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Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 August 2019

Christopher Markiewicz
Affiliation:
University of Birmingham
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Summary

In the sixteenth century, Muslim rulers of the largest empires of West and South Asia all embraced a new vocabulary of sovereignty that supplemented traditional Perso-Islamic titles and concepts of rule. To be sure, the traditional nomenclature remained. The Ottoman sultan, the Safavid shah, and the Mughal padishah still frequently referred to themselves by titles with long histories in Islamic lands. In all cases, these titles were mutually intelligible across these empires and to a large extent interchangeable in Ottoman Istanbul, Safavid Qazvin or Isfahan, and Mughal Delhi or Fatehpur Sikri. That is to say, on the basis of a long-established and shared cultural heritage, sultan, shah, and padishah were all recognized and accepted markers of sovereignty across a wide expanse between the Balkans and Bengal.1 Yet, in addition to these traditional titles of sovereign authority, alternative claims emerged prominently in the sixteenth century within these three Muslim polities. Such claims powerfully enhanced the older designations. They also often suggested a rationale for rule on a sacral or cosmic universal scale. These emperors were not just preeminent in their own domains, but became sahib-qiran (lord of the auspicious astral conjunction), mujaddid (centennial renewer of the faith), khalifa-yi ilahi (Vicegerent of God), and occasionally mahdi-yi akhir-i zaman (Harbinger of the End Time).

Type
Chapter
Information
The Crisis of Kingship in Late Medieval Islam
Persian Emigres and the Making of Ottoman Sovereignty
, pp. 1 - 22
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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  • Introduction
  • Christopher Markiewicz, University of Birmingham
  • Book: The Crisis of Kingship in Late Medieval Islam
  • Online publication: 03 August 2019
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108684842.002
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  • Introduction
  • Christopher Markiewicz, University of Birmingham
  • Book: The Crisis of Kingship in Late Medieval Islam
  • Online publication: 03 August 2019
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108684842.002
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Introduction
  • Christopher Markiewicz, University of Birmingham
  • Book: The Crisis of Kingship in Late Medieval Islam
  • Online publication: 03 August 2019
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108684842.002
Available formats
×