Asian Stagnation Notes (3/7/11)

Chapter 21: Asian Stagnation - The Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal Empires

• the Muslim Calphate and unity was essentially destroyed by the Mongols

• three new "gunpowder" empires arise from the old system

• comparable to Russia because they tired to compete with Europe

• Gunpowder Empires

• Ottomans

• largest

• Safavid

• Iran, Afghanistan

• Mughal

• Iran, India

THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE

• longest, strongest, most powerful

• conquered parts of Old Roman Empire

• FOUNDATIONS

• Turkic peoples migrated away from Central Asia

• fleeing Mongols

• founded by Osman I in 1293 after the Mongols left

• slowly captured territory of the Byzantines

• 1453 captured Constantinople

• THE SULTANS AND THEIR COURT

• Sultan - absolute authority, owned private property, military figure

• Divans - prime minister

• Social/Military Divans

• Local Administration & Military

• Landowners & tax collectors

• Vizers - prime minister

• Heads of individual religious millets

• Muslims

• Jews

• Christians

• (each had different obligations, different tax structures)

• (very tolerable state)

• Sultan looses authority because he is separated

• divans/vizers rise in power

• Constatinople = Istanbul

• Turks saw themslves as owners of the Roman Empire

• ARTS

• Sultan changes Hagia into a mosque

• adopts Byzantine architecture

• calligraphy/illuminated letters

• predominantly in Qur'an

• prayer rugs

• geometric/floral designs

• Topkapi Palace

• A STATE OF WAR

• Ottoman State built around war and conquest

• Calvary became nobility of areas conquered

• state loses control

• Janissaries

• personal army to the sultan

• slave army

• purchased children from slaves

• Christian boys from families from the Balkan Peninsula

• became very powerful, feared by many

• eunichs, so that they have no love for anything but war

• low tax rates so $$$ had to be generated by war

• OTTOMAN DECLINE

• took a long time to fall

• 400 year period of decline

• breakdown of administration

• hard to manage huge state

• military weakness

• Battle of Lepanto

• lose to Spanish

• lose sea dominance

• economic decline

• Europeans found new way to India

• high inflation

• scientific and technological stagnation

• reached a pinnicle, no longer needed seige material

• because Orthodox Islam developed suspicion of new European goods

• ***INTERAL COLLAPSE, STOPS GROWING***

THE SAFAVID EMPIRE

• FOUNDATIONS

• Sunni/Shi'a Divide

• begins battle between two

• primerally Shi'a state

• Origins of Empire

• Turkish Qizilbash - "Red Heads"

• Shah Ismil I

• Battle of Chaldiran

• Safavids vs. Ottomans

• Ottoman Turks win, but boundary lines don't move

• ORGANIZATION

• Ghulams - slave army loyal only to the Shah

• become nobility

• comparable to Jainissaries

• Perisan culture will dominate society

• Turkish warrior elite = Persians

• Persian dominant language

• Shi'a Islam becomes the dominant belief system

• ***AN ALMOST THEOCRATIC STATE***

• religious holidays become state holidays

• Shah becomes religious and political figure

• SAFAVID SPLENDOR

• reign of Shah Abbas I

• developed sense of stabliity

• merchant trade

• overland

• capitol of Ishafan

• more classic Muslim inspired architecture

• SOCIETY AND GENDER

• Ottoman and Safavid Empires very similar

• warrior aristocracy

• role of handicraft

• fine intricate designs

• encourages trade

• both toll collectors

• Jews operated as intermediaries

• women

• Positive

• divorce and inheritance laws

• Negatives

• ***SUBORDINANCE DEEPER WITH RISE OF ORTHODOX ISLAM***

• vails, lived in cities, harems

• Overall, better than China & India, but less than other Western Europe

• DECLINE OF SAFAVID

• fast

• leaders became weak and secluded

• nomads invade Afghanistan in 1722 and destroy the empire

• becomes a battle ground for nomads

THE MUGHAL EMPIRE

• far more internally complex

• FOUNDING

• invasian from Asia

• Babur conquered

• son Humayan founder & securer

• expansion into Modern Delhi

• AKBAR THE GREAT

• conquered and maintained most of nothern Inida

• wanted to reconcile Islam and Hinduism

• abloshed the Jizya (tax on non-Muslims)

• Din-I-Ilahi

• ethical system

• tried to help women by banning sati, discouraging child marriage, and encouraging widow remarriage

• MUGHAL SPLENDOR

• port cities

• build incredible mosques and buildings

• Taj Mahal

• huge estate

• walled cities

• DECLINE OF THE EMPIRE

• Aurangzeb

• constant warfare

• he wanted Islam as uniting force

• persecuted Hindus

• wanted all power possilbe

• violence

• Marathas in the East and Sikhs in the North rebel

• Marathas - Hindu confederacy against Mughals

• Sikhs - Inidan minority against Mughals

• Europeans create port cities

• begin to conquer India and establish trade

• Mumbai and Calcutta

• comparable to African port cities that were used to reach isolated interior

• empire gone in 1857 when the British seize Inida

GLOBAL CONNECTIONS

• Internal problems weaken these states

• lack driving force besides war

• they used European technology (gunposder), but didn't adopt European practices

• Europeans slowly take more and more from these empires because they were unable to counter European technology and agression

• Safavids/Mughals oblivious to conquesting nature of Europeans