The Ottoman and Mughal empires only cooperated against the Shi’ite Iranian threat
Evidence
From the 16th to the 18th century the Ottoman Sultan and the Mughal Emperor were the two greatest Sunni Muslim rulers. They were, however, too remote to interest one another very much, either as allies or as rivals. The Ot tomans had their eyes fixed on Europe first—as an area of expansion, then as an area of danger, against which it was the principal concern of the Ottoman Sultans to protect themselves. The Mughals on their side were preoccupied with Indian affairs—with the many problems of their vast Empire. Only one thing brought them together—the common threat, offered to both of them, by the Shi‘ite Empire of Iran. When the Turks were fighting near Baghdad, or the Mughals near Kandahar, their thoughts began to turn to a second front on the far side of their enemy’s territory—and it was on these occasions that embassies began to travel by sea between the Ottoman and the Indian ports. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 624
Categorization
Category: Causal Relationships
- XREF: Sectarian-vs-political framing echoes the Safavid Shi’ite-Ottoman Sunni rivalry theme; similar to how diplomatic marriages and second-front logic appear in the earlier chapters on Islamic empires.
Related
- Ottoman-Mughal ties were triggered only by the Shiite Iranian threat (similarity 0.94)
- Ottoman-Mughal ties faded by the late 16th century as Europeans rerouted trade (similarity 0.79)
- The 16th-century Ottoman threat mirrors the Cold War confrontation (similarity 0.78)
- Shi’ism served as Iran’s marker of difference from all bordering Sunni states (similarity 0.78)