Janissaries

Janissaries

Following the custom of expanding empires everywhere, the Ottoman sultans had routinely taken one-fifth of the booty taken in conquest for themselves, enslaving some of those conquered as footsoldiers for further military conquests.

However as the empire took control of predominantly Muslim territories, Islamic legal injunctions against the enslavement of other Muslims made the old practice impossible. Therefore, Muslim theologians under Murad I (reigned 1362–89) innovated a levy where by young non-Muslim boys were taken into the sultan’s service. These enforced recruits were called Yeni Cheri, new soldiers, or Janissaries.

On a rotation system of about every five years, a levy or devshirme of young boys between the ages of eight and 20 was collected from mostly Christian areas, especially in the Balkans. All the recruits were taught Turkish and converted to Islam.


The most able of the young boys were taken to be educated in the palace to become servants and, sometimes, high officials within the vast Ottoman bureaucracy. The rest were given rigorous military training and became a formidable fighting force. The Janissaries owed their sole allegiance to the sultan.

The Ottoman Empire was one of the first so-called gunpowder empires, and the Janissaries were known for their skills with the most advanced weaponry of the age. The Janissaries enjoyed considerable legal privileges, including the right to own land and to pass on property to their heirs under Islamic law.

Gradually the Janissaries increased in numbers and power and became the core of the Ottoman army with increased pay and benefits. Spread throughout the empire, the Janissaries lived communally in military barracks and were the main protectors of the Ottoman government throughout the provinces.

When the empire was at its zenith, the Janissaries were loyal protectors and champions of the sultan. However, as the empire declined and the sultans became increasingly weak and corrupt, the Janissaries became a political force in their own right and frequently rose up in armed rebellions.

The overturning of the huge cooking pots used by all Janissary garrisons became the signal of such revolts. In some instances, the Janissaries even overthrew sultans to replace them with candidates of their own selection.

Jahangir - Mughal Ruler

Jahangir - Mughal Ruler

Jahangir inherited the Mughal throne from his father, Akbar, the greatest Mughal emperor. His realm included part of Afghanistan and the Indian subcontinent up to the Deccan. It was one of the largest empires of the world and enjoyed prosperity.

Prince Salim (Selim) was Akbar’s eldest son, who took the reign name Jahangir, which means “world grasper.” He explained in his memoir that there was a contemporary Ottoman emperor also named Salim, which made him decide to change his name.

Jahangir had to suppress many revolts during his reign, including those of his sons, one of whom he had blinded after the revolt failed. Other campaigns were against rulers in the Deccan area subdued by Emperor Akbar and again in revolt, and against the Persian ruler for control of Kandahar.

In addition to his frank memoir, there are vivid accounts by others about Jahangir. One was by his boon companion, the English sea captain William Hawkins, and another was by Sir Thomas Roe, English ambassador, who arrived at the Mughal court in 1616 to negotiate a treaty between England and the Mughal government but failed and left two years later.


As were many Mughal princes, Jahangir was addicted to strong alcoholic drinks, and to eating opium, which seldom left him sober. He professed himself an orthodox Muslim but was generally tolerant of other religions. However, he let divine faith, a religion that his father sponsored, wither away.

In 1611, Jahangir married the Persian-born widow of one of his officials after having her husband killed for refusing to divorce her and for revolting against him. The lady was given the title Nur Jahan, which means “light of the world,” and she became the empress for the remainder of his reign. Both Jahangir and Nur Jahan patronized the arts. But Nur Jahan was also politically ambitious.

To influence her husband’s succession she married her daughter to one of his sons, and her niece (Mumtaz Mahal) to another, who became his father’s successor as Shah Jahan. She surrounded herself with her relatives, arousing the jealousy of Jahangir’s relatives; intrigues among the members of the two factions led to rebellion.

In 1627, her protégé, a general named Mahabat Khan, revolted in alliance with Shah Jahan; they imprisoned both Jahangir and Nur Jahan for several months. Just as he had revolted against his father, so he died in the midst of his son’s revolt, followed by a power struggle between his sons.

Despite wars and rebellions, Jahangir’s reign was generally prosperous, as he enjoyed the legacy of his father. His memoirs often expressed good intentions for promoting justice and efficiency, but he seldom followed through because of his indulgence in alcohol and drugs.

Isfahan (Persia)

Isfahan (Persia)

In 1592 Shah Abbas I made Isfahan the capital of the Safavid Empire. In an earlier era, Isfahan had been the capital of the Seljuk Empire, but under Shah Abbas the city became a major economic and cultural center or as the Persian saying went, “Isfahan is half the world.”

The Masjid-i Jami, or Friday Mosque (1088), an earlier Seljuk building, dominates one section of the city. This mosque is known for its brick domed chambers and stucco mihrab (prayer niche). Under Shah Abbas, a huge open square, the Maydan-i Shah, with a polo field the favorite amusement of the Safavid court, became the centerpiece of the city. The square was surrounded by Safavid buildings.


The Masjid-i Shaykh Lutfallah (1602) stands on one side; a vast covered bazaar anchors another, and the monumental Masjid-i Shah (1612–13) dominates a third side. An elaborately decorated blue tiled dome with Qu’ranic inscriptions in finely wrought calligraphy covers the mosque, which is entered through a courtyard and towering iwans, or arched entryways.

The Ali Qapu, a vast royal palace complex, is the main building on the fourth side of the square. The palace’s second-story porch, covered by a wooden roof supported by slender columns, overlooks the square. From this porch, the shah and his court could watch polo games and other state ceremonies.

Persian floral patterns

As a commercial center, Isfahan attracted numerous traders and artisans, many of whom built lavish homes with gardens that were much esteemed in Ottoman Empire, flowers and bird motifs were favorite designs among the Safavids.

The Safavids became known for Persian carpets with floral patterns and center medallions as opposed to the geometric designs favored by tribal artisans. Safavid artists also excelled in the painting of miniatures and illustrated manuscripts, many of which included figural representations that were rare in Arab or Ottoman works.

Ahmed ibn Ghazi

Ahmed ibn Ghazi

Popularly known as the Gran or Ahmed, the Left-handed, Ahmed ibn Ghazi, the king of Adal, was a Somali general who, after establishing an inland Muslim empire, laid siege to Ethiopia in 1529 in an attempt to wipe out Christianity and establish Ethiopia as a Muslim state.

Christian Ethiopia was particularly vulnerable to outside attacks from neighboring Muslim countries because from 1478 to 1527, the average age of Ethiopian rulers was only 11. The Sultanate of Harar, which was heavily Muslim, repeatedly attempted to overtake Ethiopia. Around 1500, zealous Muslims announced the onset of a jihad (holy war) in which Islam was to be instated throughout Africa.

In the late 1520s, the sultanate’s position was reinforced by the Islamization of Somali, which was effected by the concentrated efforts of Turkish and Arab adventurers. Consequently, Harar’s troops, led by Ahmed ibn Ghazi, attacked Ethiopia in 1529. Ahmed’s forces were reinforced by the recently conquered Chushitic troops who hoped to gain their freedom by fighting with Ahmed’s forces.

Ahmed triumphed during the Battle of Amba Sel on October 28, 1531. By the following year, he had succeeded in gaining control of Ethiopia and had forced Ethiopian emperor Lebna Dengel (1508–40) into hiding. Ahmed subsequently established himself as the ruler of Ethiopia. He was a vengeful conqueror, brutally destroying land and churches and devastating the Ethiopian people.

Once he was in power, Ahmed proceeded with his attempts to eradicate Christianity from Ethiopia. He even destroyed the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion where Ethiopian emperors had been crowned for centuries. At swordpoint, Ahmed’s troops ordered Ethiopian Christians to renounce their faith and swear allegiance to the Muslim faith instead.

Ahmed also executed a Portuguese commander who refused to convert to Islam. Although appearing to comply with Ahmed’s orders, the Ethiopian Christians, including Emperor Lebna Dengel, continued to adhere to the Christian faith. When Ahmed ordered the emperor to command his daughter to marry him, Lebna Dengel defied him and refused to have his daughter marry a nonbeliever.

On September 2, 1540, Ahmed succeeded in tracking Lebna Dengel to the monastery of Dabra Dam in Tigre, where the emperor was killed in battle. However, the emperor’s earlier request for military assistance from Portugal had finally resulted in the arrival of 400 Portuguese musketeers in Ethiopia under the leadership of Christovao da Gama, the son of Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama.

In addition to the Portuguese, the Ethiopians had been reinforced by large numbers of Oromo (Galla) people, who threw considerable force into destroying Islamic communities and attacking the invaders.

While generally successful in their attacks on Ahmed’s troops, da Gama and 140 of his troops were killed in a battle north of the Tekez River. After Lebna Dengel’s death, his son Galawdewos, who had succeeded to the Ethiopian throne, led an attack on Ahmed’s forces on February 21, 1543.

Ahmed ibn Ghazi statue

In what became known as the Battle of Wayna Daga, a Portuguese musketeer who was determined to avenge the death of da Gama and his comrades killed Ahmed, even though it cost him his own life. Once Ahmed was dead, his troops lost the will to continue the jihad. As a result of the Battle of Wayna Daga and Ahmed’s death, Galawdewos was able to restore the Ethiopian Empire.

The Ethiopian Christians celebrated their restoration to power by holding ceremonies in which they publicy renounced the Muslim faith and reembraced Christianity. Despite this success, Galawdewos’s reign was cut short when he was killed in one of the frequent raids conducted by Bati Del Wambara, Ahmed’s widow, who was determined to avenge her husband’s death.

During the years of Muslim occupation, much of Ethiopia had been destroyed. Ethiopia has survived as an African nation with a considerable Christian presence. Currently, between 35 and 40 percent of the Ethiopian population belong to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and between 45 and 50 percent embrace the Muslim faith.

Humayun - Emperor of India

At the age of 23, Humayun succeeded his father, Babur, as the second Mughal ruler of India. He ruled successfully for the first few years, then abandoned himself to pleasures, including use of opium, resulting in the loss of his patrimony to Sher (Shir) Shah and years of wandering and exile in Persia. He was finally restored to power in India with Persian help in 1555 but died from a fall in 1556.

Humayun inherited a shaky empire that had just been conquered by his father, and he had to deal with three ambitious brothers eager to oust him. Although capable of courage, he was self-indulgent and addicted to pleasures. Two enemies confronted him after his accession, Sultan Bahadur in the southwest and Sher Khan (later titled Sher Shah), leader of Afghans who had settled along the Ganges River in Bihar.

Sultan Bahadur was eliminated by the Portuguese but the more able Sher Khan decisively defeated him in 1539. He was forced to flee with few followers across India, to Afghanistan, finally finding refuge in Persia, whose ruler Sha Tahmasp gave him refuge on condition that he converted to the Shi’i (from Sunni) Islam. He did so, at least outwardly.

The victorious Sher Khan assumed the title of shah and very ably ruled India from 1540 to 1545. He built up an excellent administrative system, which became the foundation of the later resurrected Mughal Empire. He relied on centrally appointed local officials who administered under a hierarchical system of responsibility. Local officials assessed and collected taxes, at one-third of the total production.


He set up courts and weeded out corrupt and oppressive officials. He also established charitable organizations to help the poor and built roads shaded with trees and with rest houses and wells for drinking water interspersed along the way. He died in 1545, when a gunpowder magazine accidentally exploded.

Humayun tomb

Sher Shah’s sons lacked his ability and made matters worse by fighting with one another for their inheritance. Thereupon Sha Tahmasp helped Humayun return to power, first conquering Kandahar and Kabul in Afghanistan, and then winning back his throne in India in 1555.

He died the following year, however, after a fall in his palace, leaving the throne to his 13-year-old-son, Akbar, born on the northwestern frontier of India during his father’s desperate flight. Babur founded the Mughal Empire, Sher Shah laid its administrative foundations, and Akbar later consolidated it.

Delhi and Agra

Red Fort in Delhi

Delhi, now the capital of India, has been the political center of Indian civilization for over a thousand years. The settlement known as Indraprastha, which was mentioned in the Indian epic the Mahabharata, was located at modern-day Purana Qila, near Delhi.

It became the capital of Muslim dynasties of Turkish, Afghan, and slave origins that invaded and ruled northern India beginning in the 12th century. Because of its strategic importance at the confluence of the Ganges and Jumna Rivers, it was the battleground of successive conquering armies.

The most ferocious invader was Timurlane (Tamerlane), who laid waste to city and killed or enslaved most of its inhabitants in 1398. Two regional Muslim dynasties rebuilt Delhi after Timurlane left India in 1399, the second being the Lodi dynasty, which was destroyed by Babur at the Battles of Panipat in 1526. Babur made Delhi and Agra his capitals.


Although Babur only reigned from 1526 until 1530, his reign was important because of the impact it had on India in succeeding centuries. He was descended from Timur on his father’s side, and Genghis Khan on his mother’s. He ran much of his administration from Delhi and began to rebuild it.

Babur was buried in Afghanistan but his son Humayun was buried in Delhi. His tomb is an early example of Mughal (or Moghul) architecture, which reached its peak under Humayun’s great-grandson Shah Jahan.

Taj Mahal in Agra

In 1556, Babur’s grandson, Akbar, became emperor and he decided to move the capital from Delhi to Agra, where Babur had begun building palaces and gardens befitting a capital. From 1571 until 1585, Akbar mainly ruled in Fatehpur Sikri. Foreign visitors, including ambassadors from European countries, commented on the opulence of Akbar’s court and the beauty of Agra.

Akbar’s successor Jahangir (ruled 1605–27) held court at Agra, where he received Sir Thomas Roe, the ambassador of James I of England, but for most of his reign Jahangir resided in Lahore in modern-day Pakistan, or in Kabul in Afghanistan. Only a few important buildings were added to Agra during Jahangir’s reign.

Jahangir’s son Shah Jahan was a great builder who greatly added to both Agra and Delhi. His greatest legacy is the Taj Mahal, a great mausoleum he built for his wife, Mumtaz Mahal. It is one of the wonders of the world.

Shah Jahan also built and improved many monuments in Delhi that include large city walls with grand gates, most notably the Ajmeri Gate, the Delhi Gate, the Kashmiri Gate, and the Turkman Gate. Shah Jahan in 1648 began work on the Red Fort in Delhi to improve the city’s defenses.

In 1739, Nadir Shah, emperor of Persia, captured and looted Delhi, taking the fabulous jewel-encrusted Peacock Throne back with him to Persia. In 1760, the Marathas attacked and looted Delhi again. In 1761, the Jats captured Agra and sacked the city, including the Taj Mahal. Nine years later it was captured by the Marathas, who held it until 1803, when both cities were taken by the British.

Ajmeri Gate in Delhi

Boabdil (Muhammad XI) - Last Muslim Ruler in Spain

Boabdil (Muhammad XI)

Boabdil, who ruled as Muhammad XI (reigned 1482–83, 1487–92), was the last Muslim Nasrid ruler in Granada, Spain, during the simpulan stages of the Reconquest of Spain, or Reconquista. For several centuries the Muslim dynasties in the Iberian Peninsula had lost territory to the Christian Portuguese and Spanish forces. The Almohads (a Berber dynasty from Morocco) lost Cordoba in 1236 and Seville in 1248.

The Almohads, strict unitarians, followed the teachings of Ibn Tumert (d. 1130), an extremely conservative religious leader who even condemned all four schools of Islamic law. The far more liberal land and pleasure seeking Muslim population in the Iberian Peninsula rejected the Amohad brand of extreme puritanism and support in wartime.

The Muslim city-states were also weakened by internal dynastic divisions and competition among themselves. Granada was left as the last Muslim stronghold; after the Christians took Gibraltar in 1462, Granada was cut off from ports and reinforcements from North Africa.

During the first years of his reign, Boabdil was taken prisoner by the Christians and was forced to become a vassal of Castile as a price for his release. He then disputed with his brother, who had styled himself Muhammad XII, before regaining the throne in 1487.


But his victory was short lived, for in 1491, the forces of Ferdinand V and Isabella I of Spain lay siege to the city. The defeat of Granada was a foregone conclusion and in January 1492 (on the day of Epiphany), Boabdil handed over the key to the city. He was forced into a temporary exile at Alpujarras.

As he reached the ridge overlooking the city, he looked back and sighed. Boabdil’s mother, A’isha, then supposedly taunted her son that he “wept like a woman for what he could not hold as a man.” A stone marker to the “Moor’s sighs” still commemorates the spot.

Ferdinand and Isabella, devout Catholics, and their successors moved to erase evidence of the long Muslim control over the territory and to establish a Christian society. In reaction some remaining Muslims, known as Mudejars, rose up in a futile revolt that was brutally quashed in 1570. Others, known as Moriscos, converted to Christianity.

The majority, including Boabdil, fled to Morocco and other parts of North Africa. For Christendom, the victory over Granada compensated in some measure for the earlier loss of the Byzantine Greek Catholic capital of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. From the Islamic perspective, the loss of Granada and all of Andalusia was a major defeat.

Babur - Mughal Dynastic Founder

Babur - Mughal Dynastic Founder

Babur was descended from Timerlane on his father’s side and Genghis Khan on his mother’s. Son of a petty ruler of Ferghana in Central Asia, he conquered Afghanistan, then northern India, founding the long-lived Mughal (Mogul, or Moghul, the different versions of the spelling all derive from Mongol) dynasty in India.

His body was returned to Kabul, Afghanistan, where he was buried. He wrote an autobiography of great literary merit called Baburnama (Memoirs of Babur) in his native Turki that recorded his battles, plans for ruling India, his dealings with friends and foes, the flora and fauna of India, and much more.

Zahir ud-din Babur was the son of a petty prince in Ferghana in Central Asia. His father died when he was young and Babur had a difficult youth battling for his patrimony. He left Ferghana for good in 1504 and gained control of Kabul in Afghanistan, then an important stopping place along the trade route between India and Central Asia.

In 1526, Babur led 12,000 soldiers into India and at the Battle of Panipat defeated and killed Ibrahim Lodi, a Muslim ruler of northern India who led a huge army of 100,000 horses and 100 elephants.


The victory opened his way to Lodi’s capitals Delhi and Agra on the shores of the Jumna River. Babur rewarded his men by distributing the huge quantities of loot that came with victory, and allowed those of his followers who wanted to return to Afghanistan to do so, escorting more booty to reward his people who had stayed behind.

Babur then took the titles padshah, which means great ruler, and ghazi which means “fighter of the, (Muslim) faith.” Agra and Delhi became his capitals, where he built forts, palaces, and gardens with fountains and running water to alleviate the heat of northern Indian summers.

baburnama

Babur spent the next three years campaigning against both Hindu and Muslim states in northern India, including Bengal; in organizing the administration of the provinces that he had conquered; and in parceling out the land among his supporters in a feudal arrangement.

He also began to build a road that would link Delhi and Agra to Kabul. In 1529, when his favorite son and heir, Humayun, became ill Babur performed a ceremony to cure his son by taking on the son’s illness himself. He died shortly later, his health undermined by hard campaigning and India’s hot climate, at age 46.

Babur was a many faceted man. A brilliant military leader, he founded a great empire in India that would last for two and half centuries, laying the foundations for unity in a politically fractured land.

He was a builder who personally designed gardens and fountains, a patron of the arts, a poet, and a memoirist. Europeans who came to India during the early Mughal dynasty were so impressed with the splendor of the court that they called the rulers Great Mughals.

Aurangzeb - Emperor of India

Aurangzeb - Emperor of India

Aurangzeb was the sixth Mughal emperor (r. 1658–1707). He ruled for 49 years as Emperor Alamgir (conqueror of the universe); he was the last great ruler of the Mughal dynasty, but left the empire economically exhausted and widely disaffected.

As Shah Jahan aged, his sons openly rebelled against him. The winner was the 44-year-old Aurangzeb, who imprisoned Shah Jahan and killed all three of his brothers. His personal strengths included widespread administrative and military experience, strict frugality in personal life, and devotion to work. He curbed corruption and took measures to improve agriculture.


A strict and devout Muslim, he was also a bigot who had no tolerance of other religions and persecuted their followers. Thus began his troubles, which also contributed to the disintegration of the Mughal Empire. He ordered Hindu schools closed, had many Hindu temples destroyed, and ousted many Hindus from government service.

Although he could not eliminate all Hindus from government, no Hindu under him rose to high positions. The last straw for Hindus was the reinstatement of the poll tax and other harsh taxes on non-Muslims, which had been dropped under his ancestor, Emperor Akbar.

Aungrazeb's court

Aurangzeb’s religious policy contributed to the growth of revivalist Hinduism, a mixture of religion and what may be termed protonationalism. It began in southern India under Shivaji, who rebelled in 1662, heading the Maratha Confederacy.

Long and costly campaigns failed to end the Marathas’ insurgency. In 1683, the Rajputs, powerful Mughal supporters, also revolted, even attracting one of Aurangzeb’s sons to their cause. While his lieutenants led the campaigns against the Marathas and Rajputs, Aurangzeb took personal charge of a drawnout war in the south, where he had been viceroy under his father.

His objective was to subdue the two remaining independent kingdoms of the Deccan, beginning in 1683. He was militarily successful, with the result that the Mughal Empire under Aurangzeb extended from Kabul in the north to Cape Comorin to the south.

However, the wars left the empire financially exhausted and the overtaxed peasants in revolt. Moreover, his total preoccupation with the campaign and absence from the capital had left the administration neglected.

Aurangzeb died in 1707 at the age of 89. Because he ascended the throne after killing his brothers, he trusted no kinsman and kept all power in his own hands. His religious bigotry alienated Hindus and his focus on subduing rebels and expanding the empire left him unaware of the new shift of power among Europeans in India and the passing of maritime supremacy from the Portuguese to the English.

Prince Aungrazeb

His Muslim generals served him faithfully in his life, but rose to usurp his inept sons’ inheritance after his death. Mughal power soon declined and fell.