The+Muslim+Empires

ESPIRIT Chart The Ottoman Empire Time Period: 1450-1750

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 * E || * Constantinople’s great bazaars were filled with merchants and travelers from throughout the empire and places as distant as England and Malaya. They offered all manners of produce, from the spices of the East Indies and the ivory of Africa to slaves and forest products from Russia. ||
 * S || * Turkic peoples both fleeing the Mongols and those in search for booty flooded in what was once the land of the Great Abbasid empire in the last years of the 13th century. These people called themselves the Ottomans after an early leader named Osman. These people under Osman began to conquer the rest within decades they began to build an empire that was similar to that of Anatolia.
 * Janissaries: Imperial armies. Most of the Janissaries had been forcibly conscripted as adolescent boys in conquered areas such as the Balkans where the majority of the population retained its Christian faith. Sometimes they boys parents willingly turned their sons over to the Ottoman recruiters because of the opportunities that came with the advancements that came with their service to the Ottomans. Though legally slaves the youths were given fairly extensive schooling for the time and converted to Islam. Some of them went on to serve in the palace of even the bureaucracy, but many still remained Janissaries. Janissaries controlled the artillery and firearms that became completely vital to Ottoman success in warfare with Christian and Muslim adversaries. The Janissaries also tried to translate military service into political influence over the people.
 * Coffeehouses were places where men would gather to smoke tobacco, gossip, do business, and play chess could now be found in different parts of the city.
 * Coffeehouses also played a role in the cultural life of Constantinople as they were places where poets and scholars could congregate, socialize, read their latest works aloud, and debate about politics and the merits of each others ideas.
 * Beneath the ruling class, a large portion of the population of Constantinople and other Ottoman cities belonged to the merchant or artisan classes.
 * The Ottoman regime regulated commercial exchanges and handicraft production. Government inspectors were employed to ensure that standard weights and measures were used and to license the opening of new shops. They also regulated entry of apprentice artisans into trades and monitored the qualities of the goods.
 * Artisans were organized into guilds.
 * Guild officers set craft standards, arbitrated disputes between their members and provided financial assistance for needy members. Arranged popular entertainments. ||
 * P || * Military leaders played a dominant role in the Ottoman state and economy which was geared towards warfare and expansion. From the 15th century onward members of the warrior class also vied with religious leaders and administrators drawn from other social groups for control of expanding the Ottoman bureaucracy. As the power of the warrior aristocracy shrank they built up regional and local bases of support.
 * Generally Ottoman rulers were an absolute monarchy. However even the most powerful sultan maintained his position by playing into the warrior elite and pitting warriors against each other as a whole and from the Janissaries and other groups. Like the Abbasid caliphs, the Ottoman sultans grew more and more distant from their subjects as their empire grew in size and wealth. They lived in splendid marble castles and pleasure gardens, surrounded by large numbers of slaves and the many wives and concubines they possessed. The followed elaborate court rituals based on those of earlier Byzantine, Persian, and Arab dynasties. Day-to-Day administration was carried out by a large bureaucracy headed by a grand vizier. The vizier was the overall head of the administration and he often held more power than the sultan. The existence of many potential successors to the throne meant constant danger of civil strife. The death of a sultan could lead to protracted warfare among his sons. Defeated claimants sometimes fled to the domains of Christian or Muslim rulers who were hostile to the Ottomans which rallied points against the son who had gained the throne.
 * The forces that undermined the empire from the 17th century onward were compounded by growing problems at the center of the imperial administration. The early practice of assigning the royal princes administrative or military positions to prepare them to rule, died out. Instead, possible successors to the throne were kept like hostages in special sections of the palace where they remained until one of them ascended the throne. The other princes and potential rivals were also imprisoned for life in the palace. The great warrior-emperors of early Ottoman history gave way, with some important exceptions to weak and indolent rulers addicted to drink drugs and the pleasures of the harem. Civil strife increased and the discipline and leadership of armies on which the empire depended for survival deteriorated. ||
 * I || * By the 1350’s the Ottomans had advanced from their strongholds in Asia minor to across the Bosporous straits into Europe. They conquered many portions of the Balkans which was then added to the already growing empire. While moving throught Europe in the 14th century, the Ottomans bypassed rather than conquer the great city of Constantinople which was once the capital of the great Byzantine Empire. For seven weeks in spring of 1453 the army of Ottoman sultan Mehmed II with the title “The Conqueror”, which was made up of about 100,000 men attacked the triple ring land walls that had protected the city for centuries. They vastly outnumbered their competition (defenders) had a hard time coming back from one attack to another until the sultan ordered his men to batter a portion of the wall with their massive siege cannon. Wave ater Wave of Ottoman troops struck at the gaps of the wall in the defenses that had been cut by the guns, quickly overwhelmed the defenders and they rushed into the city to loot and pillage which lasted or 3 days due to the fact that Mehmed had promised them a rewarc ort a victory. Two centuries later the Ottoman empire had also expanded into Syria. Egypt, and across north Africa which brought a bulk of the rule over to the Arab world. The empire also spread through the Balkans into Hungary in Europe and around the Black and Red seas.
 * The Ottomans were vigorous and expansive until the late 17th century being able to ward off the powerful enemies who surrounded their domains on all sides for centuries. The dynasty endured more than 600 years.
 * The Ottomans had made very effective use if artillery and firearms when building their empire. However their reliance on huge siege guns, and the Janissaries determination to block all military changes that might jeopardize the power they had gained within the state caused the Ottomans to fall farther and farther behind their European rivals in the critical age of war. On the sea, the Ottomans were eclipsed as early as the 16th century. Even though the Ottomans had rebuilt their naval fleet they were still defeated by the Spanish. ||
 * R || * .One of the most noteworthy attributes of Ottoman Turkish rule was Ottoman toleration of different religious beliefs. The Turks of the Ottoman Empire were Muslims, but they did not force their religions on others. Christians and Jews in the Empire prayed in their own churches or synagogues, taught their religion in their own schools and seminaries, and went about their business, sometimes amassing great fortunes. Atthat time, Ottoman toleration was unique.
 * I || * Much of the literature that evolved from the Ottomans were concentrated on the slow decline of the empire. The approach of this literature provided a very skewed opinion and view of the Ottoman history as a whole.
 * Early Ottomans wrote in Persian and Arabic remained an important language for works on law and religion. By the 17th century, the Turkish language had become the preferred mode of expression for poets, scholars, historians, and even members of the bureaucracy.
 * Sultans after Mehmed II strove to be remembered for his efforts to beautify the capital. The most prominent additions were mosques that represent some of the most sublime contributions of the Ottomans to the Islamic world. Suleymaniye was built at the behest of one of the most successful sultans Suleyman the Magnificent (r.1520- 1566). Is known as the most “splendid” mosque that was built during this period. In addition to the mosques, sultans and administrators built mansions, rest houses, religious schools, and hospitals throughout Constantinople.
 * T || * The Ottomans strong naval power(galley fleets) made it easier for them to conquer island bases such as Rhodes, Crete, and Cyprus alon gthe Mediterranean Sea.
 * Aqueducts were built to ensure that water would travel to towns through the connecting aqueducts that ranged from Constantinople to the capital of the Ottoman empire. ||
 * Aqueducts were built to ensure that water would travel to towns through the connecting aqueducts that ranged from Constantinople to the capital of the Ottoman empire. ||

ESPIRIT Chart The Mughals Time Period: 1450-1750


 * E || * By the 17th century Mughal India had become the overseas destination for European traders. They brought products from throughout Asia to exchange for a variety of Indian manufactures, particularly in cotton textiles. The trade gap for Indian cotton cloth and clothing created in in west was one of the most important forms of trade occurring at the time. There were many different kinds of Indian cloth being traded. Calico, chintz, and muslin were the most popular which were used for cotton clothes such as pajamas and because they were easily washable and inexpensive.
 * Taxes fell heavily on the Hindu poor and in some cases drove them to support sectarian movements that rose up to resist Aurangseb. ||
 * S || * Akbar also pushed for social reforms which he believed would really help his subjects. Besides the reforms that favored Muslim rulers Akbar sought to improve the calendar to establish living quarters for the large population of beggars and vagabonds in the large cities and the regulate the consumption of alcohol. He also pushed for the reform of women’s rights. He encouraged widow remarriage and discouraged child marriages. The latter was spread along the upper class, however he did not outlaw them he just vouched against them. He did however prohibit the burning of high-caste women on their husbands funeral pyres which was a risky move considered that it was entrenched with some of his allies. He also tried to provide relief for women trapped in Purdah, or seclusion in their homes by encouraging the Merchants of Delhi and other cities to set aside special market days just for the women.
 * As the position of women at the Mughal court improved within the middle years of the dynasty’s power, the position of women in the rest of Indian’s society declined. Child marriage grew more popular and the age limits were lowered. It was not unheard of for girls to be married at age 9. Widow remarriage among Hindus nearly died out. Seclusion was more and more strictly enforced for upper-caste women, both Hindu and Muslim. Muslim women rarely ventured forwards from their homes unveiled and those who did risked verbal and even physical abuse. Among upper caste Hindus the practice of sati spread despite Shah Jahan’s renewed efforts to outlaw it. The birth of a girl was seen as an inauspicious event. At court as well as in the homes of ordinary villagers, only the birth of a son was greeted with feasting and celebration. ||
 * P || * Babur was the founder of the Mughals who was said to have been a descendent of the Mongol khans. His other half was a descendent of the Turkic conqueror Timur where many of his followers were from Turkic or mixed nomadic motives.
 * Babur was known to be a fine military strategist and fierce fighter who went into battle alongside his troops. However, he also had a cultivated taste for the arts and music while he was fighting for both his survival and the survival of the troops. In 1530 however he fell ill and died therefore he left his son Humayan to inherit the newly founded kingdom. Humayan was a good soldier, but after learning of his fathers death many enemies began to attack from all sides. After Humayans death of falling down the stairs and hitting his head his son and successor Akbar who was only 13 years old, enemy armies found it even easier to take advantage of the young ruler and attack. However, Akbar turned out to be one of the best rulers the Mughal empire ever had.
 * Muslim and Hindu warrior aristocrats who formed the core of the supporters of the Mughal empire were granted peasant villages for their support. The court and the central bureaucracy were then supported by revenues drawn from the tribute made by the military retainers and from taxes on lands set aside for the support of the imperial household. Because of the shortage of administrators many of whom were left paid their taxes on time to the Mughal government. These arrangements left a lot of control and welfare to the military populations in the hands of military retainers and local power brokers.
 * Jahangir (1605-1627) and Shah Jahan (1627-1658) were named Akbar’s successors. Jahangir and Shah Jahan continued Akbars policy toward the tolerance of the Hindu majority and remained true to many of the alliances with Hindu princes and local leaders. The made a little attempt to change the administrative apparatus left by Akbar. However they also kept the harsh warfare as the previous leaders had. The were not into the warfare as much as they were of living a lifestyle of luxury and leisure. They were both fond of female dancers and the pleasure gardens. They were remembered as two of the greatest patrons of the fine arts.
 * The two rules Jahangir and Shah Jahan were so absorbed into the arts and pursuit of pleasure that the left most of the mundane day-to-day administration up to their subordinates. In both cases strong willed wives took advantage of their husbands’ neglect of politics to win positions of power and influence at the Mughal court. For example Jahangir’s wife Nur Jahan continually amassed power as he became more and more addicted to wine and opium. She packed the court with able male relatives and her faction dominated the empire for most of the years of Jahangir’s reign. She was a big spender but not only on pomp and luxury. She became a major patron of much needed charities in the major cities. Despite all of her success she was eventually defeated by the roles of wife and mother to which many felt she should confine herself to. She then died given birth to her 19th child.Shah Jahan’s consort Mumtaz Mahal also had success in politics. However Shah Jahan was more involved and an able ruler than Jahangir was making her power not as strong as Nur Jahan’s. ||
 * I || * Babur motives for conquest and empire building had little to do with religious motivations. He directed regions into the fertile and heavily populated plains of north India only to gain booty to support his campaigns to win back his lost kingdom Ferghana. However after decades of war that repeatedly ended in defeat Babur finally gave up his dream of reclaiming his homeland. Within two years his armies conquered large portions of the Indus and Ganges plains.
 * Akbar was a strong military leader with great personal courage. However, he also had a vision of empire and sense of mission that hinged on uniting India under the rule. He became a workaholic who barely slept over 3 hours a night. He personally found that it was easier to control the administrative, economic, and military systems. ||
 * R || * Combining elements of the varying religions surrounding them, he invented a new faith, the Din-I-Ilahi which he believed would unite his Hindu and Muslim subjects.
 * When in power Jahangir and Shah Jahan respeceted the Hindu religion and the people as did the Mughals previous leader Akbar. ||
 * I || * Akbar patronized the arts and entered into complex religious and philosophical discussions with learned scholars from throughout the Muslim, Christian, and Hindu worlds. Though he was illiterate Akbar had an insatiable curiosity and an incredible memory. He had others read aloud to him making him become educated in many fields.
 * Jahangir and Shah Jahan expanded many of the Mughal painting workshops which had been started in the early Mughal dynasties. . They also devoted massive resources to building some of the most stunning architectural works of all time. The most well known is the Taj Mahal which is still standing today and which became a symbol for India. They also built structures such as the audience hall in Red Fort at Delhi, Akbar’s tomb in Sikandria, and the tomb of Itimad al-Dowleh as Agra. They focused on the beauty of their detail and decoration. ||
 * T || * Cinderblocks were used to build structures of pleasure such as the Taj Mahal where some of the most notable rulers such as Akbar were buried. Nur Jahan, Jahangir's wife is also buried there. ||