Daniel Chen, Nov.21

Compare & Contrast - Ottomans and Safavids
During the Renaissance, many Asian empires also rose, becoming powerful threats to one another. An empire that can be said as one of the most powerful empire during the time is the Islamic-Based Ottoman Empire. Another Muslim empire that also built an empire around the same time is the Safavid Empire. Although both empires are
Islamic-based empires, they still have many differences among them. Their section of religion, social structure, as well as economy has many similarities, as well as differences between the two empires.
First of all, religiously the Ottomans and Safavids follow the same religion, though through different section of it. The Ottomans are Sunni Muslims, where they were more open minded, compared to the Safavid Shiite (Shia) Muslims. Ottoman
Empire’s location was close to Constantinople, so there were lots of Christians around.
As their empire slowly expanded, Christians slowly emerged into their empire. The
Ottomans soon captured young Christian boys and converted them into Islam, making them to fight for the Ottoman Empire. These young Christians who became Muslims and were trained to fight as soldiers are called the Janissaries. Also, the Ottoman’s government started their military with the goal of conquering more places, protecting themselves from nearby threats such as people from Constantinople. After the
Ottomans took over Constantinople and some other European countries, the empire is now full with Christians. For the Christians and Jews within their empire, the Ottomans are quite kind to them, tolerating their religion. Following the words of Qur’an, Christians and Jews are considered people of the book, so there’s nothing wrong with their religion
(since Islam was based on these two religions anyways). This is also one important

Daniel Chen, Nov.21 aspect that Sunni Muslims follow. The practice of rituals or traditions of other religions is allowed as long as the people who are not Muslim pay an extra tax to the government.
Once the tax was paid, they’ll then have the right to practice whatever they want. By this, it can be shown that the Ottomans are more acceptable towards another culture.
On the other hand, the Safavids are Shiite (Shia) Muslims, and they are much more centralized within themselves. The government controls the religion, and do not tolerate any other kind of religion within their empire, not even Sunni Muslim. Shia Muslims believe that they are the only right religion, that’s also what made the empire more centralized within their own “good and right” people. Ones who aren’t Shiite (Shia)
Muslim will be forced to convert or else they’ll be punished.

They also started their

military based on idea where their army’s purpose is to try and wage jihad wars to and convert unbelievers to Shiite Muslims. They are much more harsh comparing to the
Ottomans, and are less opened towards another culture, so they didn’t get to be as strong as the Ottomans, getting gunpowder and more soldiers while conquering other places during this time. And because of their little contact with other empires, their army can’t withstand the Ottomans’ gunpowder during the Battle of Chaldiran. The Safavids aren’t as strong as the Ottomans until Abbas became the shah. When Abbas was in control, he copied lots of things from Ottomans as a model, bringing a lot more similarities into the empire compare to the Ottomans. They captured men from Russia to fight for them, just like the Ottoman’s Janissaries, as well as taking the gunpowder technology. Once the Safavids started taking in new things, they claim back the Uzbeks and gained back lands they lost to the Ottomans. The greatest difference between the

Daniel Chen, Nov.21 two governments was caused by the different section of Islam they follow, effecting their degree on openness.
Secondly, the social structure within the two empires appeared to be a system of separation while having different views among each other. By being the leader of the empire, the Ottoman ruler Orhan I took the title “sultan” for himself, which means “ruler” in Arabic. The Safavids also have a special title for their leader. The Safavid leader
Esma’il used the Persian title “shah”, meaning “king”. Both empires have a special title of their rulers, and the titles were being passed down to later rulers of the empire. For other people in the empire except the ruler, there was a separation of people for both
Ottoman and Safavid Empire. In Safavid Empire, there was the social ranking system.
After the shah (the most powerful one) and royal classes was followed by nobilities, rich merchants, artisans, then peasants. Within these classes, women were viewed as lower to men, where they do not have equal power or right compare to men. On the other hand, the sultan for Ottomans were also the most powerful one in the empire, followed by Men of Pen, Men of Sword, Men of Negotiation, and Men of Husbandry. People with different jobs will be separated into different classes, meaning that the job a person has decides it’s power in the society. Different to the Safavids where your rank was based on birth, the Ottomans got their’s by job (except the sultan, born to be the ruler). Men of
Pen are the people who were well educated, having jobs such as being lawyers, scientists, doctors, or judges. This class had the most power compare to the other four, since they are usually paid more and they owned more personal lands. Men of the
Sword is just like it’s name, for people who uses their skills in warfare equipments being soldiers, fighting in the military to protect the empire. Next is the Men of Negotiation,

Daniel Chen, Nov.21 where most people in this class were merchants, tax collectors, or artisans. Although they are in the third level and don’t earn as much as the previous classes, they are still respected (won’t be looked down upon). Lastly, the Men of Husbandry are farmers and herders growing crops for themselves and the rest of the empire. Different from the
Safavid Empire, the Ottomans much more respected, even though they are in the lower class that earns less. Women were also more respected, that women could also hold power. Women who married to the ruling class men often had considerable power as well, such as Roxelana - the harem girl who married to Suleiman I. Within the empire, the Christians and Jews were also not look down upon, and were within the social structure of the empire. Another important element within an empire’s social structure was it’s slaves. In Ottoman Empire, the slaves weren’t being treated harshly, and their occupations were based on their own interests and abilities (not just manual labor all the time). Some slaves even rose into becoming government officials. In Safavid Empire, when they started using slaves during Abbas’ rule, slaves were mostly working in the military and administration. Slaves didn’t have as much choices or any decision on their own compare to the Ottoman Empire, they are all sent into the military. Overall, the difference between the social structure of the two empires is that Ottoman Empire was much kinder towards their people, not having that much of discrimination within themselves, while not all of the Safavids were as respected. Though both empires had a system separating the people into parts.
Lastly, the two empires were similar by trade, though different towards how they spent their wealth through the empire. Both empires used the Silk Road to trade, getting valuable goods from both Europe and China. Though one thing that made the Safavid

Daniel Chen, Nov.21
Empire more superior in its economy was its location specifically for trading. Safavid
Empire’s location was directly on the Silk Road, so basically all traders will go through it.
During Shah Abbas’ rule, he brought the empire a lot wealthier and opened than before, letting the empire always being “in trade”, and that’s why the empire’s economy grew so fast once he took power. The Safavids also traded directly with the Europeans during his rule, trading directly with England and the Netherlands. The main product that the
Safavids produces to trade was Persian rugs, where they were highly desired for westerners. Other main exports of Safavid Empire were goat hair, pearls, and Indian spices. And their main imports were textiles, some other spices, metals, coffee, and sugar. The Safavids spent money on promoting their religion of Shiite Islam, where they built many mosques and madrasas through their empire. On the other hand, although the Ottoman Empire also used the Silk Road, due to their location, they traded with
China less than they traded with Europe, having their economy heavily based on
Europe (since they were further away). Some of their exports included grain, cotton, hemp, indigo, and opium. Also, they focus on spending money more on their military, which made their works in architecture less competitive than the Safavid Empire. As both empires have the system of taxation, the people of the Ottoman Empire will have to pay about ten to twenty percent of what they’ve earned as tax, while the Non-Muslims will have to pay an extra “religion tax” to practice their religion freely (as stated in the first paragraph). For the Safavids, the government also collects about ten to twenty percent of earnings as tax, including agricultural crops and livestocks. Another kind of tax that the people need to pay as well was the poll tax. Although the people needed to pay their tax, they also need to do other things to pay as tax, such as riding animals for

Daniel Chen, Nov.21 the army and provide shelters for traveling soldiers and officials. A minor similarity between the two empires is that both empires have a monetary system, using coins made out of valuable metal - gold and silver as their currency (also other metals too).
Ottoman Empire declined because of its economy, spending more money on imports than what they are earning from exporting, unable to pay interest on loans from other countries. While the Ottoman Empire’s economy is the main element that brought the
Ottomans toward decline, the economy (trades) was what brought the Safavids to their peak (they declined by later shahs that are unable to rule continue Abbas’ great works).
The economy of both empires brought them wealth, though how they managed to spend them caused opposite effects on them.
Overall, Ottoman Empire and Safavid Empire both have many similarities since they are closer to each other, as well as both practicing Islam. By practicing different branch of the religion, it changed the two empires by creating one being more open
(Ottoman Empire) while the other one was a lot more centralized (Safavid Empire).
Although the two have different degree of openness, they still created two very much similar social structure within their empire. The economy of the Ottoman Empire ended up destroying itself due to their poor management on their money, though building an even greater empire for the Safavids. It was the religion that brought the two Muslim empires similarities at the beginning, but also what created many differences at the end.

Citations:

• Mulligan, Sammy. "Ottoman and Safavid Empire." Prezi.com. 7 Nov. 2012. Web. 25
Nov. 2015.

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