Section 1: The Ottoman Empire
Vocabulary:
Janissary: A soldier in the elite guard of the Ottoman Turks.
Pasha: An official that was appointed by the central government to collect taxes, maintain law and order, and was directly responsible to the sultan's court.
Gunpowder Empire: An empire created by conquerors who unified the region that they conquered through their mastery of firearms.
Sultan: The head of military and politics under the Seljuk Turks and the Ottomans.
Harem: A sacred place of an Ottoman sultan, where he and his wife live.
Grand vizier: A chief minister of an Ottoman sultan who led meetings of the imperial council.
Ulema: Religious advisers to the Ottoman sultan who administered the legal system and schools for educating Muslims.
People:
Mehmet II: Mehmed the conqueror was sultan of the Ottoman empire.
Sultan Selim I: was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1512-1520.
Sinan: Was the greatest of all Ottoman architect in the mid-sixteenth century.
Section 2: The Rule of the Safavids
Vocabulary:
Shah: A king in Persia and Iran.
Orthodoxy: A traditional belief especially in religion.
Anarchy: Political disorder; lawlessness
People:
Shah Ismail: He founded the Safavid dynasty. He was the descendant of Safi al-Din.
Shah Abbas: Shah Abbas the Great was Shah of Iran, and generally considered the greatest ruler of the Safavid dynasty
Riza-I-Abbasi: He was the leading Persian miniaturist of the Isfahan School during the later Safavid period.
Section 3: The Grandeur of the Moguls
Vocabulary:
Zamindar: A local official in Mogul India who received a plot of farmland for temporary use in return for taking taxes for the central government.
Suttee: The Hindu custom of cremating a widow on her husband's funeral pyre.
People:
Babur: He was a conqueror from Central Asia who, following a series of setbacks, finally succeeded in laying the basis for the Mughal dynasty in the Indian Subcontinent and became the first Mughal emperor.
Akbar: He was a Mughal emperor from 1556 all the way to his death in 1605.
Shah Jahan: Shah Jahan also known as Shah Jahan I was the fifth Mughal Emperor of India.
Aurangzeb: Aurangzeb was the sixth Mughal Emperor and ruled over most of the Indian subcontinent.