Safavid Empire Research Paper

The Middle East is known for their notorious empires that impacted how our society is constructed up to date. Two of the most famous empires are the Ottoman Empire and the Safavid Empire. Both empires have characteristics that both famously led to the success of each empire and infamous characteristics which ultimately led to the demise of the empire.

Since the beginning, all empires have faced change in many ways, declining and rising in status. Many empires have collapsed, only to start again under a different name. Like all empires, the three Muslim Empires, the Ottomans, Safavids, and Mughals have faced this inevitable state. Although each individual empire is different, they each have similarities in their reasons for decline. Whether it is social, religious, economic, or political reasons, the empires, like many others, have fallen.

The Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal societies all relied on bureaucracies that drew inspiration from the steppe traditions of Turkish and Mogol people and from the heritage of Islam, they adopted similar policies, they looked for ways to keep peace in their societies which were made up of different religious and ethnic backgrounds, and they were associated with literary and artistic talents. Military and religious factors gave rise to all three of these empires.

The Safavid Empire was based in what is today Iran. This Islamic Empire was strong enough to challenge the Ottomans in the west and the Mughals in the east.

In this week’s chapter, it discusses a lot about the rise and fall of the Ottoman and Safavid Empires. In many dynasties, it is critically important to have a well balanced society and economy. Anderson displays many of the reasons why these two empires were so great during their time, but evidently loss of power and control of government can be a major turning point and, eventually, led to the decline of these empires. This specific chapter focus on the systems of governance that was established in each empire.

As a political tactic, rulers often portray themselves in a certain way in order to stabilize their reign and rule more effectively. Some take the approach of uniqueness by setting themselves apart from their subject population while others take the approach of sameness by emphasizing the similarities in which they share with the people. Not exclusively limited to apartness or sameness, some rulers have shown to employ a mix of both ruling styles. It is these versatile rulers who have experienced more successes in their reign because they are not compelled to only one ruling style, allowing them to better adapt to the needs of their ruling population. The apartness ruling style is best seen in the Safavid Empire under the rule of Shah Ismail. Shah Ismail uses religion as a political tool to control his state and does so by declaring Shi’ism, a smaller branch of Islam, as the state religion (#). After separating himself & his people from those who are not willing to abide to his ideologies, Shah Ismail can now demand the absolute loyalties from his subjects and persecute those who are deviant. This radical act further creates a deep chasm between Shi’ite Muslims and nearby Sunni Muslims neighbors. As a result, cultural flow and the exchange of beliefs between Sunni & Shi’ite states are essentially hindered. Ismail’s apartness ruling approach is taken to the extreme with social, religious, and legal systems being strictly confined to Shi’ite doctrines (@). It is noted that

The Islamic empires of the Ottoman, Safivid, and Mughal were unique as they were some of the most dominant, powerful, and influential Islamic empires during their time and were considered more stable than their Islamic predecessors. These empires existed in some of the same and different eras and physical locations in the world; the Ottoman Empire existed in the 13th century through the 20th century in the modern day parts of Eastern Europe, North Africa, West Asia, and the Middle East, the Safavid Empire existed in the 16th century through the 18th century in the modern day parts of Eastern Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, specifically in modern day country of Iran (Persia), and the Mughal Empire existed in the 16th century through 19th century in the modern day parts of Southern Asia. These empires have had a continuing influence on civilizations years beyond their existence. These empires’ Islamic religion was also directly part of their politics, but they still were able to effectively control many areas with people that did not have the same religious or political beliefs.

History has consisted of many different empires. Two of the earlier empires are known as the Ottoman Empire and the Safavid Empire. The Ottoman Empire was established around 1299 by Osman I, who was also a leader of the Turkish tribes (History.com). The Ottomans began in Asia Minor during the break down of the Turks, which later led the Ottoman Empire to expand and conquer land across Asia and Europe. While the Safavid Empire was established in 1501 east of the Ottoman Empire. The Safavid Empire emerged in modern day Iran, which was east of where the Ottoman Empire started and expanded. Both of these empires were strong in power and had many resources available to them.

The world began to drastically change before the year fifteen hundred. These changes not only reshaped the world, but continued to change and develop from the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries. Among these changes came the formation of many outstanding empires that included the Ottoman and Safavid Empires. The Ottoman and Safavid Empires account for two of the three Islamic Empires that underwent change and development during these centuries. Both empires had a ruler at the head of the empire; a sultan ruled the Ottoman Empire while a shah ruled the Safavid Empire. Two great rulers emerged from these empires; a sultan named Suleiman the Magnificent ruler of the Ottoman Empire and a shah named Abbas the Great ruler of the Safavid Empire.

It is the intention of this paper to take an insightful look at two significantly major historical empires, the Ottoman Empire and the Safavid Empire. According to Quataert, “the Ottoman Empire was one of the greatest, long lasting and most extensive empires in the history of the world” (3). At its height, the Ottoman Empire had a reign of 600 years and during the 15th and 16th century was recognized as one of the most powerful states on the world’s stage. The Ottoman Empire shared its place of significance with several other places of influence, England, Spain, Rome, France and the Dutch Empire to the west and the Safavid state and the Moghul Empire to the east.

On the Political side, the Ottoman Turks were the best at keeping up control for a more extended time. It could get by to the point that advanced circumstances. The two different realms crumbled by the seventeenth century. The pioneer of the Ottoman Turks was known as the Sultan which was like a ruler. Islamic Law was connected to all Muslims. With respect to Safavid realm politically, the Shahs strolled around the boulevards in mask keeping in mind the end goal to discover the genuineness of the nationals. The high positions were given by justifying and regularly were nonnatives. In the Mughal Empire politically, Even,

The Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughals were all gunpowder empires. The purpose of this essay is to compare and contrast the differences between all of these empires mentioned. Each fall into five different categories.

The next empire was the Safavid Empire, which was an empire that was not religiously tolerant. They were Shiites, who had major differences with the Sunnis and were always at war with each other. The emperors were also caliphs in the Safavid Empire. The Safavid Empire made Shiism the compulsory state religion, meaning that everyone had to be a Shiite or they would be put to death. They had no tolerance for non-Muslims and were very strict about their laws. The Safavid Empire was a harsh empire that enforced its

Osman Bey: The founder of the dynasty that continued in unbroken succession until the dissolution of the empire. He was chief of a band of semi-nomadic Turks who migrated to northwestern Anatolia.

The Safavids were the first the first to declare Shia Islam the official religion of Iran, and their interest in Iraq lay in the Shia holy places in central Iraq, and also the fact that Baghdad held significant symbolic value as the seat of the ancient Abbasid Empire. The Ottoman Empire on the other hand was afraid that Shia Islam would spread to Asia Minor, and thus looked to control Iraq as a Sunni-dominated buffer state. During the Ottoman period, the Sunnis were placed in political positions, while the Shias were then shut out of the political process. This divide between the Sunnis and the Shias continued to be more and more of an important element in the Iraqi social structure, and remains an issue even today. It was also during this time period that the Kurdish Baban Dynasty emerged and began to organize resistance to the Ottoman rule in Northern Iraq.