Mughal (Babür) İmparatorluğu

CKM 2018-19 / Aziz Yardımlı


 
 

Mughal (Babür) İmparatorluğu


Mughal (Babür) İmparatorluğu

  Mughal (Babür) İmparatorluğu

Mughal Empire

Mughal Empire (W)



The Mughal Empire or Mogul Empire was an empire in the Indian subcontinent, founded in 1526. It was established and ruled by the Timurid dynasty with Turco-Mongol Chagatai roots from Central Asia, claiming direct descent from both Genghis Khan (through his son Chagatai Khan) and Timur, but with significant Indian Rajput and Persianancestry through marriage alliances; only the first two Mughal emperors were fully Central Asian. The dynasty was Indo-Persian in culture, combining Persianate culture with local Indian cultural influences visible in its traits and customs.

The beginning of the empire is conventionally dated to the victory by its founder Babur over Ibrahim Lodi, the last ruler of the Delhi Sultanate, in the First Battle of Panipat (1526). During the reign of Humayun, the successor of Babur, the empire was briefly interrupted by the Sur Empire. The “classic period” of the Mughal Empire started in 1556 with the ascension of Akbar the Great to the throne. Some Rajput kingdoms continued to pose a significant threat to the Mughal dominance of northwestern India, but most of them were subdued by Akbar. All Mughal emperors were Muslims; Akbar, however, propounded a syncretic religion in the latter part of his life called Dīn-i Ilāhī, as recorded in historical books like Ain-i-Akbari and Dabistān-i Mazāhiib. The Mughal Empire did not try to intervene in the local societies during most of its existence, but rather balanced and pacified them through new administrative practices and diverse and inclusive ruling elites, leading to more systematic, centralised, and uniform rule. Traditional and newly coherent social groups in northern and western India, such as the Marathas, the Rajputs, the Pashtuns, the Hindu Jats and the Sikhs, gained military and governing ambitions during Mughal rule, which, through collaboration or adversity, gave them both recognition and military experience.


Year Mughal Empire
population
Total Indian
population
% of Indian
population
World
population
% of world
population
1500 100,000,000 425,000,000
1600 115,000,000 130,000,000 89 579,000,000 20
1700 158,400,000 160,000,000 99 679,000,000 23

 



Art and architecture

Art and architecture

 

The Mughals made a major contribution to the Indian subcontinent with development of their unique architecture. Many monuments were built during the Mughal era by the Muslim emperors, especially Shah Jahan, including the Taj Mahal, a UNESCO World Heritage Site known to be one of the finer examples of Mughal architecture. Other World Heritage Sites include Humayun's Tomb, Fatehpur Sikri, the Red Fort, the Agra Fort, and the Lahore Fort.

The palaces, tombs, and forts built by the dynasty stand today in Agra, Aurangabad, Delhi, Dhaka, Fatehpur Sikri, Jaipur, Lahore, Kabul, Sheikhupura, and many other cities of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh. With few memories of Central Asia, Babur's descendants absorbed traits and customs of South Asia and became more or less naturalized.

Although the land the Mughals once ruled has separated into what is now India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan, their influence can still be seen widely today. Tombs of the emperors are spread throughout India, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.

The Mughal artistic tradition was eclectic, borrowing from the European Renaissance as well as from Persian and Indian sources. Kumar concludes, "The Mughal painters borrowed individual motifs and certain naturalistic effects from Renaissance and Mannerist painting, but their structuring principle was derived from Indian and Persian traditions."

 



📹 Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal Empires — Khan Academy (VİDEO)

Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal Empires — Khan Academy (LINK)

Video transcript

Video transcript (LINK)

- [Sal] We are now going to go further in our study of the evolution of the empires in Asia. And in this video, we're going to focus on what happens in North India, Persia, the Middle East, and the Anatolian peninsula, what we would consider modern-day Turkey. So right here is roughly what Asia looked like around the year 1300. As you might remember from previous videos, as we entered into the 13th century, you have Genghis Khan or Genghis Khan take over much of Asia from Mongolia. But by the time you get to 1300, the empire has fragmented into these various khanates. The Yuan Dynasty in China, Chagatai Khanate in Central Asia, the Golden Horde in Northwest Asia, and the Ilkhanate in Persia and the Middle East.

Now, two things to keep note of as we look at this map that are relevant to this video is notice this tiny little kingdom right over here. This is one of the many fragmented kingdoms that result after the Sultanate of Rum collapses in the middle of the 13th century. This kingdom in particular is founded by someone by the name of Osman, or the Arabic version of the name would be Uthman or Othman. And so this is the nascent Ottoman empire forming right over here. And over here you have the Delhi Sultanate, which was the first significant Muslim empire over in North India. And notably, they were one of the few empires that were able to fend off the Mongols. But now let's fast forward roughly 100 years. Now a few things have changed. The Ming Dynasty has taken over the Yuan Dynasty in the middle of the 14th century. The Mongols in the east are now relegated to the Northern Yuan Dynasty, but there still is the Chagatai Khanate and the Golden Horde. But much of their territory, including the Ilkhanate, has now been taken over by Timur, who we talk about in previous videos. And Timur famously sacked Delhi and really brought the Delhi Sultanate to its knees and as we will see, it will only last for roughly another 100 years.

Now, you might also notice that the Ottoman empire, founded by Osman or Othman is continuing to grow and continuing to conquer. Now one thing to keep in mind. In previous videos, we talk about the invention of gunpowder in Tang China and the early Song dynasty, which was about four to five hundred years before the period that we're talking about right now. But as we get into this period, we are now starting to see the use of gunpowder for guns and in particular artillery. And when I say artillery, think cannons. So let's fast forward another 200 years to see how the empires of Asia have evolved. So now we see several things. The Ming Dynasty is still in control of much of China. The Northern Yuan are still in Mongolia. You have a Kazakh Khanate, descendant from the Mongols.

By the late 16th and early 17th century the Ottoman Empire has now expanded significantly, encompassing much of the Middle East. In Persia, you see that the Timurid Empire fell within a few decades after the death of Timur. And as we enter into the 16th century, you have the Safavid Dynasty take over. And then also in the 16th century, almost coincident with the founding of the Safavid Dynasty in Persia, you have Timur's grandson's great-grandson, Babur, who's born in current-day Uzbekistan, is able to defeat the Delhi Sultanate and establish the Mughal Empire. And Mughal is just the Persian word for Mongol and Babur is a direct descendant of Timur on his father's side and of Genghis Khan on his mother's side.

Now, many historians often group these three empires or dynasties together because they do share some commonalities. And so let's think about each of them individually and think about where they are similar and where they are different. Not a lot is known about Osman who founds that first kingdom in the Anatolian peninsula. It's a Sunni Islamic empire. In fact, the leader is eventually named a caliph. The ruling class of this empire is Turkish. Now, one of their distinguishing characteristics is what's known as the Devshirme system in which the Sultan, the Emperor, would have a personal army of what could be called slaves, these Janissaries. These Janissaries were actually Christian boys taken at a young age and then indoctrinated into the Janissary system. The reason why I said you can kind of call them slaves is that although they were forced to become Janissaries and taken from their families, they were given many privileges and over time, many of these Janissaries became some of the most notable figures in the Ottoman Empire, some of them even becoming the Grand Vizier, effectively ruling over the empire. Now, the Ottomans are also known for one of the earliest empires to very successfully to use gunpowder in battle.

The Safavids, as you can see here, were really founded in the very early 16th century, officially 1501, by their founder Shah Ismail, sometimes known as Ismail I. And he is the heir to a religious dynasty, the Safavias. It is a Muslim dynasty, like the Ottoman Empire, but unlike the Ottoman Empire, it is based on Twelver Shia Islam. Twelver Shia is the major group of Shias today and it is based on the belief of 12 imams following Mohammed starting with Ali and we have videos on the Sunni-Shia split. Now, even though Ismail spoke Turkish and was raised in a Turkic society, this dynasty brought back much of the culture of Ancient Persia. In fact, it's viewed as the first dynasty since the Sassanids that actually had native Persian rule and brought back that Persian culture, part of which is using the word Shah. You remember Cyrus the Great, the Shahanshah, the King of Kings. Now they had what is known as Ghulams, which is very similar to the idea of a Janissary. These are slave soldiers which are taken as captives but then are raised to be an elite military unit and eventually often have significant wealth and significant power. Now you might be wondering, why did any of these empires and these aren't the only ones, you have the Mamluks and other Muslim empires. Why would people create these elite soldiers out of slaves and give them that much power? Well, the answer is, they were the safest people to give power to. Remember, these empires are ruling over many tribes and many groups and many kingdoms that are constantly vying for power, trying to establish their own dynasties. And if you allowed people from those various tribes to protect you as Emperor, well, there might be a good shot that one of them might want to kill you and establish their own dynasty. But from a young age, if you could indoctrinate these young boys as Ghulams, or as Janissaries, well, they might be more loyal to you. And indeed, it did provide an unusual amount of stability.

As I mentioned, the Mughal Empire was able to be founded by Babur, who was Timur's great-grandson's grandson and he, too, was born in a Turco-Mongolian tradition. As he's able to famously defeat the Delhi Sultanate which had already been significantly weakened, one, on its own, but then by Timur over 100 years before, he famously comes to power with the aid of gunpowder, being able to defeat a significantly larger Delhi Sultanate army. The Mughals practiced Sunni Islam but they ruled over a large Hindu majority, and so the first several Mughal rulers were actually quite tolerant. Perhaps the most tolerant was Akbar, often known as Akbar the Great, who we'll do other videos on, who actually tried to create a religion which was a merger between Islam and Hinduism and Jainism and Christianity. But then they become less tolerant under Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb. Shah Jahan famous for building the Taj Mahal for his wife, but what's often not noted is he was building this fairly grand mausoleum at a time when there was a famine in India and he was also known as being fairly intolerant and persecuted many Hindus and Sikhs and his son, Aurangzeb, continued to do so.

Now, some historians will refer to these three empires as the Gunpowder Empires. If someone says Gunpowder Empires, they're referring to these three. The reason why they're called that is this view that these major centralized empires were able to form only with the power of gunpowder. The Ottomans, famous for early use of artillery. The Mughals, Babur in particular, came to power with gunpowder. But today, historians are somewhat skeptical of grouping just these three empires as Gunpowder Empires. You had many other large centralized empires form before the use of gunpowder. So that whole thesis is not as popular today.

 



 



📹 Two Battles of Panipat (1526 and 1556) (VİDEO)

Two Battles of Panipat (1526 and 1556) (LINK)

Commanders always look for a way to get an advantage and so they choose the best possible location for the battles. And as such locations usually have a suitable terrain or are in the vicinity of the economic or political center, historically decisive battles had a tendency to happen in the same places over and over. We know about half-dozen battles of Thermopylae and Kosovo, and so many other geographical locations had multiple battles. For India it is the city of Panipat, just under 100 kilometers away from the capital Delhi. Three crucial fights happened here and they decided the fate of the entire subcontinent for centuries. In this documentary we are covering two of these battles that happened in 1526 and 1556. The Mughal Empire led by Babur and Akbar had to fight against the Delhi Sultanate of Ibrahim Lodi and the armies of the Sur Empire under the command of Hemu at Panipat to prove its dominance. Let's see how these events unfolded.

 



📹 The Rise and Fall of the Mughal Empire (VİDEO)

The Rise and Fall of the Mughal Empire (LINK)

The Mughal Empire was established in 1526 when Babur, a conquer from Central Asia, took the city of Delhi. Later kings ruled most of India during the 16th and 17th centuries, but declined in the 18th century and ended in 1857.

 










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