MUSLIM EMPIRES DBQ

1
MUSLIM EMPIRES DBQ

• EXAMPLES OF HIGH-QUALITY THESIS STATEMENTS, POV,
  ADDTL DOC REQUESTS, AND TOPIC SENTENCES

2
GOOD THESIS

• While the overall political and religious
  climates of the Muslim Empires in 1450-1750 were
  tense, religious tolerance can be seen in the
  Mughal and Ottoman Empires.

3
GOOD THESIS

• The political and religious climate of the
  Muslim Empires in c. 1450-1750 was very tenseThe
  military was needed to support the government and
  to back up political decisions, while the
  religious tension was a result of the close
  proximity of various religious groups.

4
GOOD THESIS

• Documents 1, 6, 9 and 10 discuss the
  militaristic political climate of the Gunpowder
  Empires c. 1450-1750, while documents 1, 5, 7, 8
  and 10 describe the tolerant religious climate of
  the Gunpowder Empires, and documents 2, 3, 4
  and 10 display the religiously intolerant climate
  of the empires.

5
GOOD THESIS, AND GOOD TOPIC SENTENCES

• Documents 7 and 8 portray a tolerant religious
  climate throughout the Muslim Empires c.
  1450-1750, while documents 1,2,3 and 9 show an
  intolerant religious climate. Documents 1,4, and
  10 show a diverse religious climate. Documents
  3, 5, and 7 portray a tense political climate.
• Topic sentence, paragraph 1
• Documents 7 and 8 show a tolerant religious
  climate throughout the Muslim Empires.
• Topic sentence, paragraph 2
• Documents 1,2,3 and 9 show an intolerant
  religious climate.
• Topic sentence, paragraph 3
• Documents 1, 4 and 10 show a diverse religious
  climate.
• Topic sentence, paragraph 4
• Documents 5 and 6 show a tense political climate.
  

6
USING DOCS SPECIFICALLY, IN ORDER TO SUPPORT THE
THESIS

• Thesis
• The Muslim Empires of 1450-1750 had a very
  diverse religious climate
• Paragraph 1, topic sentence
• Docs 1,2,3,4,5,7,8, and 10 show the diversity of
  the Muslim empires religious climate.
• Subsequent use of examples from all listed docs
• Doc 1 shows that there were Jews and Christians
  in most major Turkish citiesDoc 2 shows that
  there was a large Hindu population in the Mughal
  empire. Doc 3 shows that there were Christian
  missionaries in the Safavid Empire. Doc 4 shows
  how the Sikhs interacted with Hindus, Muslims and
  Buddhists. Doc 5 shows that there was both of
  the major Islamic sects and Hindus in the Mughal
  empire. Doc 7 shows that there was a lot of
  discussion and possibly syncretism among
  different religions. Doc 8 shows the
  interactions between Hindus and Muslims. Doc 10
  shows the varieties of religions in all the
  empires

7
HOW MIGHT WE FIX THIS PARAGRAPH??

• Documents 1,7, and 8 demonstrate the tolerant
  religious climate of the Muslim Empires.
• Document 1references the Janissaries
  purpose of protecting the local weaker religions.
  In document 8 Jahangir justifies the protection
  of the Hindus because they are usefully
  engaged and benefiting the empire. The
  painting in document 7 shows Akbars tolerance
  of the Jesuits.

8
GOOD POV How and why is this document biased?

• Document 3 is taken from the perspective of a
  missionary who traveled to the Safavid Empire in
  order to convert others to Christianity.
  However, the missionary failed and upon his
  return to Spain, brought along with him the point
  of view that all those of the Safavid Empire were
  rude, inconsiderate, and disingenuous peoples
  who merely feigned appreciation of the Spanish
  missionaries. This perspective is taken, of
  course, only because the missionary was
  unsuccessful.

9
GOOD POV

• Doc 3 shows how the Muslims didnt like the
  Christian missionaries. However, Father Simon
  may have exaggerated the Muslims hostility to
  make excuses for his missions failure.

10
GOOD POV

• Document 3, which is about the Safavid empire,
  shows the ruler Shah Abbass disrespect for
  Christian traditions However, coming from a
  group that was a minority in the Safavid Empire,
  Father Simon, the author of Document 3 , probably
  felt that the Muslim shah was more oppressive
  than he actually was Because Father Simon came
  to the Safavid Empire to explore missionary work,
  it is clear that he viewed Muslims as wrong and
  thus would have been more critical of Islamic
  rule.

11
GOOD POV (and outstanding use of bandit)

• Document 6 describes the Janissaries in a
  completely different light. They are corrupt and
  are stealing money from the central government.
  They are also described as stealing bandits whoo
  hoo!. The authors POV is definitely in favor
  of the central government and in particular to
  the treasury department, so he is going to be
  very critical of the Janissaries, especially if
  he suspects that they are squandering the money
  in in the Ottoman treasury.

12
PROBABLY, OR ALMOST THERE POV

• Document 8 also discusses the role of religion
  in regard to the political climate of the Mughal
  Empire, but is written by one of the emperors,
  and thus could be biased when he describes how
  his father was so tolerant of the Hindus.
• Jahangir may have exaggerated Akbars level of
  tolerance, as he would have wanted to positively
  portray his Muslim family to his Hindu subjects
  (especially given the tense religious climate in
  the Mughal Empire).

13
GOOD ADDTL DOC

• I would like to see a document from the Jews or
  Hindus that were suppressed during this time. I
  feel that a document like this would help me
  better understand the political and religious
  climates.

14
GOOD ADDTL DOC

• Another document, which would be helpful in
  further understanding the religious climate of
  the Muslim empires from 1450-1750, would be an
  account written by an indigenous follower of
  Judaism (or some religious minority). This would
  give us information about how such minorities
  adapted to the changes in religious climate and
  what their perspective was on larger religions
  which may have oppressed them and their faith.

15
GOOD ADDTL DOC

• In order to assess the political and religious
  climate within the empires to a great degree,
  documents written from the Janissary POV would
  be helpful. The Janissaries are described as
  stealing from the treasury etc., but in order to
  understand the situation better, a Janissarys
  perspective is necessary. Also, all of those
  religious perspectives are from those with high
  social status. In order to assess the religious
  climate of the time period, the view of a
  peasant of a different religion than the
  government is needed in order to get a broader
  perspective.