South Asia PERSIAN Chart
(Early Modern)
by Lauren Blumenfeld
Political
Mughal Empire: established by a warrior prince, Babur, who spread power throughout much of India; Babur traced his ancestry from the Mongol khans on one side and Turkic warriors on the other; Babur’s followers were Turkic or mixed nomadic origins; Babur led followers into India in 1526 because he lost his first kingdom in central Asia; Babur’s army defeated a group of Hindu warrior-kings and then conquered large areas of the Indus and Ganges plains; Humayan was son of Babur; Humayan died and left son Akbar to lead; Akbar was great military leader; Akbar oversaw the construction of the military and administrative systems; extended borders to north and central India; Akbar favored marragie between Mughal elites and Hindu Rajput rulers; Akbar abolished jizya, or head tax and gave Hindus high positions in government; Akbar ended sectarian separations in India; court and bureaucracy supported by revenues from tribute and taxes on land; wives took up administrative tasks; Nur Jahan stuffed the court with male relatives and dominated the empire; Mumtaz Mahal was active in court politics; army numbered hundreds of thousands (included cavalry, artillery, infantry); there was no navy
Economy
Major overseas destinations for traders from Europe; European traders brought Asian products, rarely products from Europe; European traders traded the goods they brought for Indian manufactured items like cotton textiles; Indian textile trade was extremely important; cotton cloth, calico, chintz, and muslin were popular; textiles from India were cheap and could easily be washed; textiles popular among working and middles classes throughout Europe; nice Indian cloth was in fashion among royals in Europe; dependent on agriculture and trade; millets, oilseeds, hemp, chili, cotton, indigo, and sugarcane were among cash crops; improvement of transport and communication systems; weekly market was common; rivers used as transporting systems; foreign traders were invited and were protected and were
taxed little; luxury goods for upper classes such as silk, coral, amber,
perfumes, drugs, and china goods were imported; Indian merchants requested to
be paid in silver or gold; cotton and silk in very high demand (mainly by
Europe); gained contact with Western market through Dutch and English merchants; cloth was sent to east coast of Africa, Egypt, Arabia, Europe, and Southeast Asia; Indian goods in such high demand, trading terms were decided by India until the eighteenth century
Religion
20% of the population was Muslim along with the ruling dynasty; most of the empire was Hindu; Akbar worked to blend the two religions; Hindus were brought in to positions in government and the elite; Akbar supported the construction of Hindu temples as well as mosques; lowered Hindu restrictions on women; favored remarriage of widows; did not approve of child marriages or sati; also supported certain market days for women so they could be less secluded in their home; policies to restrain ulama for toleration; lifted tax on non-Muslims; developed into an elite culture with Hinduism and Islam blended; Muslim rulers enforced sharia (Islamic law) and took out non-Muslims from high positions
Hinduism- has no single founder; the Vedas were commonly accepted as sacred texts that consisted of poems, hymns, prayers, and rituals; Upanishads believed that a divine force was advising the whole world, that the human soul was part of Brahman (the World Soul), that the goal of humankind was union with Brahman; samsara (rebirth/reincarnation) is central to beliefs of Hinduism; karma was also believed to give way to a birth to a higher class; dharma stressed meditation and the study of the inner self, and demands thought of moral consequences
Islam- Muhammad was the prophet; Muhammad left o Medina- celebrated by Muslims as the hijira; means “submission” looking to Islam’s main idea of submitting to the will of God; Five Pillars practiced (daily prayer, fasting during Ramadan, pilgrimage, charity, and confession of faith)
Hinduism- has no single founder; the Vedas were commonly accepted as sacred texts that consisted of poems, hymns, prayers, and rituals; Upanishads believed that a divine force was advising the whole world, that the human soul was part of Brahman (the World Soul), that the goal of humankind was union with Brahman; samsara (rebirth/reincarnation) is central to beliefs of Hinduism; karma was also believed to give way to a birth to a higher class; dharma stressed meditation and the study of the inner self, and demands thought of moral consequences
Islam- Muhammad was the prophet; Muhammad left o Medina- celebrated by Muslims as the hijira; means “submission” looking to Islam’s main idea of submitting to the will of God; Five Pillars practiced (daily prayer, fasting during Ramadan, pilgrimage, charity, and confession of faith)
Society
Strong division in empire was due to Hinduism and Islam; Akbar encouraged social reforms; reforms included creating living places for the beggars and vagabonds; public works mainly favored by Muslim elites; widow remarriage was encouraged by Akbar as well as the discouragement of child marriages; sati (burning of Hindu women at their husbands’ funeral) commonly practiced among Rajput princes was warrior classes; markets set aside days for women only; Jahanagir’s wife, Nur Jahan gained more power as her husband became an opium and wine addict; Nur Jahan filled the court with her relatives, spent lots on luxury items as well as charities in the large cities; women’s position in the Mughal court improved in the middle of the Mughal empire; everywhere else in India women’s position declined; child marriage was common; seclusion of women became more strict among Hindus as Muslims; Muslim women almost never left their homes unveiled, and if they did they would be punished; dowry for women to be married caused birth of girls to be known as unfortunate; birth of son was celebrated; Muslim rulers did not interfere with old system of villages; state was involved very little with village life; polygamy and divorce often occurred among the upper classes; Muslim aristocrats lived in ornate houses and wore clothes made of the best silk or cotton that were decorated with gold
Innovations
Public hospitals existed in Mughal India; small amount of local physicians; by 1616 the bubonic plague characteristics were known and preventative measures were taken; vaccination against smallpox introduced by the Eastern doctors; Muslims operated even though it contrasted the Hindu belief of dissections being irreligious; Persian writers were welcome; Ramayana, the Hindu epic, translated into Persian; many Persian classics emerged in Hindi and Sanskrit; astronomy was popular; Hindu and Islamic astronomical techniques were combined; Humayun constructed a observatory close to Delhi; Fathullah Shirazi worked for Akbar as an engineer and invented the auto cannon (earliest multi-shot gun); Akbar created the first prefabricated homes; the seamless globe and celestial globe invented by Ali Kashmiri ibn Luqman in 1589-90
Arts and Architecture
Jahangir and Shah Jahan increased painting workshops; thousands of finely detailed miniatures were made during their reigns; some paintings exhibited the influence of European paintings; paintings could show influence slightly like the depiction of halos and cherubs; influence could also be shown more heavily such as religious themes like Christianity; miniatures commonly made to traditional Islamic topics such as court life scenes, battle scenes, or animals and plants; two rulers set aside lots of money for architecture; the Taj Mahal is well known and built during their reign; detailed structures built such as the tomb of Itimad al-Dowleh at Agra, the Red Fort at Delhi, and Akbar’s tomb at Sikandra; Mughal architecture incorporates Persian and Hindu influence; Islamic influence on domes, arches, and minarets; instead of ceramic tiles used by Persians in mosques and tombs, white marble was placed with semiprecious stones in geometric and floral designs; marble reflective pools common; marble pools decorated with floral designs and fountains
Near Geographic
Akbar extended borders to north and central India; centered around the Indus River, the Ganges River, and the Jumna River; Bay of Bengal along the east coast; Arabian Sea along the west coast; Indian Ocean to the south coast; never conquered the southern tip; neighbored Safavid Empire to the northwest; Tibet and China neighbored to the northeast; nomadic invasions from Persia and Afghanistan and internal conflicts caused fragmentation and decline of empire; climate varied from tropical monsoon in the south and temperate in the north; plains in the south, flat and rolling plains along the Ganges River, Himalayas in the north, and desert in the west
Sources
http://www.indianetzone.com/50/economy_mughal_empire.htm
http://www.religionfacts.com/islam/overview.htm
http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00islamlinks/ikram/part2_17.html
http://www.mughalhistory.com/mughalscience.htm
http://workmall.com/wfb2001/india/india_geography.html
Stearns, Peter. World Civilizations. 3rd ed. New York, NY: 2003. Print.
Strayer, Robert. Ways of the World. 2nd ed. Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2013. Print.
http://www.religionfacts.com/islam/overview.htm
http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00islamlinks/ikram/part2_17.html
http://www.mughalhistory.com/mughalscience.htm
http://workmall.com/wfb2001/india/india_geography.html
Stearns, Peter. World Civilizations. 3rd ed. New York, NY: 2003. Print.
Strayer, Robert. Ways of the World. 2nd ed. Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2013. Print.