The Timurid Empire that began being shaped on a grand scale far from a plundering martial conquest of Hindustan into a grandiose empire spanning centuries began to take shape during the reign of Jalaluddin Akbar (1556-1605). Over the reign of the king Akbar much of the elite structure of society changed and crystallized into a structured landholding (jagir) and military (mansab) system. The Timurid Empire was agrarian in its base and every subject of the empire was absorbed into these systems to keep the wheels of the empire turning and fuel aims of expansion and consolidation of empire.
In understanding religion within the Mughal court, and in the larger framework of Mughal affairs it is important to distinguish between institutionalized religion and religiosity to understand where the (mis)understood ideas of Akbar stand in its historiographical interpretations. This essay seeks to understand and address the religious trends among the Muslims elite society during the reign of Akbar. In understanding the dynamics of religion this essay places religion as not a driving force of the empire but an element which was intertwined with political expansionist ambition of the monarch. Imperial politics were not removed from religious trends of Muslim (or non-Muslim) elite Mughal society. Freedom in religion was existent as long as subjects were within the larger Mughal imperial system of landholding and military. Emporer Akbars religious project within the court and outside it cannot be studied separate from the larger waves of expansion and consolidation of the Timurid kingdom.
This essay will argue that imperial politics played a much more significant role in the larger project to consolidation of empire than religious identities. Tren...
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...sight clearly Emporer Akbar adopted multiple strands of ritual and religion from faiths familiar to the court and were incorporated within the Akbari system of ruling. The kingdom of Hindustan was not destitute of religion, but in its geographical expanse and local cultural differences made understanding of a common religion difficult. To a monotheistic Muslim orthodoxy largely confined to a royal court, the idea of Akbars’s religious exercise of assimilation was deeply problematic. It went against the very basis of Sunni Islam, which was the faith Akbar himself was brought up to believe and the ulamah broadly functioned within. The way the heart of the court, the Emporer positioned himself as the savior and the millennial sovereign for the kingdom of Hindustan breaks all tenets of institutionalized religion for a broader Akbari spiritual assimilation exercise.
Akbar was considered the best of the Mughal rulers partly because of his tolerance of all religions. Akbar did his best to unify the Hindus and Muslims by giving both religions positions in the government. Traditionally, only Muslims would could be rulers zamindars while most of the population was Hindu. Akbar also married women of both religions, as an attempt to unify Hindus and Muslims. Akbar himself was interested in religions, inviting different people to discuss other religions with him. Akbar's greatest impact in trying to unite the Hindus and Muslims was creating the Divine Faith religion, but most people did not convert. When Akbar died, the following rulers did not support the same religious tolerance policy that he had. Aurangzeb tried to rid the empire of all Hindu. This caused revolts from both Hindus and Muslims, which created a period of instability allowing Europeans to come and take
The Ghazi thesis was used by the Ottomans as well and it is based on the idea of a “holy war” against the infidels. The Ottomans were religion based and they went along with “Jihad in the path of God” which meant that they were fighting for God. Their goal in the beginning was to strive to be a more pious Muslim community. Like mentioned before, some Mughal rulers did not put religion as their top reason to conquer. Babur was more of a one of a kind ruler, “No Ottomans, sultans or conquerors, are known to have been as openly frank as the Mughal found Babur, who in his Turki-language autobiography explains that he left Kabul for India to satisfy his mulkgirliq, his "kingdom-seizing" or imperial ambitions” (Dale 56). Babur was open with the fact that he was more “power hungry” when he conquered than a follower of the Ghazi
Monserrate, S.J., Trans. Hoylands, S.J. The Commentary of Father Monserrate, S.J. On his Journey to the Court of Akbar. London: Milford, 1922.
But, utilizing both Napoleon’s ideas on national hegemony and also Hegel’s views on the evolution and progression of consciousness clearly show that the Orient, particularly in the era after Sykes-Picot, was a region doomed to conflict and turmoil. This internecine conflict infamously linked to the Orient has now clouded our scholarly and geopolitical understanding of the area, making it our scholarly imperative to analyze and assess the modern Orient as 1) a product of Anglo-French interests and 2) as a region arbitrarily categorized into states entirely unprepared for the prospect of nation
...aith and theology. Christianity was declared the official religion of the state and was used to bind a vastly diverse population together under a common faith. The people lost their say in public matters and their place in society and the justification for it was dictated to them by the unquestionable leaders of the church and the empire.
Rahman, Fazlur. Islam & Modernity: Transformation of an Intellectual Tradition. Chicago: U of Chicago, 1982. Print.
Özcan, Azmi. "Empire, Ottoman." Encyclopedia of Western Colonialism since 1450. Ed. Thomas Benjamin. Vol. 1. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2007. 407-416. World History in Context. Web. 30 Apr. 2014.
Rippin A. 1990, Muslims, Their Religious Beliefs and Practices Volume 1: The Formative Period, Routledge, London and New York.
Throughout his life, the Prophet Muhammad proved to be exceptionally adept at uniting diverse groups, negotiating a series of alliances and loyalty arrangements that spanned religious, tribal, ethnic, and familial lines (Berggren 2009). Among other things, this ability enabled Muhammad to forge a shared identity and found a nascent Islamic state from a diverse and even heterogeneous community (Rahman 1982; Ernst 2003, pp. 87-93). This diversity proved to be both a source of strength and conflict for Islam, and following the death of Muhammad early Islamic communities engaged in extensive debates not only about the nature of his teachings or how to carry his legacy forward, but also about the terms that should be used to define his authority. Although this debate produced a colorful array of movements within the tapestry of early Islamic civilization, this essay offers a critical examination of two particularly distinct perspectives on the nature of prophetic authority: namely, those articulated
The Islamic tradition, as reflected in Naguib Mahfouz’s Zaabalawi, has over the course of history had an incredible impact on Arab culture. In Mahfouz’s time, Islamic practices combined with their political relevance proved a source of both great power and woe in Middle Eastern countries. As alluded to in Zaabalawi, Mahfouz asserts the fact that not all Muslims attain religious fulfillment through this common tradition, and other methods outside the scope of Islam may be necessary in true spiritual understanding.
The Holy Roman Empire was an empire in central Europe consisting of many territories and ethnicities. Once very powerful, the empire’s authority slowly decreased over centuries and by the Middle Ages the emperor was little more than a figurehead, allowing princes to govern smaller sections of the empire. Though the various ruling princes owed loyalty to the emperor, they were also granted a degree of independence and privileges. The emperor, an elected monarch, needed the allegiance of the princes and other aristocracy to support him, in turn giving them power or money. This tenuous allegiance between powers was greatly strained in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as religious reform dominated Europe and religious tensions divided the empire. Beginning in the sixteenth century, the empire’s power significantly declined because of the Protestant Reformation. The Reformation split the empire’s states into Protestant and Catholic divisions, straining the peace between territories. Though the relationship between the princes and the emperor had already been tenuous, the princes, seeing the religious divisions, sensed weakness in the empire and further challenged imperial authority. The Holy Roman emperors battled Protestant princes in Germany into the seventeenth century, where tensions were still high from the Reformation and wars of religion – initially contained to the German territories – began to include other territories and states. As more European states joined the conflict, the Holy Roman Empire continued to deteriorate. From the early sixteenth to the mid seventeenth century, the Holy Roman Empire’s power declined greatly because of its internal religious rifts, conflicts (in particular the Thirty Years War, whic...
Streusand, Douglas E. Islamic Gunpowder Empires Ottomans, Safavids, and Mughals. Boulder, Colo: Westveiw Press, 2011.
The Ottoman Empire had humble roots. Beginning as an Ottoman state, it progressively rose to power to become an empire. As a state, the Ottoman state started as a small state in current-day western Turkey. Based on Muslim beliefs and rule, the Ottoman State began to dissolve surrounding Muslim states, which were absorbed into the future empire. This move thereby ended all the other Turkish dynasties. The Ottoman Empire was marked as one of the largest, longest lasting empires. The Ottoman Empire lasted from the late 13th century to 1923. Throughout it’s time, the Ottoman Empire was remarked as highly successful and progressive. But like all empires, the Ottoman Empire had to make its end. The Ottoman Empire, like all dynasties, went through its rise, peak, and falling periods. This essay assesses each period in the Ottoman Empire's history.
On the board on Monday morning, there were numbers one through five and they each had a religion written next to them. 1 was Hinduism, 2 was Christianity, 3 was Judaism, 4 was Buddhism, and I was lucky enough to get 5: Islam. Oh, I know so much about Islam culture and their religion, are you kidding? I don’t even know where Islam is. I’m just kidding, it’s not a country. There are many differences between Islam and the United states like our religion, clothes, and food, and becoming a Christian or a Muslim, but Islam is the second largest religion in the world, so it’s important to a lot of people. The followers of Islam are called Muslims. Becoming a Muslim is not an easy process. You must do a long list of tasks. After you become a Muslim you must do everything in your power to try to have a good Muslim lifestyle.
In this book , Esposito provides a succinct, up-to-date survey of the Islamic experience, an introduction to the faith, belief, and practice of Islam from its origins to its contemporary resurgence. He traces the emergence and development of this dynamic faith and its impact on world history and politics. He discusses the formation of Islamic belief and practice (law, theology, philosophy, and mysticism), chronicling the struggle of Muslims to define and adhere to their Islamic way of life. Equally important is the essential information Esposito provides on the contemporary world of Islam, from Muslim responses to the challenges of colonialism and modernization to the reassertion of Islam in politics and society.