Imperial Culture in the Ottoman and Safavid Empires

HIST 113: Islamic CivilizationProf. Gustafson

Hagia Sophia

Source: Hattstein and Delius, Islam: Art and Architecture

Interior of the Dome atop Hagia Sohia

Source: Hattstein and Delius, Islam: Art and Architecture

Hagia Sophia

Blue Mosque

Sulaymaniyya Complex

Source: Hattstein and Delius, Islam: Art and Architecture

Source: Hattstein and Delius, Islam: Art and Architecture

Sehzadeh Complex, Istanbul

Bayezid Mosque (16th century)

Source: Lewis, Islam and the Arab World

Expansion of the Ottoman Empire

Source: Hattstein and Delius, Islam: Art and Architecture

Shah ‘Abbas Fighting the Uzbeks, fresco, 16th century

Source: Hattstein and Delius, Islam: Art and Architecture

Safavid Polities

• Qizilbash: “red heads;” Turkic tribal military supporters– described as ghulat “extremists”

• Tajiks: urban, Persian speaking literate classes– Support Persian high culture, pre-Islamic kingship

tradition

Maydan-i Shah, Isfahan

Scene from the Houghton Shahnama

Source: Welch, Persian Painting

Source: Grabar, Mostly Miniatures

Scene from the Houghton Shahnama

Source: Hattstein and Delius, Islam: Art and Architecture

Shah ʿAbbas and the Image of the Just Ruler

1. What ideas of legitimate kingship and justice are presented in the story of Shah ʿAbbas’ foot pilgrimage to the shrine of a Shi’i Imam in Mashhad? How do these ideas compare to what we read in other political texts, like the Siyasatnameh of Nizam al-Mulk, or al-Mawardi’s treatise on the caliphate?

2. How does our Safavid chronicler from the early 1600s describe Shah Ismaʿil when looking back on his legacy? In particular, how does he interpret the Ottoman victory over the Safavids at the Battle of Chaldiran (the last paragraph on page 71, continuing to page 72)? Why?