the three empires and the islamic phoenix 285ashes were those who ignited the flames. The four Mongols empires
had converted to Islam and had become staunch Muslim support-
ers in the central Islamic land. These were the Il-Khans in the Tigris-
Euphrates valley and the mountainous regions of Iran, the Chaghaytay
in Syr-Oxus basin, the White Horde in the Irtysh region, and the
Golden Horde around the river Volga. From these four, two power-
ful Islamic empires emerged: the Shì"ah flafawìd Empire which became
the foundation of what Iran is today, and the Sunni Moghul, or
Mongol Empire in the Indian subcontinent which constitutes the pre-
sent Pakistan and some parts of India. Moreover, to the west of the
Mongols, came another, and long lasting, source of support to Islam,
the Ottoman Turks.
These three empires dominated the political scene in the Islamic
world: the Ottoman, the flafawìd and the Mongol. Each had different
socio-economic conditions, features of intellectual development and
influence over the development of Islamic economics as shown below.
The Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Turks, the Mongols’ kinship, grew in power in Anatolia
and developed into a force that shaped the Islamic world for centuries
to come. Established in 1299 by its founder Uthmàn, who reigned
from 1299 to 1326, the Ottoman Turkish state, which began as a
principality of march-warriors, was one of several states that appeared
in Anatolia after the break-up of the Seljuq Sùltanate. It lasted until
- Their predecessors the Seljuq Turks, are said to be devoted
Muslims who had never been conquered by Muslims but by Islam
itself (Lewis, 1979). The Ottomans grew in power and despite a tem-
porary setback in the early fifteenth century when the last Mongol
Emperor Timur Lane (Timur the Lame) defeated them in Angora in
1402, they managed to recover after Timur’s death in 1404, and to
emerge as an influential player in the political scene.
The conquest of Constantinople that held steadfast for many cen-
turies against all previous Muslims’ endeavours, by the Ottomanflul≈àn
Muœammad the Conqueror in 1453, hailed the Turkish flul≈àn as
a great Muslim hero, nicknamed him the “Conqueror” and enhanced
the standing of the Ottomans amongst Muslims. Further victories in
Europe, the Indian Ocean, North Africa, Egypt and al-Hijaz, and