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Islamic Gunpowder Empires
Islamic Gunpowder Empires provides readers with a history of Islamic civilization in the early modern world through a comparative examination of Islam's three greatest empires?the Ottomans (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 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 Atlantic to the Straits of Malacca, emphasizing both the connections and the conflicts within that system. He presents the empires as complex polities in which Islam is one political and cultural component among many. The treatment of the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal empires incorporates contemporary scholarship, dispels common misconceptions, and provides an excellent platform for further study.
eBook
The grand strategy that won the Cold War
This book accounts the Reagan administration's development and execution of the grand strategy that led to the collapse of the Soviet Union, emphasizing the coordinated use of diplomatic, informational, military, and economic instruments of national power. It challenges the dominant narrative that often denies the existence of the grand strategy.
eBook
The Ottoman Empire
For more than two generations, most historians have accepted the view of Paul Wittek that the Ottoman state, from beginning to end, had one primary reason for being: ghaza, which Wittek does not distinguish from jihad. The Ottoman regime conformed to the pattern of the military patronage state. The economic basis of the Ottoman Empire evolved just as its military organization did. The expansion of the empire brought more and more trade centers under control. Control of trade routes determined Ottoman grand strategy as much as the acquisition of agricultural land. This chapter consists of a narrative of Ottoman history from its beginning to 1730; discussions of Ottoman political ideology, military organization and methods of conquest, central and provincial administration, economy, society and popular religion, and cultural and intellectual history. It also consists of an analysis of the transformation of the empire during the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries.
Book Chapter
The Safavid Empire
Safavid rule transformed the religious life of the empire but had a much less significant effect on its ethnic composition and social structure. Safavid politics and military recruitment followed the patterns common in the Islamic world before the gunpowder period. The strength of the Safavid following among the Turkmen of Anatolia made a clash with the Ottomans inevitable. The establishment phase of the Safavid Empire ended with a Qizilbash confederation ruling Azerbaijan, Iraq, western Iran, and Khurasan. Safavid conceptions of sovereignty evolved over time and addressed multiple audiences, though the evolution was less complex and the number of audiences smaller than in the Ottoman Empire. The standard argument, that the Safavids imposed Twelver Shiism in order to create a sharp distinction between themselves and the Sunni Ottomans and Uzbeks and to establish a national identity is both teleological and anachronistic. The Safavids made few major alterations in the system of landholding that discouraged innovation and increases in production.
Book Chapter
Common Heritage, Common Dilemma
This chapter analyzes the heritage and explains the origin and nature of the dilemma. It has three sections: a description of the essential characteristics of the Abbasid caliphate Empire and the devolution of its power, an analysis of political theory and practice in the post-Abbasid environment, and a review of the concepts of the Shariah, Sufism, and jihad. The Abbasids eliminated the Arab ethnic and tribal basis of power and identity and established a cosmopolitan imperial regime. Sacral kingship and the circle of justice explain the nature of the Abbasid regime far better than any concept of Islamic origin. The military and financial structure of the Abbasid Empire reflected that of its Sasanian predecessor. The nature of the Abbasid army changed significantly in the early ninth century with the development of military slavery. In the post-Abbasid period, military slavery became one of the two standard forms of military organization, the other being tribal military armies.
Book Chapter
The Mughal Empire
This Chapter describes the multiple contexts in which the Mughal Empire developed and then summarizes the most important characteristics of the Mughal polity. At its greatest extent the Mughal Empire extended from Kabul, Ghazni, and Qandahar in contemporary Afghanistan east beyond Bengal into Assam and south to the Cauvery River. Mughal wealth provided cultural patronage. Indeed, the Mughal Empire became the center of Iranian culture during Jalal al-Din Muhammad Akbar's reign. Mughal architecture and visual arts reflect fusion between Persianate and Indian traditions; such monuments as the Taj Mahal are the fruit of that merger. Aurangzeb's reign had two phases. The first phase was relatively uneventful, with no major political changes or conquests. The second phase of Aurangzebs reign coincided with the beginning of the loss of Mughal control of many of the provinces of the empire. Aurangzeb assigned his best general, Rajah Jai Singh of Amber, against Shivaji.
Book Chapter
Introduction
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book offers a comprehensive introduction to the three empires, intended for students and other readers with some general familiarity with world history and Islamic civilization. It attempts to bridge the gap between general texts on world and Islamic history, such as Marshall G. S. Hodgson's The Venture of Islam and Ira Lapidus's A History of Islamic Societies, and the specialized literature on the three empires. The book explains the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal success in maintaining larger, more centralized, and more enduring polities than their predecessors. It describes the common heritage of political ideas and the governmental and military institutions and practices that the three empires shared. The book provides a chronological narrative and discusses topics such as sovereignty, faith, and law; expansion and military organization; central and provincial administration; economy, society, and culture; and transformation or decline.
Book Chapter
Conclusion
The chronological proximity and tactical similarity of the Ottoman victories at Chaldiran, Turna Dag, Marj Dabik, Raydaniyya, and Mohacs, the Safavid triumph at Jam, and Babur's victories at the first Panipat, Khanua, and Gogra contributed to the impression of similarity. All three empires defeated their rivals on the battlefield with a combination of artillery, infantry firearms, and cavalry, employed in a wagon fortress. The Ottoman and Mughal empires escaped the post-Abbasid impasse in part by escaping the Arid Zone, but that circumstance did not in itself guarantee success. Muslim rulers had, after all, reigned over virtually all of the territory that the Mughal Empire ruled, but never achieved either their durable power or enduring legitimacy. The Safavids escaped temporally rather than geographically. The Safavid Empire collapsed because the regime failed to maintain enough military power to survive a threat that a few decades earlier would have been minor.
Book Chapter
Choosing Words Carefully: Language to Help Fight Islamic Terrorism
For example the leader of al-Qa'ida in Iraq, Abu Musab al- Zarqawi, has stated that Shiites are rafada or rejecters of Islam. The Salafist Sunni terrorist groups, the most well-known of which is al-Qa'ida, do not recognize other traditional Islamic sects as acceptable or Muslims. Use of rafada is from Fouad Ajami, \"Heart of Darkness,\" Wall Street Journal, Sept. 28, 2005, pg.16.
Journal Article