Ottoman-Mughal ties shrank to commerce and then faded with Western sea dominance.

Evidence

On the whole, Ottoman relations with India after the 16th century seem to have been infrequent and of relatively minor importance. There was a time, during the reign of Suleyman the Magnificent, when the Ottomans were for a while actively concerned with the affairs of south Asia. Towards the end of the 16th century, however, they withdrew from active participation, and thereafter their links with India were chiefly commercial—and even these began to weaken, as the Western powers established themselves more firmly in the East and di­ verted a good deal of the trade from the Middle Eastern transit routes to the open ocean. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 622 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

In 1638, Naima reports the arrival of an ambassador, Mir Zarif, sent by Shah Jehan to Murad IV. He travelled via the Red Sea, landed at Jedda and eventually reached the Sultan at Mosul. The ambassador brought sumptuous gifts, including a girdle worth 15,000 piastres, and a shield of elephant’s ear and rhinoceros’ hide. The letter he brought was less gratifying. Shah Jehan urged on Murad the need for a close alliance between the two Sunni emperors against the Shi‘a heretics in Iran but in such terms as to reproach the Ottoman Sultan for dila­ toriness and lack of zeal. Murad’s reply is not extant, but its tone may be inferred from the next Indian letter, which complains of a lack of courtesy on the Ottoman side. This Ottoman reply was taken to India by an ambassador called Arslan Agha. In 1642 he returned to Istanbul, bringing unmistakable indications of Shah Jehan’s displeasure. No presents were sent by the Emperor, and only a few of slight value by his vizier. No letter was sent by Shah Jehan to Sultan Ibrahim (1640–48), who had meanwhile succeeded Murad IV on the Ottoman throne. Instead, there was a letter from the Indian to the Ottoman Grand Vizier, com­ plaining at the insufficiently respectful forms of address used in the Ottoman letter, and describing the power and extent of the Mughal Empire. A dignified and restrained reply from the Ottoman Grand Vizier failed to appease Shah Jehan’s anger, and a period of silence followed, during which even the customary Turkish letter announcing the accession of Sultan Mehmet IV in 1649 appears to have remained for a while unanswered. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 605 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Mughal-Ottoman relations collapsed over courtesies and forms of address. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans: Interpreting…, 605; Ottoman-Mughal ties faded by the late 16th century as Europeans rerouted trade — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans: Interpreting…, 622

Broader Connections

• Ottoman-Mughal ties faded by the late 16th century as Europeans rerouted trade #corroborates (0.95) — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 622
• Mughal-Ottoman relations collapsed over courtesies and forms of address. #complicates (0.85) — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 605