The Expanding Muslim World THE OTTOMANS AND THE SAFAVID EMPIRES LEARNING TARGET: ANALYZE CHANGE AND CONTINUITY WITHIN THE OTTOMAN AND SAFAVID EMPIRES

The Muslim culture; An Overview Religion ◦The religion of the Muslim culture is Islam ◦Like Christianity the religion is monotheistic, or one God ◦The name they use for God is Allah ◦Allah transmitted his words, the Quran, to Mohammad ◦Muslims believe that salvation in won through submission to the will of God, and that can only be accomplished by following the five pillars of Islam. ◦Confession of faith ◦Prayer five times per day ◦Charity to the needy ◦Fasting during the month-long Ramadan ◦Pilgrimage to Mecca at least once during one’s life

The Muslim culture; An Overview Islam is also guided by the concept of the jihad, which means struggle ◦Struggle applies to the struggle to be a better Muslim ◦Struggle against non-believers Islam shares a common history with Christianity and Judaism ◦It accepts Abraham, Moses and Jesus are prophets ◦It does not accept that Jesus is the son of God however as Christianity does ◦Believe that all people are equal before God ◦Everyone should be converted to the faith Early on in Islam the religion split into two groups ◦Shia and the Sunni

The Muslim culture; An Overview Muslims believe that Muhammad was the last great prophet ◦Muhammad grew up in the city of Mecca ◦Here he was exposed to many different religious beliefs because Mecca lays on the trade routes ◦He was exposed to Christianity and Judaism, as well as many other religions ◦As he started preaching Islam, the authority in Mecca started reacting negatively ◦They enjoyed the polytheistic faiths that dominated the area ◦Mecca was a place of pilgrimage for many of these religions and the leaders wanted to keep the money flowing into the city ◦As a result Muhammad fled Mecca in 662 ◦This marks year 1 on the Muslim calendar ◦In 630 Muhammad as his followers returned to Mecca and destroyed the pagan shrines except for one ◦This shrine is now the focus of the pilgrimage to Mecca today

The Muslim culture; An Overview When Muhammad died unexpectedly in 632 one of his followers took over as leader of the new religion ◦The leader is called the caliph ◦The caliph is the head of state, military commander, chief judge, and religious leader ◦Basically the religious movement was a theocracy ◦As time went on the caliphs began to behave more like hereditary rulers, just like a monarchy, but the lines of succession where not clearly established Four caliphs later and trouble in the Muslim world was averted when the Umayyad dynasty was formed

The Muslim culture; Founding of an Empire The Umayyad Dynasty enlarged the Islamic Empire drastically ◦They moved the capital from Mecca to Damascus, Syria and made Arabic the official language ◦They also pushed to convert the people that they conquered to Islam, if you did not convert you were forced to pay a tax ◦This dynasty was incredibly successful in expanding the borders ◦They attacked the Byzantine capital of Constantinople, but failed to capture it ◦They also pushed into Europe, by way of Spain, but were stopped in France Despite this success the succession issue was still an issue which lead to the splitting of the religion

The Muslim culture; Splitting apart Despite all of the success Islam split into two factions ◦Shiite (Shia) Muslims hold that Muhammad’s son in law, Ali, was the rightful heir to the empire ◦This is based on Muhammad's comments to him ◦As a result they believe the leader of Islam to be a hereditary position ◦Sunnis do not believe that a hereditary line should choose the leader of Islam ◦They believe that the leaders of the empire should be drawn from a broad base of the people As the Shiite gained more power they started attacking the Umayyad leaders and the dynasty went into decline ◦Around 750 the dynasty was defeated and replace by the Abbasid Dynasty This dynasty ruled until 1258 when the Mongols came and destroyed them

The Muslim culture; Today Today, about 23% of the world is Muslim ◦Or about 1.6 billion people ◦Here is the map of the major Islamic countries of the world today ◦Green = Sunni / Red = Shiite

Islam and culture blending Following its formation the Muslim culture, as seen on the last slide, spread throughout the middle east and Africa. ◦Its durability and growth are primarily based on two empires that emerged between ◦The Ottoman’s ◦The Safavids

Ottoman Empire As stated before the Muslim world was in disarray after 1258 when the Mongols came and destroyed everything As the Mongol control over the area weekend a Muslim Ottoman Empire stood ready to fill the power vacuum created ◦Osman Bey was the leader that rose to start the new dynasty in the 1300’s ◦He was from Anatolia, eastern part of Turkey In 1453 had enough power that he invaded Constantinople ending the Byzantine Empire

Ottoman Empire The Ottomans made Constantinople their capital, renaming it Istanbul ◦They reconquered the lands once held by the Romans, except for Italy and westward In this expanding empire, the Ottomans acted wisely towards their newly conquered subjects ◦Christians and Jews were allowed to practice their own religions ◦Made this empire one of the most tolerant of the time ◦Ruled through local officials ◦Often improved the lives of the people they took over

Ottoman Empire Why the empire was so successful and long lasting was its highly organized social structure ◦This system was created by Suleyman, who ruled for 46 years ◦He created a law of codes that fairly dealt with the people of his lands ◦Made taxes fair for all people ◦Reduced the people in government, reducing corruption As a result, the rule of Suleyman is often seen as the Renaissance of Islamic culture He was not all sunshine and roses however, in order for the Christians to fulfill their obligations of military service he took their sons and converted them to Islam making them his personal guard loyal to only the Sultan

Safavids This was the chief rival to the Ottomans ◦Their country was based on military conquest and based on Shiite Islam ◦This is at odds with the Sunni religion practiced by the Ottoman’s While not as successful as the Ottoman’s in terms of longevity or territorial expansion, they offer a great example of why Muslim cultures flourished during this time Cultural Blending

Safavid; Cultural Blending Most often characterized by one of the four following activities 1.Migration 1.“Hey, what are you doing?” 2.Pursuit of Religious Freedom 1.“I can not live here any longer, I am leaving!” 3.Trade 1.“Buy my stuff, Buy my stuff. Wait, why did you do that? That was awesome!” 4.Conquest 1.“Do it, or I will kill you.”

Safavid The Safavid used this blending to build an Empire by taking the best from the cultures around them ◦Were located between the Ottomans and the Mughals, so they focused on military strength ◦The Safavid leader took the idea of taking children and training them, making two armies loyal only to him ◦The government was also reformed and corruption was severally punished ◦The empire was also tolerant of different religions ◦This allowed the empire to trade with a number of European empires ◦People from throughout the world, expect the Americas, came to the empire to learn and teach creating a golden age

Decline of both great Empires Both great empires made the same mistakes which brought about their decline and eventual failure The leaders feared their sons or brothers, because they were the next in line to rule ◦As a result the most able leaders were killed, crippled or exiled from the country ◦This left only the weakest of people left to rule ◦These weakest ones however were also not provided an education and often hidden away until they came to power As a result the weak leaders of both empires slowly led them to fail