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Abstract
This study concerns the bilateral relations of the Mughal Empire and the most powerful contemporary Muslim state of the time: the Ottoman Empire. The bilateral relations between these Empires have not received the scholarly attention they deserve. In effect, while the study of the relations of the Mughal Empire, Persia and Central Asia have been analysed in detail, those between the Mughals and the Ottomans have been almost totally ignored. The present study is a first effort to fill a gap in the Indian and Ottoman historical literature, with the analysis of Mughal India political and diplomatic relations with the Ottoman Empire during the reign of Akbar the Great.
Introduction
The sixteenth century marks the beginning of a new era with the rise of three great empires that constituted the most active, articulated, and closely related Muslim World community. The Ottoman Turks established themselves in Western Asia and later penetrated into Eastern Europe. The Safawids occupied most of the Iranian Plateau, while the Chaghatai Turks swooped into the Subcontinent and founded the Mughal Empire, when Babur, in 1526, succeeded in building up Mughal Empire uniting Afghanistan, Central Asia, Punjab, and India (Ashe 1887: xxviii).
First and foremost was the common racial and cultural identity because both Mughal and Ottomans were Turks. Babur was steeped in the Turkish culture. He was an accomplished Turkish poet and prose writer. His autobiography, written in chaste Turkish, is a fitting memorial to his proficiency in Turkish language. Humayun was equally skillful in Turkish. He spoke it fluently and appreciated the Turkish ghazals (odes) composed by the Ottoman Admiral Sidi Ali Reis. Humayun's Minister Bairam Khan has even left a diwan (anthology) of Turkish poetry. Most of the Mughal Emperors knew Turkish fairly well. Until the nineteenth century, Turkish was an important part of the curriculum of the Mughal Princes. They even used to correspond with each other in Turkish. Though productive of a sense of solidarity between the two ruling houses, the racial and cultural affinity did not exercise much influence in shaping the Mughal-Ottoman relations.
The overall cultural profile of the Mughal Empire, during its formative years, was also influenced by features like Turko-Mongol theory of kingship, the Turani complexion of the nobility and the...