Early Islam Mecca Medina Time Life Great Ages of Man Art War Al-Andalus Africa

Time-Life Great Ages of Man Series – Early Islam.

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DESCRIPTION: Hardcover: 192 pages. Publisher: Time-Life Books Inc. (1967). Size: 10¾ x 8¾ x ¾ inches; 1¾ pounds.

The “Great Ages of Man” series was released in the mid-1960’s. Each volume undertakes to describe the major events that happened in one specific time period (or “age”) in the development of mankind’s civilization(s). The volumes are richly illustrated, and designed as an introduction to the time frame covered. Especially compelling are the artists interpretations or recreations of what various ancient civilizations would have looked like – their architecture, homes, monuments, cities, daily life, jewelry, food, family life, dwellings, occupations, etc. As just one instance, the ruins of Babylon and Ur, Athens and Rome hint at the incredible richness of those fabled cities. The artist’s recreations in this series are simply mind-numbing. This is as close as you can be to actually having been there. Equally noteworthy are the photographic collections of artifacts and relics attributed to the specific age, really exceptional.The entire series is truly a magnificent introduction to the history of the era.

If you could have just one book (or series of books) to introduce the history of humankind, this would have to be it. The overviews are concise and well-written. Together with the illustration and pictures they impart a wonderful mental and emotional “picture” of what life must have been like in various civilizations and at various times. Done in a style so wonderfully characteristic of Time-Life’s publications, these are over-sized “coffee table” type books full of impressive imagery. The pictures of the world’s greatest art and architecture alone are worth the cost of these books. But don’t get the impression that these volumes are “fluff”. While a particular volume might not quite take the place as a university degree, the material is well-written, informative, and immensely intellectually gratifying, overview though it might be.

The contents of this volume include:

1. A Messenger from God. [Picture Essay: The Prophet's Progress]. A View of the Islamic World 632-1258AD. Ninth Century Samarra Minarets. Arabia: Crossroads of Commerce. Islam's Holiest Shrine: Mecca's Kaaba.

2. Five Pillars of Faith. [Picture Essay: Desert Sanctuaries]. The Koran: Islam's Holy Book. Desert Nativity: Islamic Religious Lore. A Medieval Mosque. Ramadan: Feasts to End a Fast. Cairo's Guyushi Mosque: Dome and Minaret. The Mosque: A House of Prayer for a Desert Religion. Water for Life and for Purification. The Mosque's Sheltering Arcades. The Sanctuary: A Cloistered Hall Facing Mecca. The Mihrab: A Focal Point for an Act of Faith.

3. A Time of Conquest. [Picture Essay: Reaches of Empire]. Baghdad's 8th Century Ukhaydir Fortress-Palace. The Expansion of Islam to 750AD. Early Islamic Dynasties. Umayyad Silver Dirhams: A Conqueror's Coin.

4. The Golden Age. [Picture Essay: A Muslim's Life]. Portraits in Polychromatic Persian Plates. Persian Chess. A 14th Century Folding Koran Stand. The Litany of Learning. Domestic Life. Obedient Women. Pleasure in a Man's World. A Desert Businessman. Preparations for Paradise.

5. An Art of Many Peoples. [Picture Essay: Craftsmen's Treasures]. An 11th Century Bronze Griffin. Stucco Relief: A Predatory Hawk. A Gold-Embroidered Cap: Lions Attacking Camels The Changing Art of Writing: Kufic to Thuluth.. Iraqi Bronze Door Knocker: Writhing Dragons. Practical Pottery and Civilized Refinements (Incense Burner, Persian Dishes, Gilded Bronze Plaques, Storage Jar, Rose Water Sprinkler). Objects to Cure the Afflicted and to Delight the Rich (a Bronze Knife, an Ornate Ceramic Bowl, a Gold Pendant, an Ivory Box, a Gold Bracelet). Elegant Utensils for the Rituals of a Muslim Life (Ceremonial Objects, a Brass Inkpot, a Kashan Bowl, Glass Bottles, Bronze Ewers, a Bronze Combination Safe, the Key to a Mosque, a Kashan Ewer, A Syrian Glass Lamp.

6. The Scientist-Philosophers. [Picture Essay: A Persian Bestiary - Simurgh Birds, Wolves, Lions, Elephants, Leopards, Camels, Bears, Goats, the Rhinoceros]. Blueprint for an Irrigator. A 13th Century Yemeni Astrolabe.

7. From Spain to Sumatra. [Picture Essay: Patterns of an Enchanted Palace]. Turkish Praying Angels. The First Crusade: Edessa, Antioch, Tripoli, Jerusalem; Saracen and Turk Versus Frank and Christian. Bright Plays of Geometrical Designs. The Divine Language of Script. Stylized Gardens of Plaster Flowers. Richly Interwoven Forms. Calligraphy. A Fantastic Fusion of Design.

8. A Durable Religion. [Picture Essay: Islam's Magic Carpets]. Muhammad II Turkish Ottoman Conqueror of Byzantium, Constantinople, Serbia, Greece and Albania. The Turkish Heirs to Islam. Protection for a Warrior: Chain Mail Trousers. The Rugs of Royalty. The Paradise of a Persian Garden. Patterns for Prayer. Carpets for Traveling. A Jewel Worthy of a King. Crossroad Civilizations Between East and West. A Chronology: A Listing of the Significant Events During the Islamic Era.

A Brief History of Islam: Most historians agree that Islam originated in Mecca and Medina at the start of the 7th century AD. Muslims however believe that it was the original faith of others whom they regard as prophets, such as Jesus, David, Moses, Abraham, Noah and Adam. In 610 AD the Islamic Prophet Muhammad began receiving what Muslims consider to be divine revelations. Muhammad's message won over a handful of followers and was met with increasing opposition from Mecca’s influential civil leaders. A few years after losing protection with the death of his influential uncle Abu Talib Muhammad migrated to Medina in 622 AD. With Muhammad's death in 632 AD disagreement broke out over who would succeed him as leader of the Muslim community during the Rashidun Caliphate.

By the 8th century the Umayyad Caliphate extended from Iberia (Spain) in the west to the Indus River (India) in the east. The rulers of the Umayyads and Abbasid Caliphate (in the Middle East and later in Spain and Southern Italy), Fatimids, Seljuks, and Mamluks were among the most influential powers in the world. The Islamic Golden Age gave rise to many centers of culture and science and produced notable astronomers, mathematicians, physicians and philosophers during the Middle Ages.

The Islamic Golden Age was a period of cultural, economic and scientific achievements. The period traditionally dated from the 8th to 14th centuries witnessed the greatest flourishing of the Islamic world. This period is traditionally understood to have begun during the 786 to 809 AD reign of the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid. It commenced with the inauguration of the House of Wisdom in Baghdad. This is where scholars from various parts of the world with different cultural backgrounds were mandated to gather and translate all of the world's classical knowledge into Arabic and Persian.

This period is traditionally said to have ended with the collapse of the Abbasid caliphate due to Mongol invasions and the Siege of Baghdad in 1258AD. A few dissenting scholars date the end of the golden age around 1350 AD. Even fewer modern historians and scholars place the end of the Islamic Golden Age as late as the end of fifteenth to sixteenth centuries. The medieval period of Islam is defined similarly, most sources defining it as 900 through 1300 AD.

Turkic dynasties like the Sultanate of Rum and Artuqids conquered much of Anatolia (Turkey) from the Byzantine Empire throughout the 11th and 12th centuries. By the early 13th century the Delhi Sultanate had conquered the northern Indian subcontinent. In the 13th and 14th centuries a number of problems greatly weakened the traditional centers of the Muslim world. Though it stretched from Persia to Egypt the Muslim world was hammered with destructive Mongol invasions and those of Tamerlane (Timur) from the East. There was a significant loss of population due to the ravages of the Black Death, or plague. The weakening of the Islamic world created conditions which let to the emergence of the Timurid Renaissance and the rise major global economic powers such as West Africa's Mali Empire and South Asia's Bengal Sultanate.

Following the deportation and enslavement of the Muslim Moors from the Emirate of Sicily and other Italian territories, Islamic Spain was gradually conquered by Christian forces during the Reconquista. Nevertheless during in the Early Modern period the Islamic “gunpowder empires” such as the Ottoman Empire, Safavid Iran and Mughal India emerged as great world powers. However during the 19th and early 20th centuries, most of the Islamic world fell under the influence or direct control of European "Great Powers". The efforts of the Islamic world to regain their independence and build modern nation-states over the course of the last two centuries continue to reverberate to the present day. They have fueled conflict-zones in regions such as Palestine, Kashmir, Xinjiang, Chechnya, Central Africa, Bosnia and Myanmar.

The study of the earliest periods in Islamic history is made difficult by a lack of sources. For the time prior to the beginning of Islam in the 6th century the sources covering the Sasanian realm of influence are very poor. The most important historiographical source for the origins of Islam occurred centuries after the fact in the work of the 9th to 10th century Persian historian al-Tabari. However much of al-Tabari’s “history” is problematic. He made liberal use of mythical, legendary, stereotyped, distorted, and polemical presentations of subject matter. And his accounts and descriptions of the beginning of Islam post-date the events by many generations, al-Tabari having died in 923 AD.

On the other hand the Byzantine sources areas under their control at the time are of a respectable quality. Furthermore the Byzantine sources are complemented by the Syriac Christian sources for Syria and Iraq. Thus much of the more credible accounts of the early years of Islam come from Byzantine and Syrian sources. Islam arose within the context of Late Antiquity. The second half of the 6th century saw political disorder in Arabia, and communication routes were no longer secure. Religious divisions played an important role in the crisis.

Judaism had become the dominant religion of the Himyarite Kingdom in Yemen after about 380AD. Christianity had taken root in the Persian Gulf. At the same time much of Arabia remained polytheistic. However in line with broader trends of the age there was yearning for a more spiritual form of religion. On the eve of the Islamic era the Quraysh was the chief tribe of Mecca and a dominant force in western Arabia. To counter the effects of anarchy, they upheld the institution of "sacred months" when all violence was forbidden and travel was safe.

The polytheistic Kaaba shrine in Mecca and the surrounding area was a popular pilgrimage destination, which had significant economic consequences for the city. According to tradition, the Islamic prophet Muhammad was born in Mecca around the year 570AD. His family belonged to the Quraysh. In 622AD Muhammad migrated to Medina, where he began to lay the foundations of the new Islamic society, with the help of new Quranic verses he composed which emphasized his place among the long line of Biblical prophets, but also differentiated the message of the Quran from Christianity and Judaism.

Armed conflict with Meccans and Jewish tribes of the Yathrib area soon broke out. After a series of military confrontations Muhammad was able to secure control of Mecca and allegiance of the Quraysh in 629AD. In the time remaining until his death in 632, tribal chiefs across the peninsula entered into various agreements with him, paying the alms levy to his government.

After Muhammad died, a series of four Caliphs governed the Islamic state: Abu Bakr (632–634), Umar ibn al-Khattab (Umar І, 634–644), Uthman ibn Affan, (644–656), and Ali ibn Abi Talib (656–661). These leaders are known as the "Rashidun" or "rightly guided" Caliphs in Sunni Islam. They oversaw the initial phase of the Muslim conquests, advancing through Persia, Levant, Egypt, and North Africa.

Abu Bakr, the first of these four one of Muhammad’s closest associates, was chosen as the first caliph. A number of tribal leaders refused to extend agreements made with Muhammad to Abu Bakr, ceasing payments of the alms levy. Abu Bakr asserted his authority in a successful military campaign known as the Ridda wars, whose momentum was carried into the lands of the Byzantine and Sasanian empires. By the end of the reign of the second caliph, Umar I, Arab armies conquered the Byzantine provinces of Syria and Egypt, while the Sasanians lost their western territories, with the rest to follow soon afterwards.

Umar improved administration of the fledgling empire, ordering improvement of irrigation networks and playing a role in foundation of cities like Basra. The expansion of the Islamic Empire was partially halted between 638–639 during the years of great famine and plague in Arabia and Levant. Local populations of Jews and indigenous Christians were taxed to finance the Byzantine–Sassanid Wars. By the end of Umar's reign, Syria, Egypt, Mesopotamia, much of the Eastern Byzantine Empire, and much of Persia were incorporated into the Islamic State.

To stop the Byzantine harassment from the sea during the Arab–Byzantine wars, in 649 the Governor of Islamic Syria set up a navy, manned by Syrian Christian and Egyptian Coptic Christian sailors, together with Muslim troops. The Islamic navy defeated the Byzantine navy at the Battle of the Masts in 655AD, opening up the Mediterranean to Muslim ships.

Early Muslim armies stayed in encampments away from cities because Umar feared that they may get attracted to wealth and luxury. Some of these encampments later grew into cities like Basra and Kufa in Iraq and Fustat in Egypt. Umar was assassinated in 644AD. Uthman ibn Affan second cousin and twice son-in-law of Muhammad became the next caliph, and ordered a standard copy of the Quran to be prepared, copies of which were sent out to the different centers of the expanding Islamic empire.

After Muhammad's death, the old tribal differences between the Arabs started to resurface. Following the Roman–Persian Wars and the Byzantine–Sassanid Wars, deep-rooted differences between Iraq (formerly under the Persian Sassanid Empire) and Syria (formerly under the Byzantine Empire) also existed. Each wanted the capital of the newly established Islamic State to be in their area. When Uthman was assassinated in 656, Ali ibn Abi Talib, a cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad, assumed the position of caliph and moved the capital to Kufa in Iraq. The governor of Syria objected, resulting in Islam’s first civil war (the "First Fitna").

The war ended with a peace treaty which was broken by the establishment of the Umayyad dynasty, with a capital in Damascus. Husayn ibn Ali, Muhammad's only living grandson, refused to swear allegiance to the Umayyads. He was killed in the Battle of Karbala the same year, in an event still mourned by Shia on the Day of Ashura. Unrest known as the Second Fitna continued, but ultimately Muslim rule was extended under the Umayyad Dynasty to Rhodes, Crete, Kabul, Bukhara, and Samarkand, and expanded in North Africa. In 664AD Arab armies conquered Kabul, and in 665 pushed into the Maghreb.

The Umayyad dynasty ruled from 661 to 750, with Damascus as the capital as of 666AD. This led to profound changes in the empire. In the same way, at a later date, the transfer of the Caliphate from Damascus to Baghdad marked the accession of a new family to power. The Umayyad dynasty, with its wealth and luxury, was at odds with the Islamic message preached by Muhammad. All this increased discontent. The descendants of Muhammad's uncle Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib rallied discontented poor Arabs, and some Shi'a against the Umayyads and overthrew them. This inaugurated the Abbasid dynasty in 750, which moved the capital to Baghdad.

A branch of the Ummayad family fled across North Africa to Al-Andalus, where they established the Caliphate of Córdoba (in Spain), which lasted until 1031AD. At its largest extent, the Umayyad dynasty covered more than 5,000,000 square miles, making it one of the largest empires the world had yet seen, and the fifth largest contiguous empire ever. The empire included a royal court rivaling that of Constantinople. The frontiers of the empire expanded, reaching the edge of Constantinople.

Sunni Muslims credit the founder of the dynasty with saving the fledgling Muslim nation from post-civil war anarchy. However, Shia Muslims accuse him of instigating the war, weakening the Muslim nation by dividing the Ummah, fabricating self-aggrandizing heresies slandering the Prophet's family and even selling his Muslim critics into slavery to the Byzantine empire.

In 682 Muslim North African armies won battles against the Berbers and Byzantines, and marched thousands of miles westward towards Tangier, reaching the Atlantic coast, and then marched eastwards through the Atlas Mountains. However the period was also marked by civil wars between the Muslims (the Second Fitna). Weakened by these civil wars, the Umayyad lost supremacy at sea, and had to abandon the islands of Rhodes and Crete. War with the Byzantine Empire under Justinian II (Battle of Sebastopolis) in 692AD in Asia Minor led to a decisive Byzantine defeat after the defection of a large contingent of Slavs.

This led to the next stage of Islamic conquests, wherein the early Islamic empire reached its farthest extent. Portions of Egypt were reconquered from the Byzantine Empire. Islamic armies moved on into Carthage and across to the west of North Africa. Muslim armies crossed the Strait of Gibraltar and began to conquer the Iberian Peninsula using North African Berber armies. The Visigoths of the Iberian Peninsula were defeated when the Umayyad conquered Lisbon. The Iberian Peninsula was the farthest extent of Islamic control of Europe (they were stopped at the Battle of Tours).

In the east, Islamic armies under Muhammad bin Qasim made it as far as the Indus Valley, and the Islamic Empire stretched from the Iberian Peninsula to India. However subsequently when Islamic armies laid siege to the Byzantine capital of Constantinople, the intervention of Bulgaria on the Byzantine side led to a decisive defeat for the Muslims, though in subsequent years Islamic armies expanded Muslim rule into the Caucasus.

In the first half of the eighth century regular raids against the Byzantines continued, however Islamic armies were decisively defeated at the Battle of Akroinon. In North Africa local restlessness produced the Berber Revolt. During this period of turmoil, anti-Umayyad sentiment became very prevalent, especially in Iran and Iraq. An Abbasid faction had gained much support in opposing the Umayyad Empire together. This led to a massacre of Umayyads by the Abbasids, save for a few who escaped to the Iberian Peninsula and founded a dynasty there.

The resulting Abbasid Caliphate was, as described by “The Cambridge History of Islam”, considered the “Golden Age of Islam”. The Abbasid dynasty rose to power in 750AD, conquering Mediterranean islands including the Balearics and in 827AD, Southern Italy. Under the Abbasids Islamic civilization flourished. Most notable was the development of Arabic prose and poetry, commerce and industry (particularly agricultural), and the sciences. The capital was moved from Damascus to Baghdad, due to the importance placed by the Abbasids upon eastern affairs in Persia.

Baghdad blossomed, becoming the world's largest city. It attracted immigrants from Arabia, Iraq, Syria, Persia and as far away as India and Spain. Baghdad was home to Christians, Jews, Hindus, and Zoroastrians, in addition to the growing Muslim population. In 909AD in Northwest Africa (the “Maghreb”), Abbasid rulers were deposed by the Shiite Fatimid dynasty. By around 960, the Fatimids had conquered Abbasid Egypt, building a capital in Cairo there in 973AD. In Persia the Turkic Ghaznavids snatched power from the Abbasids. Abbasid influence had been consumed by the Great Seljuq Empire (a Muslim Turkish clan which had migrated into mainland Persia) by 1055AD.

On other fronts expansion of the Islamic Empire continued. The first stage in the conquest of India began just before the year 1000AD. Two centuries later the area up to the Ganges River had fallen. In sub-Saharan West Africa, Islam was established just after the year 1000AD. Muslim rulers were in Kanem starting from sometime between 1081 and 1097, with reports of a Muslim prince at the head of Gao as early as 1009. The Islamic kingdoms associated with Mali reached prominence in the 13th century.

Toward the beginning of the high Middle Ages, the doctrines of the Sunni and Shia, two major denominations of Islam, solidified and theological divisions of the world of Islam would form. These trends would continue into the Fatimid and Ayyubid periods. The Abbasids soon became caught in a three-way rivalry among Coptic Arabs, Indo-Persians, and immigrant Turks. In addition, the cost of running a large empire became too great.

The Turks, Egyptians, and Arabs adhered to the Sunnite sect; the Persians, a great portion of the Turkic groups, and several of the princes in India were Shia. Doctrinal differences between Sunni and Shi'a Islam became more pronounced. The political unity of Islam began to disintegrate, and the rising power of the Iranian Tahirid dynasty became a threat. Byzantine Emperor Theophilus launched an attack against Abbasid fortresses, however the Byzantine forces were defeated at the Battle of Anzen. However the victorious Muslim armies had been forced to rely upon Turkish commanders and slave-soldiers (foreshadowing the Mamluk system).

The growing independence of the Tahirid dynasty contributed to Abbasid decline in the east. There occurred revolts result of an increasingly large gap between Arab populations and the Turkish armies. The revolts were put down, but antagonism between the two groups grew, as Turkish forces gained power. Al-Mutawakkil was the last great Abbasid caliph; and built the Great Mosque of Samara. After his death the dynasty fell into decline. However there was continued reliance on Turkish statesmen and slave soldiers to put down rebellions and lead battles against foreign empires, notably capturing Sicily from the Byzantines. Ultimately Al-Mutawakkil was assassinated by a Turkish soldier.

Though he was implicated in the murder, his successor became the Caliphate on that same day with the support of the Turks. When he died, the Turkish chiefs held a council to select his successor as well. The Arabs and western troops from Baghdad revolted. However, the Caliphate no longer depended on Arabian choice, but depended on Turkish support. At Samara, the Turks were having problems with the "Westerns" (Berbers and Moors), while the Arabs and Persians at Baghdad regarded both the Turks and the “Westerns” with equal hatred. Ultimately Africa was lost, and Egypt nearly. Mosul threw off its dependence, and the Greeks raided across the undefended border.

At the end of the Early Baghdad Abbasids period, Byzantine Empress Zoe Karbonopsina pressed for an armistice while the Byzantine frontier was threatened by Bulgarians. This only added to Baghdad's disorder, as a series of successive Caliph’s were assassinated. By the beginning of the mid-tenth century, the Baghdad Abbasid Caliphate had become of little importance. A Shi’ite army advanced on Baghdad, where mercenaries and well-organized Turks, staunch Sunnis, repelled them. However Baghdad fell to a latter attack. The city fell into chaos, and the Caliph's palace was looted.

Thereafter the Caliph’s power was shorn, and Shi'a observances were established. The Buwayhids held on Baghdad for over a century. For the next century, though Baghdad retained religious significance, its power waned due to continuous factional strife. The Abbasid borders were the defended only by small border states. There continued struggle between Sunni and Shi’ite. However Islamic literature, especially Persian literature, flourished, and by 1000AD the global Muslim population had climbed to about 4 percent of the world, compared to the Christian population of 10 percent.

The Late Baghdad Abbasids reigned from the beginning of the Crusades to the Seventh Crusade. In the First Crusade in Syria, Raymond IV of Toulouse attempted to attack Baghdad, losing at the Battle of Manzikert. Jerusalem was captured by crusaders who massacred its inhabitants. But the Empire of Islam was fractured by factional strife and civil war. Bosra was plundered and Baghdad attacked anew. An Abbasid army was crushed by a Turk Seljuq army. During the civil wars, Mosul was besieged for three months, and in 1134AD Damascus was besieged.

Continued disunion and infighting between Seljuq Turks resulted in the loss of control of Baghdad and throughout much Iraq. Even while the Crusades raged, Baghdad was besieged by a Seljuq army in the Siege of Baghdad (1157). Saladin, Sultan of Egypt, a vassal of the Mamluk Sultans, defeated and extinguished the Fatimid dynasty. The Fatimid Dynasty had reigned for 260 years after originating originated in Tunisia and Algeria, and eventually extended into Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon, North Africa, and Libya, and for a while even into Sicily and Italy). The Ayyubid dynasty was founded by Saladin and centered in Egypt. In 1174, Saladin proclaimed himself Sultan and conquered the Near East region. The Ayyubids ruled much of the Middle East during the 12th and 13th centuries, controlling Egypt, Syria, northern Mesopotamia, Hejaz, Yemen, and the North African coast up to the borders of modern-day Tunisia. However the Islamic Dynasties were no match for the Mongols.

Mosul and Cilician Armenia surrendered in 1236AD to a Mongol army. By 1237AD the Mongol Empire had subjugated most of Persia, excluding Abbasid Iraq and Ismaili strongholds, and all of Afghanistan and Kashmir. Georgia fell to the Mongols, and Baghdad was again sacked. In 1250, the dynasty in the Egyptian region was overthrown by slave regiments, from which the Mamluk Dynasty arose. The surviving Abbasid caliph of Cairo reigned under the tutelage of the Mamluk sultans, and lacked any temporal power.

Islamic conquests in India under Mahmud of Ghazni in the 12th century resulted in the establishment of the Ghaznavid Empire in the Indus River basin and the subsequent prominence of Lahore as an eastern bastion of Ghaznavid culture and rule. The Islamic domain was extended until the Bengal, and in 1206 Delhi was conquered, initiating the reign of the Delhi Sultanate. Many prominent sultanates and emirates administered various regions of the Indian subcontinent from the 13th to the 16th centuries, but none rivaled the power and extensive reach of the Mughal Empire at its zenith, at which time the Mughal Empire comprised almost all of South Asia.

Persian culture, art, language, cuisine and literature grew in prominence in India due to Islamic administration and the immigration of soldiers, bureaucrats, merchants, Sufis, artists, poets, teachers and architects from Iran and Central Asia, resulting in the early development of Indo-Persian culture.

The Mongol invasion of Central Asia began in 1219 at a huge cost in civilian life and economic devastation. The Mongols spread throughout Central Asia and Persia. For the Islamic Dynasties, the Mongol invasion of the 13th century marked the end of the Islamic Golden Age. Under the leadership of Genghis Khan, the Mongols put an end to the Abbasid era. Some historians assert that the eastern Islamic world never fully recovered.

The fall of Baghdad to the Mongols in 1258 destroyed what had been the largest city in Islam. The last Abbasid caliph, al-Musta'sim, was captured and killed; and Baghdad was ransacked and destroyed. The cities of Damascus and Aleppo fell in 1260, and wrested control of what remained of the Ayyubid territories soon after.

In the years immediately preceding Timur’s conquests, the Middle East had still been recovering from the Black Death, which may have killed one third of the population in the region. The plague began in China, and reached Alexandria in Egypt in 1347AD, spreading over the following years to most Islamic areas. The combination of the plague and the wars left the Middle Eastern Islamic world in a seriously weakened position. The conquering Timur founded many branches of Islam, including the Mughals of India.

The Mongol invaders were finally stopped by Egyptian Mamluks, who were Turkic, north of Jerusalem in 1260 at the pivotal Battle of Ain Jalut. The Mongols were again defeated by the Mamluks at the Battle of Hims a few months later, and then driven out of Syria altogether. The Mamluks then conquered the last of the crusader territories in the Levant.

The surviving Mongol khanates, in power in Mesopotamia, Persia and further east, gradually all converted to Islam over the rest of the 13th century. They in turn were conquered by the new Mongol power founded by Timur (himself a Muslim, also known as “Tamerlane”), who conquered Persia in the 1360s, and moved against the Delhi Sultanate in India and the Ottoman Turks in Anatolia. Samarqand, the cosmopolitan capital of Timur's empire, flourished under his rule as never before, while Iran and Iraq suffered large-scale devastation.

Military prestige was at the center of Mamluk society, and it had played a key role in the confrontations with the Mongol forces whereby the Mamluks wrested control of Syria and Egypt from the Mongols. The Mamluks united Syria and Egypt for the longest interval between the Abbasid and Ottoman empires (1250–1517). Ultimately however in 1517AD, Ottoman Sultan Selim I defeated the Mamluk Sultanate, and made Egypt part of the Ottoman Empire.

The rise of the Ottoman Dynasty occurred as the power of Seljuq Turks declined in the second half of the 13th century, after the Mongol invasion. Early on the Ottoman Dynasty engaged the Byzantines in a series of battles. By 1331, the Ottomans had captured Nicaea, the former Byzantine capital. Victory at the Battle of Kosovo against the Serbs in 1389 then facilitated their expansion into Europe. At the same time the Ottomans added to their growing empire the Balkans and Anatolia

Growth of the Ottoman Empire was arrested by the conquests of Mongol warlord Timur, who prevailed against the Ottomans in the Battle of Ankara in 1402. However the empire recovered, reuniting Asia Minor in 1413. Around this time the Ottoman naval fleet developed, such that they were able to challenge Venice. By the mid-15th century the Ottomans could lay siege to Constantinople, the capital of Byzantium. The Byzantine fortress succumbed in 1453, after 54 days of siege. Without its capital the Byzantine Empire disintegrated.

In the 15th and 16th centuries three major Muslim empires had formed: the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East, the Balkans and Northern Africa; the Safavid Empire in Greater Iran; and the Mughal Empire in South Asia. In the early 16th century, the Shi'ite Safavid dynasty assumed control in Persia. The Ottomans repelled Safavid expansion, challenging and defeating them at the Battle of Chaldiran in 1514, and then deposed the ruling Mamluks in Egypt, absorbing their territories in 1517.

Suleiman I (also known as Suleiman the Magnificent) took advantage of the diversion of Safavid focus to the Uzbeks on the eastern frontier and recaptured Baghdad, which had fallen under Safavid control. Nonetheless Safavid power remained substantial, rivaling the Ottomans. Suleiman I advanced deep into Hungary following the Battle of Mohács in 1526, reaching as far as the gates of Vienna. While Suleiman's rule (1520–1566) is often identified as the apex of Ottoman power, the empire continued to remain powerful and influential until the decline of its military strength in the second half of the eighteenth century.

The Shia Safavid dynasty rose to power in Tabriz in 1501 and later conquered the rest of Iran. The Safavids were from Azerbaijan and ruled from 1501 to 1736, establishing Shi'a Islam as the region's official religion and united its provinces under a single sovereignty, thereby reigniting the Persian identity. The Safavid Dynasty was toppled in 1722.

In India the Mughal Dynasty combined Persian and local Indian culture. All Mughal emperors were Muslims. One of the greatest and well-known Mughal monuments is the Taj Mahal, a mausoleum built by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan to house the tomb of his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal. The reign of Shah Jahan (1628–1658) represented the height of Mughal architecture, with famous monuments such as (in addition to the Taj Mahal) Moti Masjid, Red Fort, Jama Masjid and Lahore Fort, all constructed during his reign.

The end of the Medieval period in India and beginning of the European colonialism witnessed a weakening of the Mughal Dynasty, leading to its break-up and declarations of independence of its former provinces by the Nawab of Bengal, the Nawab of Awadh, the Nizam of Hyderabad, the major economic and military power known as Kingdom of Mysore ruled by Tipu Sultan and other small states. In 1739, the Mughals were crushingly defeated in the Battle of Karnal by the forces of Nader Shah, the founder of the Afsharid dynasty in Persia, and Delhi was sacked and looted, drastically accelerating its decline.

During the following century Mughal power had become severely limited, and the last emperor, Bahadur Shah II, had authority over only the city of Shahjahanabad. The last remnants of the empire were formally taken over by the British, and the British Parliament passed the Government of India Act 1858 to enable the Crown to assume direct control of India in the form of the new British Raj.

The modern age of recent centuries brought technological and organizational changes to Europe while the Islamic region continued the patterns of earlier centuries. The European powers, and especially Britain and France, globalized economically and colonized much of the region. By the end of the 19th century, the Ottoman Empire was in a serious state of decline. The decision to back Germany in World War I meant they shared the Central Powers' defeat in that war. The defeat led to the overthrow of the Ottomans by Turkish nationalists led by the victorious general of the Battle of Gallipoli: Mustafa Kemal, who became known to his people as Atatürk, "Father of the Turks."

Following World War I, the vast majority of former Ottoman territory outside of Asia Minor was handed over to the victorious European powers as protectorates. Ottoman successor states include today's Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Egypt, Greece, Iraq, Israel, Lebanon, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Syria, Jordan, Turkey, Balkan states, North Africa and the north shore of the Black Sea.

Some Muslim countries, such as Turkey and Egypt, sought to separate Islam from the secular government. In other cases, such as Saudi Arabia, the government brought out religious expression in the re-emergence of the puritanical form of Sunni Islam known as Wahabism, which found its way into the Saudi royal family.

The Arab–Israeli conflict spans about a century of political tensions and open hostilities. It involves the establishment of the modern State of Israel as a Jewish nation state. The Six-Day War of 1967 was fought between Israel and the neighboring states of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. The Arab countries closed the Suez Canal, and it was followed in 1970 by the closure of the "tapline" from Saudi Arabia through Syria to Lebanon.

In 1973 a new war between Israel and its Muslim neighbors, known as the Yom Kippur War, broke out. In response to the emergency resupply effort by the West that enabled Israel to put up a resistance against the Egyptian and Syrian forces, the Arab world imposed the 1973 oil embargo against the United States and Western Europe.

In 1979 the Iranian Revolution transformed Iran from a constitutional monarchy to a theocratic Islamic Republic under the rule of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a Shi'i Muslim cleric. Thus followed the development of the two opposite fringes of Islam. On the one hand, the Safavid conversion of Iran to Shia Islam and its reinforcement by the Iranian Revolution. One the other hand the Salafi in Saudi Arabia. The consequential Iran–Saudi Arabia relations resulted in these governments using sectarian conflict to enhance their opposing political interests.

The centrality of petroleum, the Arab–Israeli conflict and political and economic instability and uncertainty remain constant features of the politics of the region. Many countries, individuals and non-governmental organizations elsewhere in the world feel involved in this conflict for reasons such as cultural and religious ties with Islam, Arab culture, Christianity, Judaism, Jewish culture, or for ideological, human rights, or strategic reasons. Many consider the Arab–Israeli conflict a part of (or a precursor to) a wider clash of civilizations between the Western World and the Muslim world.

Ancient Islamic Coins: Moslems regard the year 622 AD as the beginning of Islamic history and religion. Among the many revolutionary innovations introduced by the Islamic religious state was its coinage. Instead of portraits and pictures, which the Muslims considered idol worship, Islamic coins portrayed calligraphy. On the typical coin's front side is the Islamic Declaration of Faith, called the "Kalima". Circled around the Kalima is the mint/date inscription. The first year of the Islamic Era begins in the year in which their prophet Muhammad escaped from Mecca, in 622 AD by the western calendar. The reverse side of Islamic coins typically have a four-line central inscription taken from the Koran, Islam's holy book, which contain the teachings of Muhammad.

During the lifetime of Muhammad, the followers of Islam took control of the entire Arabian peninsula. Under the four Orthodox Caliphs (632-661 AD), their territory was extended westward to Tripoli, half way along the northern coast of Africa, and eastward into Afghanistan. Under the Umayyad dynasty (661-750 AD), this territory was extended further west to the Atlantic Ocean and into Spain. In the east, the borders were pushed beyond the Indus river into India and well east of Kabul and Samarqand, deep into Central Asia.

Under the Abbasid dynasty (749-1258 AD), this territory was held intact (with the exception of Spain) for about 50 years, but then suffered fragmentation. At the height of the Islamic Empire, it was larger and more powerful than Charlemagne The Great's, and rivaled the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire. The Islamic Empire is most noted for the centuries of warfare which existed with Christian Crusaders, and the eventual loss of Constantinople in 1453 AD.

The earliest Arab coins imitated those of the Persians (the Sasanians) and the Byzantines. The Arab-Sassanian series goes back as far as 653 AD. The Arab-Byzantine coins imitated the copper 40-nummia pieces of the 7th-century Byzantine Emperors. Islamic coinage was reformed in 696 AD, creating the main Umayyad series. Its copper denomination, the fals, exhibited a wide variety of types, but the silver coin, the dirham, used a single caligraphic type at all of the mints of the Caliphate. This coin, with its religious inscriptions and its consistent use of a date and a mint name, set a pattern that was followed for the next few centuries throughout the Islamic world.

The Abbasid series is similar to the Umayyad, but the script takes on a distinctive form that exaggerates the horizontal letters and makes the others microscopic. The Caliph's name is absent on the early issues (as on the Umayyad dirhams), but it appears on some coins of al-Mahdi (775-85 AD) and becomes a standard feature on all later issues. Islamic coins, especially silver dirhams are very popular with collectors. From about 800 AD through about 1400 AD, there were literally hundreds of different issues. However little we learned of the Islamic Empire in school, historically it was one of the greatest empires in the world's history. It lasted over 1,000 years, and at it's zenith, was the most powerful empire in the world, encompassing a large portion of Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and Central Asia. Aside from the fact that these Islamic issues are unique as compared to other ancient and medieval coins, they are considered to represent the very epitome of Islamic art.

Saladin: Islam’s Great Warrior: The Islamic Ayyubid Dynasty, founded by a Kurdish Warrior known to the West as "Saladin". Saladin was a mortal foe of the ancient Roman Catholic Byzantine Christian Empire (the "Eastern Roman Empire" which survived the fall of Rome and the Western Roman Empire). Saladin was a Kurdish warrior and military leader for the Seljuk Islamic Dynasty. The Seljuk Dynasty was a significant force in the world of the beginning of this millennia, having defeated a large Byzantine/Christian Crusader Army in 1071, in the Battle of Manzikert. The Seljuk's had already taken Baghdad in 1055 from the Byzantine Empire, and proceeded to take Damascus, Syria in 1078, and Jerusalem itself in 1079.

Saladin gained fame as a military leader in campaigns against the Christian Crusaders of the Byzantine Empire. Saladin drove the Christian Crusaders from Jerusalem and most of Palestine, and came to Egypt in 1168 in the entourage of his uncle, the Kurdish general Shirkuh. After the death of his uncle in 1171, Saladin became the Sultan of Egypt and champion of Islam. He set up his own dynasty in Egypt, the Ayyubids, and built up the Citadel which dominated the city of Cairo since the 1100's. He restored and tightened the bonds that tied Egypt to the eastern Islamic Empire centered in Baghdad. He also opened Egypt to the new social changes and intellectual movements that had been emerging in the East. By the time Saladin died in 1193, the Ayyubid Dynasty controlled Syria, Egypt, most of Mesopotamia, the Red Sea coast of North Africa, Yemen, and the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. For twenty years after his death the Christian Crusaders continued to battle the Islamic armies of his empire, but finally withdrew from Egypt in defeat after the failure of the Seventh Crusade.

Saladin had transformed Egypt into a center for Islamic learning and culture. Egypt had become the center of a vast empire as the period witnessed great commercial expansion and industrial production. Both agriculture and industry and were developed, including an important export trade, and a wide network of commercial relations was established, notably with Europe and India, two areas with which Egypt had previously had almost no contact. Egyptian ships sailed to Sicily and Spain. Egyptian fleets controlled the eastern Mediterranean, and the two great harbors of Alexandria in Egypt and Tripoli in present-day Lebanon became centers of world trade. Egypt gradually extended her sovereignty over the ports and outlets of the Red Sea for trade with India and Southeast Asia and tried to win influence on the shores of the Indian Ocean. Italian, French, and Catalan merchants operated in ports under Ayyubid control. Egyptian products, including alum, for which there was a great demand, were exported to Europe. Egypt also profited from the transit trade from the East. Saladin brought Yemen under his control, thus securing both ends of the Red Sea and an important commercial and strategic advantage.

Economically, the Ayyubid period was one of growth and prosperity, and culturally was a period of great activity. Egypt became a center of Arab scholarship and literature and, along with Syria, acquired a cultural primacy that it has retained through the modern period. The prosperity of the cities, the patronage of the Ayyubid princes, and the revival of Islam made the Ayyubid period a cultural high point in Egyptian and Arab history. Saladin died peacefully in Damascus in 1193. After his death, his dominions split up into a loose dynastic empire controlled by members of his family, the Ayyubids, of which one progeny was Al-Salih Isma'il, Sultan of Damascus, Syria, who struck this coin. Within the empire created by Saladin, the Ayyubid Sultans of Egypt, such as Al-Salih Isma'il, were paramount because their control of a rich, well-defined territory gave them a secure basis of power.

Ancient Islamic Mughal India: The Mughal Empire (or Mogul Empire) was an early-modern empire that controlled much of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries. For some two centuries, the empire stretched from the outer fringes of the Indus basin in the west, northern Afghanistan in the northwest, and Kashmir in the north, to the highlands of present-day Assam and Bangladesh in the east, and the uplands of the Deccan plateau in south India.

The founding of the Mughal Empire is traditionally attributed Babur, a warrior chieftain from what today is Uzbekistan. In 1526 A.D. with aid from the neighboring Safavid and Ottoman empires, Babur defeated the Sultan of Delhi in the First Battle of Panipat. Babur’s forces then swept down into the plains of Upper India. However the Mughal Empire is sometimes dated to the 1600 A.D. rule of Babur's grandson, Akbar. The Mughal Empire lasted until 1720 A.D., shortly after the death of the last major emperor, Aurengzeb. During that reign the empire also achieved its maximum geographical extent.

The empire subsequently declined, especially during the East India Company rule in India, eventually reduced to the region in and around Old Delhi. The empire was formally dissolved by the British Raj after the Indian Rebellion of 1857. Although the Mughal Empire was created and sustained by military warfare, it did not vigorously suppress the cultures and peoples it came to rule. Rather the Mughal Empire equalized and placated them through new administrative practices, and diverse ruling elites. This led to more efficient, centralized, and standardized government.

The base of the empire's collective wealth was agricultural taxes. These were instituted by the third Mughal emperor, Akbar. These taxes amounted to well over half the output of a peasant cultivator. The taxes were paid in the well-regulated silver currency. The taxes forced peasants and artisans to enter larger markets so as to generate the funds to pay those taxes. The relative peace maintained by the empire during much of the 17th century was a significant factor in India's economic expansion. Burgeoning European presence in the Indian Ocean, and its increasing demand for Indian raw and finished products, created still greater wealth in the Mughal courts.

There was more conspicuous consumption among the Mughal elite, resulting in greater patronage of painting, literary forms, textiles, and architecture, especially during the reign of Shah Jahan. Among the Mughal UNESCO World Heritage Sites in South Asia are: Agra Fort, Fatehpur Sikri, Red Fort, Humayun's Tomb, Lahore Fort and the Taj Mahal. Contemporaries referred to the empire founded by Babur as the Timurid Empire. This reflected the heritage of his dynasty. This was also the term preferred by the Mughals themselves. The Mughal designation for their own dynasty was Gurkani.

The use of the term "Mughal" derived from the Arabic and Persian corruption of "Mongol". The term emphasized the Mongol origins of the Timurid dynasty, and became widely used in the 19th century. Similar terms had been used to refer to the Empire, including "Mogul" and "Moghul". Nevertheless, Babur's ancestors were sharply distinguished from the classical Mongols insofar as they were oriented towards Persian rather than Turkish-Mongol culture.

Another name for the Empire was Hindustan, which has been described as the closest to an official name for the Empire. In the west, the term "Mughal" was used for the emperor, and by extension, the empire as a whole. Babur reigned from 1526–1530 A.D. He was a Central Asian ruler who was descended on his father's side from the Turkish-Mongol conqueror Timur (the founder of the Timurid Empire). On his mother’s side he descended from Genghis Khan.

Ousted from his ancestral domains in Central Asia, Babur turned to India to satisfy his ambitions. He established himself in Kabul. He then pushed steadily southward into India from Afghanistan through the Khyber Pass. Babur's forces occupied much of northern India after his victory at Panipat in 1526 A.D. Babur’s preoccupation with wars and military campaigns, however, did not allow the new emperor to consolidate the gains he had made in India.

The instability of the empire became evident under his son (who reigned from 1530–1556). Humayun was forced into exile in Persia by rebels. Humayun's exile in Persia established diplomatic ties between the Safavid and Mughal Courts. This is turn led to increasing Persian cultural influence in the Mughal Empire. The Sur Empire (1540–1555), founded by Sher Shah Suri (reigned from 1540–1545), briefly interrupted Mughal rule. Humayun's triumphant return from Persia in 1555 restored Mughal rule, however he died in an accident the next year.

Akbar (who reigned 1556–1605) was born in the Rajput Umarkot Fort to a Persian princess. Akbar succeeded to the throne under a regent who helped consolidate the Mughal Empire in India. Through warfare and diplomacy, Akbar was able to extend the empire in all directions. The Mughal Empire at that point controlled almost the entire Indian subcontinent north of the Godavari River. Akbar created a new ruling elite loyal to him. He implemented a modern administration, and encouraged cultural developments. He increased trade with European trading companies.

India developed a strong and stable economy. This led to commercial expansion and economic development. Akbar allowed freedom of religion at his court. He attempted to resolve socio-political and cultural differences in his empire by establishing a new religion, Din-i-Ilahi. The new religion possessed strong characteristics of a ruler cult. Akbar left his son an internally stable state, which was in the midst of its golden age. However within a few years of the end of his reign, signs of political weakness would emerge.

Akbar’s son, Jahangir, reigned from 1605–1627. His mother was an Indian Rajput princess. He "was addicted to opium, neglected the affairs of the state, and came under the influence of rival court cliques". Shah Jahan, his son, reigned from 1628–1658. His mother was also a Rajput princess. During the reign of Shah Jahan, the splendor of the Mughal court reached its peak, as exemplified by the Taj Mahal. The cost of maintaining the court, however, began to exceed the revenue coming in.

Shah Jahan's eldest son, Dara Shikoh, became regent in 1658, as a result of his father's illness. Dara championed a syncretistic Hindu-Muslim culture. However a younger son of Shah Jahan, Aurangzeb, seized the throne from his brother Dara. This was accomplished with the support of the Islamic orthodoxy. Aurangzeb reigned from 1658–1707, and one of his first acts in 1659 was to have Dara, his brother, executed. Eventually Shah Jahan fully recovered from his illness. However Aurangzeb declared him incompetent to rule and had him imprisoned.

During Aurangzeb's reign, the empire gained political strength once more and became the world's most powerful economy. Aurangzeb fully established sharia by compiling the Fatwa Alamgiri. He expanded the empire to include almost the whole of South Asia. However at his death in 1707 many parts of the empire were in open revolt. Aurangzeb is considered by many historians to be India's most controversial king, holding that his religious conservatism and intolerance undermined the stability of Mughal society.

Aurangzeb's son, Bahadur Shah I, repealed the religious policies of his father and attempted to reform the administration. However, after his death in 1712, the Mughal dynasty sank into chaos and violent feuds. In 1719 alone, four emperors successively ascended the throne". Eventually Muhammad Shah, who reigned from 1719–1748, succeeded to the throne. However the empire continued its decline, and as it broke up, vast tracts of central India passed from Mughal to Maratha hands.

The far-off Indian campaign of Nadir Shah, who had previously reestablished Iranian suzerainty over most of West Asia, the Caucasus, and Central Asia, culminated with the Sack of Delhi and shattered the remnants of Mughal power and prestige. Many of the empire's elites now sought to control their own affairs, and broke away to form independent kingdoms. Nonetheless the Mughal Emperor continued to be the highest manifestation of sovereignty. Not only the Muslim gentry, but the Maratha, Hindu, and Sikh leaders took part in ceremonial acknowledgments of the emperor as the titular sovereign of India.

Regional polities within the increasingly fragmented Mughal Empire led to involvement in global armed conflicts. Ultimately this resulted in Mughal defeat and loss of territory during the Karnatic Wars and the Bengal War. The Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II who reigned from 1759–1806 made futile attempts to reverse the Mughal decline. However he ultimately had to seek the protection of the Emir of Afghanistan. This led to the Third Battle of Panipat between the Maratha Empire and the Afghans in 1761.

In 1771 the Marathas recaptured Delhi from Afghan control. In 1784 they officially became the protectors of the Mughal Emperor in Delhi. This arrangement continued until after the Third Anglo-Maratha War. Thereafter, the British East India Company became the protectors of the Mughal dynasty in Delhi. In 1973 the British East India Company took control of the former Mughal province of Bengal-Bihar. By 1857 a considerable part of former Mughal India was under the East India Company's control.

The last Mughal Bahadur Shah Zafar, was deposed by the British East India Company and exiled in 1858 after a crushing defeat in the war of 1857–1858. Through the Government of India Act 1858 the British Crown assumed direct control of East India Company-held territories in India in the form of the new British Raj. In 1876 the British Queen Victoria assumed the title of Empress of India.

Historians have offered numerous explanations for the rapid collapse of the Mughal Empire between 1707 and 1720, after a century of growth and prosperity. In fiscal terms, the throne lost the revenues needed to pay its chief officers, the emirs (nobles) and their entourages. The emperor lost authority, as the widely scattered imperial officers lost confidence in the central authorities, and made their own deals with local men of influence.

The imperial army bogged down in long, futile wars against the more aggressive Marathas, and lost its fighting spirit. Finally came a series of violent political feuds over control of the throne. After the execution of Emperor Farrukhsiyar in 1719, local Mughal successor states took power in region after region. Contemporary chroniclers bewailed the decay they witnessed. This theme was picked up by the first British historians who wanted to underscore the need for a British-led rejuvenation.

Many historians posit that the Indian economy went through deindustrialization in the latter half of the 18th century as an indirect outcome of the collapse of the Mughal Empire. Then they posit that British rule later caused even further deindustrialization. Until that point in time the Indian economy had been large and prosperous under the Mughal Empire. During the Mughal era, the gross domestic product (GDP) of India in 1600 was estimated at about 22% of the world economy. It was the second largest economy in the world, behind only Ming China. Both the economy of China and the economy of India were far larger than that of Europe. By 1700, the GDP of Mughal India had risen to 24% of the world economy, the largest in the world. The Indian economy was larger than either that of Qing China or Western Europe.

Mughal India was the world leader in manufacturing, producing about 25% of the world's industrial output up until the 18th century. India's GDP had a faster growth rate during the Mughal era than in the 1,500 years prior to the Mughal era. Mughal India's economy has been described as a form of proto-industrialization, like that of 18th-century Western Europe prior to the Industrial Revolution.

The Mughals were responsible for building an extensive road network which was vital to the economic infrastructure. The road network was built by a public works department set up by the Mughals which designed, constructed and maintained roads. These roads linked towns and cities across the empire, and facilitated trade. The Mughals adopted and standardized the rupee (rupiya, or silver) and dam (copper) currencies introduced by Sur Emperor Sher Shah Suri.

The currency was initially 48 dams to a single rupee in the beginning of Akbar's reign, before it later became 38 dams to a rupee in the 1580s. The dam's value rose further in the 17th century as a result of new industrial uses for copper, such as in bronze cannons and brass utensils. By the 1660’s the dam was 16 to the rupee, and was initially the most common coin in Akbar's time. The Mughals minted coins with high purity, never dropping below 96%, and without debasement until the 1720’s.

The road system as well as a uniform currency fostered the unification of the country in general. The main base of the empire's collective wealth was, as described hereinabove, agricultural taxes. Despite India having its own stocks of gold and silver, the Mughals produced minimal gold of their own. The coinage of the realm was mostly minted from imported bullion. This was a result of the empire's strong export-driven economy. The global demand for Indian agricultural and industrial products drew a steady stream of precious metals into India.

Around 80% of Mughal India's imports were bullion, mostly silver. The major sources of imported bullion included the New World and Japan. They in turn imported large quantities of textiles and silk from the Bengal Subah province. The Mughal Empire's workforce in the early 17th century consisted of about 64% in the primary sector (including agriculture), over 11% in manufacturing, and about 25% in the service sector (service). Mughal India's workforce had a higher percentage in the non-agricultural sector than Europe's workforce did at the time. In terms of urban-rural divide, 18% of Mughal India's labor force were urban and 82% were rural, contributing 52% and 48% to the economy, respectively.

Real wages and living standards in 18th-century Mughal Bengal and South India were higher than in Britain. This was particularly notable as in turn Britain had the highest living standards in Europe. Both India and China had a higher GNP per capita than Europe up until the late 18th century. However, in a system where wealth was hoarded by elites, wages were depressed for manual labor. Though again, no more so than labor wages in Europe at the time. In Mughal India, there was a generally tolerant attitude towards manual laborers. Some religious cults in northern India proudly asserted a high status for manual labor. While “slavery” also existed, it was limited largely to household servants.

Indian agricultural production flourished under the Mughal Empire. A variety of crops were grown, including food crops such as wheat, rice, and barley. As well, non-food cash crops such as cotton, indigo and opium were also grown. By the mid-17th century, Indian cultivators begun to extensively grow two new crops from the Americas, maize and tobacco. The Mughal administration emphasized agrarian reform, which began under the non-Mughal emperor Sher Shah Suri. Akbar adopted these reforms and launched even more reforms.

The civil administration was organized in a hierarchical manner on the basis of merit, with promotions based on performance. The Mughal government funded the building of irrigation systems across the empire. The irrigated lands benefited by the systems produced much higher crop yields. This increased the net revenue base, leading to increased agricultural production. A major Mughal reform introduced by Akbar was a new land revenue system called zabt. He replaced the tribute system, previously common in India and used by Tokugawa Japan at the time. A monetary tax system based on a uniform currency was instituted in place of the old tribute system.

The revenue system was biased in favor of higher value cash crops such as cotton, indigo, sugar cane, tree-crops, and opium. Thus the state incentivized cash crops, crops already benefiting from rising market demand. Under the zabt system, the Mughals also conducted extensive surveying to assess the area of land under plow cultivation. The Mughal state encouraged greater land cultivation by offering tax-free periods to those who brought new land under cultivation.

The expansion of agriculture and cultivation continued under later Mughal emperors. Mughal agriculture was in some ways advanced compared to European agriculture at the time. This might be exemplified by the common use of the seed drill among Indian peasants well before its adoption in Europe. The average peasant farmer across the world was only skilled in growing very few crops. The average Indian peasant in contrast was skilled in growing a wide variety of food and non-food crops, increasing their productivity.

Indian peasants were also quick to adapt to profitable new crops. Maize and tobacco from the New World for example were rapidly adopted and widely cultivated across Mughal India between 1600 and 1650. Bengali farmers rapidly learned techniques of mulberry cultivation. Bengal was shortly thereafter well-established as a major silk-producing region of the world.

Sugar mills appeared in India shortly before the Mughal era. Evidence for the use of a draw bar for sugar-milling appears at Delhi in 1540, but may also date back earlier. These were mainly used in the northern Indian subcontinent. Geared sugar rolling mills first appeared in Mughal India by the 17th century. They utilized both the principle of rollers as well as worm gearing.

Per-capita agricultural output and standards of consumption in 17th-century Mughal India were probably higher than in 17th-century Europe. They were certainly higher than the levels they would eventually decline to in early 20th-century British India. The increased agricultural productivity led to lower food prices. In turn, this benefited the Indian textile industry. Compared to Britain, the price of grain as measured by silver coinage was about one-half in South India and one-third in Bengal. This resulted in lower silver coin prices for Indian textiles, giving them a price advantage in global markets.

Up until the 18th century, Mughal India was the most important center of manufacturing in international trade. Up until 1750, India produced about 25% of the world's industrial output. Manufactured goods and cash crops from the Mughal Empire were sold throughout the world. Key industries included textiles, shipbuilding, and steel. Processed products included cotton textiles, yarns, thread, silk, jute products, metalware, and foods such as sugar, oils and butter.

In early modern Europe, there was significant demand for products from Mughal India, particularly cotton textiles. European fashion, for example, became increasingly dependent on Mughal Indian textiles and silks. But as well there was significant demand for other goods such as spices, peppers, indigo, silks, and saltpeter (for use in munitions). From the late 17th century to the early 18th century, Mughal India accounted for 95% of British imports from Asia, and the Bengal province alone accounted for 40% of Dutch imports from Asia.

In contrast, there was very little demand for European goods in Mughal India. Mughal India was largely self-sufficient. Thus Europeans had very little to offer Mughal India, except for some woolens, unprocessed metals and a few luxury items. The trade imbalance caused Europeans to export large quantities of gold and silver to Mughal India in order to pay imports from Mughal India.

Indian goods, especially those from Bengal, were also exported in large quantities to other Asian markets, such as Indonesia and Japan. The largest manufacturing industry in the Mughal Empire was textile manufacturing. In particular cotton textile manufacturing. This included the production of piece goods, calicos, and muslins. These were available both unbleached and in a variety of colors. The cotton textile industry was responsible for a large part of the empire's international trade. India had a 25% share of the global textile trade in the early 18th century.

Indian cotton and silk textiles were the most important manufactured goods in world trade in the 18th century. These textiles were consumed across the world from the Americas to Japan. By the early 18th century, Mughal Indian textiles were clothing people across the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, Japan, Indonesia, Europe, the Americas, Africa, and the Middle East. Indian textiles dominated the Indian Ocean trade for centuries, were sold in the Atlantic Ocean trade. They had a 38% share of the West African trade in the early 18th century.

The most important center of cotton production was the Bengal province, particularly around its capital city of Dhaka. Bengali muslin textiles from Dhaka were sold in Central Asia, where they were known as "daka" textiles. In Europe Indian calicos were a major force. Re-exported Indian textiles accounted for 20% of total English trade with Southern Europe in the early 18th century.

The worm gear roller cotton gin was invented in India during the early Delhi Sultanate era of the 13th–14th centuries. It came into use in the Mughal Empire sometime around the 16th century. It is still presently used in India. The incorporation of the crank handle in the cotton gin first appeared in India sometime during the late Delhi Sultanate or the early Mughal Empire.

The production of cotton was advanced by the diffusion of the spinning wheel across India shortly before the Mughal era. This lowered the costs of yarn, helping to increase demand for cotton. This in turn led to greatly expanded Indian cotton textile production during the Mughal era. The cotton yarn was largely spun in the villages and then taken to towns to be woven into cloth textiles.

Mughal India also had a large shipbuilding industry. As was the case with the cotton industry, this too was largely centered in the Bengal province. Historical estimates of shipbuilding output of Bengal during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries are 223,250 tons annually. This compares to 23,061 tons produced during the three year period from 1769 to 1771 in Britain’s nineteen North American colonies. Ship repair facilities were also featured prominently in Bengal.

Indian shipbuilding, particularly in Bengal, was advanced compared to European shipbuilding at the time. In fact Indian shipbuilders were selling ships to European firms. An important innovation in shipbuilding was the introduction of a flushed deck design in Bengal rice ships. This resulted in hulls that were stronger. The traditional European built ships with a stepped deck design were structurally weaker and more prone to leakage. The British East India Company later duplicated the flushed deck and hull designs of Bengal rice ships in the 1760s. This led to significant improvements in seaworthiness and navigation for European ships during the Industrial Revolution.

The Bengal province was especially prosperous from the time of its takeover by the Mughals in 1590 until the British East India Company seized control in 1757. It was the Mughal Empire's wealthiest province, and the economic powerhouse of the Mughal Empire. Bengal alone is estimated to have generated up to 50% of the empire's GDP. Domestically, much of India depended on Bengali products such as rice, silks and cotton textiles. Overseas, Europeans depended on Bengali products such as cotton textiles, silks, and opium.

From Bengal, saltpeter was also shipped to Europe. Opium was sold in Indonesia. Raw silk was exported to Japan and the Netherlands. Cotton and silk textiles were exported to Europe, Indonesia and Japan. Akbar played a key role in establishing Bengal as a leading economic center. He began transforming the delta and many of the jungles there into farms. As soon as he conquered the region, he brought tools and men to clear jungles in order to expand cultivation. Bengal was later described as the Paradise of Nations by Mughal emperors.

The Mughals introduced agrarian reforms, including the modern Bengali calendar. The calendar played a vital role in developing and organizing harvests. It also enhanced tax collection and Bengali culture in general, including the New Year and Autumn festivals. The province was a leading producer of grains, salt, fruits, liquors and wines, precious metals and ornaments. Its handloom industry flourished under royal warrants. He Bengali region became a hub of the worldwide muslin trade, which peaked in the 17th and 18th centuries. The provincial capital Dhaka became the commercial capital of the empire.

After 150 years of rule by Mughal viceroys, Bengal gained semi-independence as a dominion under the Nawab of Bengal in 1717. The Nawabs permitted European companies to set up trading posts across the region, including firms from Britain, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Portugal and Austria-Hungary. An Armenian community dominated banking and shipping in major cities and towns. The Europeans regarded Bengal as the richest place for trade. However by the late 18th century, the British displaced the Mughal ruling class in Bengal.

India's population growth accelerated under the Mughal Empire. The unprecedented economic and demographic upsurge roughly tripled the Indian population in the 16th and 17th centuries. The Indian population had a faster growth rate during the Mughal era than at any known point in Indian history prior. The increased population growth rate was stimulated by Mughal agrarian reforms that intensified agricultural production. By the time of Aurangzeb's reign, there were a total of 455,698 villages in the Mughal Empire.

Cities and towns as well boomed under the Mughal Empire. The empire had a relatively high degree of urbanization for its time, with 15% of its population living in urban centers. This was higher than the percentage of the urban population in contemporary Europe at the time. It was also higher than that of British India in the 19th century. The level of urbanization in Europe did not reach 15% until the 19th century. By 1700 Mughal India had an urban population of 23 million people, larger than British India's urban population of 22.3 million almost two centuries later in 1871. It is estimated that in the early 17th century Mughal India contained 20 large cities and 3200 townships.

A number of cities in early 17th century India had a population between a quarter-million and half-million people, with larger cities including Agra with up to 800,000 people. The population of Lahore with up to 700,000 people. Dhaka (in Bengal) had over 1 million inhabitants. The population of Delhi (in Delhi Subah) was over 600,000. Cities acted as markets for the sale of goods. They also provided homes for a variety of merchants, traders, shopkeepers, artisans, moneylenders, weavers, craftspeople, officials, and religious figures. However, a number of cities were military and political centers, rather than manufacturing or commerce centers.

The Mughal Empire was definitive in the early-modern and modern periods of South Asian history. Its legacy in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan is evidenced in cultural contributions such as the Taj Mahal in Agra, India. Its centralized imperial rule consolidated the smaller polities of South Asia. Its legacy is also evident in the amalgamation of Persian art and literature with Indian art. And the legacy is even found in the development of Mughlai cuisine, an amalgamation of South Asian, Iranian and Central Asian culinary styles.

The empire also fostered the development of Mughal clothing, jewelry and fashion. These utilized richly decorated fabrics such as muslin, silk, brocade and velvet. The empire was also responsible for the standardization of the Hindustani language, and thus the development of Hindi and Urdu. Mughal gardening techniques were responsible for the introduction of sophisticated Iranian-style waterworks and horticulture. The introduction of Turkish baths into the Indian subcontinent was also due to the Moghul Empire.

The evolution and refinement of Mughal and Indian architecture is also attributable to the empire. In turn also responsible for the development of later Rajput and Sikh palatial architecture. One of the most recognizable Mughal landmarks is the Taj Mahal. The Mughals also spurred development of the Pehlwani style of Indian wrestling. This is a combination of Indian malla-yuddha and Persian varzesh-e bastani. The construction of Maktab schools, where youth were taught the Quran and Islamic law such as the Fatawa-i-Alamgiri in their indigenous languages was also a Mughal innovation. And the Mughals were also responsible for the development of Hindustani classical music, as well as musical instruments such as the sitar.

The Mughals made a major contribution to the Indian subcontinent with the development of their unique Indo-Persian architecture. Many monuments were built during the Mughal era by the Muslim emperors, especially Shah Jahan, including the Taj Mahal. The Taj Mahal is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It attracts 7-8 million unique visitors a year. The palaces, tombs, gardens and forts built by the Moghul Dynasty still stand today. They may be found in Agra, Aurangabad, Delhi, Dhaka, Fatehpur Sikri, Jaipur, Lahore, Kabul, Sheikhupura, and many other cities of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh. Two remarkable examples are Verinag Gardens and Shalimar Bagh in Srinagar, Kashmir, India.

The Mughal artistic tradition was eclectic, borrowing from Iranian, Indian, Chinese and Renaissance European stylistic and thematic elements. The art was mainly expressed in painted miniatures, as well as small luxury objects. Mughal emperors often took in Iranian bookbinders, illustrators, painters and calligraphers from the Safavid court. This was due to the commonalities of their Timurid styles. It was also due to the Mughal affinity for Iranian art and calligraphy.

Miniatures commissioned by the Mughal emperors initially focused on large projects illustrating books with eventful historical scenes and court life. However later miniatures included more single images for albums. Portraits and animal paintings displayed a profound appreciation for the serenity and beauty of the natural world. Emperor Jahangir for example commissioned brilliant artists such as Ustad Mansur, to realistically portray unusual flora and fauna throughout the empire.

The literary works the Moghul Emperors Akbar and Jahangir ordered to be illustrated ranged from epics like the Razmnama (a Persian translation of the Hindu epic, the Mahabharata) to historical memoirs or biographies of the dynasty. Richly-finished albums decorated with calligraphy and artistic scenes were mounted onto pages with decorative borders. The albums were then bound with covers of stamped and gilded or painted and lacquered leather.

It was also during this time period that the poet Mashafi coined the name 'Urdu' to describe a Persian-derived form of Hindustani Urdu. This was a derivation of “Zaban-i-Ordu”, a language spoken along the Indus. Although Persian was the dominant and "official" language of the empire, it was Urdu which was the language of the elite. The language was written in a type of Perso-Arabic script known as Nastaliq. It borrowed from Persian, Arabic and Turkic languages literary conventions and specialized vocabulary.

Mughal India was one of the three Islamic gunpowder empires, along with the Ottoman Empire and Safavid Persia. Babur had employed an Ottoman expert to acquaint Mughal military forces with the standard Ottoman formation. This featured artillery and firearm-equipped infantry protected by wagons in the center, and mounted archers on both wings. Babur used this formation at the First Battle of Panipat in 1526. This battle was notable in that it pitted Mughal forces against Afghan and Rajput forces loyal to the Delhi Sultanate. Though superior in numbers, they were without gunpowder weapons, and so were defeated by the Mughal forces.

The decisive victory is one reason opponents rarely met Mughal princes in pitched battle over the course of the empire's history. In India, guns made of bronze in the early 16th century were recovered from Calicut (circa 1504) and Diu (circa 1533). By the 17th century, Indians were manufacturing a diverse variety of firearms. This included large guns in particular, strategically located in Tanjore, Dacca, Bijapur and Murshidabad. Gujarāt supplied Europe saltpeter for use in gunpowder warfare during the 17th century. Mughal Bengal and Mālwa also participated in saltpeter production. The Dutch, French, Portuguese and English used Chāpra as a center of saltpeter refining.

In the 16th century, Akbar was the first to initiate and use metal cylinder rockets. They proved to be particularly effective during the Battle of Sanbal against war elephants. In 1657, the Mughal Army used rockets during the Siege of Bidar. Prince Aurangzeb's forces discharged rockets and grenades while scaling the walls. Bidar’s Prince was mortally wounded when a rocket struck Bidar’s gunpowder depot. Bidar was captured by the victorious Mughals after twenty-seven days of hard fighting.

The Indian war rockets were formidable weapons before such rockets were used in Europe. They had bamboo rods, a rocket-body lashed to the rod, and iron points. They were directed at the target and fired by lighting the fuse. Nonetheless primitive, the trajectory was rather erratic. There exist descriptions of events during times of Akbar and Jahāngir mentioning the use of mines and counter-mines with explosive charges.

Later Mysore rockets were upgraded versions of Mughal rockets used during the Siege of Jinji. These rockets turned fortunes in favor of the Sultanate of Mysore during the Second Anglo-Mysore War. This was particularly so during the Battle of Pollilur. In turn, the Mysorean rockets were the basis for the Congreve rockets. Britain deployed these rockets in the Napoleonic Wars against France. They were also used against the United States of America during the War of 1812.

SHIPPING & RETURNS/REFUNDS: We always ship books domestically (within the USA) via USPS INSURED media mail (“book rate”). Most international orders cost an additional $19.99 to $53.99 for an insured shipment in a heavily padded mailer. There is also a discount program which can cut postage costs by 50% to 75% if you’re buying about half-a-dozen books or more (5 kilos+). Our postage charges are as reasonable as USPS rates allow. ADDITIONAL PURCHASES do receive a VERY LARGE discount, typically about $5 per book (for each additional book after the first) so as to reward you for the economies of combined shipping/insurance costs.

Your purchase will ordinarily be shipped within 48 hours of payment. We package as well as anyone in the business, with lots of protective padding and containers. All of our shipments are fully insured against loss, and our shipping rates include the cost of this coverage (through stamps.com, Shipsaver.com, the USPS, UPS, or Fed-Ex). International tracking is provided free by the USPS for certain countries, other countries are at additional cost.

We do offer U.S. Postal Service Priority Mail, Registered Mail, and Express Mail for both international and domestic shipments, as well United Parcel Service (UPS) and Federal Express (Fed-Ex). Please ask for a rate quotation. Please note for international purchasers we will do everything we can to minimize your liability for VAT and/or duties. But we cannot assume any responsibility or liability for whatever taxes or duties may be levied on your purchase by the country of your residence. If you don’t like the tax and duty schemes your government imposes, please complain to them. We have no ability to influence or moderate your country’s tax/duty schemes.

If upon receipt of the item you are disappointed for any reason whatever, I offer a no questions asked 30-day return policy. Send it back, I will give you a complete refund of the purchase price; 1) less our original shipping/insurance costs, 2) less any non-refundable fees imposed by eBay Please note that though they generally do, eBay may not always refund payment processing fees on returns beyond a 30-day purchase window. So except for shipping costs and any payment processing fees not refunded by eBay, we will refund all proceeds from the sale of a return item. Obviously we have no ability to influence, modify or waive eBay policies.

ABOUT US: Prior to our retirement we used to travel to Eastern Europe and Central Asia several times a year seeking antique gemstones and jewelry from the globe’s most prolific gemstone producing and cutting centers. Most of the items we offer came from acquisitions we made in Eastern Europe, India, and from the Levant (Eastern Mediterranean/Near East) during these years from various institutions and dealers. Much of what we generate on Etsy, Amazon and Ebay goes to support worthy institutions in Europe and Asia connected with Anthropology and Archaeology. Though we have a collection of ancient coins numbering in the tens of thousands, our primary interests are ancient/antique jewelry and gemstones, a reflection of our academic backgrounds.

Though perhaps difficult to find in the USA, in Eastern Europe and Central Asia antique gemstones are commonly dismounted from old, broken settings – the gold reused – the gemstones recut and reset. Before these gorgeous antique gemstones are recut, we try to acquire the best of them in their original, antique, hand-finished state – most of them originally crafted a century or more ago. We believe that the work created by these long-gone master artisans is worth protecting and preserving rather than destroying this heritage of antique gemstones by recutting the original work out of existence. That by preserving their work, in a sense, we are preserving their lives and the legacy they left for modern times. Far better to appreciate their craft than to destroy it with modern cutting.

Not everyone agrees – fully 95% or more of the antique gemstones which come into these marketplaces are recut, and the heritage of the past lost. But if you agree with us that the past is worth protecting, and that past lives and the produce of those lives still matters today, consider buying an antique, hand cut, natural gemstone rather than one of the mass-produced machine cut (often synthetic or “lab produced”) gemstones which dominate the market today. We can set most any antique gemstone you purchase from us in your choice of styles and metals ranging from rings to pendants to earrings and bracelets; in sterling silver, 14kt solid gold, and 14kt gold fill. When you purchase from us, you can count on quick shipping and careful, secure packaging. We would be happy to provide you with a certificate/guarantee of authenticity for any item you purchase from us. There is a $3 fee for mailing under separate cover. I will always respond to every inquiry whether via email or eBay message, so please feel free to write.