AP World HistoryPOD #7 – Golden Age of Islam

Mongols, Turks & Safavids

Class Discussion Questions

Bulliet et. al. – “The Mongols and Islam”, pp 345-349“The Ottoman Empire, to 1750”, pp. 532-541“The Safavid Empire, 1502-1722”, pp. 541-545

The Golden Horde

Established by Genghis Khan Controlled north of the Caspian Sea (southern

Russia) with their capital city at Sarai on the Volga River

Ruled an indigenous Muslim (mostly Turkic speaking) people

Some member of the Mongol imperial family had professed an allegiance to Islam prior to the Mongol assault on the Middle East

Turkic Muslims served the Mongol imperial family in a variety of positions

Il-Khan Empire

Established in 1260 by Hulegu (grandson of Ghenghis Khan)

Controlled Iran, Azerbaijan, Mesopotamia and parts of Armenia

Hulegu was a Buddhist, but was advised by a trusted Shi’ite

Privileges were extended to Shi’ites and slowly the Mongols under the contrl of Hulegu converted to Islam

Ghazan connnverted to Islam in 1295 but the evidence is conflicting on his affiliation with either the Sunnis or the Shi’ites

Clash of Religious Beliefs

“Islamic doctrines clashed with Mongol ways. Muslims abhorred the Mongol’s worship of Buddhist and shamanist idols. Furthermore, Mongol law specified slaughtering animals without spilling blood, which involved opening the chest and stopping the heart. This horrified Muslims who were forbidden to consume blood and slaughtered animals by slitting their throats and draining the blood.” (Bulliet, p. 345)

Inter-Mongol Tension

Batu’s successor as leader of the Golden Horde who had declared himself a Muslim and pledged to avenge the murder of the Abbasid Caliph

Claimed to have the authority to control the mountains between the Black and Caspian Seas (also claimed by the Il-khans

Mongols, Islam & the Crusades

European leaders attempted to win the favor of the non-Muslim Il-khan leaders by helping to repel the Golden Horde from the Caucasus

European leaders hoped the Il-khan would repay the favor by helping to relive Muslim pressure on the Crusader principalities in Syria, Lebanon and Palestine

The Golden Horde countered this attempt by forming an alliance with the Muslim Mamluks in Egypt

Result -the existence of the crusader principalities was extended, but the Mamluks collapsed by the 15th century

Ottoman Empire

Founded circa 1300 / lasted until 1922 Started by Osman - grew from a tiny state in northwestern Anatolia and

extended Muslim conquests into eastern Europe and took control of Syria and Egypt from the Mamluk rulers

1453 – Mehmed II “the Conqueror” – laid seige to Constantinople taking control of the city and renaming it Istanbul bringing an end to 1100 years of Byzantine rule

Controlled the strategic link between Europe and Asia on the Dardanelles Strait and Bosporus Strait

Built an army that took advantage of the traditional skills of the Turkish cavalryman and the new military possibilities presented by gunpowder

Seemed to recreate the might of the original Islamic caliphate, but in reality was more like the new centralized monarchies of western Europe

Please Note: with Ottoman control of the eastern Mediterranean, Europe’s access to eastern European slaves was closed off forcing them to look for new slave sources in Africa – SLAVERY WILL NOW BECOME ABOUT RACE, NOT WINNERS & LOSERS

Suleiman the Magnificent

Ruled the Ottoman Empire from 1520-1566 and conducted the greatest assault on Christian Europe

Laid siege to the Habsburg capital of Vienna in 1529

Historians view the reign of Suleiman as the period when the imperial system worked to perfection, and they refer to this era as the Golden Age of Ottoman greatness

Jannisaries

“By the 1520s, the Ottoman Empire was the most powerful and best-organized state in either Europe or the Islamic world. Its military was balanced between cavalry archers, primarily Turks and Janissaries, Christian prisoners of war induced to serve as military slaves.” (Bulliet, pp. 534-535)

Devshirme – beginning in the early 15th century, a regular levy of male children was made on Christian villages in the Balkans

Cavalrymen were supported by land grants they administered in the rural areas of Anatolia and the Balkans – they maintained order and collected taxes to support their summer military campaigns

Askeri – military class – exempt from taxes and owed their well being to the Sultan

Decadence & Decline

The size of the Janissary Corps – and its cost to the government – grew steadily and the role of the Turkish cavalry diminished

To pay the Janissaries, the sultan started reducing the number of landholding cavalrymen.

Inflation resulted from the flood of cheap silver from the New World

Rebellions in Anatolia In the provinces, ambitious and competent governors, wealthy

landholders, urban notables, and nomad chieftains took advantage of the central government’s weakness

Although no region declared full independence, the Sultan’s power was slipping away to the advantage of a broad array of lower officials and upstart chieftains in all parts of the empire while the Ottoman empire was reorienting itself toward Europe

Safavid Empire

Located in Iran – resembled the Ottoman Empire Founded by Ismail who proclaimed himself shah of

Iran and declared that from that time forward his realm would be devoted to Shi’ite Islam, which revered the family of Muhammad’s son-in-law Ali

This decision created a major rift between Iran and its neighbors all of which were Sunni

Iran became a truly separate country for the first time since its incorporation in to the Islamic caliphate in the seventh century

Persian Culture

Persian, written in the Arabic script from the 10th century onward became the second language of Iran

After the destruction of Baghdad at the hands of the Mongols, Iran developed more extensive contact with India

Shi’ite doctrine says that all temporal rulers, regardless of title, are temporary stand ins for the “Hidden Imam”: the 12th descendent of Ali, the prophet Muhammad’s cousin and son-in-law, who disappeared as a child in the 9th century

Some Shi’ite scholars concluded that the faithful should calmly accept the world as it was and wait quietly for the Hidden Imam to return

Others maintained that they themselves should play a stronger role in political affairs because they were best qualified to know the Hidden Imam’s wishes.

Collapse of the Safavid

Inflation caused by cheap silver Mismanagement of the silk monopoly The country faced the unsolvable problem of finding

money to pay the army and bureaucracy Need to remove nomads from their lands to regain

control of taxes By 1722, the government had become so weak and

commanded so little support from the nomadic groups that an army of marauding Afghans was able to capture Isfahan and effectively end Safavid rule.