Cultural Flowering

What cultural advances occurred under the rule of the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal Empires?

All three Islamic empires presided over an extraordinary artistic and intellectual flowering in everything from carpetmaking to architecture and gardening, from geography and astronomy to medicine. At the same time, new religious practices (and conflicts) emerged, and new gathering places — coffeehouses — became popular outlets for socializing and exchanging ideas. Artistic and intellectual advances spread from culture to culture, probably because of the common Persian influence on the Turks since the tenth century. This exchange was also aided by common languages. Persian was used as the administrative language by the Mughals in India, and Arabic was a lingua franca of the entire region because of its centrality in Islam. In Ottoman lands both Persian and Arabic were literary languages, but Turkish slowly became the lingua franca of the realm.

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Persian “Ardabil” Carpet, ca. 1540 The Persians were among the first carpet weavers of ancient times and perfected the art over thousands of years. This wool carpet, reputably from the Safavid shrine at Ardabil, is one of only three signed and dated carpets from the Safavid period, when Persian carpetmaking was at its zenith. Hand knotted and hand dyed, it was royally commissioned with a traditional medallion design, consisting of a central sunburst medallion surrounded by radiating pendants. Inscribed on the carpet is an ode by the fourteenth-century poet Hafiz: “I have no refuge in this world other than thy threshold / My head has no resting place other than this doorway.” (Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK/The Bridgeman Art Library)