The+Islamic+Empires+-+In+Transition+(770-775)

=The Islamic Empires - In Transition (770-775)=

**Empires in Transition**
a. Safavid empire disappeared between 16th/18th centuriesv b. 1722 band of Afghan tribesmen traveled to Ishan and blockaded the city until the civilians turned to cannibalism from starvation, forced the shahd to abdicate, and executed many Safavid officials c After the death of Aurangzeb in 1707, Mughal India had provincial rebellions and foreign invasions by Jordan Brooks //Dynastic Decline// -Ottomans tried to keep princes in the palace to stop competition, but they didn't get experience in government and made 'problem rulers' (SC) -Suleyman's successor Slim the Sot & Ibrahim the Crazy were known as problem rulers -Ibrahim taxed & spent to much excess that government officials deposed & murdered him -after late 17th century, weak rule increased to provoke mutinies in the army, provincial revolts, political corruption, economic oppresion, & insecurity throughout the Ottoman realm (by Britney Feuerhammer)
 * The Deterioration of Imperial Leadership **

-Many political problems arose due to religous tensions -Muslim leaders influenced the Islamic empires greatly due to their monoply of education and their involvement in civilians everyday lives -Their were many revolts in the Ottoman empire, such as the Wahhabi movement in Arabia which occused the Ottomans as dangerous innovators who were unfit to rule -Conservative Muslims protested the construction of an observatory in Istanbul, which was demolished in 1580. In 1742 the Ottoman printing press was forced to close by conservative Muslims -Other religous tensions included the Safavids who saught to crush Sunni religous authorities but eventually fell under the domination of the very shiites they had supported. In India the conservative Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi (1564-1624) rebuked Akbar for his tolerance of other religions and interest in other faiths. (Daniel Jaber)

Economic and Military Decline
In the 16th century Isalic empires had strong economic stability, however in the 18th century the economy went through much stress. The militaries became harder to maintain, as when an empire is on the move, new resources are constantly avaliable, whereas when the empire settles down as seen here, less resources are avaliable. As early as 1589 the Ottomans have been attempting to bribe Janissures, ergo there have been 6 military revolts in 150 years. Due to this economic stress causing military decline, many counterproductive measures were taken by sultans and other political figures by accepting bribes, over taxation, etc... Eventualy the Europeans traded only the old military technology with Islamic empires, thus causing lack in military technology in comparison to europe. (Leon Zhang)

** c. Cultural Conservation ** -Europeans that visited the Islamic empires tried to learn as much as possible about the society, and they published accounts of their travels which became very popular in their homelands -Ottoman mariners reconnoitered the Indian Ocean basin from east Africa to Indonesia, which showed that they were concerned with military forces like Europe -Ottoman geographers were also very interested in the European knowledge of geography which also had military value -Piri Reis was an Ottoman admiral and cartographer that made many large-scale maps and even a book called “Book of Seafaring,” which was a compilation of many reports and maps from European mariners (DR) A. Muslims believed they were superior to the Europeans and did not want to learn anything from them B. Eventually Muslims adapted the scientific instruments such as the telescope and observatories, but then they were removed by the clerics C. Government authorities tolerated the printing press but banned typing in Turkish or Arabic D. After the ban was lifted in 1721 a Turkish press published books dealing with history, geography, and language. It was, once again, shut down by the conservative Muslims. E. In 1784 a new Turkish press opened and printing spread through the empire thereafter F. Printing slowly catches on in Mughal India G. It was used mainly for religious reason and did not attract interest to political leaders until India was put under colonial rule in the 18th century H. Many Islamic people still preferred hand-written text (RG)
 * // Piri Reis //**

map and some editing by Celeste Labedz map of Islamic Empires and some editing by Shelby Clausen