united Islam that had
been going on for centuries
• Though all were Muslims, they had
different cultural and linguistic roots which
made them distinct and unique
Ottoman Empire
• Founded by Osman I around 1300, it
started as an expansionist state that
began by expanding into the crumbling
Byzantine Empire
• Within a century the empire had spread
over a large part of Anatolia and into the
Balkans
• This made a diverse group of people
(Muslims, Christians, and Jews) subjects
to Ottoman rule
Conquest of Constantinople, 1453
• Under Mehmed II entered a phase of over
a century of speedy conquest and even
more expansion
• Dealt a crushing blow to the Byzantine
Empire by capturing its capital and turning
it into the Turkish capital
• This brought them into direct conflict with
Western Europe as Ottoman reach as they
pushed westward
Entry of Mahomet II into Constantinople
Hagia Sophia
Administering the state
• The Ottomans allowed regional autonomy
and practiced religious toleration (though
non-Muslims had to pay a tax – often by
giving up one of their children to the state,
called the dervshirme)
• Janissaries were fiercely loyal to the
Sultan – they acted as his personal
soldiers and administrators
Safavid Empire
• The Safavid dynasty was tied to the Sufi
order – a charismatic religious movement
that stressed direct connection between
the believer and God
• Eventually they adopted Shia Islam, which
brought them into conflict with the mainly
Sunni Ottomans
• They also promote Persian nationalism –
taking on Persian tradition and culture
Religious policy
• Unlike the fairly tolerant Ottomans, the
Safavids only tolerated Shia Islam
• Large groups of Sunni Muslims either left,
professed the state religion, or were killed
• Created a Shia religious elite to promote
religion but also to do the Shah’s bidding –
creating a theocracy
Ismael, the first Shah of
the Safavid Empire
Shah Mosque, Isfahan
Mughal Empire
• Though the Delhi Sultanate had managed
to keep the Mongols at bay, it could not do
so with the
• In 1398 Delhi was sacked by Timur the
Lame – bringing the end to the Delhi
Sultante
• Around 1500 Timur’s grandson Babur
founded the Mughal dynasty by bringing a
large territory in Northern India under his
control
Religious policy
• While Islam was the official religion of the
empire, citizens were free to practice
whatever religion they pleased (though
non-Muslims paid a tax)
• One of the problems they had to solve was
their relation to the rest of Islam and their
allegiance to the Caliph
• They solved the problem by giving their
emperor the status of caliph
Akbar the Great (1542-1605)
• Akbar is known as a
tolerant emperor – for
allowing many nonMuslims to enter his
service (especially Hindus)
• That level of toleration was
not continued after his
death
• He did develop a
sophisticated bureaucracy
to ensure efficient
collection of taxes
Conclusion
• The Black Death put a severe strain on the
on Afro-Eurasia but nonetheless societies
coped and built up new dynasties
• The world of Islam was re-ordered, with
the Ottomans in the west and the Mughals
in the east expanding their territory and
taking in new influences, which the
Safavids looked back to their Persian roots
and enforcing a strict Shia state