By the 1350s the had advanced from their strongholds in Asia Minor across the Bosporus into Europe.
The victory of led to the reunification of the Ottoman empire following the temporary setbacks caused by Timur's invasion.
In May 1453 the city of Constantinople fell to the armies of , called the Conqueror.
The Ottoman imperial armies were increasingly dominated by troops called , men who had been forcibly conscripted as adolescent boys in conquered territories.
Day-to-day administration in the Ottoman empire was carried out by a large bureaucracy headed by a grand . [Hint]
The most spectacular mosque built during the Ottoman era was the , built during the reign of one of the most successful sultans.
Like the Ottomans, the arose from the struggles of rival Turkic groups in the wake of Timurid invasions, but they espoused the Shi'ite variant of Islam.
In the early fourteenth century a Sufi, , began a militant campaign to purify and reform Islam among the Turkic tribes of Iran.
As the numbers of the "" (as the followers of the Safavids were called) grew, they faced increasing resistance based on religious opposition.
In 1501 a Sufi commander named took the city of Tabriz and was proclaimed shah or emperor. [Hint]
In August of 1514 the Ottoman empire dealt the Safavids a severe setback at the battle of .
The Safavid empire reached the height of its strength and prosperity under Shah .
Although the later Safavid Shahs played down claims to divinity that had been set forth under Ismail and his predecessors, they continued to claim descent from one of the Shi'ite or successors of Ali.
, who were both local mosque officials and prayer leaders, were also supervised by and given some support from the Safavid state.
The splendid seat of Savafid power, the capital at , was laid out around a great square.
Following the fall of the Safavid capital in 1722, a soldier-adventurer named proclaimed himself Shah in 1736.
led his followers into India in 1526 because he had lost his original kingdom centered on Farghana in central Asia in the preceding decades.
Having found a foothold in Kabul in 1545, launched a series of campaigns into India that gradually restored Mughal rule in 1556.
The Mughal ruler pursued a policy of reconciliation and cooperation with the Hindu princes.
Akbar considered his new religion, the , which blended elements of many faiths with which he was familiar, as the long-term key to his efforts to reconcile Hindus and Muslims.
The Muslim and Hindu warrior aristocracy that formed the core of the supporters of the dynasty were, like their Ottoman and Safavid counterparts, granted villages for their support. [Hint]
Akbar did legally prohibit or the immolation of high-caste Hindu women on their husbands' funeral pyre.
The best-known architectural work of the Mughal world was the which fused the Hindu love of ornament with the Islamic genius for domes and arches.
Jahangir's wife, , continually amassed power and her faction dominated the empire for much of the later years of Jahangir's reign.
, Shah Jahan's son and successor, seized control of an empire that was threatened by internal decay and growing dangers from external enemies.
The rise of new religious sects like the in northwest India further strained the declining resources of an imperial system that was clearly overextended.
