These notes are a summary of Chapter 21 in Peter Stearns World Civilizations textbook

1. The Muslim Empires
Chapter 21: Summary and Review

2. Foundation and Overview
• Mongol conquests of the 13th and 14th
centuries destroyed remaining Muslim
unity in southern Asia
• Three new empires emerged:
Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal
• All had strong militaries and gunpowder
technology
• All had absolute monarchies and agrarian
economies

3. • Nomadic Turks who came to power
Ottoman Empire: Beginning
following the Mongol defeat of the
Seljuks
• 1453- Defeat Constantinople
• Eventually spread throughout Anatolia,
Balkans, Eastern Europe (up to
Vienna), Arabia, and Northern Africa

4. Ottoman Military Might
• Society was heavily geared for
warfare
• Turkic horsemen became the warrior
aristocracy ruling the empire
controlling land and peasants they
conquered
• Janissaries- elite gunpowder troops
made up of boys conscripted from
conquered Christian peoples come
to dominate the military by the mid
16th century

5. Ottoman Government
• Absolute monarchy, loses touch with
people over time
• Lacked clear rules for succession 
political turmoil and eventual decline of
empire
• Sultans advised by viziers, rule huge
bureaucracy
• Kept factions fighting against each other

6. Ottoman Culture
• Religiously tolerant: Christians and Jews
considered “People of the Book”
• Merchants came to hold great power
• Istanbul become important international center
of trade
• Sultans beginning with Suleyman the
Magnificent, build mosques and other public
works to beautify city and leave their mark

7. Ottoman Problems  Decline
• Empire grows to big to be maintained
• Problems with succession weaken government,
made worse by series of poor rulers
• Siege of Vienna weakens military and drains
treasury
• Oppressed peasants begin to revolt or flee
empire
• Janissaries, hoping to maintain power block
attempts at reform

8. Ottoman Military Defeats
• 1571- Battle of Lepanto, lose control of
Indian Ocean trade to joint Spanish-
Portuguese fleet
• 1688- Siege of Vienna, Ottoman repelled,
beginning of the end

9. Safavid Empire Formed
• 1501- Isma’il as Sufi mysitic and
descendant of Sail al-Din established
capital at Tabriz and names himself Shah
• Begin expanding
• 1514- Battle of Chaldiran- defeated by
Ottoman, stops westward expansion of
shi’ism

10. Safavid Politics and War
• Absolute monarchy, restored by Tasmaph
I in 1534
• Abbas the Great-
– rules during golden Age (1589-1627)
– brought some Turkic warriors under
control
– recruited Persians into bureaucracy
– created elite gunpowder troops made up
of conquered Russian peoples (similar
to Janissaries)

11. Safavid Culture
• Originally wrote in Turkish, but
changed to Persian following the Battle
of Chaldiran
• Create elaborate court based on
Persian traditions
• Religious leaders and teachers grow in
power and importance as Shi’ism
spreads through empire
• Produced beautiful silk textiles
• New capital built in Isfahan

12. Decline of the Safavid
• Abbas I kills his successors  series of
weak leaders
• Internal power struggles  more
weakness
• 1722- Isfahan falls to Afghan raiders
• 1736- Even Nadir Shah Afshar unable to
rally the empire

13. Ottoman and Safavid Compared
Similarities Differences
• Initially dominated by warrior • Ottoman more
aristocracy market driven
• Oppression and turmoil • Safavid land
caused peasants to flee and locked, limits trade
rebel
• Encouraged trade and
domestic production
• Women subordinate to men,
lose power over time

14. Mughals Establish an Empire in
India
• Babur descendant of Tamerlain invades
India in 1526 seeking wealth, get stuck
and decide to stay
• by 1528 control most of the Indus and
Ganges region

15. Akbar the Great
• Worked to reconcile problems with Hindu
majority, religious toleration
– Encouraged intermarriage
– Ended special tax on Hindus
– Respected most Hindu traditions
– Granted land to Hindu and Muslim warriors in
return for loyalty
• Din-i-ilahi- Universal faith, encourages
respect of all peoples’ beliefs

16. • Encourages social reforms like limiting
alcohol
• Encourages widow remarriage while
discouraging child marriage, tries to ban
Sati, even tries to create special market
day for women
• Most reforms not lasting, peasants
continue to live in poverty, later rulers
reverse religious toleration, women lose
rights (daughters unlucky, child marriage
resumes)

17. Mughal Achievements
• Many rulers were patrons of the arts
– Painting workshops for miniatures
– Textile and rug production
– Great architectural works (Taj Mahal)

18. Mughal Decline
• 1707- Aurangzeb reverses religious
toleration, drains treasury and weakens
military and government bureaucracy
•  Marattas and Sikh rebellions
• Regional lords gain power as central
government declines
• Foreign powers step in to gain land as
Mughal empire declines

19. Gunpowder Empires
• All three empires gain power with help of
nomadic warriors
• Firearms became decisive in battle, ie)
Chaldiran
• Governments used military technology to
change the organization of their empires,
warrior aristocray lose power as
governments build professional armies

20. • All three empires ignored the growing
threat of European expansion and military
might
• Ignored or blocked European innovations
• Lost international trade routes to
Europeans
• European gold  inflation