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Course: World History Project AP® > Unit 3
Lesson 3: 3.2—Administration of Empires and Belief SystemsREAD: Transformations in Eurasian Belief Systems, 1450–1750
Between 1450 and 1750, there was an explosion of religious change across multiple regions. These diverse religious transformations have had a lasting impact on our world.
The article below uses “Three Close Reads”. If you want to learn more about this strategy, click here.
First read: preview and skimming for gist
Before you read the article, you should skim it first. The skim should be very quick and give you the gist (general idea) of what the article is about. You should be looking at the title, author, headings, pictures, and opening sentences of paragraphs for the gist.
Second read: key ideas and understanding content
Now that you’ve skimmed the article, you should preview the questions you will be answering. These questions will help you get a better understanding of the concepts and arguments that are presented in the article. Keep in mind that when you read the article, it is a good idea to write down any vocab you see in the article that is unfamiliar to you.
By the end of the second close read, you should be able to answer the following questions:
- What are some of the short and long-term changes that the author provides to explain this period of religious transformation?
- How did the Sunni-Shi’a split in Islam create a crisis for the Ottoman Empire?
- Who was Martin Luther and why was he a significant figure in religious change in this period?
- Why did the Protestant Reformation spread so quickly?
- What does the author list as important characteristics of Sikhism?
Third read: evaluating and corroborating
Finally, here are some questions that will help you focus on why this article matters and how it connects to other content you’ve studied.
At the end of the third read, you should be able to respond to these questions:
- To what extent does this article explain continuity and change within the various belief systems during the period from 1450 to 1750?
- This article lists three beliefs systems that emerged as politically powerful forces during this period (Shi’a Islam, Protestant Christianity, and Sikhism). Did these three belief systems do more to support or to destabilize empires and states? Provide three pieces of evidence to support your claim.
Now that you know what to look for, it’s time to read! Remember to return to these questions once you’ve finished reading.
Transformations in Eurasian Belief Systems, 1450–1750
By Amy Elizabeth Robinson
Between 1450 and 1750, there was an explosion of religious change across multiple regions. These diverse religious transformations have had a lasting impact on our world.
Introduction: Changing world, changing belief systems
Between 1450 and 1750 there was an explosion of religious change across multiple regions. This change was tied to long processes of transformation as well as short-term upheavals. Cities were growing, and market networks were extending into the countryside. The world got colder, with the Little Ice Age lasting from about 1500 to 1800. People were hungry, and prices were rising. New kinds of states were emerging, led by absolutist rulers, meaning the ruler held all the state’s power. These rulers used gunpowder to defend territory and taxation to fund courtly life. There were new tensions, and sometimes new alliances, between different segments of society: warriors, bureaucrats, merchants, craftspeople, peasants, and religious leaders.
By the 1500s, there was a sense in some places that the very ground of human experience was shifting, perhaps even that the “end-times” were near. In 1530 Martin Luther, known as the founder of Protestantism, now the second largest form of Christianity, wrote: “Everything has come to pass and is fulfilled: ... the world is crackling in all places, as if it is going break apart and crumble.” At the very least, many people felt that they needed new forms of worship and understanding.
Here, we will examine three early modern belief systems that fractured or emerged in Eurasia. The first is the intensification of divisions within Islam. The second is the Protestant and Catholic Reformations in Europe. Finally, the third is the emergence of Sikhism as a new religion in northern India.
Islamic rifts: Sunni and Shi’a
The division between Sunni and Shi’a schools of Islam became increasingly important in the early 1500s. By then, the Sunni-led Ottoman Empire had become a formidable power in southeastern Europe and western Asia. But it was just one of several regional Muslim dynasties. For example, the Mamluk Sultanate had ruled in Egypt since 1250. Also, Ottoman leaders and scholars did not think it necessary for their empire to be a caliphate—meaning a state ruled by a caliph, who is a legitimate successor to Muhammad.
Then, in 1501, a young warrior named Ismail established the Safavid Empire on the eastern edge of Ottoman lands. Ismail claimed descent from Safi al-Din, the founder of a popular Sufi order, and from Ali, the first Shi’a successor to Muhammad. At age fourteen, Ismail conquered the city of Tabriz, and proclaimed himself shah, emperor of Iran.
Ismail belonged to the Twelver Shi’a community. They believe there are only twelve legitimate successors to Muhammad, and that the twelfth is alive but in hiding. As a messianic belief system, it is based on an expectation that a true leader will emerge. Like other Shi’a groups, it asserts that only divinely-ordained imams (Muslim prayer leaders) can serve as caliph, ruler of the Muslim world. That excludes any leaders chosen through a scholarly or political process.
The power and popularity of the Safavid Empire created a crisis for Selim I, the Ottoman sultan. His territory was now threatened by Spain and Portugal to the west, and the militant Safavids to the east. Shi’ites lived inside Ottoman borders, too. Selim and Ottoman Sunni scholars dealt with this by defining all Safavids and Shi’a Muslims, inside or outside of Ottoman territory, as heretics, meaning “unbelievers.” Imperial orders throughout the 1500s authorized the arrest, punishment, and killing of anyone loyal to Shah Ismail or Twelver Shi’ism. Marriage between Sunni and Shi’a Muslims was outlawed.
Both the Sunni Ottomans and the Shi’a Safavids claimed to be protectors of Islam. In the 1600s and 1700s, these “gunpowder empires” relied less on warlike expansion and more and more on expensive symbols and projects. Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent rebuilt Jerusalem, the third holiest city in Islam. Shah Abbas I established madrasas (religious schools) in Iran and made a display of his religious piety. Both empires lost territory and economic power by the mid-eighteenth century. But competing claims of Sunni and Shi’a leaders to be the only rightful leaders of Islam continue today.
The Protestant and Catholic Reformations
In 1517, the same year that Selim I proclaimed himself caliph, another man published a document that would end up rocking the entire Christian world. Martin Luther, author of the Ninety-Five Theses, was a German priest who challenged the Catholic Church’s sale of “indulgences.” Indulgences allowed people to pay the church in order to reduce their punishment for sins. Though Luther merely wanted to debate the practice with other Christian scholars, his Ninety-Five Theses unleashed something much bigger: the Protestant Reformation.
Other priests and scholars questioned the Catholic Church. That same year, a Catholic council had recommended reforms, and humanist scholar Desiderius Erasmus published a stinging critique of the Church’s wealth and power. There were also dissenting Christian communities that dated back several hundred years. But Luther’s particular ideas were like a match to a waiting bonfire. The next two hundred years in Europe felt, in the words of historian Christopher Hill, like a “world turned upside down.”
Protestants like Luther and John Calvin proclaimed the “priesthood of all believers.” What really mattered, they said, was grace; that is, the certainty of an inner relationship with God. The printing press enabled these ideas to spread through Europe’s hierarchical society. For merchant elites, Protestant ideas matched their new sense of importance and independence. Many monarchs and princes, meanwhile, saw Protestantism as a useful way to evade or challenge the Church’s power. Henry VIII in England, for example, left the Catholic Church when it would not annul the first of his many marriages. Many peasants, artisans, and craftspeople believed Protestantism could offer a path towards social and economic change. “No one but God, our creator ... shall have bondsmen [serfs or slaves],” proclaimed German villagers during the Peasant War of 1524.
The Catholic Reformation was a response to this turmoil. The Spanish Inquisition had been established in 1478. The Portuguese and Roman Inquisitions followed in 1536 and 1542. These tribunals policed Catholic behavior across Europe and the Spanish and Portuguese empires. In 1540, the Spanish priest Ignatius of Loyola founded the Society of Jesus. Its members, called Jesuits, vowed obedience to the Pope in Rome and served as missionaries, spreading Catholicism from South America to China and Japan. The Council of Trent met from 1545–1563. Its participants decided how Catholicism should be interpreted and what counted as heresy.
By the 1560s, it was clear that Christian debates were evolving into large-scale violence. Across a continent already stressed by inflation and famine, conflicts over faith became explosive. Both Catholic and Protestant leaders tried to control the way ordinary people practiced religion and folk traditions. This was the deadliest era of European witch-hunts. Tens of thousands of people, mostly women, were tortured and killed. The French Wars of Religion lasted from 1562–1598, the Dutch Revolt against the Spanish king from 1598–1648, the chaotic Thirty Years War in eastern Europe from 1618–1648, and the English Civil War from 1642–1651.
Through all this, people did speak up against religious violence. “So many grievous crimes religion has inspired!” said the French Catholic writer Michel de Montaigne, who had Protestant patrons and friends.
Sikhism, syncretism, and the Mughal Empire
In northern India in the late 1400s, Hindu, Muslim, and popular traditions existed alongside one another. Sufi Muslim dervishes and Hindu sadhus were both revered. While most local rulers were Hindu at the time, the Muslim Timurid invasion of 1398 had introduced Muslim monarchs as well. Whether Hindu or Muslim, local rulers could ask for support and blessing from leaders of either faith.
It was in this environment of cultural blending, or syncretism, that Sikhism emerged. Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, was born in the Punjab region. His family belonged to the Hindu Khatri merchant caste.
In the 1520s, Guru Nanak returned to the Punjab and formally set up a new religious community. Its members were called Sikhs, meaning “learner” or “disciple”. Originating from the Khatri caste, Sikhism spread along merchant networks. But Sikhs rejected caste divisions. The divine, according to Guru Nanak, was accessible to farmers and traders, women and men, as well as priests or mystics. It was not separate from the activities of everyday life. Converts to Sikhism came from all major castes, including “outcaste” communities who were considered impure in Hinduism, and from Islam. Sikh scriptures were written in vernacular languages so people of all classes and backgrounds could read them.
In the early years of the Mughal Empire, rulers promoted sulh-i kull, translating to “peace with all.” Specifically, this meant the toleration of all traditions and faiths. That tolerance declined with later emperors, who increasingly insisted on Muslim dominance. Several Sikh gurus and their family members were executed in the 1600s. In response, Sikhism grew more militant. In the early 1600s gurus began surrounding themselves with armed guards. In 1699 the tenth Guru, Gobind Singh, founded the Khalsa, an order of male Sikh devotees. They set themselves apart from Muslims and Hindus through dress, eating, and marriage practices. And by the early 1700s, Punjabi Sikhs were in open rebellion against the Mughal Empire.
Conclusion
The early modern period has been called the “age of religious violence” by some historians. But “age of religious transformation” might be more accurate. The economic, social, and political changes of these centuries produced tremendous stress. In the midst of this, some people reached for new forms of worship and understanding, while others held more tightly to their existing beliefs. Both were reactions to a world in transformation.
Author bio
Amy Elizabeth Robinson is a freelance writer, editor, and historian with a PhD in the history of Britain and the British Empire. She has taught at Sonoma State University and Stanford University.