Ottoman, Safavid, &

Mughal Empires

• 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.

• They were all Military Empires &

“Gunpowder Empires”

The Safavid Empire (Persia)was Shia

Muslim and a rival of the Ottoman

Empire.

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.

The rulers had sweet ‘staches!

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.”

Ottoman, Safavid, & Mughal Empires

Were all “gunpowder empires”

Ottoman Cannon 1600s

Evidence . . .

• Suleiman, Abbas I, Akbar were the

absolute rulers at the height of each empire

and were contemporaries.

At times they allied with

Christian states.

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

Evidence: the

Devshirme system of

the Ottoman Empire

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.”