o Overview
-> Safavid military centralization
-> Ottoman reach and caliphal claims
-> Gunpowder and limits on conquest
o Safavid military centralization
-> Abbas I (1588-1629) expanded Safavid royal forces.
-> Qizilbash chiefs held tribal troops, offices, and local power.
-> His ghulams included enslaved Caucasian converts to Islam.
-> Royal pay and offices made ghulams dependent on the shah.
-> They checked tribal chiefs; Qizilbash cavalry remained in use.
-> Abbas redirected more taxes and silk profits to royal forces.
-> Isfahan, Abbas's capital, displayed power through mosques.
o Ottoman reach and caliphal claims
-> Ottomans conquered Mamluk Egypt in North Africa in 1517.
-> Rule spread through much of North Africa, but not Morocco.
-> Sultans claimed to be caliphs: heads of the Muslim community.
-> Protecting Mecca and Medina strengthened religious prestige.
-> Caliphal claims were contested, not accepted by all Muslims.
o Gunpowder and limits on conquest
-> Morocco invaded Songhai in 1591 for trade and revenue.
-> At Tondibi, Moroccan firearms helped defeat Songhai forces.
-> Internal succession disputes also weakened Songhai.
-> At Chaldiran (1514), Ottomans defeated Ismail I's army.
-> Supply problems soon forced their withdrawal from Tabriz.
o Overview
-> Revenue and dependent service
-> Religious communities and taxation
o Revenue and dependent service
-> Tax farmers prepaid rulers for rights to collect state taxes.
-> Mughal jagirs assigned tax income, not land ownership.
-> Emperors reassigned many jagirs, limiting nobles' local power.
-> Inca mit'a required rotating labor for state projects.
-> Ming silver taxes pushed peasants to sell crops for money.
-> French intendants enforced royal policy in the provinces.
-> Appointed officials reduced dependence on hereditary nobles.
-> Boyars, Russian nobles, served tsars for control over serfs.
-> Serfs were peasants bound to estates, owing labor or dues.
-> Tokugawa samurai, paid warriors, often became officials.
o Religious communities and taxation
-> Millet practices varied among Ottoman religious communities.
-> Non-Muslim leaders oversaw worship, marriage, and schools.
-> Delegation reduced direct Ottoman administrative burdens.
-> Community authority remained subject to Ottoman rule.
-> Communities could also use imperial Islamic courts.
-> Jizya was a poll tax on eligible adult non-Muslim men.
-> Women and children were exempt; rates could vary by means.
-> Dhimmi protection allowed worship, not legal equality.
-> Jizya did not itself grant communal self-government.