Transcript Chapter 21 - Loudoun County Public Schools

Chapter 21
The Muslim Empires
THE OTTOMANS
The Beginning
• 1258 CE: Mongol invasion disrupts Seljuk Turk
government
– Death of the last Abbasid caliph
• Ottomans fill power vacuum under leadership
of Osman I (Sunni Muslims)
• 1453 CE: Control majority of eastern
Mediterranean and capture Constantinople
• A warrior aristocracy develops
– Central Bureaucracy Sultan
• The warrior aristocracy competed with one another for
power: Not a stable situation
Sultans
• Absolute rulers
– With the use of the Warrior Aristocracy
• Played them off one another to maintain his own power
– Allowed for people of other beliefs as advisors
– Like the Caliphate, the Sultans will grow more
corrupt over time
• Inherited Islamic Principle of Political
Succession:
– Vague and easily contested
– Death of the Sultan = Warfare between sons
So let’s talk succession
• warfare among his sons = claimants
• Uncertainty of succession caused so many
new and worse problems
– Early Sultans would kill all their brothers: fratricide
• As well as other family members who could be seen as
potential rivals for the throne.
– After 1600
• They just confined the rivals to palaces and harems
Vizier
• head of the Ottoman central bureaucracy
• Dealt with the Day to Day activities of the
empire
• Often had more power than the sultan
Janissaries
• Infantry divisions
• Soldiers taken from conquered regions and
forcibly converted to Islam
– Boys sent to the army
• Legally slaves by given schooling for the time
and converted to Islam
• Become the cornerstone of the army and a
political power in their own right
Constantinople
• Constantinople is the culmination of
an Empire of diverse cultures
– Mehmed II took it in 1453
– Restored to in former glory with great
achievements in architecture
– Grand Bazaar with stuff from
everywhere
The fall
• Empire begins a gradual decline that would last until its
eventual death in 1920 (end of WWI)
– Lasted 600 years
– Held off the combined efforts of Russia, Eastern/Western
Europeans and Safavids to conquer them
– Extent of the empire probably made it impossible to
govern
• Compounding issues
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Corruption developed from the inside
Problems with succession: a series of weak leaders
Lavish lifestyle
Unwillingness to adapt to changes in technology
Inherit a contempt for all things western
Impact of Portuguese trade (loss of wealth) and Spanish
Silver
Suleyman the Magnificent (r.15201566)
• Height of power and control in the Middle
East
• Video
THE SAFAVIDS
The Beginning
• Came from the struggles of rival Turkic nomadic
groups in the wake of Mongol invasion
– Persia and present day Iran
• Safavids were Shi’a
– The struggle between Sunni Ottomans and Shi’a
Safavids will be a pivotal part of Islamic History
• Began with a Mystic Sufi Family
– Sail al-Din: started to reform Islam and spread it
through the tribes
– Red Heads: Safavid’s followers because of the head
gear
The Good Times
• Shah Abbas I (Great)
– Under his leadership was the height of the Safavid
Empire
– Created a slave army similar to the Janissaries
– Wanted to create an Empire at the center of
International trade and Islamic Culture
• Roads and rest houses were built
• Isfahan: the capital
Fight
• Met Ottomans at battle at Chaldiran in
northwest Persia
– (demonstrated importance of muskets and field
cannon in the gunpowder age)
• Ismail’s cavalry was no match for the strong
Ottomans.
• Outcome determined that Shi’ism would be
confined to Persia
Religion
• Persian influence in language and religion
• Claimed descent from one of the Shi’a imams
(successors to Ali) as status of rulers increased
• Faith became a major pillar of dynasty and
empire. Mullahs (local mosque officials and
prayer leaders) supervised by the state and
supported by the state
• Bulk of population converted to Shi’ism
• Shi’ism became integral part of Iranian
identity
The Fall
• Rapid decline
• Abbas so paranoid he killed all potential
successors
• Ottomans and Mughals were taking territory
• March 1722: Afghani tribes besieged Isfahan
Like the Ottomans, they. . .
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Gain power after departure of Mongols
Are warriors of Islam
Fall victim to a lavish lifestyle once they have gained power
Make use of a feudal system
Lose political power to foreign advisors
Adopt foreign slaves as soldiers
Use religion as a political tool
– Practices of the “mullahs”
• Promoted the arts and global trade
• Suffer from internal problems that cause their collapse
• Women were socially limited
– Harem and veil
• Developed a paranoia of their heirs
Unlike the Ottomans, they. . .
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Were Shi’a rather than Sunni
Were founded by religious leaders (Sufis)
Leaders are referred to as “shahs” rather than “sultans”
Lacked the military power to establish a vast empire
Were willing to acknowledge and make use of Western
ideas (weapons and tactics)
• Adopted the use of Persian, which the Ottomans discard
• Were unable to maintain their empire, ultimately falling
in 1722.
THE MUGHALS
The Beginning
• Babur: founder of the Mughal Dynasty
– Descendant of Mongol Khans and Turkic Warriors
– 1498, after father’s death, Babur (16 yrs old)
struggles to fight for control of homeland.
• Went to India for booty. Did not intend conquest at the
beginning
– Babur better conqueror than leader- despite a
highly refined taste for the arts.
• Little to do with religion
The Good times
• Grandson of Babur
• Akbar greatest ruler of the Mughals
– Great military commander and expanded the
empire
– Brilliant Administration system to bring together
the Muslims and Hindus so they could share the
region
• Reconciliation and cooperation with Hindu princes
• Encouraged intermarriage
• Ordered Muslims to respect cows
A new faith
• Akbar did many things to bring the two
religions together
• Din-i-Ilahi
– Tried to combine Islam and Hindu to create
something new
– Did not work so well
Excess
• After Akbar’s death
• Two Shah’s were consumed by Art and
Pleasure
– Jahangir and Shah Jahan
– Spent lavishly in art, music, architecture, gardens,
women, etc
– Left the running of the empire to subordinates
The Fall
• Years of excess leaves the Empire struggling
• Shah Jahan’s successor inherited
– Empire in decay from the inside
– Growing danger from external enemies
– Years of the Shah’s ignoring reform
– Corrupt Bureaucracy and backward army
– Awful conditions for the poor
• Rebellion in the West: Marattas
• A new Sect in the Northwest: Sikhs
Like the Ottomans/Safavids,
they. . .
• Succeed through the use of gunpowder
(artillery/muskets)
• Shared an Islam heritage
• Made use of a feudal system
• Had a significant gap between upper and lower classes
• Unwillingness to adopt Western advances and
innovations
• Support the arts
• Fall victim to a lavish lifestyle that results in the fall of
the empire
• Decline as a result of their addiction to military conquest
Unlike the Ottomans/Safavids they. . .
• Claimed to be descendents of Mongols
• Had no desire for religious conquest…motivated by desire
for territory
• Promoted/protected Hinduism over Islam, and attempted
adoption of new religion (Din-i-Ilahi)
• Attempted to improve status of women
• Were economically dominant, even with the West
• Have a series of upper class women that are able to achieve
a significant degree of political power
– nur Jahan and Mumtax mahal
• Gave fewer rights to average women
– Practice of sati
• Also declined because of religious division
WOMEN
• In both the Ottoman and Safavid Empires
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Women faced legal and social disadvantages
Subordinated to fathers and husbands
Little outlets for artistic expression
Seclusion and veiling continued
• Especially elites
• For the Mughals
– Akbar
• Encouraged widows to marry and discouraged child marriages
• Waned to end Sati and give women more freedom outside the
home
– After Akbar's death many of these practices go back full
force if not even worse.
Good stuff to keep in mind
Stuff from this chapter that goes with
the APWH Themes
Key Concept 2. New forms of social
organization and modes of
production
• As new social and political elites changed,
they also restructured new ethnic, racial and
gender hierarchies
– The power of existing political and economic elites
(such as the zarnidars in the Mughal Empire, the
nobility in Europe or the daimyo in Japan)
fluctuated as they confronted new challenges to
their ability to affect the policies of the
increasingly powerful monarchs and leaders
Key Concept 3: State Consolidation
and Imperial Expansion
• Rulers used a variety of methods to legitimize and consolidate their
power
– Visual displays of political power (such as monumental architecture,
urban plans, courtly literature or the visual arts) helped legitimize and
support rulers
– Rulers used religious ideas (such as European notions of divine right,
the Safavid use of Shiism, the Mexican or Aztec practice of human
sacrifice, the Songhai promotion of Islam or the Chinese emperors’
public performance of Confucian rituals) to legitimize their rule
– States treated different ethnic and religious groups in ways that
utilized their economic contributions while limiting their ability to
challenge the authority of the state (such as the Ottoman treatment of
non-Muslim subjects, Manchu policies toward Chinese or the Spanish
creation of a separate “Republica de Indios”)
– Recruitment and use of bureaucratic elites, as well as the
development of military professionals (such as the Ottoman devshime,
Chinese examination system or salaried samurai), became more
common among rulers who wanted to maintain centralized control
over their populations and resources
• Imperial expansion relied on the increased use
of gunpowder, cannons and armed trade to
establish large empires in both hemispheres
– Land empires, including the Manchu's, Mughals,
Ottomans and Russians expanded dramatically in
size
• Competition over trade routes (such as
Omani-European rivalry in the Indian Ocean or
piracy in the Caribbean), state rivalries (such
as the Thirty Years War, and the OttomanSafavid conflict) and local resistance (such as
bread riots) all provided significant challenges
to state consolidation and expansion