Making of the Modern World 13New Ideas and Cultural Contacts

Spring 2016, Lecture 4

Fall Quarter, 2011

“Two things: the first is that you are the sultan of the

universe and the ruler of the world, and I do not beliee

that there has appeared among men from Adam until this

epoch a ruler like you. I am not one of those who speak

about matters by conjecture, for I am a scholar and I will

explain this, and say: Sovereignty exists only because of

group loyalty (‘asabiyya), and the greater the number in

the group, the greater is the extent of sovereignty.”

Ibn Khaldun

Tamerlane

d.1405

Built a central Asian empire

(building on Chinggis Khan’s tradition)

Mid-1390s: Invaded India and

subjected Delhi

Helped Spread Persianized

Turkish

Culture

Today’s lecture

Nomadic contribution

Documentary about Ghengiz Khan

Film on Tuesday

QUESTION

“Identify how differently (if at all) Ghengiz Khan is depicted

in these two films.”

Le Bourgeois gentilhomme

“Genghiz Khan”or Universal Ruler

●Temüjin (b. 1167-1227) “Iron worker”

●His father a famous warrior.

● His father poisoned by Tatars (1175)

● Influence of his mother

● In 1190s he made an alliance

With other Mongol tribes and fought against the

Tatars

1. Socio-Political accomplishment ● Reorganized tribal loyalty and by detribalizing the

Mongols into a Confederacy

Tribal Confederacy” a loose association of

sovereign clans that join for a common, shared

identity or interest

2.Military accomplishment

3. Eurasian Integration

How the Mongols helped open up

contact?

Building and protecting trade routes

Commerce

Communication

People (migration, travel)

Ideas (religious ideas, intellectual, etc.)

What were the Mongol

Contributions to World History?

1. COMMERCE &Trade: Increased the integration of

Eurasia. SILK ROAD!!!

2. Migration & Travel: Human contact

3. Spread of Religions: Specially Islam & Buddhism.

4. By facilitating commerce the Mongols unintentionally

spread bubonic plague, which erupted in south-western

China (1330-1340).

Land-based

15th century: Maritime-land routes

1250-1350

A “World System of Commerce”:

Cities located along major land and sea routes (Europe,

West Asia, Indian Ocean regions and China)

Europe played a minor role

The Vikings

Vikings (English) or “Northmen” (Carolingian)

Old Norse: seaman who take up raiding

Raided, explored and settled in Europe, Parts of Asia and North Atlantic between 8th and 11th centuries.

Pirates, raiders, but mostly explorers and merchants

1200: Vikings were becoming sedentary, farmers and settlers in the territories they conquered

Eventually settled, assimilated and built a large trade network

Opening western with eastern and

southern Europe

Europe, Russia, the Middle East, Northern India, and even

China

Northern tip of Newfoundland

Viking Factor prior to the Mongol incursion in Eastern-

Western Europe and North Africa

Movement of people: migrations; Charlemagne.

Expanded the trade routes between Abbasid and Frank

(Western European) territories.

Expansion of Christianity

Paved the path toward the emergence of late medieval Mediterranean-Mesopotamian contact zones.

4. Imperial legacy: charismatic,

cosmological, spiritual

Khwarezmian Empire (1077-1231)

1218 Genghiz Khan sends trade mission and diplomats

1220 conquest of Samarqand

The Ilkhanate (1256–1335/1353)

● Khwarazm Shah

●Hülegü established the Ilkhanate in Persia and Mesopotamia. (1218-1265)

● 1295 Ilkhan Ghazan converted Mongols to Islam.

Used Persian and Arab administrators to run the empire.

Persianate: aesthetic, cultural, literary

and political

Timur (d.1405)

Military, political, and legal leadership

Promotion of Persianate

TURKS

“Original” Turks

Nomadic people from Central Asia.

Various tribes who migrated from Central Asia to

India, Persia and Anatolia (modern Turkey).

Highly skilled warriors.

Religiously diverse: Buddhist, Christian, Muslim…

Unlike the Mongols, their Nomadic Empires became

great civilizations, establishing the most enduring

imperial orders in world history (e.g. OTTOMANS)

First Turkish Migrations

At first: mostly random

Uyghur Turks, lived mostly on the oasis cities along the

silk roads.

Abbasids: Slave Soldiers or Mamluks

Oghuz (tribe) Turks

1055: the Abbasid caliph recognized Saljuq Turk, Tughril

Beg as Sultan (Ruler)

1071 Saljuq Turks defeated the Byzantine.

Led the Crusades.

Mahmud of Ghazni, 997-1030

Expansion into Punjab

Gujarat and Bengal.

Mamluks Sultanate (1250-1517)

Persianized Turks

Persian as the official language of the courts.

Persian poetry and literature.

Persian administration based on the Sassanid imperial

order (pre-Islamic).

Osman I

1258-1326

1299 declared independence from Saljuq sultan.

Expanded his emirates

Ghazi: Spiritual warriors (a myth or a latter Ottoman construct).

CONFEDERACY: Christian and Turkish Muslim forces.

Heterodox Muslim

Established Osmanlis or Ottomans.

Shah Ismail I (1487-1524)

Three major Mongol-Turkish

Imperial Orders

1) Ottoman

2) Safavid (1501-1722)

3) Mughal