Historical Perspectives: HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES: WHY DID THE ISLAMIC GUNPOWDER EMPIRES RISE AND DECLINE?

The term “Gunpowder Empires” was coined by Marshall G. S. Hodgson in the 1970s to refer to the large land empires of Southwestern and South Asia that flourished the from 1450 to 1750 (The Venture of Islam: The Gunpowder Empires and Modern Times). The term is often used to describe the Ottomans, Safavids, and Mughals.

Trade and the Rise of Empires Kenneth Pomeranz and Steven Topik, in their 2005 book The World That Trade Created, described the empires as part of the growing global economy. These authors, taking economic and social perspectives, used coffee as one example of the international character of consumer goods: “Coffee’s role in sociability and prestige in Europe was enhanced by the arrival of emissaries of the Ottoman sultan in France and Austria in 1665–1666, who poured the exotic liquor for their aristocratic European guests during extravagant soirees.”

Reasons for Decline Historians have given various reasons for their declines, but most fall into three categories: (1) ineffectiveness; (2) intolerance of minorities; and (3) failure to modernize. One reviewer summarized historian Vladimir Minorsky’s reasons for the decline of the Safavid Empire:

a. decline of theocratic ideology

b. opposition between old and new elements in the military class

c. disturbance in equilibrium among the service classes, which lost interest in

the cause they were supporting

d. the “shadow government” represented by the harem

e. degeneration of the dynasty as a result of its insular nature

Military Weakness William McNeill pointed out that rulers and military administrators did not try to keep up with “subsequent European innovations in military and naval matters, leaving them woefully exposed to attack.” McNeill noted that the Ottomans’ guns were able to defeat their Islamic rivals, the Safavids, because “until about 1600, the Ottoman army remained technically and in every way in the very forefront of military proficiency.” Nevertheless, after the time of Suleiman, leaders did not themselves lead soldiers in battle, and military discipline declined just as efficiency and technology began to lag behind Western Europe.

Tolerance and Intolerance Amy Chua, Day of Empire: How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance—and Why They Fall, suggested a different reason for the eventual failure of the Gunpowder Empires. Her thesis was that intolerance ultimately became an obstacle to retaining great power. She suggested that empires were successful in holding their power when they were at their most religiously and ethnically tolerant. This thesis can help explain why the Ottoman Empire, with its relative tolerance, outlived the more intolerant Safavid and Mughal Empires.

Develop an Argument: Evaluate the extent to which historical evidence supports one of the perspectives on the rise and decline of the Gunpowder Empires.