Ottoman, Safavid, & Mughal Empires

Do you remember?

• By the 1100s, the Islamic Empire had split into several different caliphates . . . centered in Spain, Egypt, and the Middle East.

• The Seljuk Turks were the group in control of the Middle East by the 1100s.

• The Mongols invaded and killed the Seljuk caliph of Baghdad.

The Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Turks started as soldiers and slaves of the Seljuks. After the Seljuks were defeated by the Mongols, the Ottoman Turks gained power after the Mongols left.

• The Ottomans were Sunni Muslims who built one of the wealthiest and most powerful Empires of the world at its time.

• It was the dominating power of the Mediterranean.

• They were all Military Empires & “Gunpowder Empires”

The Safavid Empire 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”

Ottoman Cannon 1600s

Similarity in Political Structure…

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

Evidence . . .• Suleiman, Abbas I, Akbar were the

absolute rulers at the height of each empire and were contemporaries.

The rulers had sweet ‘staches!

But these Islamic empires weren’t necessarily friends…

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.”

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

One interpretation . . .

• Letter from a European ambassador to the Ottoman Empire…1550s

• “Just as we were leaving the city, we were met by wagon-loads of wretched Christian slaves who were being led to horrible servitude…I could scarcely restrain my tears in pity for the plight of the Christian population.”