Challenge: Maximum Persian cultural sphere

[Rockingham]

Well, I was just being honest...

Anyway, Ottoman is nevertheless a way better candidate than the Safavids. Even they competed with the Portuguese for spice trade monopoly in Indian Ocean back then, and the temporary vassalage of Aceh by the Ottomans was also part of this whole thing.

I'm envisioning an Ottoman empire in the East Indies.....

Someone please make this into a TL.....I beg you.....

 

[Ridwan Asher]

I'm envisioning an Ottoman empire in the East Indies.....

Someone please make this into a TL.....I beg you.....

If only I am able and have enough time to make such TL now....

I am soooo concurring with you, Rockingham. I am, nevertheless, an Indonesian Ottomanphile after all...

 

[Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy]

This reminds me, I heard Abdul Hadi ever said that it was actually better for Suleyman to focus his deal with Persia rather than with Austria. So he would just have to vassalize Hungary and make sure that it would make a good buffer state against Austria, so that he can go for conquest for Persia.

That would work just fine if not for the fact that the death of the Hungarian king at the Battle of Mohacs brought the Habsburgs to the throne of Hungary (and Bohemia, as they were in a personal union). So Suleiman had to intervene in Hungary to keep it as a buffer state rather than be assimilated into an even more powerful enemy. Even the Turkish-backed pretender to the throne, John Zapolya, couldn't be completely trusted, as he eventually recognized his Habsburg opponent as his heir (lucky for the Ottomans that the Hungarian nobility didn't agree).

So you could say that Suleiman's actions in the west went too far (like besieging Vienna or annexing central Hungary), but he really had no choice besides intervention.

 

[Riain]

How does the Ottoman empire taking Persia make a longer lasting Persian cultural influence? Doesn't that just drive the Turkic influence firther east?

 

[Ran Exilis]

How does the Ottoman empire taking Persia make a longer lasting Persian cultural influence? Doesn't that just drive the Turkic influence firther east?

But the thing is; all Muslim Turkish cultures were *heavily* influenced by Muslim Persian culture, and if the Ottoman Empire (of which the culture was already heavily influenced by Persian culture) expanded further eastward instead of westwards into Europe, then the inclusion of Persian territories in the Ottoman Empire would have resulted in (an even) greater Persian influence on Ottoman culture.

As for the challenge as a whole; the Persian cultural sphere already was immense in OTL - it includeded pretty much all of Central Asia, Iran, the Mughal Empire (Persian was the language of the Mughal court, and the Urdu language is basically an amalgam of Persian and the predecessor of Hindi), good parts of the Ottoman Empire, and Persian influences exist in various Muslim cultures in other parts of the world (like Malaysia and Indonesia) as well.

And with a POD no later than 1500, I don't really see how the Persian cultural sphere can be made much bigger than it already is at this point.

 

[Dr Pervez Hoodbhoy]

How does the Ottoman empire taking Persia make a longer lasting Persian cultural influence? Doesn't that just drive the Turkic influence firther east?

What influences? The Safavid Dynasty had Turkic origins and initially relied on a Turkic military class; that didn't make their culture any less Persian. This is court culture we're talking about here, and Persia had no serious competition. Even their enemies looked up to it. Think Russian aristocrats cursing Napoleon in French.