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4 - Expanding the East: Post-Timurid World Orders

The Ottomans, the Safavids and the Mughals (Fifteenth–Sixteenth Centuries)

from Part I - Cihannüma

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2022

Ayşe Zarakol
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
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Summary

This chapter shows that the sixteenth century was not dominated by European actors but rather by three post-Timurid empires in west Asia, that expanded the reach of the Chinggisid sovereign norm and world ordering into new territories. These empires were the Ottoman, the Mughals and the Safavid, and together they ruled over a third of the world's population and controlled much of the world's resources. They also developed their own version of the Chinggisid sovereignty model, inflected by Timurid influences and varying according to local cultural repertoires. This was the notion of 'millennial sovereignty' as captured by the concept of sahibkıran, essential a ruler marked by conjunction astrology for great distinction. Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal rulers competed with each other (and Charles V) for the title of sahibkıran. Their world order was connected through intellectual network of astrologers and other occult scientists who legitimised universal empire projects. This chapters develops a comparative narrative of these three empires and their rulers' universal empire dreams in the sixteenth century.

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Chapter
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Before the West
The Rise and Fall of Eastern World Orders
, pp. 124 - 172
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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