Chapter 19: Islamic Gunpowder Empires

Question 1

Bosporus Strait

Answer 1

This was the only waterway linking the Aegean Sea with the Black Sea, and thus was plentiful in trade. The city of Istanbul in the Ottoman Empire was located around the strait.

Question 2

Strait of Hormuz

Answer 2

Under Shah Abbas I, the Safavids traded with the Portuguese, which for a time held the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. [1622] Abbas took control of the strait with the aid of English ships, which would begin the long history of British interest in Iranian oil.

Question 3

ghazi ideal

Answer 3

It was Tamerlane’s model for warrior life that blended the cooperative values of the Eurasian steppe’s nomadic culture with the willingness to serve as a holy fighter for Islam. This ideal would serve as the model for warriors who participated in the rise of the Gunpowder Empires.

Question 4

Suleiman Mosque

Answer 4

Suleiman I ordered the construction in Istanbul of the magnificent Suleimani Mosque, which can be seen from the Golden Horn promontory that juts into the convergence between the Black Sea and the Bosporus Strait.

Question 5

coffeehouses

Answer 5

They were settings for business transactions, trade meetings, and cultural events like poetry recitations & scholarly debates. They would be technically banned by Islamic law for spreading radical ideas and social disorder, but continued to do a thriving business throughout the towns of the Ottoman Empire.

Question 6

ulama

Answer 6

They were scholars and experts in Islamic law who would compete with the warrior aristocracy for positions in the Ottoman bureaucracy.

Question 7

Sharia Law

Answer 7

After the fall of Constantinople, the former Eastern Orthodox Byzantine Empire became a part of the Islamic Ottoman Empire. Thus, Justinian Law was replaced by shariah, which is a system of Islamic jurisprudence that deals with all aspects of life, including criminal justice, marital laws, and inheritance issues.

Question 8

harem

Answer 8

The harem is a residence where a man’s wives and concubines lived. Many wives and concubines of the sultan tried to promote their own children as likely heirs to the throne, giving rise to “harem politics.”

Question 9

miniature paintings

Answer 9

Mehmed II established workshops to produce Ottoman miniature paintings and illuminated manuscripts, which became famous.

Question 10

Sikhism

Answer 10

Akbar of India was tolerant of all religions and allocated land grants for the relatively new religion of Sikhism, which developed from Hinduism, and, some believe, may have been influenced by the Islamic mysticism known as Sufism.

Question 11

sati

Answer 11

Akbar tried, albeit in vain, to prohibit sati, the ritual in which widows killed themselves by jumping on the funeral pyres of their husbands.

Question 12

Din-i-ilahi

Answer 12

Akbar created his own religion called Din-i-ilahi, or “divine faith,” which he had created for the purpose of reconciling Hinduism and Islam.

Question 13

Taj Mahal

Answer 13

Shah Jahan created the magnificent architectural accomplishment known as the Taj Mahal as a tomb for his wife.

Question 14

middlemen

Answer 14

The Ottoman navy allowed traders to serve as middlemen, handling goods from both directions and receiving profit in exchange.

Question 15

trade agreements

Answer 15

The Ottomans signed trade agreements to increase commerce with France. However, the terms of the agreements with France would ultimately diminish the Ottoman profits in the long term.

Question 16

Barbary pirates

Answer 16

The Barbary pirates in the Mediterranean would capture European slaves to be sold to the sultan or other high-ranking officials.

Question 17

Grand Bazaar

Answer 17

The Grand Bazaar, located in Istanbul at the western end of the overland Silk Roads, was full of many foreign imports. It held Russian amber/wood products, Chinese spices/silk, African ivory/slaves, and Persian carpets.

Question 18

devshirme

Answer 18

The Ottoman sultans used this selection system, which forcibly recruited 8-20-year-old Christian boys who were subjects of the empire, to serve in the military or the gov’t. After converting to Islam, they were taught various skills in politics, the arts, and the military. The most famous group was called Janissaries, who formed elite forces in the Ottoman army. Other boys were groomed to become administrators of the newly conquered territories; some were scribes, tax collectors, and even diplomats.

Question 19

Janissaries

Answer 19

Janissaries were the elite forces in the Ottoman army under the devshirme system. In some ways, becoming a Janissary provided a path of upward mobility in the Ottoman empire, though Janissaries continued to be called “slaves of the state.” Some parents even wanted their sons to be recruited into the service.

Question 20

impressed

Answer 20

Some people were impressed, or forced into service, into the Ottoman navy as galley slaves (rowing a boat). [1500s-1700s] The estimated number of people impressed go as high as a million or more.

Question 21

zamindars

Answer 21

They were paid gov’t officials in charge of specific duties like taxation, construction, and water supply. They were permitted to keep a portion of the taxes paid by local peasants, who contributed one-third of their produce to the gov’t. After Akbar, though, the zamindars began to keep more of the taxes they collected to build personal armies of soldiers and civilians loyal to them.

Question 22

castes

Answer 22

Castes are social groups in India, usually associated with specific occupations. Trade within the borders of the Mughal Empire was carried on by the merchant caste, which was allowed to participate in banking and the production of handicrafts.

Question 23

Gunpowder Empires

Answer 23

The large multiethnic states in Southwest, Central, and South Asia that relied on firearms to conquer and control their territories. [1450-1750] The empires included Russia and where Islam was strongest: the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal Empires.

Question 24

Tamerlane

Answer 24

Also known as “Timur the Lame,” Tamerlane was a Mongol-Turkic ruler who set the stage for the rise of the Turkic empires. Leading an army partly composed of nomadic invaders from the Eurasian steppes, Tamerlane moved out from the trading city of Samarkand to make ruthless conquests in Persia and India. The ghazi ideal was Tamerlane’s model for warrior life that blended the cooperative values of the Eurasian steppe’s nomadic culture with the willingness to serve as a holy fighter for Islam.

Question 25

Samarkand

Answer 25

Samarkand was the trading city in modern-day Uzbekistan that Tamerlane lived near.

Question 26

Ottoman Empire

Answer 26

It was the largest and most enduring of the great Islamic empires of the period. It was founded by the [1300s] Osman Dynasty and lasted until its [1918] defeat by the Allies in WWI. Its prominent rulers were Mehmed II and Suleiman I.

Question 27

Mehmed II (“the Conqueror”)

Answer 27

[1451-1481] Called the “Conqueror,” he firmly established the Ottoman Empire’s capital after his forces [1453] besieged Constantinople by cannon. With a name change to Istanbul, the city prospered by controlling the Bosporus Strait, the only waterway linking the Aegean Sea with the Black Sea. Mehmed II ordered for the construction of the royal residence of the sultans, Topkapi Palace. His armies seized lands near or in the (BS-B-I-I-S-E-A) Black Sea, the Balkans, Italy, Syria, Israel, Egypt, and Algeria.

Question 28

Topkapi Palace

Answer 28

Mehmed II ordered for the construction of this palace as the royal residence of the sultans.

Question 29

Suleiman I

Answer 29

[1520-1566] Under him, the Ottoman Empire reached its peak. His armies took Hungary, Rhodes, and Tripoli. Though his attempts to take Vienna failed twice, the ability of the Ottomans to send troops so far into Christian Europe caused great fear there. He also ordered the construction in Istanbul of the Suleimani Mosque, which can be seen from the Golden Horn promontory that juts into the convergence between the Black Sea and the Bosporus Strait.

Question 30

Vienna

Answer 30

Vienna is a major city of Austria which Suleiman I of the Ottoman Empire attempted twice to take control of. Though he failed, the ability of the Ottomans to send troops so far into Christian Europe caused great fear there.

Question 31

Rhodes

Answer 31

Rhodes was an island now a part of Greece in the eastern Mediterranean, which had long been a stronghold of Christian knights, until [1522] Suleiman I conquered it for the Ottoman Empire.

Question 32

viziers

Answer 32

As the sultans of the Ottoman Empire became less effective and less capable, strong advisors called viziers came to occupy influential positions in gov’t, where they spoke for the sultan.

Question 33

Battle of Lepanto

Answer 33

[1571] Following Suleiman’s death, a European force made up mostly of Spaniards/Venetians defeated the Ottomans in this great naval conflict. After the reign of Suleiman, the Ottomans fell victim to weak sultans and strong European neighbors; in time, the empire became known as the “Sick Man of Europe.”

Question 34

Safavids

Answer 34

The Safavids were sandwiched between the other two Islamic Gunpowder Empires (Ottomans and Mughals). They had two problems. The first was that they were on the Arabian Sea but had no real navy. The second was that they lacked natural defenses. However, they [1500s] rose to power due to their military might and strong leadership under Ismail and Abbas I, though it would fall to the Ottomans due to weak leadership after Abbas I.

Question 35

Ismail

Answer 35

He was an early Safavid military hero whose ethnic background is much disputed. He conquered parts of Persia, Iraq, and Iran. At only 14 years old, he [1501] pronounced shah (equivalent to king or emperor). Using Shia Islam as a unifying force, Shah Ismail built a power base that supported his rule and denied legitimacy to any Sunni. This strict adherence to Shia Islam caused frequent hostilities with the Ottoman Empire, a stronghold of Sunni Islam. [1541] Safavid forces were stopped by the Ottomans at Tabriz, a city in Persia that became part of the border between Sunni and Shia societies; the hostility between the two groups lives on in present-day Iraq and Iran.

Question 36

shah

Answer 36

The equivalence of “king” or “emperor” in the Safavid Empire.

Question 37

Shah Abbas I (“Abbas the Great”)

Answer 37

[1587-1629] He presided over the Safavid Empire at its height. His troops, which were conscripted in ways similar to the Janissaries of the Ottoman Empire, included soldiers—often Christian boys pressed into service—from as far northwest as Georgia in Russia. Abbas imported weaponry from Europe and also relied on Europeans to advise his troops about firearms. He beautified the capital city of Isfahan by adding broad avenues, parks, mosques, and schools. Under him, the Safavids traded with the Portuguese, which for a time held the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. [1622] Abbas took control of the strait with the aid of English ships, which would begin the long history of British interest in Iranian oil.

Question 38

Isfahan

Answer 38

This was the capital city of the Safavid Empire, which Shah Abbas I beautified by adding broad avenues, parks, mosques, and schools. The city is south of the modern Iranian capital of Tehran.

Question 39

Akbar

Answer 39

[1556-1605] He was the grandson of Babur, a descendant of Tamerlane, and proved to be the most capable of the Mughal rulers. From his capital in Delhi, he established an efficient gov’t and a system of fairly administered laws; all of his people had the right to appeal to him for final judgment in any lawsuit.

Paid gov’t officials in charge of specific duties like taxation, construction, and water supply, were called zamindars. Later, they were permitted to keep a portion of the taxes paid by local peasants, who contributed one-third of their produce to the gov’t. After Akbar’s passing, zamindars began to keep more of the taxes they collected for personal armies and civilians loyal to them.

Akbar was tolerant of all religions and allocated land grants for the relatively new religion of Sikhism, which developed from Hinduism, and, some believe, may have been influenced by the Islamic mysticism known as Sufism. He tried to mediate the conflict between Hindus and Muslims by giving Hindus positions in his gov’t, allowing zamindars of both high and low positions to be Hindu, and by marrying Hindu wives.

Akbar also tried, albeit in vain, to prohibit child marriages and sati, the ritual in which widows killed themselves by jumping on the funeral pyres of their husbands.

He created his own religion called Din-i-ilahi, or “divine faith,” which he had created for the purpose of reconciling Hinduism and Islam.

Question 40

Babur

Answer 40

He was a descendant of Tamerlane who founded [1520s] a 300-year dynasty during a time when India was in disarray. He completed conquests in northern India, and, under a new Mughal name, formed a central gov’t similar to those of Suleiman in Turkey and Ivan the Terrible in Russia. It would be Babur’s grandson Akbar, whoever, who would achieve grand religious/political goals.

Question 41

Delhi

Answer 41

Delhi was the capital where Akbar of Mughal stayed.

Question 42

Shah Jahan

Answer 42

[1627-1658] Shah Jahan created the magnificent architectural accomplishment known as the Taj Mahal as a tomb for his wife.

Question 43

Aurangzeb

Answer 43

[1658-1707] Shah Jahan’s son and successor inherited an empire weakened by corruption and failure to keep up with the military innovations of external enemies. Nevertheless, he hoped to increase the size of the empire, bring all of India under Muslim rule, and rid the empire of its Hindu influences. In expanding the empire to the south, he drained the empire’s treasury and was unable to put down peasant uprisings, which often were sparked by his insistence on an austere and pious Islamic lifestyle in which even music was banned. [1800s] The British would eventually take political power away from the Mughals.