The Near and Middle East (1396–1539 CE)

Timur’s Shadow, Ottoman Rise, and the Safavid–Mamluk Eclipse

Geography & Environmental Context

The Near and Middle East stretched from the Nile and Red Sea to the Tigris–Euphrates, the Iranian Plateau, and the Persian Gulf, spanning the holy cities of Mecca and Jerusalem, the imperial capitals of Cairo, Baghdad, and Isfahan, and the trading ports of Aden, Hormuz, and Muscat.
Highland belts—the Zagros, Caucasus, and Yemeni terraces—bordered steppe, desert, and floodplain worlds. This vast region, joining the Mediterranean, Indian Ocean, and Central Asian corridors, formed the hinge between Europe, Africa, and Asia.

Climate & Environmental Shifts

The Little Ice Age introduced harsher winters and irregular rainfall:

• In Mesopotamia, fluctuating river courses alternated between prosperity and famine.

• On the Iranian Plateau, drought decades strained qanat irrigation and transhumant flocks.

• Across the Caucasus, heavy snows caused floods that replenished vineyards and orchards.

• The Nile Valley and Yemeni terraces maintained productivity through hydraulic control.

• The Persian Gulf and Red Sea saw storms and shifting monsoons that tested coastal settlements.

Subsistence & Settlement

Agriculture, trade, and pastoralism overlapped:

• Nile Valley & Delta: Wheat, barley, sugarcane, flax, and dates fed the Mamluk metropolises.

• Mesopotamia & Iran: Wheat, barley, cotton, and rice (in Khuzestan, Gilan); orchards in the uplands.

• Yemen & Hejaz: Sorghum, wheat, fruit, and qat; date groves and oasis farming along pilgrimage routes.

• Caucasus & Anatolia: Vines, olives, and cereals thrived beside pastoral uplands.

• Nomadic worlds: Turkoman, Kurdish, Arab, and Lur herders grazed mixed flocks across seasonal pastures.

• Urban centers: Cairo, Damascus, Baghdad, Tabriz, Isfahan, Aleppo, and Hormuz served as nodes of scholarship, trade, and craft.

Technology & Material Culture

• Hydraulic systems: Qanats, canals, and terrace walls sustained agriculture; norias turned on the Euphrates.

• Crafts: Persian carpets (Tabriz, Kashan), glasswork, textiles, and metalware.

• Architecture: Timurid domes, tile mosaics, and madrasas in Herat and Samarkand; Ottoman mosque architecture in Aleppo and Damascus; coral-stone mosques in Yemen.

• Military: Composite bows and cavalry remained dominant; firearms and cannon spread after Ottoman adoption.

• Navigation: Dhows and lateen-sailed ships from Hormuz to Aden connected with Indian Ocean monsoon circuits.

Movement & Interaction Corridors

• Caravan routes: Linked Tabriz to Anatolia, Baghdad, and the Caucasus; Isfahan and Shiraz to Hormuz.

• Persian Gulf trade: Hormuz, Muscat, and Basra handled Indian Ocean commerce in textiles, spices, and horses.

• Silk routes: Crossed Gilan, Shirvan, and the Caucasus, reaching Black Sea markets.

• Pilgrimage: Caravans to Najaf, Karbala, Mashhad, Mecca, and Medina reinforced religious networks.

• Ottoman conquests: Redirected Syria and Iraq’s caravan trade to Istanbul after 1517.

• Portuguese intrusion: Raids on Hormuz (1507) and the Red Sea disrupted long-standing routes.

Cultural & Symbolic Expressions

• Timurid legacy: Centered in Herat and Samarkand, radiating Persianate art, literature, and architecture.

• Safavid transformation: Shah Ismail I (r. 1501–1524) unified Iran under Shiʿism, reshaping identity through shrines, mosques, and processions.

• Ottoman Islam: Extended Sunni orthodoxy across Syria, Egypt, and Iraq, building mosques and tekke (Sufi lodges).

• Caucasian Christianity: Armenian and Georgian monasteries survived amid imperial flux.

• Sufism: Orders like the Naqshbandiyya and Qadiriyya linked countryside to city, crossing sectarian lines.

• Yemen & Oman: Scholars and merchants blended trade, piety, and maritime expansion; Socotra’s hybrid traditions bridged worlds.

Environmental Adaptation & Resilience

• Irrigation management: Collective upkeep of qanats, terrace walls, and flood canals sustained agriculture.

• Nomadic mobility: Seasonal herding buffered climatic extremes; shifting routes mitigated drought loss.

• Urban import systems: Grain shipments from fertile belts fed capitals through caravan and river transport.

• Long-lived crops: Date palms, vineyards, and olive groves stabilized regional economies across drought cycles.

Technology & Power Shifts (Conflict Dynamics)

• Timur’s conquests (late 1300s–early 1400s): Ravaged Syria, Iraq, and Iran, yet catalyzed a Persianate artistic renaissance.

• Turkoman confederations: The Qara Qoyunlu and Aq Qoyunlu dominated Iran and Iraq before the Safavids.

• Safavid ascendance: Shah Ismail I established a Shiʿi state; defeat at Chaldiran (1514) by Ottoman firearms defined imperial frontiers.

• Ottoman triumphs: Selim I conquered Syria and Egypt (1516–1517); Süleyman the Magnificent annexed Iraq (1534).

• Mamluk collapse: Ended centuries of rule; Cairo became an Ottoman provincial capital.

• Caucasian buffer wars: Armenia and Georgia alternated between Ottoman and Safavid control.

• Portuguese footholds: Hormuz, Socotra, and Red Sea raids marked Europe’s first sustained intrusion into the region’s trade.

Transition (to 1539 CE)

By 1539, the Near and Middle East had entered an age of imperial duality:
The Ottoman Empire held Syria, Iraq, and Egypt, commanding the holy cities and Mediterranean gateways; the Safavid Empire ruled Iran and the Caucasus, anchoring Shiʿi identity; and the Portuguese dominated Hormuz, diverting Indian Ocean trade.
Across deserts, deltas, and highlands, caravan roads and monsoon ports endured, sustaining a cosmopolitan world born from Timur’s devastation, renewed by Safavid charisma, and unified—if uneasily—under the expanding Ottoman crescent.

Timur's regime is characterized by its inclusion of Iranians in administrative roles and its promotion of architecture and poetry.

His empire disintegrates rapidly after his death in 1405, however, and Mongol tribes, Uzbeks, and Turkmens rule an area roughly coterminus with present-day Iran until the rise of the Safavi dynasty, the first native Iranian dynasty in almost a thousand years.

The Safavis, who come to power in 1501, are leaders of a militant Sufi order of Islamic mystics.

The Safavis trace their ancestry to Sheikh Safi ad Din (died circa 1334), the founder of the Sufis, who claimed descent from Shia Islam's Seventh Imam, Musa al Kazim.

From their home base in Ardabil, the Safavis recruit followers among the Turkmen tribesmen of Anatolia and forge them into an effective fighting force and an instrument for territorial expansion.

The Safavis adopt Shia Islam in the mid-fifteenth century, and their movement becomes highly millenarian in character.

The Safavis, under their leader Ismail, seize power in Tabriz, which becomes their capital, in 1501.

Ismail is proclaimed shah of Iran.

The rise of the Safavis marks the reemergence in Iran of a powerful central authority within geographical boundaries attained by former Iranian empires.

The Safavis declare Shia Islam the state religion and use proselytizing and force to convert the large majority of Muslims in Iran to the Shia sect.

Iran is a theocracy under the early Safavis.

Ismail's followers venerate him as the murshid-kamil, the perfect guide, who combines in his person both temporal and spiritual authority.

In the new state, he is represented in both these functions by the vakil, an official who acts as a kind of alter ego.

The sadr heads the powerful religious organization; the vizier, the bureaucracy; and the amir alumara, the fighting forces.

These forces, the Qizilbash, come primarily from the seven Turkic-speaking tribes that had supported the Safavi bid for power.

The Safavis also face external challenges from the Uzbeks to the northeast and the Ottoman Empire to the west.

The Uzbeks are an unstable element who raid into Khorasan, particularly when the central government is weak, and block the Safavi advance northward into Transoxiana.

The Ottomans, based in present-day Turkey, are Sunnis: as rivals for the religious allegiance of Muslims in eastern Anatolia and Iraq, they press territorial claims in both these areas and in the Caucasus.

The Safavi Empire receives a blow that is to prove fatal in 1524, when the Ottoman sultan Selim I defeats Safavi forces at Chaldiran and occupies the Safavi capital, Tabriz.

He is forced to withdraw because of the harsh winter and the Safavis' scorched-earth policy.

Safavi rulers continue to assert claims to spiritual leadership, but the defeat shatters belief in the shah as a semi-divine figure and weakens his hold on the Qizilbash chiefs.

Mehmed II captures Konya in 1472 and annexes the city to the Ottoman empire, then drives Uzun Hasan's forces eastward.

Giosafat Barbaro, who had been selected in 1473 as another Venetian ambassador to Azerbaijan, due to his experience in the Crimean, Muscovy, and Tartary, gets on well with Uzun Hassan but he is unable to persuade the ruler to attack the Ottomans again.

Shortly afterwards, ...

…Hasan's son Ughurlu Muhammad rises in rebellion, seizing the city of Shiraz.

The Ottoman Turks, having knocked the Ak Koyunlu Turkmen confederation out of the Venetian-Turkish war in 1473, overrun Albania and raid the outskirts of core Venetian territory.