CHAPTER 10: REBIRTH
CHAPTER 10: REBIRTH
Key points from this chapter:
Concurrent to the fall of Baghdad was the birth of Osman who established the Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire opened a new front in Muslim expansion in Central Europe
The Mughal Empire has a rich heritage of pious rulers and scientific advancements such as rocket technology
As Muslim civilisation fell in one region of the world, it rose in another. The three ‘gunpowder empires’ rose in Asia and reigned over a new era in the Muslim world. “Born out of the ashes of the devastating Mongol invasion, they represented the rebirth of the Muslim world.” The summary of this chapter is split into four sections:
Rise and establishment of the Ottomans
The events following Mehmed II’s ascension
Safavid Empire
Mughal Empire
In the 14th and 15th centuries, the House of Osman rose near the borders of Byzantium “to become the premier Muslim power and usher in a new era of stability, growth and cultural magnificence.” The Turks had been settling into Anatolia since the Battle of Manzikert in 1071 and with the collapse of Seljuk rule in the region, small independent beylics were established under separate dynasties. One of them was the House of Osman. With the decline of Byzantium and refugee Turks bolstering his ranks, Osman was in a prime position to attack Byzantium. He revived the notion of jihad against one of Islam’s oldest foes and led his soldiers into Byzantine fortresses, establishing the Ottoman state in 1299. Shortly before his death, the city of Bursa was conquered in 1326 and turned into the Capital of the new Ottoman state.
His son, Orhan, continued the conquests and extended Ottoman rule all the way to the Sea of Marmara which was only a hundred kilometres from Constantinople. The Byzantines, occupied with civil disturbances in the Balkans during the 1300’s, could not stop the Ottomans from encroaching further into their territory. As a result, Emperor Andronicus offered annual tributary payments to Orhan in exchange for the safety of his realm. In the 1350s, the Ottomans became the first Muslim army to cross the Dardenelles and march into Europe – establishing their control over Thrace. The Ottomans saw their wars against Byzantium as their religious duty which made Islam “a unifying force for the Turks of Anatolia to rally under”. Their religious identity also ensured that they followed strict Islamic rules of war.
With thousands more soldiers rallying to the Ottomans, the greatest expansion of its early days took place under Beyazid I who was given the title of ‘Yildirim’ or Thunderbolt. The honourific title was afforded to him for his ability to move his army from Europe and Asia at rapid speed. Beyazid I was the first to cross the Danube and take Wallachia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece and even besieged Constantinople. Although this last attempt was unsuccessful, it showed the heightening power of the Ottomans. However, his actions caught the attention of Timur who, in his attempt to become the next ‘world conquer’, fought and captured Beyzaid I at the Battle of Ankara in 1402.
The empty throne led to the Ottoman Interregnum period where the four sons of the captured Sultan fought one another to ascend to the throne. Eventually, Mehmed I emerged victorious in 1413 and reunited the Ottomans in the same way his predecessor Osman I did. His task was made easier by Ottoman economic and military systems which united people of different backgrounds. Murad II continued the expansion further into Europe and besieged Constantinople but was again unsuccessful. “The challenge of conquering the seemingly unconquerable city would fall to his son, Mehmed II, whose name would go down in history as one of Islam’s greatest military leaders.”
After ascending to the throne, Mehmed II immediately turned his attention to Constantinople as he felt that conquering the legendary city was the only way to prove himself worthy of his father’s throne. He built a fortress on the Bosphorus strait, opposite to the one his father already built. This effectively blocked any Byzantine reinforcements from the Black Sea. He then commissioned Orban to build the largest cannon in the world to bring down the Theodisian walls of Constantinople and raised an army of over 100,000 men. He “was going all in on his gamble. With such preparations, failure to take the city could result in the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire itself.” He arrived at the walls of Constantinople in April 1453 and after six straight weeks of struggle, the city capitulated to Ottoman control. The conquest could possibly be seen as the fulfilment of the prophecy of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ (footnote referencing the Hadith) which gave the Ottomans unparalleled religious legitimacy and “symbolized the resurgence of the Muslim world as an imperial and multicultural force.” Mehmet II continued expanding into Europe and soon the Ottoman flag flew over more territories in Serbia, Bosnia and Albania. He even launched a campaign against Rome but after establishing a beachhead in Otranto, Italy in 1481, Mehmed II passed away and the campaign was abandoned.
The author writes that military and economic expansion continued under Mehmed II’s successors, Beyazid II and Selim I. In my view, this is not entirely correct as Mehmed II’s numerous military campaigns took a toll on the Ottoman economy and Beyazid II was therefore unable to go on many military campaigns and instead spent most of his reign rebuilding the economy and improving the legal system. Expansion continued through Beyazid II’s son Selim I who conquered the Mamluk Sultanate in its entirety and expanded the empire by 70% of its former territory. The Ottomans took custody of Islam’s three holy sites and Selim I was the first to claim the title of Caliph after the conquest of Egypt. This confirmed the Ottomans as the protectors of the Muslim world and further solidified their religious legitimacy.
The empire reached its zenith under Sultan Sulayman I who “personally led assaults on previously unconquerable strongholds in Rhodes and Belgrade, but failed in a 1526 siege of Vienna, which set the border between Christian and Muslim Europe during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.” Further improvements were made to the legal system and Sulayman I, with the assistance of his grand Mufti Ebussuud Efendi, created a new lawbook. This gave him the title of ‘Kanuni’, translated as ‘The Lawgiver’. During his 46-year reign, the Ottomans ushered in a golden age and restored Islam as the most powerful force in the world.
After Sulayman I’s death in 1556, the throne passed to Selim II, who was not as skilled as his forefathers. The “ill-advised invasion of Cyprus in 1571 prompted a united Christian front against the Ottoman Empire”. This led to the Ottoman defeat at Lepanto in 1571 in which the Ottomans lost their naval supremacy in the Mediterranean. It is worth noting that the Ottomans did build a larger and more powerful navy but the loss of its experienced commanders and sailors in the battle meant that the navy was never able to recover its former strength. However, the Ottomans were still the most powerful polity on the planet and “it would take another few centuries before the balance of power would fully shift, but the long, slow decline of the Ottoman state had begun.”
The second of the three gunpowder empires was the Safavids. Perisa was in a state of “political anarchy” following Timur’s collapse and amidst all of this, a Shi’a movement called the ‘Safavids’ spread. Eventually, it adopted the Twelver branch of Shi‘ism as its official creed and claimed that its leaders were descendants of Ali (RA) and were in contact with the hidden 12th Imam. Their leaders were killed by the Persian princes and the leadership of the group passed to a two-year-old boy called Ismail. He was protected by elite Qizilbash soldiers until he came of age and led the group against the Persian Princes. He conquered Tabriz in 1501 and by the turn of the decade, most of Persia was under his control. Isma’il awoke Persian nationalism that had been lying dormant for centuries and even claimed the title of Shah which brought back the memory of the kings of old. However, this nationalism was mixed with Twelver Shi’ism and he forced these beliefs on his subjects. He brought in scholars from Iraq and Lebanon to help spread Twelver Shi’ism and outlawed Sunni Islam in his realm. The legacy of Imam Abu Hanifa, Ibn Sina and Imam Bukhari was slowly eradicated from the area. His efforts were not limited to his people only but his neighbours too. Missionaries were sent to Anatolia in an attempt to rally people to his cause and rebel against the Ottomans. However, Selim I “was not one to sit idly by as outsiders interfered in his empire”. He marched on the Safavids and destroyed their army at the battle of Chaldiran in 1514. After his army was destroyed, “Isma‘il fled, with his supernatural aura forever tainted.” (p207).
As Selim I did not annex the region, the Safavids recovered and reached their zenith under Shah Abbas I in the late 16th century. He was a patron of the Arts and had a significant influence on the development of the Persian miniature. The art of Persian storytelling was also revived and the old pre-Islamic epics found new life alongside newer works telling the story of the Persian people. He also developed grand masjids and libraries to the extent that people grandiosely said “Isfahan is half the world.” (p208) This shows just how great the Safavid Empire was and although they may have been overshadowed by the mighty Ottoman Empire, they played an important role in the 15 and 16th century Muslim world.
The third of the gunpowder empires was the Mughal Empire which rose from the decline of the Delhi Sultanate. The empire was founded by Babur who claimed to be a descendant of Genghis Khan. He was exiled due to poor administration in Samarkand. Thereafter, he moved to the Afghan highlands where he established himself as the ruler of Kabul. Efforts to retake his homeland were unsuccessful and so he focused on India. He began his campaign in 1524 and at the Battle of Panipat in 1526, Babur decisively defeated India’s lone Muslim state and enthroned himself in Delhi.
As the sixteenth century wore on, the Mughal Empire extended its reach over most of the Indian Subcontinent. The local rulers did not experience much change so long as they swore allegiance to the Mughals. Similar to other Muslim empires, the Mughals brought together different cultures and ethnicities. It was not uncommon for a Hindu in the Mughal Empire to read and write in Persian nor for a Persian Muslim to be inspired by Hindu architecture. The mixing of cultures and ideas reached its peak during the reign of Mughal Emperor Akbar. He brought together scholars and hosted debates between peoples of different faiths. Eventually, he created his own religious theories called ‘Din-e-ilahi’ meaning ‘Religion of God’ “which, in his mind, bridged the gaps between the various traditions.” However, Islamic scholars declared these to be blasphemous and so they never gained much popularity. Its short-lived existence testifies to the high level of cultural, social and even religious mixing present in a diverse Mughal India.
After Aurangzeb or commonly known as Alamgir ascended to the throne, he relentlessly tried to bring India back towards traditional Islam. In doing so, “he created “Fatawa-e Alamgiri (the Religious Decrees of Alamgir), a collection of religious decrees based on the Hanafi school of Islamic law, which he used as the official legal code for the empire.” Although he is regarded as an intolerant ruler for breaking many temples, this would be due to an inaccurate understanding of the period. He destroyed the temples in an act of survival rather than oppression. Many temple leaders revolted against his rule and in a bid to secure his position, he eliminated this threat. To further counter the claim of his intolerance, it is recorded that he built many temples for the Hindus and many of his advisers were also Hindu.
The author does not mention the scientific achievements of any of the three empires but one achievement of the Mughal is worth mentioning – rocket technology. Akbar was one of the first ever to use metal cylinder rockets during the War of the Elephants and these were constantly developed into more powerful and efficient weapons in the 18th century. Their works laid the foundations for the Congreve rockets developed at the beginning of the 19th century.
The three gunpowder empires restored Islam as the most powerful force in the world and represented the rebirth of the Muslim world. Their achievements were “certainly not on the level of the Abbasid golden age of science, but this time marked the final era of Muslim technical superiority.” (p213). The simultaneous existence of these three empires also highlighted the unfeasible nature of the idea of Pan-Islamism. Although they never restored Islam to the heights of the 8th and 9th centuries, they carried the banner of Islam from the 14th down to the 20th century.