The Ottomans and the Safavids Guided Reading Answers

Introduction

The Safavid Empire (1501-1722)

The Safavid Empire was based in what is today Islamic republic of iran ©

The Safavid Empire was based in what is today Iran.

This Islamic Empire was stiff plenty to challenge the Ottomans in the w and the Mughals in the eastward.

Summary

• The Safavid Empire lasted from 1501-1722
• It covered all of Iran, and parts of Turkey and Georgia
• The Safavid Empire was a theocracy
• The state faith was Shi'a Islam
• All other religions, and forms of Islam were suppressed
• The Empire'southward economic strength came from its location on the trade routes
• The Empire made Iran a heart of art, compages, poetry and philosophy
• The majuscule, Isfahan, is one of the about cute cities in the world
• The cardinal figures in the Empire were:
  • Isma'il I
  • Abbas I
• The Empire declined when it became complacent and corrupt

Origins

The Empire was founded past the Safavids, a Sufi order that goes back to Safi al-Din (1252-1334). Safi al-Din converted to Shi'ism and was a Farsi nationalist. The Safavid brotherhood was originally a religious group.

Over the following centuries the brotherhood became stronger, by alluring local warlords and past political marriages. It became a military group as well as a religious one in the 15th century.

Many were attracted by the brotherhood'south allegiance to Ali, and to the 'hidden Imam'.

In the 15th century the brotherhood became more militarily ambitious, and waged a jihad (Islamic holy war) confronting parts of what are now modern Turkey and Georgia.

The Safavid Empire dates from the dominion of Shah Ismail (ruled 1501-1524).

In 1501, the Safavid Shahs alleged independence when the Ottomans outlawed Shi'a Islam in their territory. The Safavid Empire was strengthened past of import Shi'a soldiers from the Ottoman army who had fled from persecution.

When the Safavids came to power, Shah Ismail was proclaimed ruler at the age of 14 or xv, and by 1510 Ismail had conquered the whole of Islamic republic of iran.

Religion

Faith in the Safavid Empire - the negatives

1 of Shah Ismail'southward well-nigh important decisions was to declare that the state religion would exist the form of Islam called Shi'ism, that at the time was completely strange to Iranian culture.

The Safavids launched a vigorous campaign to convert what was and then a predominantly Sunni population by persuasion and by force. The Sunni ulama (a religious council of wise men) either left or were killed.

To promote Shi'ism the Safavids brought in scholars from Shi'ite countries to form a new religious aristocracy. They appointed an official (the Sadr) to co-ordinate this elite - and ensure that it did what the Shah wanted. The religious leaders finer became a tool of the government.

The Safavids as well spent money to promote religion, making grants to shrines and religious schools. And most craftily of all, they used grants of land and money to create a new course of wealthy religious aristocrats who owed everything to the state.

In specifically religious terms the Safavids not only persecuted Sunni Muslims, simply Shi'ites with different views, and all other religions. Alien shrines were vandalised, and Sufi mystic groups forbidden.

This was surprising, since the Safavids owed their origins to a Sufi social club and to a course of Shi'ism that they now banned. They also reduced the importance of the Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca), replacing it with pilgrimage to Shi'ite shrines.

Religion in the Safavid Empire - the positives

The early Safavid empire was effectively a theocracy. Religious and political power were completely intertwined, and encapsulated in the person of the Shah.

The people of the Empire soon embraced the new faith with enthusiasm, celebrating Shi'ite festivals with great piety. The about significant of these was Ashura, when Shia Muslims mark the death of Husayn. Ali was also venerated.

Because Shi'ism was now a state religion, with major educational establishments devoted to it, its philosophy and theology developed greatly during the Safavid Empire.

Strengths

Strengths

The Safavid Empire, although driven and inspired by stiff religious organized religion, rapidly built the foundations of strong central secular government and administration.

The Safavids benefited from their geographical position at the centre of the trade routes of the ancient world. They became rich on the growing trade between Europe and the Islamic civilisations of central Asia and Bharat.

Art and civilization

Under Safavid rule eastern Persia became a nifty cultural middle.

During this period, painting, metalwork, textiles and carpets reached new heights of perfection. For fine art to succeed at this calibration, patronage had to come from the top.

This was not entirely for dear of beauty. Much of the early fine art was devoted to celebrating the glories of the earlier Iranian kingdom, and thus, by implication, making legitimate the Safavids as that kingdom's electric current heirs.

The Safavids were often artists themselves. Shah Ismail was a poet and Shah Tahmasp a painter. Their patronage, which included opening royal workshops for artists, created a favourable climate for the development of art.

Isfahan

Mosque in Isfahan, Islamic republic of iran ©

The creative achievements and the prosperity of the Safavid menstruation are best represented past Isfahan, the majuscule of Shah Abbas.

Isfahan had parks, libraries and mosques that amazed Europeans, who had non seen anything like this at dwelling. The Persians chosen it Nisf-e-Jahan, 'half the earth', pregnant that to see it was to encounter one-half the globe.

Isfahan became i of the world's most elegant cities. In its heyday it was besides one of the largest with a population of one million; 163 mosques, 48 religious schools, 1801 shops and 263 public baths.

Decline

Decline

The Safavid Empire was held together in the early on years by acquisition new territory, and so by the need to defend it from the neighbouring Ottoman Empire. Simply in the seventeenth century the Ottoman threat to the Safavids declined. The showtime consequence of this was that the military forces became less effective.

With their major enemy keeping repose, the Safavid Shahs became complacent, and so decadent and decadent. Ability passed to the Shi'a ulama (a religious quango of wise men) which eventually deposed the Shahs and proclaimed the globe'southward get-go Islamic Democracy in the eighteenth century. The ulama developed a theory that only a Mujtahid - one deeply learned in the Sharia (Qur'anic law) and one who has had a blameless life, could rule.

In 1726 an Afghan group destroyed the ruling dynasty. After the conquest a division of powers was agreed between the new Afghan Shahs and the Shi'a ulama. The Afghan Shahs controlled the state and foreign policy, and could levy taxes and brand secular laws. The ulama retained control of religious practice; and enforced the Sharia (Qur'anic Police) in personal and family matters.

The problems of this division of spiritual and political authorisation is something that Iran is yet working out today.

Iran afterward the Safavid Empire

However by this menstruation the Empire was disintegrating, and for the side by side ii centuries it lay in disuse. Bandit chiefs and feudal lords plundered it at will, farther weakening the Empire, and people yearned for strong cardinal rule and stability.

The rise of the Pahlavis (1925 -79) saw the reaffirmation of a strong central dominance in Iran and the re-emergence of the dynastic principle. The discovery of oil early in the twentieth century and the involvement of it to the British and then the Americans determined the fashion and role of the second Pahlavi Shah. The wealth from oil enabled him to head an opulent and corrupt court.

The ulama continued to tolerate the non-religious Shahs right upwardly until the 1970s simply they finally overthrew the monarchy in 1979. This led to ability being exercised through the highest officials of the ulama, the Ayatollahs. Ayatollah Khomeini's claiming to the Shah's Royal authority confirmed a deep religious tradition in Iranian society and history.

The Ottomans and the Safavids Guided Reading Answers

Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/history/safavidempire_1.shtml

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