Chapter 21: Muslim Empires- the Ottomans, Safavids, and Mughals

Which of these statements about women in India during the Mughal Empire is TRUE?

• Child-bride marriages were ended.

• Seclusion (purdah) of upper-class Hindu and Muslim women began.

• Widow re-marriage was temporarily encouraged, but then became rare.

• The practice of sati ended.

In order to supply its elite Janissaries and palace with soldiers, the Ottomans rulers:

• Used labor taxes

• Relied on Muslim noble families

• Conscripted Balkan Christian boys and converted them to Islam

• Imported and paid trained foreigners and mercenaries.

Which of the following is most closely associated with the rule of Akbar the Great?

• State sponsored trade missions to the New World

• Intensified taxation of the subcontinent's Hindu majority

• Assimilation of central Asian nomads into high posts in the ruling bureaucracy

• Prohibition of sati

• Lifting of the majority of the Indian population out of poverty

Unlike the Ottomans and Safavids conquerors, Babar:

• favored trade.

• was intolerant of religious differences.

• avoided the use of advanced military technologies.

• did not conquer lands for religious reasons.

• never developed a strong centralized state or government.

During their reign, Safavid policies in Persia

• alienated the majority of the population.

• fostered as sense of Persian religious nationalism and social unity.

• favored Turkish traditions and customs.

• favored the Arabic language and Arab bureaucracies.

• favored agriculture over trade and manufacturing.

The Safavids arose to power in Persia primarily due to

• their support for the Shi'ite cause.

• an alliance with Portuguese merchants and soldiers.

• their conversion from Islam to Christianity.

• a monopoly on military technologies and guns.

• their control of trade along the silk road.

All of these developments weakened the rule of the Ottoman government EXCEPT:

• powerful factions within the Janissaries and court bureaucrats.

• harem politics by rival wives and their sons, who were potential heirs.

• the hedonistic lifestyles of many sultans.

• corruption and graft.

• the development of the office of vizier.

The class which initially dominated the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal states and social hierarchy was:

• descendants of slaves (Mamelukes).

• a military aristocracy.

• the clergy.

• the merchant class.

• largely composed of intellectuals and scholars.

The Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal empires shared all of these characteristics EXCEPT:

• They originated in Turkish nomadic cultures of the steppe.

• They were Muslim led.

• They were based on conquest and the use of military technologies.

• They began with absolutist rulers and efficient bureaucracies.

• They ruled predominantly Muslim populations.

What event was most directly responsible for the rise of the gunpowder empires in Turkey, Iran, and India and similar states in Tsarist Russia and Ming China?

• the invention of gunpowder

• the collapse of the Mongol Empire and its khanates

• the arrival of western European merchants in the area

• the revival of trade across Eurasia

• steppe nomads founded all five states