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Post Classical Era: The Second Flowering of Islam

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In this Packet you will learn about: The Ottomans The Safavid Empire The Songhai Empire The Mughal Empire

The Islamic Heartland: The Ottoman and Safavid Empires:

By the sixteenth century, Turkish warriors had transformed the major Islamic areas of the world into vast regional empires.

The Islamic empires began as small warrior principalities in frontier areas. They expanded at varying rates and with varying degrees of success at the expense of neighboring states.

The Ottomans:

Founded by Osman Bey founder of the dynasty that continued in unbroken succession from 1289 until its dissolution in 1923.

o He was the chief of a band of semi-nomadic Turks who migrated to northwestern Anatolia in the thirteenth century.

o Osman and his followers sought above all to become ghazi, Muslim religious warriors.

The Ottomans’ location on the borders of the Byzantine empire afforded them amble opportunity to wage holy war.

Their first great success cam in 1326 with the capture of the Anatolian city of Bursa, which became the capital of the Ottoman principality.

Around 1352 they established a foothold in Europe when they seized the fortress to Gallipoli

The city of Edirne (Adriaople) became a second Ottoman capital and served as a based for further expansion into the Balkans.

As warriors settled in frontier districts and pushed their boundaries forward, they took spoils and gathered revenues that enriched both the ghazi and the central government.

A formidable military machine drove Ottoman expansion. As the Ottoman state became more firmly established, it added a

professional cavalry force equipped with heavy armor and financed by land grants. After expanding into the Balkans, the

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Ottomans created a supremely important force composed of slave troops. Through an institution known as the devshirme, the Ottomans required the Christian population of the Balkans to contribute young boys to become slaves of the sultan.

The boys received special training, learned Turkish, and converted to Islam

According to individual ability, they entered either the Ottoman civilian administration or the military. Those who became soldiers were known as Janissaries, (new troop).

o Had a reputation for loyalty to the sulta, readiness to employ new military technology

Mehmed the Conqueror: the capture of Constantinople in 1453 by Mehmed II (1451-81)opened a new chapter in Ottoman expansion.

o With the superb location and illustrious heritage, Constantinople became the new Ottoman capital, subsequently known as Istanbul, and Mehmed worked energetically to stimulate its role as a commercial center.

o WTI the capture of the great city behind him, Mehmed presented himself not as a warrior-sultan but as a true emperor of two lands (Europe and Asia)

o He laid the foundation for a tightly centralized, absolute monarchy, and his army faced no serious rival. He conquered Serbia, Greece, Albania and eliminated the last Byzantine outpost in Trebizond. He captured Genoese and Crimea. Toward the end of his life he launched an invasion of Italy but his ultimately failed to take over Western Europe.

Suleyman the Magnificent: Ottoman imperialism climaxed in the reign of Suleyman the Magnificent (1520-66). He promoted Ottoman expansion both in southwest Asia and in Europe. In 1534 he conquered Baghdad and added the Tigris and Euphrates valleys to the Ottoman domain. He defeated and killed the king of Hungary and consolidated Ottoman power north of the Danube. In 1529 he subjected the Habsburg empire’s city of Vienna to their rule. (Habsburgs circled)

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Europeans would say they feared the “Terror of the Turk” Under Suleyman the Ottomans became a great naval power.

The Ottoman Empire was a state of enormous signifance in the

world of the fifteenth century and beyond. In its huge territory, long duration, incorporation of many

peoples, and economic and cultural sophistication, it was one of the great empires of world history.

The empire represented the emergence of the Turks as the dominant people of the Islamic world, ruling now over many Arabs, who had initiated the new faith more than 9—years before.

Ottoman sultans believed they were the successor to the prophet (caliphs).

The conquest of the Turks was the opposite of the Crusades. Now, the seizure of Constantinople in 1453 marked the final demise of Christian Byzantium and allowed Ottoman rulers to see themselves as successors to the Roman empire.

Safavids:

Next to the Ottomans, in the Persian lands to the east, The Islamic Empire of the Safavids began. Its leadership was also Turkic Emerged from Sufi religious order They ofred Shia version of Islam as the official religion of the state.

This came to define the unique identity of Persian culture (Iranian).

This posed a SHARP divide in the heart of the Islamic world between both factions

o Most other Muslims were Sunni o This hostility is still a divide in the Islamic world.

Shah Abbas the Great: moved the capital to the more central location of Isfahan. Encouraged trade in other lands, and reformed the administrative and military institutions of the empire.

o He increased the use of gunpowder weapons and sought European assistance against the t Ottomans and the Portuguese in the Persian Gulf.

o His military campaigns brought most of the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and northwestern Iran into the Empire.

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The Frontiers of Islam: The Songhai and the Mughal Empires WEST AFRICA: Sudanic Empires

On the frontiers of the faith—all the way out west and east. Between 640 and 670 Muslims swept across North Africa from

Suez to Morocco’s’ Atlantic shore. By 670 Muslims most of Africa. The message of Islam found fertile ground among the populations

of North Africa. Conversions took place rapidly within certain political unity

provided by the Abbasids. This unity eventually broke down, and North Africa divided into several separate states and competing groups.

Islam offered many attractions within Africa. Its fundamental teachings that all Muslims were equal within the community of believers made the acceptance of conquerors and new rulers easier.

The Islamic tradition of uniting the powers of the state and religion in the person of the ruler or caliph appealed to some African kings as a way of reinforcing their authority.

Ghana: from 100-200 c.e. Camels were introduced for trade in the Sahara and at around 300 we see the rise of the kingdom of Ghana. It reached the height of its power in 1000

Mali: the empire of Mali centered between the Senegal and Niger rivers was the creation of the Malinke peoples who in the 13th century broke away from the control of Ghana, which was by then in decline.

o Mali was one of the greatest states in the world at the beginning of the 14th century. It had taken control of the salt and gold trades across the Sahara which had formed the wealth of the kingdom of Ghana. According to its king, Kankan Musa who expanded the kigdom and became very wealthy, his kingdom was “about one year” in size.

o It stretched from the salt mines on the northern edge of the Sahara to the gold mines in the savannah to the south, from the Atlantic in the west to the copper mines of Takedda and beyond in the east.

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Some of the principal cities were Djenne and Timbuktu. When he went on pilgrimage in 1342, he took 500 slaves with him, each one carrying a staff of gold weighing about three kilograms. Trade in cloth spread throughout the region, with people dressed in cloth from Kano over an enormous area.

The cities of Mali became centers of commerce, religion and learning, and attracted many scholars.

o http://library.thinkquest.org/C002739/AfricaSite/LMwestmali.htm

Songhai Empire rose in the second half of the fifteenth century. It was the most impressive state that operated at a crucial intersection of the trans Saharan trade routes and that derived much of their reve nue from taxing that commerce.

It is considered the successor state to Mali It was traditionally made up of farmers, herders, and fishers. Dominated by Mali for a while, in the

14th century, Songhai had established its independence again and began to thrive as a new source of gold from the west African forests

The city of Gao was large with a resident foreign merchant community and several mosques.

Sunni Ali: a great tactical commander and ruthless leader. He seized the traditional trading cities of Timbuktu and Jenne.

Songhai remained the dominant power in the region until the end of the 16th century. In 1591, a Muslim army from Morocco, equipped with muskets, crossed the Sahara and defeated the forces of Songhai. This sign of weakness stimulated internal revolts against the ruling family and eventually the old empire broke away.

Culture: Life in the Songhai Empire followed many of the patterns

established in the previous savanna states. The fusion of Islamic and pagan populations and traditions continued. Muslim clerics and jurists sometimes were upset by the pagan beliefs and

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practices that continued among the population and even more by the local interpretation of Islamic law.

Islam was fused with the existing traditions and beliefs. Rulership and authority were still based on the ability to intercede in local spirits

Islam in the early states in this area tended to accommodate pagan practices and beliefs.

Large populations of Mali and Songhai never converted to Islam We can see the fusion of traditions clearly in the position of

women. Several Sudanic societies were matrilineal, and some recognized

the role of women within the lines of kinship, contrary to the normal patrilineal customs inscribed in the Sharia or Islamic law.

Outsiders who were Muslim were shocked to see the easy familiarity between men and women and the freedom of women.

Slavery: The slaver trade between black Africa and the rest of the Islamic world had a major impact on women and children. Various forms of slavery and dependent labor had existed in Africa before Islam was introduced. Although we know little about slavery in central Africa in this period, slavery had been a marginal aspect of these states. Africans had been enslaved by others before but with the Muslim conquest of north Africa and commercial penetration to the south, slavery became a more widely diffused phenomenon, and a slave trade in African developed on a new scale.

o Slaves were used as domestic servants and laborers and soldiers and administrators. They were used as eunuchs and concubines (hence an emphasis on enslaving children and women)

o This was a major way Islamic civilization changed sub Saharan Africa.

Political: The village communities, clans, and various ethnic groups

continued to organize many aspects of life in the savanna. The development of unified states provided an overarching structure that allowed the various groups and communities to coexist.

The large states usually represented the political aims and power of a particular group and often of a dominant family

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Islam provided a universalistic faith that served the interests of many groups. Common religion and law provided solidarity and trust to the merchants who lived in the cities and whose caravans brought goods to and from the savanna.

The ruling families used Islamic titles like caliph to reinforce their authority. The surrounded themselves with literate Muslim scholars.

The Muslims concept of a ruler who united civil and religious authority reinforced traditional ideas of kingship.

NOTE THE SPREAD OF ISLAM THROUGHOUT AFRICA Mughal Empire:

India: o Descended from the Mongol khans and Turks was the

founder. His name was Babur. This was a Muslim empire in a predominantly Hindu world.

o He was a better conqueror than an administrator. o His grandson Akbar was a greater ruler. In the decades

after 1560 when Akbar took control of the government his armies greatly extended the empire with conquests throughout the north and central India.

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o He was a social and political genius. He pursued a policy of reconciliation and cooperation iwht Hindu princes and the Hindu majority of the population of his realm. He encouraged intermarriage between Mughal and Hindu rulers. He abolished the jizya.

o He was very tolerant and tried to end the sectarian division between Hindus and Muslims.

Religion had little to do with empire building. The new capital of the Mughal Empire was

Delhi. The most famous architectural achievement

of the Mughal Dynasty was the Taj Mahal (pictured).

Mughal leaders were great patrons of the arts. Art blended the finest Persian and Hindu traditions with the Islamic genius of domes, arches, and minarets.

Women: child marriage grew more popular and the age limit was lowered. It was not unheard of for girls to be married at age nine. Widow remarriage among Hindus nearly died out. Seclusion was more and more strictly enforced for upper caste women, Hindu and Muslim. Muslim women rarely ventured forth from their homes unveiled, and those who did risked verbal and physical abuse. Among Hindus, the practice of sati grew. (Sati is when Hindu widows self immolated). Only the birth of a son was greeted with feasting and celebration.

Decline: Over time the Mughal bureaucracy grew corrupt. For decades the

need for essential administrative, military, and social reforms had been ignored. The army also had backwards weaponry.

Aurangzeb can be contrasted with Akbar. He lived from 1618-1707. Ruled from 1658-1707 and was the last of the Mughal emperors.

o He was largely intolerant of non Muslims and tried to Islamify India. (bad idea).

o The British succeeded in the ruling of India.

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Ottomans

Safavid

SOCIAL POLITICAL

ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENTAL

SOCIAL POLITICAL

ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENTAL

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Sudanic

India: Mughal

SOCIAL POLITICAL

ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENTAL

SOCIAL POLITICAL

ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENTAL

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Vocabulary Definition

Ottoman

Osman Bey

Ghazi

devshirme

Janissaries

Mehmed the Conqueror

Suleyman the Magnificent

seizure of Constantinople in 1453

Ghana

Mali

Songhai

Baber

Akbar

Taj Mahal

Aurangzeb