Ottoman, Safavid, & Mughal Empires

• The Ottomans were Sunni Muslims who gained power after the Mongols left.

• They built one of the wealthiest and most powerful Empires of the world at its time.

• They were all Military Empires & “Gunpowder Empires”

The Safavid Empire (Persia)was Shia Muslim and a rival of the Ottoman

Empire.

The Mughal Empire was created by

descendents of Turks and Mongols who built an empire in which a Muslim minority controlled a Hindu majority.

Ottoman, Safavid, & Mughal EmpiresWere all “gunpowder empires”

Muslim Empires

• As Islam spread to new settings in Afro-Eurasia, believers adapted it to local cultural practices.

• The split between the Sunni and Shi’a traditions intensified, and Sufi practices became more widespread.

Similarity in Political Structure…

• All had a centralized government with an absolute ruler who had both political and religious authority.

The rulers had sweet ‘staches!

• Suleiman, Abbas I, Akbar were the absolute rulers at the height of each empire and were contemporaries.

But these Islamic empires weren’t necessarily allies…

Letter from the Ottoman Sultan to the Safavid ruler (1514)

“You have deserted the path of salvation and the sacred commandments. . . The ulama (Islamic judges) have pronounced a sentence of death against you, perjurer and blasphemer.”

Ottoman Cannon 1600s

At times they allied with Christian states.

A similarity in social class structure• Each had Slavery as an institution

– nonMuslims were slaves but the status of slaves varied widely

Evidence: Concubines of India

Evidence: the Devshirme system of the Ottoman Empire

European perspective on Ottoman EmpireSource: Olgier de Busbecq, Austrian

ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, in an official letter to the Austrian Emperor, 1550.

“Just as we were leaving the city, we were met by wagon-loads of wretched Christian slaves who were being led to horrible servitude…Youths and men of advanced age were driven along in herds or else were tied together in chains. I could scarcely restrain my tears in pity for the plight of the Christian population.”