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Chapter 4 • Political Transformations, 1450–1750 235

gardens, sometimes said to represent an Islamic paradise. Persian culture, especially its
poetry, painting, and traditions of imperial splendor, occupied a prominent and presti-
gious position among elites throughout the eastern Islamic world.
The long-term historical significance of the Safavid Empire lay in its decision AP ® EXAM TIP
to forcibly impose a Shia version of Islam as the official religion of the state. This Understand the
decision led to an astonishing cultural transformation. Persian Islam had previously continuing impact of the
adhered largely to the Sunni tradition, but over time, Shia Islam gained popular Sunni/Shia split within
support and came to define the unique identity of Persian (Iranian) culture, which the Islamic world.
has persisted to the present day. Shia Islam also spread elsewhere in the Middle East.
This transformation introduced a sharp divide into the political and religious life of
heartland Islam, for almost all of Persia’s neighbors practiced a Sunni form of the faith.
For a century (1534–1639), periodic military conflict erupted between the Ottoman
and Safavid empires, reflecting both territorial rivalry and sharp religious differences. In
1514, the Ottoman sultan wrote to the Safavid ruler in the most bitter of terms:

You have denied the sanctity of divine law . . . you have deserted the path of
salvation and the sacred commandments . . . you have opened to Muslims the
gates of tyranny and oppression . . . you have raised the standard of irreligion
and heresy. . . . [Therefore] the ulama and our doctors have pronounced a
sentence of death against you, perjurer and blasphemer. 26
A similar rivalry developed with the Mughal Empire of India, where Sunni Islam
prevailed, and resulted in a sharp military encounter, the Safavid-Mughal war
between 1649 and 1653. This Sunni/Shia hostility has continued to divide the
Islamic world into the twenty-first century.

On the Frontiers of Islam: The Mughal
and Songhay Empires

If the Ottoman Empire gave rise to a new phase of the encounter between the
Islamic world and Christendom, India’s Mughal Empire represented a further
development in the long interaction of Islamic and Hindu cultures
in South Asia. That empire was the product of Central Asian warriors
who were Muslims in religion and Turkic in culture and who claimed
descent from Chinggis Khan and Timur. Their brutal conquests in the Indus R.
sixteenth century provided India with a rare period of relative politi- Delhi
Agra
cal unity (1526–1707), as Mughal emperors exercised a fragile control RA A AJASTHAN Jumna R. Gang ge es s R R.
BENGAL
over a diverse and fragmented subcontinent that had long been divided GUJARAT HINDUSTAN N
Surat
into a bewildering variety of small states, principalities, tribes, castes, sects, MAHARASHTRA
and ethno-linguistic groups. Large local landowners known as zamindars Arabian Hyderabad GOLCONDA Bay of
Sea
GOA
played a crucial role in extending imperial authority by collecting taxes Bengal
on behalf of the emperor, while pocketing some of those funds for Calicut
themselves.
The central division within Mughal India was religious. The ruling dynasty
and perhaps 20 percent of the population were Muslims; most of the rest The Mughal Empire
Uncorrected proofs have been used in this sample. strayerap5e_04_sm01_40930
Copyright © Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. e Mughal Empire
First proof
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11p0 x 12p6
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