Transcript The Muslim Empires - Eastern Upper Peninsula ISD

The Muslim Empires
•The Ottoman Empire
•Safavid Dynasty
The Turks
• Anatolian Peninsula given by Seljuk Turks
• Expanded westward
– Bosporus and Dardanelles
• Expanded into the Balkans
– An elite guard called Janissaries
• Christians converted to Islam
• Knowledge of firearms.
Ottoman Empire
• Mehmet II
– Laid seige to Constantinople, 1453
• Renamed Istanbul
• Sultan Selim I (Selim the Grim)
– Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Arabia
• Holy cities there.
• Caliph= defender of the faith and successor to
Muhammad.
Ottomans
• Muslims
• Preferred to administer through local
rulers.
• Pashas= govt appt’d officials
• Centralized government
• Killing off all contenders:
– Killed brothers & close friends.
Europe
• Advanced into the Balkans, but stopped by
Hungarians.
• Suleyman I, 1520 - 1566
– Went up the Danube and took Belgrade.
• Conquered most of Hungary and moved
into Austria, but were defeated at Vienna
in 1529.
– 1683 tried again, but Europeans defeated
them. (never again!)
Nature of Ottoman Rule
• “Gunpowder Empire”
– Empire formed by outside conquerors who
unified the regions that they conquered
through their mastery of firearms.
• Sultan – supreme authority (hereditary)
– Struggles over succession
– Centralized Administration
– Harem (private domain)
• Wives, queen mother
Rule, cont’d.
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Imperial council
Grand vizier
Sultan sat behind a screen
Empire divided into provinces
Religion & Ottomans
• Sunni Muslims
• Ulema= advisors; legal system; schools
• Generally tolerant of non-Muslims
– Non members paid a tax
– Most in Euro areas remained Christian
Ottoman Society
• Divided society was divided into five categories:
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Men of sword – soldiers
Men of pen – scientists, lawyers, judges, poets
Men of negotiation – merchants, tax collectors, artisans
Men of husbandry- farmers and herders
Millets – religious communities (Greek Christians, Armenian
Christians, Jews)
• All land belonged to the Sultan
• Women: almost equal to men.
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Allowed to own and inherent property
Could not be forced to marry
In some cases could get divorced.
Some worked in government
Problems in the Empire
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Executed two sons suspected of treason.
Began to lose territory.
Internal disintegration.
Sultans became less involved in govt.
Training of officials declined.
Nepotism.
Central bureaucracy lost touch w/ rural areas.
Corruption, wars debt,
Cultural changes countered – executions….
Safavid Empire
The Rule of the Safavids
• Ardent Shittes, or Shia
• Founded by Shah Ismail
– Called himself Shah, or king.
– Sent preachers out to convert people in
Ottoman Empire.
– Ordered massacre of Sunni Muslims in
Baghdad in 1508.
– Capital moved from Tabriz to Isfahan.
Shah Abbas
• Ruled from 1588 – 1629
Used a similar system to janissaries in
Ottoman Empire.
He centralized government power unto
himself
He used force and diplomacy against the
Ottomans; he allied himself with the enemies
of the Ottomans.
The Fall of the Safavid Empire
• Dynasty lost vigor after Shah Abbas
– Successors didn’t have the talent/political skills.
– Intellectual freedom
– Religious orthodoxy increased.
• Affected women
• The Safavid declined because of the growing
power of the Shia clerics.
– They challenged the authority of the shah.
– They persecuted the non-Shias.
• Persia sank into a long period of social anarchy
Political and Social Structure
• Turkish + Persian
• Political System organized like a pyramid.
– Shah
– Bureaucracy and landed classes.
– Common people
The Shah
• Shah Ismail was believed to be a direct
successor of Muhammad.
• Shia Islam was the state religion.
• Available to subjects.
– Faces engraved in cups.
• Shahs controlled the power of the aristocracy.
– Government controlled the land.
– Government positions based on merit (not birth)
Economy and Trade
• Large Urban Middle Class involved.
• Most goods traveled by horse or camel
caravan.
– Roads were poor, but government provided
resting places.
Safavid Culture
• Science, medicine, mathematics was
equal to that of other societies in the
region.
• Beautiful Architecture.
• Metalwork, elaborate tiles, glass
– Isfahan, modern-day Iran.
• Silk
• Carpet weaving.