Question

In what major ways the mughal dynasty in india similar to and yet quite different from its rival ottoman and safavid regimes in terms of its origins and the ways in which its indian empire was built, the composition of the subject peoples it rules and its relationships with them, its global linkages, and the causes of its decline

Answer 1

The similarity between the Mughals and the Ottomans and Safavids was that they were all Islamic empires that contributed a lot in the spreading out of the Islam or strengthening it in certain areas.

The differences are that the Mughals originated from the Genghis Khan lineage, thus the Mongols, but also with high influx of Turkic and North Iranian people, while the Ottomans were a mixture of Turkic people and North Iranian people, and the Safavids were predominantly Iranian people.

The Mughals were much more tolerant towards their subjects in both cultural and religious manner, which made the empire relatively stable and made it very prosperous. Also, the Mughals in many ways acted like some of the early Islamic caliphates where they were trying to get more knowledge, focus on science and development, were obsessed with mathematics, and also they made the empire a nice mixture of Indian, Mongol, Turkic, Persian, and Islamic culture, which manifested itself in most of the things in the empire.

The downfall of the Mughals was mostly because of the strength of the British Empire that came in the South Asia region and gradually took over it.