Essay Compare And Contrast Islamic Empires

Muslim empires in the Middle East governed throughout all the known land and were very powerful. Two such empires are the Safavids and the Ottoman. While those two Muslim empires and had similar aspects, they also had very different interpretations of those aspects that made them different from one another. These two distinct societies both differed and resembled one another.

The Safavids and the Ottoman had many things in common. They were both dominant Muslim empires in the Middle East. Under great leaders, Persian art flourished. When Abbas the Great was in power, Isfahan was not only the capital of the Safavid but also center for Persian culture. In the palace, Shah Abbas invited artisans, poets, and philosophers. There were brilliantly designed clothing and carpets as well as magnificent porcelain. Under the

The Safavids were located in Persia and had a smaller territory but the Ottoman were located Greece, Asia Minor, and North Africa and had a larger territory. The titles for the kings of Safavids and the Ottoman were different, calling the Safavid kings “Shah” and the Ottoman kings “Sultan”. The social order in the Safavids’ empire were the Shah, the bureaucrats, the landowning classes, and the common people whereas, the social order in the Ottoman empire were the “men of the pen”, “men of the sword”, men of negotiation”, and “men of husbandry”. As The West became a more prominent role in the world, the Safavids became more conservative, making the women give up their social lives, conform to a life of seclusion, making them wear a veil, and the whole empire became less attached to the rest of the world. But, the Ottoman began to westernize, smoking tobacco, drinking coffee, and changing their furniture and