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4.3 The Safavid Empire
The establishment of the Safavid state under Shah Ismail I in 1501 was followed by rapid territorial expansion,
but conflict between factions of the Qizilbash military corps allowed the Ottoman and Uzbek empires to take
advantage and capture territory. Shahs Tahmasp and Abbas I created a corps of enslaved people from the
Caucasus to serve as their new elite military force and eventually replace the Qizilbash.
The Safavid shahs were committed to Shi‘ite Islam and forcibly converted the Sunni Muslims in their
territories. They were generally more tolerant of non-Muslims, particularly those who did not live in the
Caucasus or along the border with the Ottoman Empire. But the Safavids’ militance and their intolerance of
Sunnis heightened tensions between Sunnis and Shia throughout the Muslim world, a rift still apparent today.
The stability of the Safavids’ political system allowed for a flourishing of art, however, as exemplified in
miniature painting, ceramics, and royal architecture. After Abbas, the growing power of Russia and other
neighboring kingdoms led to a weakened Safavid state, which came to an end when Nader Shah of the Afsharid
dynasty crowned himself shah in 1736.
Assessments
Review Questions
1. How did members of the ulama engage in debates and collaboration across the Muslim world?
a. trade contracts
b. correspondence
c. poll taxes
d. caravansaries
2. Which of the following was true of trade across the Islamic world?
a. Dhimmis were prohibited from participating in trade.
b. Trade helped expand the reach of Islam.
c. Markets lacked a uniform system of weights and measures.
d. Merchants operated outside the rules of sharia.
3. What did Muslim traders often rely on to avoid having to carry large amounts of gold over great distances?
a. market inspectors
b. caravansaries
c. letters of credit
d. sharia
4. Why might governments in states along trading routes have sponsored caravansaries?
a. They needed them to issue letters of credit.
b. They required them to verify business contracts.
c. They used them to discourage dhimmis from trading.
d. They wanted to encourage trade across their lands.
5. What technological innovation demonstrates the relationship between Islamic practice and technological
innovation?
a. the use of trigonometry to calculate the qibla
b. the use of artillery in the siege of Constantinople
c. the use of Portuguese observations to create a world map
d. the use of the arquebus for Mughal warfare
6. What was the system of enslaving young men from villages in the Balkans and putting them into state
service known as?
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a. vaqf
b. millet system
c. devshirme
d. Sultanate of Women
7. What was an achievement of Sultan Suleiman’s reign?
a. the conquest of Constantinople and the destruction of the Byzantine Empire
b. the establishment of government-supported schools for children of all religions
c. the destruction of the Topkapi Palace
d. the creation of a unified legal code that applied to all parts of the empire
8. What best describes scientific and technological study under the Ottomans?
a. Ottoman scientists considered scientific study a form of religious devotion and conducted research in
a variety of areas, especially medicine and astronomy.
b. Science was strictly controlled by religious authorities, who could suppress discoveries that
contradicted religious doctrine.
c. Scientific research was restricted to Muslims; bright students who were members of a millet had to
convert to Islam to participate.
d. Ottoman military technology got better over time, but weaponry became heavier and required new
methods of transportation.
9. Which of the following accurately describes the Sultanate of Women?
a. Sultan Suleiman I decided to appoint a woman as his successor in order to confound and confuse his
rivals, the Habsburg and the Safavids.
b. Women, usually the wives or mothers of the reigning sultan, were now able to exert considerable
influence at court.
c. A matriarchal queendom was established in eastern Anatolia to exert military and social pressure on
the Caucasus and Safavid Iran.
d. Most of the businesses and major institutions in the Grand Bazaar were owned by women, and they
achieved political influence as a result.
10. How did the Safavids emerge?
a. as the legitimate political heirs to Tamerlane
b. as a religious movement
c. by conquering Iran on behalf of the Ottomans
d. by conquering Iran on behalf of the Uzbeks
11. What did Shah Ismail claim about himself?
a. that he was descended from Adam, Muhammad, and Ali
b. that he was the long-awaited twelfth imam
c. that he was divine
d. that he was heir to the Ottoman throne
12. What tenet would a student in a Shia religious school be least likely to learn?
a. The “Four Rightly Guided” caliphs should be respected as the first imams.
b. Jesus will appear to herald the Day of Judgment, accompanied by the twelfth Shia imam.
c. The leader of the ummah should be a descendant of Muhammad.
d. The Quran is the most sacred text of Islam.
13. What best describes the way the Safavid shahs dealt with groups competing for political power and
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influence at court?
a. They awarded positions based on hereditary descent from the previous job holder.
b. They gave control of the military to the Qizilbash and served only in an advisory capacity.
c. They enslaved men from the Caucasus and employed them as soldiers to temper the power of the
Qizilbash.
d. They heavily preferred ethnic Persians in administrative positions.
14. Why did Abbas relocate his capital to Isfahan?
a. It was close to trade outposts on the Mediterranean coast.
b. It was far from the war front with the Ottomans.
c. It was near the migratory paths of the game birds Abbas liked to hunt.
d. It was ideally situated between two major rivers.
Check Your Understanding Questions
1. Into what parts of the world did Muslim traders venture? What were the main trade routes they used?
2. How did trade routes facilitate the spread of Islam into new areas?
3. How did scientific discoveries and the development of new technologies facilitate the spread of Islamic
empires and communities?
4. How was ethnic and religious diversity treated in the Ottoman Empire?
5. In Europe, Suleiman was known as the Magnificent, but in the empire, he was commonly known as the
Lawgiver. Why might a poor Ottoman subject have considered Suleiman’s legal reforms a more important
legacy?
6. With what other empires and peoples did the Safavid’s goals of territorial expansion bring them into
conflict?
7. How was the role of trade reflected in the way the Safavid Empire was run?
Application and Reflection Questions
1. What practices and institutions helped Muslims maintain their sense of belonging to a unified religious
community, the ummah, after the fall of the Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad?
2. By what means was Islam spread beyond the Middle East? What are some of the ways in which the spread
of Islam into a new region affected the people living there?
3. The Ottomans were often described by their European enemies as a non-European power that invaded
and occupied European territory, enslaved their non-Muslim population, and encouraged their subjects to
convert to Islam. Do you think this assessment of the Ottoman system and the way it functioned is fair?
Why or why not? If not, how might you reword the description to make it more accurate?
4. What opportunities existed for women in the Ottoman Empire? How did these opportunities differ based
on class?
5. How did the declaration of Shia Islam as the state religion shape Safavid government and society? Why was
it important for the Safavids to have a state doctrine?
6. What were the different approaches to religion taken by the Ottoman and Safavid empires? What are the
advantages and disadvantages of the Ottoman millet system and of the Safavid imposition of a state
religious doctrine?
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FIGURE 5.1 Columbus Making Landfall. This image of Christopher Columbus making landfall in the New World
was painted by the German American artist Albert Bierstadt at the end of the nineteenth century. Ten feet long and
six feet high, it presents Columbus in a romanticized fashion, with the Indigenous people bowing before him. They
would likely have portrayed the event quite differently. (credit: modification of work “The Landing of Columbus” by
Albert Bierstadt/City of Plainfield, New Jersey/Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain)
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER OUTLINE
5.1 The Protestant Reformation
5.2 Crossing the Atlantic
5.3 The Mercantilist Economy
5.4 The Atlantic Slave Trade
The sixteenth century was a time of momentous change in Europe. The Age of Exploration
began in the late 1400s with forays into the Atlantic by two European nations—Portugal and Spain. Although
these countries took the lead and Christopher Columbus has been glorified as a central figure in the history of
that exploration (Figure 5.1), they were soon joined by other European players including England, France, the
Netherlands, and Denmark. Their extensive overseas exploration and the exploding web of connections in the
Atlantic World—the Columbian Exchange, the colonization of the Americas, and the development of the
Atlantic slave trade—forever changed people’s understanding of what the world was like and the face and
direction of history. Yet far more was altered in the sixteenth century than the human conception of the earth;
profound changes in European religious belief also transformed the way many Christians thought of the life
they hoped for beyond this one.
5Foundations of the Atlantic World
	Chapter 4 The Islamic World
	Assessments
	Chapter 5 Foundations of the Atlantic World
	Introduction