Good to know:
1. Use the maps "The Ottoman and Safavid Empires, c. 1683" (p 462) and "The Mughal Empire" (p. 466) to understand the location of the three major empires of this chapter. Refer to the maps on p. 403 and p. 408 (Ch 14) to place these empires among the major trade routes and cities of the world during this period. You should be able to recall the location and importance of many of these routes, cities, and trade goods.
2. This chapter is rich in change and continuity over time as well as offering excellent examples of imperial power to compare and contrast. The change in size of the empires is notable for their rise and decline in power.
3. Islamic rulers used advisers and personal military guards to govern their empires in different ways. Consider the role of various elite groups including the zamindars, viziers, and Janissaries. Compare and contrast Islamic and European methodologies.
4. Importance of the textile arts and trades in these empires: To what extent were fiber arts significant to the economies of these Islamic empires? How did the various rulers use the arts, i.e. the Taj Mahal, to demonstrate power and authority? The image "Clothes Make the Man" (p. 460) is helpful.
5. Examine the social and gender structures within the Islamic empires. Make sure to include an analysis of women's participation and appearance in public versus their private lives, using the Ottoman harem as a representative example. Consider the political role of women using the document "The Power Behind the Throne" (p. 469).
6. Role of religion in administering political control as well as state-sanctioned attitudes of religions other than Islam.
7. Describe the influence of European attitudes toward the Ottomans and the Mughals. How did British colonial claims in India affect the Mughal empire?
Study Help:
1. 1389 Battle of Kosovo
2. Capture of Constantinople
3. New name of Constantinople.
4. Ottoman expansion included what territories?
5. Janissaries
6. millet
7. Ottoman religious policy
8. Characteristics of Safavid Iran
9. Mughal rule of Akbar in India
10. Aurangzeb
11. British India was originally in the hands of?
12. How much of the population died from famine in India
13. Tulsidas
14. Mughal architectural developments
15. Similarities of the three early-modern Muslim empires
Chapter 16
The Muslim Empires
Chapter Outline
I. The Ottoman Empire
A. The Rise of the Ottoman Turks
B. Expansion of the Empire
1. The Fall of Constantinople
2. The Advance into Western Asia and Africa
3. Turkish Expansion in Europe
C. The Nature of Turkish Rule
1. The Role of the Sultan
2. The Harem
3. Administration of the Government
D. Religion and Society in the Ottoman World
1. The Treatment of Minorities
2. Social Classes
3. The Position of Women
E. The Ottomans in Decline
F. Ottoman Art
1. Architecture
2. Textiles
II. The Safavids
A. The Rise of the Safavids
B. Collapse of the Dynasty
C. Safavid Politics and Society
D. Safavid Art and Literature
III. The Grandeur of the Mughals
A. Babur: Founder of the Mughal Dynasty
B. Akbar and Indo‑Muslim Civilization
1. Religion and the State
2. Administrative Reforms
3. A Harmonious Society
C. Akbar’s Successors
1. The Reign of Shah Jahan
2. The Rule of Aurangzeb
3. The Shadows Lengthen
D. The Impact of European Power in India
1. Economic Difficulties
2. Resistance to the British
E. The Mughal Dynasty: A “ Gunpowder Empire”?
F. Society under the Mughals: A Synthesis of Cultures
1. The Economy
2. The Position of Women
G. Mughal Culture
1. Architecture
2. Painting
3. Literature
devshirme
in the Ottoman Empire, a system (literally, “collection”) of training talented children to be administrators or members of the sultan’s harem; originally meritocratic, by the seventeenth century it had degenerated into a hereditary caste.
millet
an administrative unit in the Ottoman empire used to organize religious groups.
pasha
appointed government officials who were directly responsible to Istanbul and collected taxes paying a fixed percentage as tribute to the central government.
sipahis
in the Ottoman Empire, local cavalry elites who held fiefdoms and collected taxes.
zamindars
Indian tax collectors who were assigned land from which they kept part of the revenue; the British revived the system in a misguided attempt to create a landed gentry.
bey
a provincial governor in the Ottoman Empire.
grand vezir
the chief executive in the Ottoman Empire, under the sultan (also spelled vizier).
harem
the private domain of a ruler such as the sultan in the Ottoman Empire or the caliph of Baghdad, generally large and mostly inhabited by the extended family.
Janissaries
an elite core of eight thousand troops personally loyal to the sultan of the Ottoman Empire.
Sublime Porte
the office of the grand vizir
sultan
“holder of power”; a title commonly used by Muslim rulers in the Ottoman Empire, Egypt, and elsewhere; still in use in parts of Asia, sometimes for regional authorities.