Empires of Islam, 1300-1922

Catalog description

This course traces the formation of the three great Islamic empires of the early modern era: the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East and Europe, the Safavid in Iran, and the Mughal in India. The political culture of each empire was shaped by the use of gunpowder, and all shared a common court culture based on the Persian language. Ottoman expansion in the Arab Middle East: the relationship between the Islamic-Turkic elite of each empire and their non-Muslim, primarily, Christian and Hindu subjects; and the reproductive politics of the imperial harem will be among the issues addressed.