Eastern Islamdom comprises all those lands to the east of the Ottoman empire, including Iran and points farther east. As explained in chapter 4, the division between Western and Eastern Islamdom seems to have been the dividing line between two styles of warfare throughout this period, and perhaps in earlier periods as well.

The heavy cavalry of the Mamluks in Egypt could not cope with the janissary musketeers of the Ottomans. By contrast, the light cavalry of the Safavids in Iran was able to hold its own against them. This light cavalry was none other than the familiar mounted archers of the steppe nomads operating in a slightly more arid environment of mixed deserts and grasslands surrounding small oases of agrarianate civilization. In other words, these were the Turkish desert nomads described earlier in chapter 1.

In Iran, a military ruling class of Turkish pastoral nomads was imposed over the Iranian settled population. In northern India, a similar ruling class was imposed over the Indian settled population. Given that the Ottomans and Mamluks were themselves Turks, virtually all of Islamdom (aside from newly converted areas in central Africa or Southeast Asia) was ruled by Turks by the time that firearms arrived.

Nevertheless, despite the similarity in their cultural background, each regime adapted to the land over which it ruled. The Ottomans (in Turkey) and Mughals (in India), who ruled over densely populated agricultural lands, came to rely more heavily on infantry armed with muskets and cannon.