Afghanistan National Anthem

The lyrics to Afghanistan National Anthem describe the different cultures and beliefs of the country and it's people. It says Afghanistan is home to Baloochs, Uzbeks, Pashtoons, Hazaras, Turkman, Tajiks, Arabs, Gojars, Pamirian, Nooristanian, Barahawi, Qizilbash, Aimaq and Pashaye. Such a diverse country culminates all different cultures and ethnicities. The song also has a line that says "the land of peace, the land of sword". Much like the eagle on the back of our $1 bill, Afghanistan shares the same common goals of being both a land of peace but with the ability to fight. The song then goes on to describe Islam and Allah being the one god they shall follow forever.

Mughal Empire

From the reading over the Mughal Empire that I did, I get the idea that the text book is trying to make this man Akbar seem like a very nice and accepting guy. There is no doubt that he is a very accepting man, because he did accommodate foreigner as much as he could, but what were his intentions of doing this? 

I get the feeling that Akbar only did these nice deeds to everyone only because he wanted to be accepted by everyone. This seems very selfish because he should actually want to do it, because it really matters to him. He should not only do something because It is what is best for himself.

Even though Akbar might have done these good deeds because it was in his best interests, ultimately his actions helped shape a very accepting community. By him accepting the Hindus, other cultures came such as the turks, because they knew that they would be accepted there. This boosted the mughal economy and it thrived throughout Akbar's rule. Once Akbar died, Aurandzeb took over, and completely reversed what Akbar was doing, by banning traditions of other religions other than muslims, and also by implying the Jizya tax, a non-believer tax, he completely destroyed the mughal empire. He made the empire so weak, that after he died, Britain took over with ease.

Ottoman's Constantinople Invasion

Something that was mentioned during the Ottoman Empire reading was the fall of Constantinople. The brief comment about the Ottoman siege on Constantinople in Strayer's Ways of the World left me wondering, how was it that such a great capitol was taken over this easily by the Ottomans? 

 This once prosperous capitol of the Byzantine Empire was conquered by the Ottoman Empire during April 5, 1453 through May 29, 1453.  It was a really well planned out attack that the Ottomans led, and the army protecting constantinople was greatly outnumbered. 

The seizer of constantinople took everyone by surprise, because the Muslims weren't the biggest threat to anyone. It was usually the Europeans that started all of the wars between themselves and the Muslims but now this Turk powered Ottoman Empire was relentless and overpowering. They started by first setting up forts along Dardanelles, a neighboring city to Constantinople, and then all at once they had the 80,000 to 200,000 men march to constantinople. The army protecting Constantinople was greatly outnumbered, as they only totaled to 7,000 men, while the Ottomans had 80,000 to 200,000 men. The majority of the Ottomans started by firing at the walls, while a small number of them went of to seize the less populated areas of Constantinople. The plans of the Ottomans to simple get in by firing at the walls did not work at all, and at one point the Ottomans tried to peacefully deal with the situation, and they offered to stop the conquest if the city was given to them. Then when this offer was denied by the Byzantine Empire, a massive wave of Ottomans charged at the walls, but they did not manage to enter the great city. After that wave, the city of Constantinople was hit by a second wave of Ottomans, and this wave did manage to breach a section of the walls. Shortly after that, the Ottomans discovered an unlocked gate, and they quickly flooded the city, ending the seizer. This picture here show the flood of the Ottomans into Constantinople. And that is how the Ottomans managed to take over this very powerful city of Constantinople.

Mughal Empire: Muslims and Hindus

The book states that the Mughal Empire had both Muslims and Hindu religion. The main division out in the Mughal Empire were caused by religious differences.About 20% of the population was Muslim and the rest were some form of Hinduism. Akbar the most famous emperor created a cult that had Islam, Hinduism and Zoroastrianism. It was essential to be loyal to Akbar. The Mughal empire had a culture where hindus and muslims could be a comfort with one another. Which was a plus for the Empire because then more people could join to grow the population of the empire. This new culture was a hybrid of Indian, Persian, and Turkish. THe philosopher Phayk Ahmad Sirhindi, disagreed with this idea of a mixed culture everything in support for hinduism represented impure Islam. Some Hindu temples were destroyed and music, dance, gambling, drinking, prostitution, and narcotics were very outlawed. There were many opposition movements that were opposed to the Mughals. This was a very different type of empire because it allowed two different religious traditions to attempt to combine. This technique of a multicultural empire worked for a while but eventually failed because of their differences which resulted in tension.

Mughals

Akbar was a Muslim leader in the nation of what is now India. He was able to successfully unify the native tribes that inherited the nearby native tribes. He was able to accomplish this task by intermarrying with all the major political and influential leaders in India. He had over 400 wives and by doing this, he was able to gain trust with these leaders by marrying their oldest and wisest daughter. Once he was able to unify India, he removed the Jazya tax, which taxed non-muslim believers. Do to the fact that 80% of India was Muslim, he did not want to tax all of his citizens. Imposing this tax, he was able to appeal to all Hindus across the world to his nation. This was one of the first unification of Hindus and what Akbar created will later become the Hindu capital in 5 years.

Sunni/Shiite Hostility Old and New

In the reading, I read that Sunnis and Shiites were warring over their beliefs in the 1500's, and this is obviously seen today. By looking at the two situations side by side, it's amazing to see how much is different but yet they still seem to fight over the same problem. This leads me to believe that when it comes to religion, there is little that changes over time. The only thing that has changed in this religious war is how they are killing each other. They started with these beliefs when the Ottoman Empire had formed, and all they had then were spears and swords. But even after all these advancements in technology and science, Sunnis and Shiites still kill one another, but now use guns. I find this so barbaric that it sickens me. I'm constantly questioning why their old ways cannot be modified, because if they can move from spears to guns, can't they move from war to love?

Safavid Empire Research

I chose to research the Safavid Empire.

After coming into power, the Safavids had a very young ruler, Shah Ismail who was about 14 or 15 years old. By 1510 he controlled all of Iran. Shah had decided that the state's religion would be Shia Islam, which was not common in Iran. Therefore, he chose to use persuasion and force when attempting to convert this mostly Sunni population. In his attempt to fully convert these people, Shah hired scholars from Shi'ite countries to form a religious elite. These scholars ended up "tools" of the government.

The Safavids were not a very welcoming or tolerant society. They persecutes Sunnis as well as Shi'ites with different beliefs and many other religions.

The Safavids were definitely a theocracy; mixing religious and political powers. Most of the people within this empire were very content with their new religion and had many festivities. Although this empire had a lot of religious faith, they slowly became a more secular government.

Most importantly, the Safavids took advantage of their geographical positions, being located at the center of trade routes. They became more and more wealthy due to the trade between the Islamic world and europe.

The Ottoman Empire

The Islamic Empire, after some time, was finding some unification within four states. One of these states was the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire could be called at one point the most powerful empire in the world. It was composed of Turkish warrior groups that had found a new beginning in Anatolia. Over time, the Empire grew until it covered much of the Anatolia peninusula,  gone deep into southeastern Europe, and had conquered a large Christian population. This was only the beginning. After this, the Ottoman Empire expanded its control to a lot of the Middle East, the coasts of North Africa, land around the Black Sea, as well as even farther into Eastern Europe. Few could hold a candle to the Ottoman Empire. The Turks were now established as dominant over the Islamic world. The Ottoman truly asserted themselves as the top dogs when they seized Constantinople from the Christian Byzantines. After this victory, the Ottoman Empire expanded to become the next Roman Empire.

The Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire was the strongest of the states that split apart from the once glorious Islamic civilization. By the mid 1400s the Ottoman Empire was in control of much of the Anatolian peninsula and ventured deep into southeaster Europe, controlling a large Christian population. Later, the Ottoman Empire expanded to the coasts of North Africa, much of the Middle East, as well as the lands around the Black Sea. All this said, the Ottoman Empire was one of the most powerful empires in world history. This empire showed the dominance of the Turks over the Arabs. 

The Empire represented a change in power, as the Turks defeated the Christian Byzantines at Constantinople in 1453. They were to be the world's next dominant power after the Roman Empire.

However, east of the Ottoman Empire, another state from the original Persian Empire was gaining power, the Safavid Empire. The Safavid Empire's long term  decision was to follow a Shia version of Islam. Over time, this gained support, and defined the identity of the Persian culture.

The Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire was created by a Turkic warrior group that had migrated into Anatolia. The territory of the Ottoman Turks included much of the Anatolian peninsula, southern Europe, coastal north africa, and the lands surrounding the Black sea. they acquired a large christian population in southern Europe. The Ottoman empire was one of the greatest lasting from the fourteenth to the twentieth century. It was very economically and culturally sophisticated, possessed a huge territory and incorporated many diverse people. The Ottoman Empire represented the Turks as the dominant people of the Islamic World, now dominant over many Arabs who had initiated Islamic faith more than 800 years earlier. The Ottoman empire siezed Constantinople in 1453, then in 1529 the Ottoman empire was rapidly expanding and attacked Vienna in Central Europe. Islam was expanding at the expense of Christendom.

Investigating the Founders of the Mughal Empire

After reading the textbook that did not have to much information on the Mughal Empire i decided i wanted to investigate what the Mughal Empire really was, I found a website and this is what I learned:  

Babar was the Governor who help start the empire in 1526, he basically got the empire up and running. He was not in-charge for that long only four years, after he resigned his son, Humayun, was the leader of the Mughal Empire.  He is the one who babied the Empire and gave it the fundamentals to make it last, but the real leader was Humayun's son Akbar the Great.  He is the one who took charge and made the empire thrive and succeed. He was smart and blended the religions together so that more people would join the empire which grew all the way to Afghanistan. In 1605 Akbar was replaced by his son, Salim, who was know as the more environmental and artsy leader who took joy in the gardens and the pieces of artwork.  In 1627 Salim's son, Shah Jahan, took the position. He was in control of the greatest, richest empires in the world, he is the one who left behind the Taj Mahal and cities like Delhi.  After his death his four sons battled it out for throne, Dara Shikoh, and Aurangzeb.  Aurangzeb was more in control and he lasted until 1707, but after that the empire started to decrease and become less strong and finally in 1857 the Mughal Empire collapsed 

I learned a lot more about the Rulers from the link than the book, so sometimes it is more useful to go farther than what the book tells you.  

The Ottoman Empire

While I was doing the reading in the book, I noticed a few interesting things regarding Islam and the numerous other religions present in the empire. First of all, the religions lived side by side, tolerant of each other and peaceful. Second of all, the Muslim rulers of the empire even funded some of the churches, not forcing the Christians or Jews to convert to Islam. As I read this, I mentally compared this situation to the situation of the present. In the Middle East, the radical(and I stress that I mean radical, not mainstream) Muslims have not been so tolerant of western religions and western ideals. In fact, people have died or have been killed because of the lack of tolerance towards their religion, or have at least been threatened or persecuted. This is an interesting parallel. Radical Muslims have been talking about reestablishing Islam as the religion of a giant empire, just like the Ottoman Empire. For some reason, this time around, not everyone is welcome and accepted, and the rule would definetly be stricter if the radicals have anything to say about it. In the Ottoman empire, the Muslims were establishing themselves as a world power, and didnt only want to intimidate people. They also wanted to make friends with the other religions to keep the peace. Now, it seems to me that the radicals are using scare tactics to keep their advantage and make themselves more well of than anyone else to establish themselves as the world power once again. Comparing these two time periods have helped me to understand what the empire was trying to accomplish and how their methods worked. Now I can better understand what is happening in my world today.

The Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire was the largest state in the Islamic World in the 1500s. It was created by a variety of Turkic warrior groups in the 14th century. Little did they know at the time that they're creation would last for hundreds of years (up until the early twentieth century). Rapidly expanding, the Ottoman empire became one of the most powerful empires, if not the most powerful, during the 15th century. The Ottomans signified the beginning of the Turks becoming the dominant people of the Islamic world. They even ruled over the Arabs who were the creators of the Islamic faith. The two main goals of the Ottomans were to bring unity back to the Islamic world and to serve as the protectors of the faith. Before the Ottomans came along, Christendom had, for a long time, been overpowering the Islam world. However, the formation of the Ottoman Empire caused the tides to turn. The empire was so powerful that it was able to seize Constantinople and end Christian Byzantium altogether. With these christians out of the way, Ottomans took over as the successors to the Roman Empire. Constantinople was not the end of siege from the Ottomans. They continued to conquer cities all throughout Europe and expand both politically and with their military for quite some time. Europeans began to fear the "terror of the Turk."

The Mughal Empire

As I was reading, I came upon a passage I found interesting it was about how the Mughal emperors were able to keep the great number of Hindu in line. How was it that the Mughal Empire was able to do this? And if they were able to keep stability between the Hindu and Muslims how is it this empire went into a decline?

I came upon a site that gave me my answers. The article in BBC "Aurangzeb" said that the empire came down because of Emperor Aurangzeb. Before his time there was a tolerance policy which allowed Muslims and Hindus to live at peace with one and other. Also there was no taxes to non-Muslims. Then when Aurangzeb came into power he brought the empire to its highest but it also fell profoundly afterwards. Aurangzeb broke the tolerance policy and tore down Hindu shrines he also started taxing the Hindu subjects. During his time his military power was at its highest but he had conquered to much land causing unstability. Also because of the conflict between the Hindu he gained more enemies. Even though the Emperor Aurangzeb brought the Mughal Empire to its highest and largest, after his reign the Mughal went into a down fall.

Strayer Ottoman/Safavid summary

In our reading, the book focused on the Ottoman, Safavid, Songhay, and Mughal Empire. All these great, powerful empires made a big affect on the Islamic World and is sometimes considered as a "second flowering of Islam." 

The Ottoman Empire grew around the early fourteenth to twentieth century covering the Middle East, some of Africa, and Eastern Europe. Throughout the time of control, the Ottoman carried with them quite a large group of the Christian population. Since this empire started a new phase of the combination of Christendom and Islamic world, Ottoman also included many diverse people. During the same time, a neighboring state begin to expand forming the Safavid Empire. This empire had a religious split of the Sufi and Shia, two types of the Muslim religion. Since the terroritory, laws, and religious aspects were so different, the Ottoman and Safavid empire continued a rivalry for years. 

Similarly to how the Ottoman and Safavid Empires had a large division, yet political success, there were two other empires that faced a common situation. In West Africa, the Songhay Empire emerged and was the lead way of the trans- Saharan trade routes. They were addressed as the center of Islamic learning because of the empires economical goods and strategies. Just like how the Ottoman Empire combined to religions, Christianity and Islam, the Mughal Empire did the same thing combining Islam and Hinduism. They strived to create a partnership in both this people and further helped each other in wars using each others soldiers. These four empires brought the Islam world to higher political status, and economical success, and religious background.

Blog It! reading 378-382

Connect:

In this reading, it talks about how the Ottoman Empire was very successful and how the Ming Dynasty was one of the two empires that was able to match its power and wealth. I know about the Ming Dynasty because of the homework from the other night. Me, GG, and Lizzie were the group that researched Asia and we found some important information about the Ming Dynasty in China that was important from that time. I know about this and know that it was very successful at that time and that they were trying to remove all reminisce of the old Mongol ways and how they ruled. They did not like how they ruled back then and were ready for a change. This helped me understand the Ottoman Empire and see how it was compared with the Ming Dynasty.

Later in the reading, they also mentioned how the Ottoman Empire initiated new connections between religions mainly with Islam and then how the Mughal Empire initiated connections between Islam and Hinduism. In the Ming Dynasty time they also went through a time when they changed the religion up a little bit. They involved Buddhism and Confucianism and encouraged Confucianism. All of these dynasties experienced changes and alterations in their religions.

While reading this section i also wondered how a small Turkish tribe came to be so popular. It happened right after the fall of the extremely powerful Roman Empire and the two are connected. After the fall of the Roman Empire from attacks on all fronts, there was absolute chaos for 100s years. During a time like this, it is perfect for someone to take over since everyone is looking for a leader. This is what the Ottomans did. In 1453 was a milestone because the last remaining city in the Eastern Roman Empire (Constantinople) was destroyed. Constantinople is where Constantine moved the Capital. This was a political move, so that Rome could feel better associated with the troublesome east. Constantinople survived many attacks, but the Ottomans finally overtook it, renaming it Istanbul. The Ottoman Empire, like the Roman Empire, started out small and over time accumulated more and more land until they because an international super power. Of course eventually they fell like all Empires at the beginning of the 20th century. One of the reasons empires like this can fall is because they stretch themselves out too much, but feel invincible because of all of the power. This leads to an almost rot from the inside of the empire. Also food becomes a Major problem when one empire controls so much because so many people rely upon them for a constant food supply. Rome dealt with this by having Sicily be their bread basket and basically they imported most of the food from Egypt in the extremely fertile Nile Delta. Rome was well situated because it was reasonably close to the coast in the huge Mediterranean Sea. This sea also has fairly calm waters so food can be imported from far away places like Egypt and not go bad or overboard.

This Isn't my Blog Entry

This isn't my blog entry I just want to know what people think the answer to this question is.

Why was the Ottoman Empire so successful? Why did the economy and culture all of a sudden become more sophisticated?

Response to Elle's, "Muslims, Christians, and the Ottoman Empire."

Elle, a few comments on your investigation.

You began by asserting that Islam (specifically the Ottoman Empire) and Christianity became more strict and responsible as time passed. However, you provided no evidence to support your claim. Instead, you quickly moved on to discussing Columbus' explorations of the New World, and the harshness of devshirmes; neither of which relates at all to the development of responsibility or strictness in Christian or Muslim civilizations.

In fact, I would consider the kidnapping of young children to be an irresponsible act, yet it continued for roughly half of Ottoman history. The devshirme system only fell out of practice in the 17th century because these positions were only available to slaves, and those who were already at the upper echelon of society wanted to maintain political control within their own families (instead of giving away positions of power to slaves). Therefore, the Devshirme system fell apart due to a thirst for worsening the imbalance of power, not because the Ottomans strived to become a more responsible society.

Also, I find it difficult to accept your notion that an entity can become more responsible and strict simultaneously. When one becomes more responsible, strictness loses its purpose because they are sensible enough to make wise decisions. This concept is analogous to raising a child; as it grows up you don’t need to have as many rules for it, because it becomes more and more capable of taking care of itself.

Lastly, if you have evidence supporting the claim that the Ottoman Empire or Christianity (although due to its widespread nature and diversity, it could prove difficult to pinpoint its specific characteristics) became more strict and/or responsible as it developed through modern history, I’d love to hear it.

Muslims, Christians, and the Ottoman Empire

As I read the pages about Muslims, Christians, and the Ottoman Empire, I realized that as each religion and empire progressed. They became more strict and more responsible about how to rule. In the beginning, around the 1300s, they the Ottoman empire started in northwestern Anatolia, which comprises most of modern day Turkey. After about 3 centuries, the Ottoman turks took over almost half the world; Middle East, North Africa, and southeastern Europe. They came together to create the world's most significant empire.
Around the time that the Islamic religion was overtaking almost every continent, Christopher Columbus in 1492 sailed to the Americas and became the first European to discover the Americas. There he found Native Americans and learned how to live on a new piece of land. He tookover the new land and called it home.
In addition, later on the Ottoman Empire started to allow Christians into their "elite" empire, but they were not treated the same as they treated the Jews. The Balkan Christians were required to hand over a certain amount of young boys who were removed from their families and forced to learn Turkish. After that, they were "usually" converted to Islam, but however it wasn't mandatory. After the young boys had been trained, they would then be ready for the civil administration or military service. As many families didn't like giving up their child, there was a benefit to it. The devshirme as they called it, meant that their family would take one step higher within the Ottoman Empire.
Lastly, the Ottoman Empire was a very manipulative type of government. For every young boy they took, that family would have to pay their cost into becoming higher in the empire. Therefore, the empire kept getting richer and richer.