Three Islamic Empires

Turkey: the Sunnite Ottoman Empire
(Including North Africa, Egypt, Syria, Arabia, Iraq and the Balkans)

• Was founded in 1512 by Sultan Selim I.
• Extended at its zenith from the Atlantic to the Persian Golf.
• Was checked first in the Battle of Lepanto (1571) and again in the unsuccessful siege of Vienna (1683).
• Underwent a half-hearted modernization in the 19th Century that failed to hold back the process of economic, political, and military decline or the growing social and cultural torpor.

India: the Mogul Empire

• Was founded by Babur in 1526 and reached a zenith under Akbar the Great (1556–1605), achieving its greatest territorial expansion by 1700.
• Thereafter went into decline especially after the Persian invasion of 1739.
• Developed a specifically Indian form of Islamic culture.
• After the middle of the 18th Century was increasingly subjected to British colonial expansion.

Persia: the Shiite Safavid Empire

• Safaviyeh was the name of a Sufi order founded by the Sunnite mystic
Safi ad-Din (died 1334). Around 1400 it passed over to Shi’ism.
• In 1501, the head of the Safaviyeh Order, Ismail (1487–1524), declared himself Shah of Iran, claiming to be a descendent of Ali and the hidden Imam of the Shiites. He established a dynasty that united Iran and ruled it until 1722.
• Shi’ism was made the state religion; Sunnites were persecuted.
• In the 19th Century, Iran came under increasing Western influence and embarked on a course of modernization, which led eventually to a religious crisis.