Date post: | 13-Jul-2015 |
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• The Ottomans were Sunni
Muslims who gained power
after the Mongols left.
• They built one of the wealthiest
and most powerful Empires of
the world at its time.
The Mughal Empire
was created by
descendents of
Turks and Mongols
who built an empire
in which a Muslim
minority controlled
a Hindu majority.
Muslim Empires
• As Islam spread to new settings in
Afro-Eurasia, believers adapted it to
local cultural practices.
• The split between the Sunni and Shi’a
traditions intensified, and Sufi
practices became more widespread.
Similarity in Political Structure…
• All had a centralized government with an
absolute ruler who had both political and
religious authority.
But these Islamic empires weren’t
necessarily friends…
Letter from the Ottoman Sultan to the
Safavid ruler (1514)
“You have deserted the path of salvation
and the sacred commandments. . . The
ulama (Islamic judges) have pronounced a
sentence of death against you, perjurer and
blasphemer.”
Evidence . . .
• Suleiman, Abbas I, Akbar were the
absolute rulers at the height of each empire
and were contemporaries.
A similarity in social class structure
• Each had Slavery as an institution – nonMuslims were slaves but the
status of slaves varied widely
Evidence: Concubines of India
European perspective on Ottoman Empire
Source: Olgier de Busbecq, Austrian
ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, in an
official letter to the Austrian Emperor, 1550.
“Just as we were leaving the city, we were met by
wagon-loads of wretched Christian slaves who
were being led to horrible servitude…Youths
and men of advanced age were driven along in
herds or else were tied together in chains. I
could scarcely restrain my tears in pity for the
plight of the Christian population.”