This article is about the Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal empires. For the novel, see Gunpowder Empire
Ottoman Armed Soldiers The gunpowder empires, or Islamic gunpowder empires, is a collective term referring to three persianized Muslim empires : the Ottoman Empire, Safavid Iran and the Mughal Empire, in the period they flourished from the 16th to the eighteenth century. These three empires were among the strongest and most stable economies of the early modern period, leading to commercial expansion, and greater condescension of culture, while their political and legal institutions were consolidated with an increasing degree of centralization. The empires underwent a significant increase in per head income and population, and a sustain pace of technical invention. They stretched from Central Europe and North Africa in the west to Bengal and Arakan in the east.
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huge amounts of district were conquered by the Islamic gunpowder empires with the use and development of the newly invented firearms, specially cannon and belittled arms, in the course of imperial expansion. Like in Europe, the introduction of gunpowder weapons prompted changes such as the emanation of centralized monarchal states. According to G. S. Hodgson, in the gunpowder empires these changes went well beyond military arrangement. The Mughals, based in the amerind subcontinent, inherited in region the Timurid Renaissance, [ 3 ] and are recognised for their lavish architecture and for having heralded in Bengal an era of what some report as proto-industrialization. [ 4 ] The Safavids created an efficient and modern state administration for Iran and sponsored major developments in the fine arts. The sultans of the Constantinople -based Ottoman caliphate, besides known as the Kaysar-i Rûm, were the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, and therefore heads of the Islamic world. Their powers, wealth, architecture, and respective contributions significantly influenced the course of asian and european history .
The Hodgson-McNeill concept [edit ]
The phrase was coined by Marshall G.S. Hodgson and his colleague William H. McNeill at the University of Chicago. Hodgson used the idiom in the title of Book 5 ( “ The second flowering : The Empires of Gunpowder Times ” ) of his highly influential three-volume work, The Venture of Islam ( 1974 ). Hodgson saw gunpowder weapons as the key to the “ military patronize states of the Later Middle Period ” which replaced the mentally ill, geographically limited confederations of Turkic clans that prevailed in post-Mongol times. Hodgson defined a “ military patronage department of state ” as one having three characteristics :
first, a legitimization of independent dynastic jurisprudence ; second, the invention of the whole state as a individual military force ; third, the undertake to explain all economic and senior high school cultural resources as appanages of the head military families .
such states grew “ out of Mongol notions of enormousness, ” but “ [ mho ] uch notions could fully mature and create static bureaucratic empires only after gunpowder weapons and their specialize engineering attained a basal space in military life. ” McNeill argued that whenever such states “ were able to monopolize the new artillery, central authorities were able to unite larger territories into new, or newly consolidated, empires. ” monopolization was winder. Although Europe pioneered the development of new artillery in the fifteenth hundred, no state monopolized it. Gun-casting know-how had been concentrated in the low Countries near the mouths of the Scheldt and Rhine rivers. France and the Habsburgs divided those territories among themselves, resulting in an arms repulsion. By contrast, such monopolies allowed states to create militarize empires in western Asia, Russia, and India, and “ in a well modified fashion ” in China, Korea, and Japan .
holocene views on the concept [edit ]
More recently, the Hodgson-McNeill Gunpowder Empire guess has been called into disadvantage as a neither “ adequate [ n ] or accurate ” explanation, although the term remains in use. Reasons early than ( or in addition to ) military technology have been offered for the closely coincident rise of three centralize military empires in contiguous areas dominated by decentralized Turkic tribe. One explanation, called “ Confessionalization ” by historians of fifteenth century Europe, invokes interrogation of how the relation of church and state “ mediated through confessional statements and church ordinances ” lead to the origins of absolutist polities. Douglas Streusand uses the Safavids as an example :
The Safavids from the beginning imposed a new religious identity on their general population ; they did not seek to develop a national or linguistic identity, but their policy had that effect .
One problem of the Hodgson-McNeill hypothesis is that the acquisition of firearms does not seem to have preceded the initial learning of territory constituting the imperial critical mass of any of the three early modern Islamic empires, except in the case of the Mughal empire. furthermore, it seems that the commitment to military autocratic rule pre-dated the acquisition of gunpowder weapons in all three cases. Nor does it seem to be the case that the acquisition of gunpowder weapons and their integration into the military was influenced by which assortment of Islam the finical empire promoted. Whether or not gunpowder was inherently linked to the universe of any of these three empires, it can not be questioned that each of the three acquired weapon and firearms early on in their history and made such weapons an integral part of their military tactics. Michael Axworthy has pointed out that the label is misleading in the case of the Safavids, as unlike contemporary european armies, the Safavid military by and large used swords, lances, and bows well into the mid-18th century. It was not until the principle of Nader Shah ‘s Afsharid dynasty that the majority of Iran ‘s troops would be equipped with firearms for the first meter. [ 12 ]
Gunpowder empires of the Muslim world [edit ]
Ottoman Empire [edit ]
The beginning of the three empires to acquire gunpowder weapons was the Ottoman Empire. By the fourteenth hundred, the Ottomans had adopted gunpowder artillery. [ 13 ] The borrowing of the gunpowder weapons by the Ottomans was so rapid that they “ preceded both their european and Middle Eastern adversaries in establishing centralize and permanent wave troops specialized in the fabricate and manage of firearms. ” But it was their consumption of artillery that shocked their adversaries and impelled the early two Islamic empires to accelerate their weapons programs. The Ottomans had artillery at least by the reign of Bayezid I and used them in the sieges of Constantinople in 1399 and 1402. They ultimately proved their deserving as siege engines in the successful siege of Salonica in 1430. The Ottomans employed Middle-Eastern [ 16 ] ampere well as european foundries to cast their cannons, and by the siege of Constantinople in 1453, they had large enough cannons to batter the walls of the city, to the surprise of the defenders. The Ottoman military ‘s regularized function of firearms proceeded ahead of the pace of their european counterparts. The Janissaries had been an infantry bodyguard using bows and arrows. During the rule of Sultan Mehmed II they were drilled with firearms and became “ possibly the first standing infantry force out equipped with firearms in the worldly concern. ” The Janissaries are therefore considered the first modern standing armies. [ 19 ] [ 20 ] The combination of artillery and Janissary firepower proved critical at Varna in 1444 against a military unit of Crusaders, Başkent in 1473 against the Aq Qoyunlu, and Mohács in 1526 against Hungary. But the battle which convinced the Safavids and the Mughals of the efficacy of gunpowder was Chaldiran. The matchlock arquebus began to be used by the Janissary corps by the 1440s. [ 22 ] The musket belated appeared in the Ottoman Empire by 1465. [ 23 ] Damascus sword was later used in the production of firearms such as the musket from the sixteenth century. [ 24 ] At the Battle of Mohács in 1526, the Janissaries equipped with 2000 tüfenks ( normally translated as musket ) “ formed nine consecutive rows and they fired their weapons row by row, ” in a “ kneel or standing placement without the want for extra support or rest. ” [ 25 ] The Chinese subsequently adopted the Ottoman kneeling put for firing. In 1598, taiwanese writer Zhao Shizhen described turkish muskets as being superscript to european muskets. [ 27 ] The taiwanese Wu Pei Chih ( 1621 ) belated described turkish muskets that used a rack-and-pinion mechanism, which was not known to have been used in any european or chinese firearms at the prison term. The Dardanelles Gun was designed and cast in bronze in 1464 by Munir Ali. The Dardanelles Gun was calm present for duty more than 340 years late in 1807, when a Royal Navy power appeared and commenced the Dardanelles Operation. turkish forces loaded the ancient relics with propellant and projectiles, then fired them at the british ships. The british squadron suffered 28 casualties from this barrage. [ 29 ]
irani Musketeer in time of Abbas I by Habib-Allah Mashadi after Falsafi ( Berlin Museum of Islamic Art ). At Chaldiran, the Ottomans met the Safavids in conflict for the first time. Sultan Selim I moved east with his field artillery in 1514 to confront what he perceived as a Shia threat instigated by Shah Ismail in favor of Selim ‘s rivals. Ismail staked his reputation as a divinely-favored rule on an open cavalry commit against a fixed Ottoman stead. The Ottomans deployed their cannons between the carts that carried them, which besides provided brood for the arm Janissaries. The consequence of the charge was devastating losses to the Safavid cavalry. The get the better of was so thorough that the Ottoman forces were able to move on and briefly occupy the Safavid capital, Tabriz. merely the specify campaign radius of the Ottoman army prevented it from holding the city and ending the Safavid rule .
Safavid Empire [edit ]
Although the Chaldiran get the better of brought an end to Ismail ‘s territorial expansion program, the shah however took immediate steps to protect against the real threat from the Ottoman sultanate by arming his troops with gunpowder weapons. Within two years of Chaldiran, Ismail had a corporation of musketeers ( tofangchi ) numbering 8,000, and by 1521, possibly 20,000. After Abbas the Great reformed the army ( around 1598 ), the Safavid forces had an artillery corporation of 500 cannons american samoa well as 12,000 musketeers.
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The Safavids first put their gunpowder arms to good consumption against the Uzbeks, who had invaded easterly Persia during the civil war that followed the end of Ismail I. The young shah Tahmasp I headed an army to relieve Herat and encountered the Uzbeks on 24 September 1528 at Jam, where the Safavids decisively beat the Uzbeks. The shah ‘s army deployed cannons ( swivel guns on wagons ) in the kernel protected by wagons with cavalry on both flanks. Mughal emperor butterfly Babur described the formation at Jam as “ in the anatolian fashion. ” The several thousand gun-bearing infantry besides massed in the centre as did the Janissaries of the Ottoman army. Although the Uzbek cavalry engaged and turned the Safavid army on both flanks, the Safavid center held ( because not directly engaged by the Uzbeks ). Rallying under Tahmasp ‘s personal leadership, the infantry of the center engaged and scattered the Uzbek center and secured the battlefield .
Mughal Empire [edit ]
By the fourth dimension he was invited by the Lodi governor of Lahore Daulat Khan to support his rebellion against Lodi Sultan Ibrahim Khan, Babur was conversant with gunpowder firearms and field artillery and a method acting for deploying them. Babur had employed Ottoman adept Ustad Ali Quli, who showed Babur the standard Ottoman formation—artillery and firearm-equipped infantry protected by wagons in the center, and mounted archers on both wings. Babur used this formation at the First Battle of Panipat in 1526, where the Afghan and Rajput forces loyal to the Delhi sultanate, though superior in numbers but without the gunpowder weapons, were defeated. The decisive victory of the Timurid forces is one reason opponents rarely met Mughal princes in pitch conflict over the course of the conglomerate ‘s history. The reign of Akbar The Great, Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb, has been described as a major stature of indian history. The Mughal Empire became a herculean geopolitical entity with at times, 16.1 % of the world population. [ 36 ] The Mughals inherited elements of Timurid culture and art, as did the Ottomans and Safavids. [ 3 ]
Mughal musketeer
Gunpowder empires of East Asia [edit ]
The three Islamic gunpowder empires are known for their promptly gained achiever in dominating the struggle fields using their newly acquired firearms and techniques. East asian powers and their military success are normally overlooked in this subject due to the achiever of not only the Islamic empires, but besides european empires. The achiever and invention of gunpowder fight in East Asia, however, are worth mentioning in the lapp context as that of the Islamic gunpowder empires for their military advancements .
China [edit ]
There were versatile ways that belittled firearms came to China. During the fortunate long time of East asian Piracy between the 1540s and 1560s, it was most likely that through their battles and early encounters with these pirates, the Ming forces inescapably got hold of the weapons and copied them [ citation needed ]. It was besides probable that a powerful mariner Wang Zhi, who controlled thousands of armed men finally surrendered to the Ming in 1558 and they replicated his weapons. This detail explanation on arquebus engineering was the first to spark the sake of Ming officials for the Chinese to broaden their function of these weapons. [ 37 ] turkish arquebuses may have reached China before portuguese ones. In Zhao Shizhen ‘s script of 1598, the Shenqipu, there were illustrations of Ottoman Turkish musketmen with detail illustrations of their muskets, aboard european musketeers with detailed illustrations of their muskets. There was besides exemplification and description of how the Chinese had adopted the Ottoman kneeling position in firing. Zhao Shizhen described the turkish muskets as being lake superior to the european muskets. The Wu Pei Chih ( 1621 ) later described turkish muskets that used a rack-and-pinion mechanism, which was not known to have been used in any european or chinese firearms at the time. The Chinese intensively practiced tactical strategies based on firearm use which resulted in military success. Qi Jiguang, a reverence Ming military drawing card, drilled his soldiers to extremes so that their performance in conflict would be successful. In addition, Qi Jiguang besides used innovative conflict techniques like the volley, counter march, dividing into teams, and even encouraged having a compromising formation to adapt to the battle field. [ 37 ] During the Sino-Dutch War beginning in 1661, Ming commander Zheng Chenggong used exchangeable tactics to Qi Jiguang efficaciously in conflict. While the dutch may have had superior weapons, the Chinese were able to defeat dutch forces through their rigid adhesiveness to discipline and their ability to stay in formation. ultimately, it was their technique and aim that defeated the dutch weapons. [ 37 ]
A soldier from the Qianlong earned run average, holding an arquebus. In 1631, “ heavy Troops ” that could build and operate European-style cannon, The import cannons in the Qing Dynasty had a high gear reputation such as ‘ Great General in Red ‘. [ 42 ] The Manchu elect did not concern themselves directly with guns and their production, preferring alternatively to delegate the undertaking to Han-Chinese craftsmen, who produced for the Qing a similar complex metallic element cannon known as the “ Shenwei grand general. ” [ 44 ] Cannons and muskets are besides wide used in wars known as ‘ Ten Great Campaigns ‘. [ 45 ] [ 46 ] however, after the qing gained hegemony over East Asia in the mid-18th century, the exercise of casting composite alloy cannons fell into neglect until the dynasty faced external threats once again in the Opium War of 1840, at which point unrifled cannons were already starting to become disused as a resultant role of plunder barrels. [ 44 ]
Japan [edit ]
The Japanese adopted the use of the Portuguese arquebus in the in-between of the sixteenth century. multiple accounts have said that Portuguese men working for chinese pirates ended up in Japan by luck and impressed the local ruler with the weapons. soon after, the japanese started mass-producing the portuguese expressive style weapon for themselves. In other accounts, this firearm technology may have trickled in to Japan american samoa early as 1540 from the constant in and out flow of japanese mercenaries who could have picked up firearms in their travels. Soon, japanese soldiers carrying firearms would greatly outnumber those with early weapons. [ 37 ] Tonio Andrade cited that the Military Revolution Model that gave the Europeans so much military achiever included the use of victor drilling techniques. The drill technique he was speaking of was the musketeer volley technique. [ 37 ] The volley proficiency was said to have been invented by japanese Warlord Oda Nobunaga. He used the lapp technique that japanese archers used, but the effect that the technique had to allow soldiers to reload at the same clock others could fire was devastating to their enemies. [ 47 ]
Korea [edit ]
Koreans had been using chinese and self made firearms deoxyadenosine monophosphate early as the late fourteenth hundred. They were besides quite ace and innovative with their strategies on the battle field. In fact, there were accounts of Koreans using a type of volley proficiency in 1447. [ 37 ] But a war between the Japanese against the Koreans and the Ming begin in 1592 and ending in 1598 would change the Korean ‘s perspective on war. While it was a annihilating defeat to the Koreans, this war forced the Koreans to realize that they needed to adopt the consumption of the musket equally well as japanese and chinese methods. The Koreans cursorily issued the musket as the basis of their military tactic, and their musketeers became more than 50 percentage of the military by 1594. They trained using manuals based on Qi Jiguang ‘s techniques such as the fusillade, while incorporating their own methods besides. These events marked the begin of a korean military rotation in which the Koreans could combat their enemies using modern equipment and methods of war. [ 48 ] There were many instances where the korean military used their newly techniques effectively. In 1619, the Koreans aided the Ming against the Manchus, a great military force. While the Koreans and Ming lost, a korean unit did exhibit their techniques successful in battle. then, in 1627 and 1636, the Koreans faced the Manchus entirely, again showing their competence in battle by using their musket tactics. Again, they lost in conflict to the Manchus in both battles. [ 37 ] In 1654 and 1658, the Koreans aided the Qing in battle against the Russians for control over country in Manchuria. In these instances, the Koreans showed their superior tactics and were the reason for the Russians ‘ defeat. [ 48 ]
Vietnam [edit ]
relatively fiddling attention has been made to the habit and invention of gunpowder in the expansion of Vietnam. There is, in fact, a far-flung impression that the Vietnamese introduced firearms to China, although other scholars disagree. [ 49 ] Regardless, the use of gunpowder technology has left an undeniable distinguish in vietnamese history, allowing the “ southbound demonstrate “ and significant expansion of vietnamese territory .
gunpowder in Europe [edit ]
Europeans are said to have pushed gunpowder technology to its limits, improving the recipe that existed and devising new uses of the kernel after it was introduced to Europe via the Silk Road in the thirteenth century. [ 50 ] [ 51 ] Europeans were improving gunpowder a hundred after the beginning gun was invented in China. [ 52 ]
Roger Bacon, a celebrated early on european alchemist ( 1214 – 1292 ), set forth the marvels of the world ; key among them was the ingredients of gunpowder. With these ingredients available, european scientists, inventors and alchemists went on to create corned gunpowder, which had a different refinement serve. It entailed adding a wet means to the gunpowder and then drying it as a mix. With this improved gunpowder engineering, german friar Berthold Schwarz invented the first european cannon in 1353. [ 53 ] Europeans besides improved the gunpowder firearms which had been made in China and the Middle East, creating stronger and more durable rifles using progress european metalworking techniques. [ 54 ] They learned how to calculate the sum of force exerted by the gas contained in a gunman ‘s chamber, which led to guns with the power to fire greater distances. [ 54 ] Improved gunpowder from Europe late, in 1520, reached China on a portuguese ship, [ 55 ] though turkish arquebuses may have reached China before portuguese ones. The Ottomans and Portuguese introduced the carom, improved rifles and other advancements to China, hundreds of years after gunpowder ‘s original invention in China, bringing gunpowder ‘s travel through Asia full set .
