DIFFERENT NAMES FOR

SIMILAR TECHNOLOGIES

world system (world system theory) A concept developed by the American historian Immanuel Wallerstein to refer to an economic unit extending beyond the boundaries of an individual nation-state by virtue of trade networks and economic alliances.

Iranian Plateau:

1.Fairly high

2.Surrounded with mountains

3.Bridge between Central Asia and the Mediterranean Basin world systems

Iranian Plateau:

4.Similar mountain ranges with Anatolia

5.Slightly cooler winters…

6.And relatively warmer summers than Anatolia

7.Significantly different agricultural production

Iranian Plateau:

7.Significantly different agricultural production

WHY?

Iranian Plateau:

8.Significantly less year-long precipitation than Anatolia

9.Mostly warm and arid soil

10.Significant regional differences between north west and southeast

Iranian Plateau:

• Mostly arid & not good for agriculture

• On significant commercial routes

• Significant regional differences

Pre-Islamic Iran

Sasanian Empire:

• Zoroastrianism as the religion of the imperial family

• Religious tolerance against Jews, Christians and other belief systems

Why?

Practical reasons for tolerance:

• War with the Byzantine Empire

• Agricultural production

Pre-Islamic Iran

681-745 CE

• Umayyad caliphate and “Arab elitism”

Islam in the Plateau

Islam in the Plateau• Loose control by notables and Persian

and other ethnic mercenaries

• Development of a judicial structure

• Central Asian influence and Sufi networks

Islam in the Plateau• Autonomous kingdoms by 9th century

Islam in the Plateau• Turkic tribes come in as mercenaries

in the 10th century

Islam in the Plateau

• From mercenaries to kings: Ghaznavids of 11th century

Islam in the Plateau• The expansion of the “Great Saljuqs”

in the 11th and 12th centuries

The Ilkhanid Empire of the Mongols

• A “Khanate” of the Mongols

• Settled in the plateau in the 13th century

• Centralized their administration in 14th century

• Allied themselves with urban bureaucrats, merchants and the ‘ulama

The Timurid Empire of the Mongols

• Emphasized Islam as a unifying factor in the plateau. Samarkand, Bukhara and Herat became important centers

Empires of Mercenaries:

Tribal alliances and adaptation

Military power and taxation

An age of Mercenaries

The Safavid Empire

• Safavid movement (founded by Shaykh Safi al-Din in the 14th century) was a Sunni Sufi movement

• It became particularly powerful in northwest plateau and Anatolia in the 15th century

• Shah Junayd (1447-60) and Shah Isma’il (1487-1524): birth of a Shi‛i Iran

• Shah Abbas: Expansion of the Safavid Empire—Isfahan

Do you notice anything peculiar in the way these empires changed over the time?