Southwest Asia and the Indian Ocean

Cheryl T

Thesis: During this period, written studies of everyday life became even more important

The Ottoman Empire

● The most long lived of the post-Mongol Muslim empires, the Ottoman Empire
grew from a tiny hub
● The Ottoman Empire survived for more than 5 centuries
Expansion and Frontiers
● Ottoman armies originally focused on Christian enemies in Greece and the
Balkans
● The Red Sea became the Ottomans southern frontier
● Sultans pressed to control the Mediterranean
● Initial fighting left Venice with reduced military power and they were subject to
tribute payment
● Muslims in the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean traded by way of Egypt and Syria
● Eastern luxury products still flowed to the Ottoman
Central Institutions
● The ottoman army originally consisted of lightly armored mounted warriors skilled
at shooting short bows
● Slave soldiery had a long history in Islamic lands
● When sultans attacked rival Muslim states in western Asia, they often counted on
these troops
● The Ottoman Empire became cosmopolitan in nature
● By the beginning of the reign of Sultan Suleiman, the Ottoman Empire was the
most powerful and best organized state in Europe and the Islamic World
● The balance of the Ottoman land forces brought successes to Ottoman arms in
recurrent wars with the Safavids who were slower in firearms
● Under the land-grant system, resident cavalrymen administered most rural areas
in Anatolia and the Balkans
● The sultan provided justice and the military protected the people
Crisis of the Military State
● Cannon and lighter-weight firearms played and even-larger role on the battlefield
● Inflation caused by a flood of cheap silver affected many landholders
● The government levied emergency surtaxes to obtain enough funds to pay the
Janissaries and bureaucrats
● Janissaries took advantage of their growing influence to gain relief from
prohibitions on marrying and engaging in business
Economic Change and Growing Weakness
● A different empire emerged from this period of crisis
● The devshirme had been discontinued and the Janissaries had taken advantage
of their increased power and privileges
● Land grants in return for military service also disappeared
● Rural administration suffered from the transition to tax farms
● Rural disorder and decline in administrative control sometimes opened the way
to new economic opportunities
● Izmir transformed itself between 1580 and 1650 from a small town into a major
center
● Military power slowly ebbed
● The Ottoman Empire lacked bother the wealth and the inclination to match
European economic advances
● A few astute Ottoman statesmen observed the growing diarray of the empire and
advised the sultans to reestablish the land grant and devshirme systems
● In 1730 gala soirees gave way to a Janissary revolt
The Safavid Empire
● The Safavid Empire of Iran resembles its longtime Ottoman foe in a lot of ways
The Rise of the Safavids
● Timur had been a great conqueror but his children had smaller aspirations
● Most of the members of the Safiviya spoke Turkish
Society and Religion
● Although Ismail’s reasons for compelling Iran’s conversion are unknown
● This divergence between two language areas had intensified after 1258 when the
Mongols destroyed Baghdad
● Where cultural styles had radiated in all directions from Baghdad during the
heyday of the Islamic caliphate, Iran separated an Arab zone from a Persian one
● The Turks generally preferred Persian as a vehicle for literacy
● Islam provided a tradition that crossed ethnic and linguistic borders
● Each Sufi brotherhood had distinctive rituals and concepts
● Shi’ism also affected the psychological life of the people
● Women seldom appeared in public
● The private side of a family life had few traces
● European travelers commented on the veiling of women outside the home
● Men monopolized public life
● Despite social similarities the overall flavors of Isfahan and Istanbul were not the
same
Economic Crisis and Political Collapse
● The silk fabrics of Northern Iran monopolized by the shahs provided the mainstay
of the Safavid Empire’s foreign trade
● Iran’s manufacturing sector was neither larger nor notably productive
● The Christian converts to Islam who initially provided the manpower for the new
corps came mostly from captives taken in raid on Georgia in the Caucasus
● In the late sixteenth century the inflation caused by cheap silver spread to Iran
● Despite Iran’s long coastline the Safavids never possessed a navy
The Mughal Empire
● As a land of Hindus ruled by a Muslim minority the realm of Mughal sultans of
India different substantially from the empires of the Ottomans and Safavids
● India lay far from the Islamic heartlands
Political Foundations
● Babur defeated the last Muslim sultan of Delhi at the Battle of Panipat
● India proved to be the primary theatre of Mughal accomplishment
● Akbar granted land revenues called mansabs to military officers and government
officials in return for their service
● Foreign trade boomed at the port of Surat in the northwest
Hindus and Muslims
● India had not been dominated by a single ruler since the time of Harsha
Vardhana
● Akbar married a Hindu princess
● Other rulers might have used sugh a marriage as a means of humiliating a
subject group
● Akbar longed for an heir
● He made himself the center of the divine faith
● Akbar’s policy of toleration does not explain the pattern of conversion in Mughal
India
● The emergence of Sikhism in the Punjab region of northwest India constituted
another change in Indian religious life in the Mughal period
Central Decay and Regional Challenges
● Mughal power did not long survive Aurangzeb’s death
● Some of the regional powers and smaller princely states flourished with the
removal of the sultan’s heavy hand
The Maritime Worlds of Islam
● New pressures faced by land powers were less important to seafaring countries
intent on turning trade networks into empires
● Although European missionaries tried to extend Christianity into Asia and Africa,
most Europeans did not treat converts as their people
Muslims in Southeast Asia
● Although appeals to the Ottoman sultan for support against the Europeans
ultimately proved futile, Islam strengthened resistance to Portuguese, Spanish
and Dutch intruders
● Other local kingdoms looked on Islam as a force to counter Christianity
 Muslims in Coastal Africa
● Muslim rulers also governed the East African ports that the Portuguese began to
visit in the fifteenth century
● Cooperation among the trading ports of Kilwa, etc, was hindered by the thick
bush country that separated the cultivated tracts of coastal land
● Initially the Portuguese favored the port of Malindi
● In northwest Africa the seizure by Portugal and SPain of coastal strongholds in
Morocco provoked a militant response
European Powers in Southern Seas
● The Dutch played a major role in driving the Portuguese from their possessions
in the East Indies
● Beyond the East Indies the Dutch utilized their discovery of a band of powerful
eastward-blowing winds

Image and Map Work

● Map 19.1: This map shows Muslim empires spread out across Europe, Asia and
the Middle east
● Aya Sofya Mosque in Istanbul: This was originally a byzantine cathedral and it
was transformed into a mosque after 1453
● Ottoman Glassmakers on Parade: Celebrations of the circumcisions of the
sultan’s sons featured parades organized by craft guilds
● Iranian Waterpipe: Moistened tobacco was placed in a cup and was left to
smolder. Like an old timey pipe
● Safavid Shah with Attendants and Musicians: This painting reflects western
influences with the use of light and shadow
● Royal Square in Isfahan: There is a large bazaar as well as a large mosque here
● Istanbul Family on the Way to a Bath House: Public bath houses set different
hours for women and men
● Elephants Breaking Bridge of Boats: This shows the ability of miniature painters
● Map 19.2: This shows where Europeans colonized across the Indian Ocean
● Portuguese Fort Guarding Musqat Harbor: These were some of the best harbors
in southern Arabia