Module 6: The Turks and the Persians Flashcards
M6.1
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What nomadic people from modern Mongolia contributed to the decline of the Abbasid caliphate?
the Turks
Who did the Turks join with in terms of army size and administration?
the Mongol states in Persia and Central Asia
- the Turks outnumbered ethnic Mongols in this region
Timur
a Turkish leader, also called Tamerlane, who built a Central Asian empire that reached into India and through Persia to the black Sea.
Timur’s conquests only benefitted ____
Samarkand
- in here, craftsmen and specialists were forced to move to work for the new rulers
Osman
the chief of a band of seminomadic Turks that had migrated into western Anatolia while the Mongols still held Persia.
How did the Ottomans initially began their expansions?
from small Turkish states and the Byzantine Empire
ghazis
the Ottoman ruler called himself “border chief,” or leader of the ghazis, meaning frontier radiers.
Trace the origins of the Ottoman State.
The origins of the Ottoman state are traced back to Western Anatolia(Bursa). The Turks took the name Ottoman from their chief Osman who led them in their expansion.
Who were the Ottoman sultans?
they considered themselves as successors to both Byzantine and Turk emperors, and quickly absorbed the rest of the Byzantine Empire.
“sultan” word meaning
authority or dominion
- used by the Ottomans to connote political and military supremacy
To begin transformation of Constantinople, Mehmet _____
ordered wealthy residents to participate in building mosques, markets, fountains, baths, and other public facilities.
To make up for the loss of population through War, Mehmet ____
transplanted inhabitants of other territories to the city, granting them tax emissions and possession of empty houses
What played an influencial part in the expansion of the Ottoman state?
gunpowder
Suleiman
extended Ottoman dominion to its widest geographical extent
What was the reason behind Persia’s unhealthy relationship and constant warfare with the ottomans?
- religious antagonism between the Sunni Ottomans and the Shi’a Persians
- competition to expand at each other’s expense in Mesopotamia
- desire to control trade routes
- European alliances
What is Suleiman known as in Turkish history?
“The Lawgiver” because of his profound influence on the civil law
What introduced the idea of balanced government budgets?
Suleiman ordered Lutfi Pasa, a poet and juridical scholar, to draw a general code of laws that prescribed penalties for routine criminal acts. (known as the Kanun)
- this legal code was the introduction to budgets in government spendings
The power of the Ottoman central government was sustained by ____
the training of slaves
devshirme
a process where the sultan’s agents swept the provines for Christian youths to be trained as soldiers or civil servants
janissaries
Turkish for “recruits”; they formed the elite army corps
- central role in Ottoman military affairs, adapting easily to the use of firearms.
The Ottoman ruling class
descendants of Turkish families that had formerly ruled parts of Anatolia and partly of people of varied ethnic origins
true or false; a Sultan was allowed to marry.
FALSE
- the sultans did not contract legal marriages but perpetuated the ruling house through concubinage (a recognized spouse but lower than a wife)
What happened if the concubine delievered a boy?
she raised him until age 10 or 11. Then, the child was given a province to govern under the mother’s supervision.
shah
Persian word for “king”
What was one aspect that differentiates the Ottoman system and European feudalism?
The absence of a hereditary nobility and private ownership of agricultural land
Slave concubinage paralleled _____
the Ottoman development of slave soldiers and slave viziers
What were the three crucial features upon which the strength of the early Safavid state rested?
- loyalty and military support of nomadic Turkish Sufis (Qizilbash)
- the Safavid state utilized the skills of urban bureaucrats and made them an essential part of the civil machinery of government
- Shi’a faith, which became the compulsory religion of the empire.
Who was Hurrem?
She was Suleiman’s concubine who will later become his wife. She was very suppotive of Suleiman and very involved politically. She did everything to make sure her son was the next ruler. Was also most likely involved in the assassination of Abraham and Suleiman’s son.
What country remains the only Muslim state which Shi’ism is the official religion?
Iran
Why was Shah Abbas awarded the epithet “the Great?”
His military achievements, support for trade and commerce, and the endowment of the arts
Shah Abbas
the greatest leader of the Safavid Empire
- moved the capital from Qazvin to Isfahan.
- adopted the Ottoman practice of building an army of slaves
- increased use of gunpowders and European alliances
- captured Baghdad, Mosul, Diarbakr
Why was the conflict between the Ottomans and the Safavids an uneven match?
The Safavids did not have as many people or as much wealth as the Ottomans and continually had to defend against encroachment on their Western border.
Mughal Empire
the largest, wealthiest, and the most populous of the three great Islamic empires of the modern world
Bahur
a Turkish ruler who captured Kabul and established a kingdom in Afghanistan
- moved southward in search of resources to restore his fortune
- defeated the sultan of Delhi
- his captures paved the way for further conquests in northern India
Despite many of his soldiers wanting to return north with their spoils, who decided to stay in India?
Bahur
Who were the Mughals? What effects did they have on the Indian subcontinent?
A term meaning “Mongol,” used to refer to the Muslim empire of India, although its founders were primarily Turks, Afghans, and Persians. The reign of Humayun’s son Akbar may well have been the greatest in the history of India. Under him, the Mughal state took definitive form and encompassed most of the subcontinent north of the Godavari River.
What was the significance of the Battle of Mohacs?
The significance of the battle was that it is when Suleiman defeated the Hungarians at Mohacs, and thus the Ottoman Dominion was able to expand to its widest geographical extent.
During the reign of _______, the Mughals lost most of their territories in _____
- Babur’s on Humayun
- Afghanistan
The reign of who is the greatest in the history of India?
the reign of Humayun’s father AKBAR
Akbar developed an administrative bureaucracy centered on four co-equal ministers. What were they?
- Finance and revenue
- army and intelligence
- judiciary and religious patronage
- imperial household
M6.2
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All the Islamic empires had extraordinary artistic and intellectual flowering in everything. What did these include?
carpetmaking, architecture, gardening, geography, astronomy, to medicine
What became popular outlets for socializing and exchanging ideas?
coffeehouses
Describe the importance of carpetmaking in the three empires.
Carpet designs and weaving techniques all demonstrate cultural integration and local distinctiveness.
- In Safavid Persia, Shah Abbas built a business of carpet weaving into a national industry. Women and children were often employed as weavers, especially of the expensive rugs, because of their small hands being able to tie tinier knots.
Describe the importance of miniature painting.
Especially useful for book illustration had been enriched by the many Chinese artists brought to Persia during the Mongol period. As books were regarded as precious objects, time, talent, and expensive materials went into their production. They reflected wealth, possession, and power.
Europeans called Suleiman what? and why?
“the Magnificent” because of the grandeur of his court.
What benefitted the subjects of Suleiman?`
the building of hospitals, roads, and bridges and the reconstruction of the water systems of the great pilgrimage sites at Mecca and Jerusalem
Mimar Sinan
the greatest builder under the Ottomans
- a Greek-born devshirme recruit. He designed 312 public buildings, including mosques, schools, hospitals, baths, palaces, and Suleimaniye Mosques in Istanbul, which rivaled the Byzantine church of Hagia Sophia.
- his buildings represented discipline, power, and devotion to Islam
Shah Abbas made ____ the jewel of the Safavid Empire. Explain.
his capital, Isfahan
- he had his architects place a polo ground in the center and surrounded it with palaces, mosques, and bazaars. They were described as the “surprisingest piece of Greatness in Honour of commerce the world can boast of.”
What attracted the worldwide tourists annually in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to Isfahan?
its beauty
Akbar of India
also a great builder
- Jahangir (his long-awaited son) inspired Akbar to build a new city, Fatehpur Sikri, to symbolize the regime’s Islamic foundations. Unfortunately, after the city was fully built, it was soon abandoned due to its bad water supply.
Shah Jahan
one of Akbar’s successors, who had the most sophisticated interest in architecture.
- he decided to found a new capital city at Delhi. In the design and layout of his buildings, many PERSIAN ideas predominated, an indication of the number of Persian architects who flocked to the subcontinent.
Provide examples of architectural greatness among the three empires.
- Taj Mahal- Mughal Empire
- The Sehzade and Suleymaniye Mosques- Ottoman empire
- Peacock Throne-Persian Empire
For his palace, what did Shah Jahan order?
the construction of the Peacock Throne
- served as the imperial throne of India until 1739, when Persian warrior Nadir Shah seized it and carried it to Persia
What is Shah Jahan’s most enduring/greatest monument?
Taj Mahal
- construction in memorial of Shah Jahan’s favorite wife, who died giving birth to their fifteenth child (lol)
Explain the importance of gardens to Islamic civilization.
Gardens represent a distinctive and highly developed feature of Persian culture. They are identified with PARADISE in Arab traditions, and gardens served not only as centers of prayer but also places of leisure and revelry.
When was the Persian style of gardens adapted to warmer southern climates?
when Babur established the Mughal Dynasty in India
How many water channels surrounded the Taj Mahal? Why?
four, symbolizing the four rivers of paradise
Name some movements in advances to math, geography, astronomy, and medicine in the Ottoman empire.
- Piri Reis produced a map incorporating Islamic and Western knowledge that showed all the known world
- Takiyuddin Mehmt served as the chief astronomer, and built an observatory at Istanbul
- Abi Ahmet Celebi, the cheif physician of the empire, produced a study on kidney and bladder stones.
Describe the confusion of epidemics and pandemics for Muslims.
Muhammad had said not to leave a place because an epidemic broke out. Thus, when European cities began enforcing quarantines to control the spread of the plague, early Muslim rulers did not follow.
- by the sixteenth century, a redefinition of a proper response to a plague epidemic was made, and allowed leaving of the city in search of clean air.
Which fraternities thrived in this era?
the Sufis
- The mysterious Bhakti movement among Hindus involved dance, poems, and songs reminiscent of Sufi practices. The development of the new religion Sikhs was also influenced by Sufis.
Expand on the Sikhs.
- The Sikhs were influenced by the Sufis.
- they trace themselves back to a teacher who argued that God did not distinguish between Muslims and Hindus but saw everyone as his children.
- Sikhs rejected the caste system (division of society into hereditary groups) and forbade alcohol/tabbaco, and men did not cut their hair
- it was most successful in northwest India, where Sikh men armed themselves to defend their communities
Arab writers trace the origins of coffee-drinking to _____
Yemen Sufis, who found that coffee helped them stay awake
Describe the spread of coffee drinking.
Merchants carried the Sufis practice to Mecca, and from Mecca, pilgrims were introduced to it. Coffee drinking later spread to Egypt and Syria, and in 1555, two Syrians opened a coffeehouse in Istanbul.
Assess the importance of coffee houses in Islamic culture.
Coffeehouses provided a place for conversation and male sociability. the coffee trade was a major source of profit that local notables sought to control.
Why were coffee houses so controversial?
(1) because of its composition, coffee is intoxicating, making it analogous to wine, prohibited to Muslims.
(2) coffee drinking was an innovation and therefore a violation of Islamic law.
(3) coffeehouses encouraged political discussions, facilitating sedition.
(4) coffeehouses attracted unemployed soldiers and other low types, encouraging immoral behavior, such as gambling, using drugs, and soliciting prostitutes.
(5) Thus coffeehouses drew the attention of government officials, who considered themselves the guardians of public morality.
Describe the factors that led to the decline of Ottoman power.
People became less passionate about the empire and therefore did not fight to defend it. Ottoman generals were too busy fighting over power and did not do their jobs earnestly.
jizya
A poll tax on non-Muslims
- Akbar abolished this, and these actions infuriated the ulama, and made serious conflict erupt between its members and the emperor.
In the Indian subcontinent, there was an inverse between what?
the degree of Muslim political penetration and conversion to Islam
____ went the furthest in promoting Muslim-Hindu accommodation.
Akbar
Who did Akbar marry?
Hindu princesses, once who became the mother of Jahangir. He appointed Spanish Jesuit Antonio Monserrate as tutor to his second son, Prince Murad.
Describe Aurangzeb.
- He appointed censors of public morals in important cities to enforce Islamic laws against gambling, prostitution, drinking, and narcotics.
- He forbade sati (the self-immolation of widows on their husbands’ funerals) and the castration of boys to be sold.
- he ordered the destruction of some Hindu temples and tried to curb Sikhism. He also required Hindus to pay higher customs duties than Muslims.
Aurangzeb’s attempts to enforce rigid Islamic norms proved highly unpopular and aroused resistance that weakened Mughal rule.
Which was the first empire to fall?
Safavid Empire
What event marked the loss of Ottoman dominance in the Mediterranean?
the defeat of the Turkish fleet by the Spanish off the coast of Greece at Lepanto in 1571
The Safavid Empire lost its land to
the northern bank of the Black Sea to Russia
Who was the stiffest opposition to Aurangzeb?
the Maratha, a militant Hindu group centered in the western Deccan
What was one positive side of increasing provincial autonomy?
It drew more people into political participation, thus laying a foundation for later nationalism.
Whereas Ottoman and Safavids made uses of slaves acquired from non-Muslim lands for military positions, Akbar ____
used the services of royal princes, nobles, and warrior-aristocrats.
Explain Jahangir and Akbar’s future descedants.
Akbar’s son who succeded in consolidating Mughal rule in Bengal.
- Jahangir’s son, Shah Jahan launched fresh territorial expansion.
- Shah Jahan’s son Aurangzeb was unwilling to wait for his father to die and deposed him and confined him for years. His reign marks the empire’s decline.
Safavid authorities made efforts to convert ______ in the Caucasus.
Armenian Christians
Who was the grand vizier of Suleiman?
Ibrahim
- he ended up assuming titles only given to sultans, and was killed by Hurrem
What contributed to the demise of the Ottoman Empire-beginning with Hurrem?
Siding with Germany in WWI
Describe Mustafa.
Suleiman’s son
- Suleiman ordered the execution of Mustafa in order for him to continue keeping the throne. He sat by Mustafa’s body for days after he was killed, refusing anyone to touch him. The best hope for the empire’s future was gone.
