“Douglas Streusand has contributed a masterful comparative analysis and an up-to- S date reinterpretation of the significance of the early modern Islamic empires. This T book makes profound scholarly insights readily accessible to undergraduate stu- R dents and will be useful in world history surveys as well as more advanced courses.” —Hope Benne, Salem State College E U “Streusand creatively reexamines the military and political history and structures of the SAN Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal empires. He breaks down the process of transformation and makes their divergent outcomes comprehensible, not only to an audience of special- ists, but also to undergraduates and general readers. Appropriate for courses in world, early modern, or Middle Eastern history as well as the political sociology of empires.” D —Linda T. Darling, University of Arizona “Streusand is to be commended for navigating these hearty and substantial historiogra- phies to pull together an analytical textbook which will be both informative and thought provoking for the undergraduate university audience.” GUNPOWDER EMPIRES —Colin Mitchell, Dalhousie University Islamic Gunpowder Empires provides an illuminating history of Islamic civilization in the early modern world through a comparative examination of Islam’s three greatest empires: the Otto- IS mans (centered in what is now Turkey), the Safavids (in modern Iran), and the Mughals (ruling the Indian subcontinent). Author Douglas Streusand explains the origins of the three empires; compares the ideological, institutional, military, and economic contributors to their success; and L analyzes the causes of their rise, expansion, and ultimate transformation and decline. Streusand depicts the three empires as a part of an integrated international system extending from the At- lantic to the Straits of Malacca, emphasizing both the connections and the conflicts within that AMIC system. Incorporating contemporary scholarship and dispelling common misconceptions, this accessible and engaging account presents the empires as complex polities in which Islam is one political and cultural component among many. Douglas E. Streusand is professor of international relations at the US Marine Corps Com- mand & Staff College and adjunct professor at the Institute of World Politics. He has studied Islamic civilization for thirty years, and his publications include The Formation of the Mughal Empire in addition to numerous articles and reviews. COVER IMAGE © STAPLETON COLLECTION/CORBIS COVER DESIGN: MIGUEL SANTANA & WENDY HALITZER ISLAMIC GUNPOWDER EMPIRES Ottomans, Safavids, and Mughals A Member of the Perseus Books Group www.westviewpress.com DOUGLAS E. www.perseusacademic.com STREUSAND 0813313597-Streusand_Design 8/9/10 10:37 AM Page i ISLAMIC GUNPOWDER EMPIRES 0813313597-Streusand_Design 8/9/10 10:37 AM Page ii 0813313597-Streusand_Design 8/9/10 10:37 AM Page iii ISLAMIC GUNPOWDER EMPIRES 8 Ottomans, Safavids, and Mughals Douglas E. Streusand Marine Corps Command and Staff College A Member of the Perseus Books Group 0813313597-Streusand_Design 8/9/10 10:37 AM Page iv About the Cover The cover image is a detail from a painting produced 1590–1595 in opaque watercolor and gold on paper by the artist Tulsi Kalan depicting the 1577 battle that preceded the Mughal capture of the Fort at Bundi in Rajasthan. This folio (IS.2:103-1896) is from a copy of the Akbarnama (Book of Akbar), the official biography of Akbar, the third Mughal Emperor (r. 1556–1605) in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Cover image © Stapleton Collection/Corbis. Copyright © 2011 by Westview Press Published by Westview Press, A Member of the Perseus Books Group All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, address Westview Press, 2465 Central Avenue, Boulder, CO 80301. Find us on the World Wide Web at www.westviewpress.com. Every effort has been made to secure required permissions to use all images, maps, and other art included in this volume. Interior illustration credits are provided on p. 371. Westview Press books are available at special discounts for bulk purchases in the United States by corporations, institutions, and other organizations. For more information, please contact the Special Markets Department at the Perseus Books Group, 2300 Chestnut Street, Suite 200, Philadelphia, PA 19103, or call (800) 810-4145, ext. 5000, or e-mail [email protected]. Designed by Brent Wilcox Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Streusand, Douglas E. Islamic gunpowder empires : Ottomans, Safavids, and Mughals / Douglas E. Streusand. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8133-1359-7 (alk. paper) 1. Turkey—History—Ottoman Empire, 1288–1918. 2. Iran—History—Safavid dynasty, 1501–1736. 3. Mogul Empire. I. Title. DR486.S77 2011 909'.09767—dc22 2010024984 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0813313597-Streusand_Design 8/9/10 10:37 AM Page v Contents List of Illustrations vii Preface ix Author’s Note and Acknowledgments xiii Note on Transliteration and Dating xvii 1Introduction 1 2 Common Heritage, Common Dilemma 11 3The Ottoman Empire 29 4The Safavid Empire 135 5The Mughal Empire 201 6Conclusion 291 Glossary 299 Dynastic Tables 307 Chronology 311 Bibliographic Essay 323 Bibliography 335 Illustration Credits 371 Index 373 v 0813313597-Streusand_Design 8/9/10 10:37 AM Page vi 0813313597-Streusand_Design 8/9/10 10:37 AM Page vii Illustrations Boxes 2.1 Military slavery 15 4.1 Twelver Shiism 138 5.1 The Delhi sultanate 211 Maps 3.1 Ottoman empire 30 4.1 Safavid empire 136 5.1 Mughal empire 203 Figures 2.1 Circle of justice 13 3.1 Ottoman military organization 88 3.2 Ottoman provincial government and military structure 98 Images 3.1 Portrait of (Fatih) Mehmed II Smelling a Rose 41 3.2 Sulayman at the Battle of Rhodes in 1522 46 3.3 Sultan Sulayman I 51 3.4 Selim II receiving gifts from the Safavid Ambassador Shah Quli at Edirne in 1568 53 3.5 Sultan Ahmed III 61 vii 0813313597-Streusand_Design 8/9/10 10:37 AM Page viii viii Illustrations 3.6 Fatih Jami, Sultan Mehmet II Mosque Complex (1463–1471), Istanbul 118 3.7 Selimiye Jami, Sultan Selim II Mosque Complex (1568–1574), Edirne 118 3.8 Interior view of the Sultan Ahmet Jami, Ahmet I Mosque Complex (1609–1617), Istanbul 119 4.1 The battle between Shah Ismail I and Muhammad Shaybani Khan in 1510 144 4.2 Portrait of Shah Abbas I 151 4.3 Caravanserai at the Ganj `Ali Khan Complex (1598–1619), Kerman 189 4.4 Feast of Sada 192 4.5 Firdawsi’s Parable of the Ship of Shiism 192 4.6 Aerial view of the Maydan-i Shah (1590–1595), Isfahan 193 4.7 View of the Shah Mosque (1611–ca. 1638) and Ali Qapu (early 17th century), Isfahan 194 4.8 Masjid-i Shaykh Lutfullah (1617), Isfahan 195 5.1 Buland Darwaza (1521–1522 to 1574) at Fatehpur Sikri, Uttar Pradesh 217 5.2 Akbar Giving Thanks on Hearing of the 1579 Victory in Bengal 220 5.3 Jahangir and Shah Abbas (Jahangir’s Dream) 223 5.4 Equestrian portrait of Shah Jahan 226 5.5 Darbar of Aurangzeb 232 5.6 Bullocks dragging siege guns up a hill during Akbar’s attack on Ranthambhor Fort, Rajasthan in 1569 259 5.7 Humayun’s Tomb (1562–1571), Delhi 280 5.8 Taj Mahal (1632–1648): the tomb of Shah Jahan’s wife Mumtaz Mahal, Agra 281 0813313597-Streusand_Design 8/9/10 10:37 AM Page ix Preface I first conceived of this book as a graduate student in the early 1980s, began it as a project in 1990, and have taken twenty distracted years to complete it. Its purpose has remained constant: to provide a coherent, cur- rent, and accessible introduction to the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal empires, using comparison to illuminate their distinctive features. Within that general mission, I sought to accomplish the following objectives: •to put the three empires in the context of their common background and political goals •to incorporate current historiography into a new synthesis rather than recycle the findings of earlier general accounts •to reevaluate the concept of the gunpowder empire and provide a more accurate and complete explanation of the growth and durabil- ity of the three empires • to explain the complex, diverse, and dynamic political ideologies of the empires • to present the empires as part of a connected Islamic world that was itself part of a more broadly connected global system in which com- mercial and cultural networks crossed political boundaries • to assess the issue of the decline of the three empires without refer- ence to the eventual global superiority of the West • to depict the historiography of the empires as dynamic rather than static Islamic Gunpowder Empires is not a comprehensive history of the Islamic world in the early modern era; it is both spatially and topically incomplete. It excludes Morocco, sub-Saharan Africa, central Asia, and Southeast Asia ix 0813313597-Streusand_Design 8/9/10 10:37 AM Page x x Preface and pays insufficient attention to social, cultural, and intellectual history. As a study of power and political order, it focuses on political, military, and economic history, on the problems of power and the burdens of power holders. It does not ignore social and cultural history entirely but seeks to place those topics in political context. Although a history of power, this volume developed in the light of a history of conscience, Marshall G. S. Hodgson’s The Venture of Islam: Con- science and History in a World Civilization.Though Hodgson died more than forty years ago, The Venture of Islam remains the greatest study of Is- lamic civilization.