WELCOME TO THE GUNPOWDER EMPIRES MINI UNIT OR

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WELCOME TO THE GUNPOWDER EMPIRES MINI UNIT OR: 3 EMPIRES YOU’VE NEVER HEARD OF,

WELCOME TO THE GUNPOWDER EMPIRES MINI UNIT OR: 3 EMPIRES YOU’VE NEVER HEARD OF, BUT WHICH WILL COMPRISE ROUGHLY 10% OF THE EXAM

#1: THE MUGHAL EMPIRE (1526 -1857) OR, HEY, REMEMBER INDIA?

#1: THE MUGHAL EMPIRE (1526 -1857) OR, HEY, REMEMBER INDIA?

ORIGINS The Mughal Empire began in 1526 when a Muslim Turkic group invaded India,

ORIGINS The Mughal Empire began in 1526 when a Muslim Turkic group invaded India, replacing the former Delhi Sultanate and many native states “Mughal” is a Persian term for Mongols Over the next 180 years, the Mughals would expand their empire to cover most of India, creating a Muslim Empire with a massive number of Hindu subjects Though the ruling class was Islamic, only about 20% of India’s population became Muslims— almost all of the remainder practiced Hinduism

SHOW THEM WHAT THEY’VE WON! The initial Mughal conquests gave them leadership over much

SHOW THEM WHAT THEY’VE WON! The initial Mughal conquests gave them leadership over much of the Indian subcontinent The problem was the sheer variety present within the Indian subcontinent “India” is an extremely modern concept: for most of its history South Asia has been a hodgepodge of different states, tribes, castes, religious sects, and linguistic groups Even Hinduism, India’s theoretically unifying faith, is actually a diverse group of traditions unified only by a concept of a universal spirit In short, the Mughals had conquered a region for which unity was an unfamiliar concept To hammer the point home, here’s a linguistic map of India…

POLITICAL IMPACT Multiple Mughal leaders sought to accommodate Hinduism, none more so than Akbar:

POLITICAL IMPACT Multiple Mughal leaders sought to accommodate Hinduism, none more so than Akbar: the 3 rd (and most famous) Mughal Emperor While the Mughal conquest of India had been quite violent, Akbar intentionally attempted to accommodate India’s Hindu majority He married Hindu princesses without making them convert, appointed Hindus to governmental positions, and provided funds for building Hindu temples as well as mosques, palaces, and forts

RELIGIOUS TOLERATION Akbar removed the jizya, the Islamic tax on non- Muslims He also

RELIGIOUS TOLERATION Akbar removed the jizya, the Islamic tax on non- Muslims He also constructed a “House of Worship” where he would discuss religious matters with Muslim, Hindu, Christian, Zoroastrian, Buddhist, and Jewish scholars Classical works of literature from India and Persia were translated into the other culture’s language, and art from Persia and India was commissioned Akbar and his immediate followers downplayed Islamic identity in exchange for a Turkic-Persian. Indian hybrid culture A Hindu depiction of Akbar, note the difference in the illustration

EARLY MUGHAL WOMEN Akbar and his son/grandson’s policies towards women sought to remove both

EARLY MUGHAL WOMEN Akbar and his son/grandson’s policies towards women sought to remove both Islamic and Hindu restrictions Sati (the practice of a woman burning herself to death on her husband’s funeral pyre) was discouraged, as was child marriage Merchants were persuaded to create market days for women to encourage them to get out of the home Akbar’s successor Jahangir was an alcoholic and an opium addict, and his wife Nur Jahan was largely responsible for successfully running the empire, even having coins issued in her name rather than Jahangir’s

INTELLECT AND ARCHITECTURE Under the Mughals, India’s architecture became a mixture of Hindu and

INTELLECT AND ARCHITECTURE Under the Mughals, India’s architecture became a mixture of Hindu and Islamic influences This resulted in some of the most famous buildings in all of India: the Taj Mahal, the Red Fort, and various mosques and tombs of monumental scale The Taj Mahal, by the way, is a tomb for a Mughal Emperor’s wife.

MUGHAL ARCHITECTURE

MUGHAL ARCHITECTURE

RELIGIOUS BLENDING During Mughal rule, multiple Indians attempted to blend the traditions of Islam

RELIGIOUS BLENDING During Mughal rule, multiple Indians attempted to blend the traditions of Islam and Hinduism Sufi Muslims, who practiced a more spiritual and intangible form of Islam than traditional Muslims were among the first to try to unify the Muslim concept of Allah with the Hindu universal spirit Akbar himself attempted to create an imperial cult which included aspects of Hinduism, Islam, and Zoroastrianism While other attempts to merge Hinduism and Islam were made, the most important was the foundation of Sikhism One Hindu movement called bhakti sought union with the divine—a philosophy very similar to Islam’s Sufi sect

SIKHISM Sikhism was founded in the Punjab region of Northern India in the late

SIKHISM Sikhism was founded in the Punjab region of Northern India in the late 15 th century The Sikh’s founder, Guru Nanak, stated that “there is no Hindu, there is no Muslim, only God, ” and sought to end conflict by combining Hinduism and Islam Sikhs rejected Hinduism’s caste structure and taught on the equality of men and women They also began to adopt unique customs, covering their hair with turbans, not cutting their hair, and constantly carrying a dagger Through the 1600 s, Muslim and Hindu armies attacked Sikh communities, and the Sikhs became militarized to defend themselves

SIKH PICTURES The holiest place in Sikhism is Amritsar. You may want to remember

SIKH PICTURES The holiest place in Sikhism is Amritsar. You may want to remember that name. We’ll be bringing it up 2 more times in this class. Neither will be fun. Sikh members of the US military have permission to wear their turbans, as do Sikh police officers in New York City

RELIGIOUS INTOLERATION Many conservative Muslim scholars had an extreme dislike for Akbar’s policies, claiming

RELIGIOUS INTOLERATION Many conservative Muslim scholars had an extreme dislike for Akbar’s policies, claiming they went against proper Islam These Muslims eventually got their way under the leadership of the last important Mughal emperor: Aurangzeb greatly expanded the empire, while simultaneously restoring the jizya, forbidding music and dancing at court, banning alcohol and gambling, , destroying miltiple Hindu temples, and killing anyone who defied his orders Aurangzeb’s campaigns nearly united the Indian subcontinent—they also killed up to 4. 5 million people Now would be a good time to contemplate the fact that you’ve never heard the name of one of the 10 most murderous people ever

SUNSET Hindu resistance to Aurangzeb created an intense hatred and resistance to the Mughals

SUNSET Hindu resistance to Aurangzeb created an intense hatred and resistance to the Mughals amongst Hindu Indians After Aurangzeb died, in 1707 weaker Mughal Emperors could not keep control, and India began to fracture once more The Mughal experiment, which had begun with religious syncretism and ended in worse relations between Hindus and Muslims than ever before, was coming to its end By the end of the 1700 s, a new, much more distant empire would claim India as its own…