Ottomon Soft Empire 16th Century

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The Ottoman Empire was typically seen as the leaders of the Islamic world, with Mosques in Sumatra hailing the Sultan before Friday prayer. This was a common thread that gave the Ottomans significant influence in the region. This was what was known as the Ottoman’s “Soft Empire”. This was going well until 1579 where a series of events crumbled the soft empire. Sumatra’s leader Al ad-Din Ri’ayat Syah died without an heir tumbling the region into political upheaval, Ethiopians in Addi Qarro defeating Ottoman forces, The Spanish, archrivals to the Ottomans, prepare to annex Portugal and their territories, the Mughal emperor Akbar declares his empire the leaders of the Muslim world through policies to help Indian Muslims with the Hajj, and finally Sokullu Mehmed Pasha, the grand architect of the Soft Empire was killed by an assassin. Also, the governor of Yemen and the treasurer of Egypt were lying to the capitol to foster a panic for Portuguese expansion, this helped them secure funding for their home states, but eventually destroyed their credibility when real threats arose. This sent the empire into relative disarray and made it tough for people like the late Koja Sinan Pasha and other region leaders to cooperate for progress in the Indian Ocean.

In my opinion the authors structure in the article was a little hard to follow chronologically. To start of with an event that chronologically came towards the end of the timeline, then referencing other events out of order throughout confused me a little bit. All-in-all though, I found the article to be very informative about the political climate in the region in the late 1500’s, a subject I was nearly totally ignorant on. In conclusion, the factors in the article; failed plans for a canal, Mir Ali’s failed mission, and the events near 1579 a.d. led to the inability for Ottoman expansion in the Indian Ocean, allowing Portugal, the British, and the Dutch to eventually be the major imperial powers in the region.

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