Middle East
Overview
Statewide Dual Credit Modern World History: Unit 11, Lesson 6
A discussion of the Islamic regions of the Middle East in the 17th and 18th centuries, a time of reform, change, and power shifts, with the gradual decline of the Ottoman Empire and the rise of new powers in the region, such as Egypt under Muhammad Ali Pasha and the Qajar dynasty in Iran.
In the Islamic regions of the Middle East, the 17th and 18th centuries constituted periods of reform and change as well as losses of influence and power. The quest to control the Mediterranean was aided by a European victory at the battle of Lepanto in 1571. Despite its defeat, the Ottoman Empire remained a potent force in the Middle East, North Africa and the Balkans. Subsequently, the Ottomans took over Tunis from the Spanish Habsburg Empire in 1574, Fez from the Portuguese in 1578 and Crete and Venice in 1669. Murad III (1574-1595) also conquered parts of the Caucasus and Azerbaijan in 1576. Wars in the 17th century with European powers led to the loss of Hungary, the Banat of Temesvár, Transylvania and Bukovina. In 1812, the Ottomans also lost parts of their holdings along the Black Sea. In Anatolia and the Balkans, local ruling elites increasingly took control using nationalist uprisings, particularly among groups of Christians, to their advantage.
Many usurped the Ottoman tax system by sending only small amounts to the Ottoman government. The Ottoman rulers of Istanbul seemed unaware to the resistance going on in the provinces. In the early 18th century, during the Tulip period (1717-1730), some Ottoman elites began to imitate European lifestyles and dress. Sultan Ahmad III (1703-1730) established his summer residences along the Bosporus River and the Golden Horn, containing gardens inspired by those of the French royal family at Versailles. Tulips, originally wildflowers from central Asia, became not only popular throughout the Ottoman Empire but were also imported to Holland by Oghier Ghislain de Busbecq (1522-1592), an ambassador of Emperor Ferdinand I (1503-1564) to the Ottoman court. This led to the spread of tulips across Europe. The printing press also found its way into the Ottoman empire, helping to disseminate history, geography and literature books written in Turkish. The responses toward Western imperialism and advances were initially filtered into state-directed reforms that tried to stop Western influences, in particular those regarding religion and culture.
In the 19th century, the three Muslim empires that had once dominated the Middle East and Asia were either overthrown or significantly weakened. The Mughals in India, the Safavids in Persia and the Ottoman Empire had been reduced by attacks from with Western forces with more advanced military and financial resources. As we learn in other chapters, Britain turned India into a crown colony. Persia was sandwiched between the Russian and British spheres of influence and power. After 1830, the Ottomans experienced a continuous loss of territory, especially in North Africa.
In 1798, Napoleon invaded Egypt, but he and his army were eventually expelled in 1804 by an Anglo-Ottoman alliance. Egypt became independent under the military governor Muhammad Ali Pasha (1769-1849). The long reign of the Albanian Ali Pasha allowed him to establish some reforms. He had served in the Ottoman army against the French, which made him aware of European military superiority and that it only was possible to defeat European powers if military reforms were initiated. He scouted out information from France, established munition industries and modernized the educational and public health system. He supported private landownership and focused on cash crop production of sugar and cotton. He also invaded other areas to expand his territory and influence. Ali occupied Sudan and founded Khartoum. He fought the Ottomans in Syria but lost his navy to a combined Anglo-French fleet. Foreign powers – primarily French and British – increasingly invested in Egypt by building the Suez Canal and constructing railroads. Lavish spending by him and his sons bankrupted the country, forcing the rulers of Egypt to sell their shares in the Suez Canal Company to Britain. Eventually, Britain installed Muhammad Pasha’s grandson as the new viceroy, or khedive, in charge of Egypt, a position he held until 1922.
During the late 19th century, a complicated situation arose in Sudan. Muhammad Ahmad (1844-1885), also called the Mahdi, led a successful uprising against the Egyptian and British presence between 1881-1885. The Mahdiyya or Mahdist rebellion was a complex blend of traditional African religions, fundamentalist Islam and nationalism. When Muhammad Ahmad came out of the struggle victorious, he soon established traditional Sharia courts in Sudan in the hope of further strengthening and legitimizing his rule. Ahmad would hold power until the British, in 1898, established the protectorate of Sudan.
While the Ottoman Empire had to deal with the loss of territory, the Qajar family took control of Iran in 1794 by deposing Lotf ’ Ali Khan (c.1769-1794), the last Shah of the Zand dynasty. Adopting European-style military, technological and educational influences, Qajar rulers expanded into the Caucasus but lost the territories of modern-day Georgia, Dagestan, Azerbaijan and Armenia to the Russian Empire. Under the Qajar dynasty, the idea of the Iranian kingship became reinvigorated. Shah Naser al-Din (1831-1896) introduced major reforms focused on the modernization of his military. Military and commercial relationships with the West led to Iran's encounter with the world market, which allowed western goods to flood Iran’s internal markets.
To pay for these, Iranians invested in cash crops like tobacco, cotton and opium. However, competition from European imports affected the Iranian manufacturing industry, leading to the bankruptcy of many local businesses. In 1890, Naser al-Din granted a British firm a tobacco monopoly. This led to internal resistance spearheaded by the Muslim cleric Jamal ad-Din Al- Afgani (1839-1897) who claimed that foreign influences and encroachment hurt local merchants as well as Iran’s political and religious autonomy. Eventually, the shah had to end the tobacco monopoly. However, Western influences remained strong in Iran’s mineral and oil industry and the rights belonging to it. In a concession to the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, Iran started to export oil to the west in 1908.
The encroachments of the Russian and British empires in Iranian affairs undermined the stability of Iran. Eventually, foreign advances led to the partition of Qajar Iran into two spheres of influence. The 1907
Anglo-Russian Convention acknowledged Russian influence in northern Persia as the British claimed control over the south. The Persian Constitutional Revolution (1905-1911) led to the creation of a constitutional monarchy. Not only were the Shahs losing power, but as foreign influence increased, it was outsiders who increasingly made the decisions for Iran. This encouraged the military officer Reza Khan (1878- 1944) to attempt to seize control of the government. In 1925, Khan now formally known as Reza Shah created a new state officially called the Imperial State of Persia. Worried about both the Soviets and the British, Reza Shah undertook a series of reforms to modernize Iran. Many of the reforms in the Middle East during the 18th and 19th centuries were state-directed and open to Western influences. However, fundamentalist Islamic movements such as Wahabism, as it developed in Saudi Arabia, provided counterparts to modernist influences and Western encroachment. In both Sunni and Shia dominated areas, there was a growing element that wished for the state to be governed by religious rather than secular laws.
Other Islamic states joined in the resistance against Western encroachment, such as the followers of Abdelkader (1808-1883) in Algeria, who fought against the French. French rule over Algeria started in 1830 with the wresting away of Algiers from the Ottomans. French colonial rule ended with the Algerian War of Independence in 1962. From 1848, French Algeria was an integral part of France, and Algiers was often considered the second capital of France. Settling in mostly coastal areas, thousands of European immigrants settled in Algeria adding a European influence that melded European traditions with North African customs. French authorities forced colonial subjects to learn French, attend French-speaking schools and embrace French culture while also encouraging conversion to Catholicism. These methods were often also referred to as “assimilation and association” and became known as the so-called “civilizing mission.”