But although no single powerful caliphate held all these areas together, the religion of Islam allowed for a degree of cohesiveness and unity, despite theological disagreements. By the sixteenth century, the religion of Islam had spread far beyond its point of origin in Southwest Asia.

Islamic communities, large empires, and a number of Islamic kingdoms thrived in West and East Africa, southeastern Europe, India, and Southeast Asia. As a result, trade in all types of goods unified the wider Islamic world, flowing along numerous trade routes and through markets overseen by Muslim market inspectors.

caliphate — an area under the control of a Muslim ruler called a caliph. devshirme — the system of recruiting Christian boys from the Balkans to be enslaved, converted to Islam, and trained to serve the Ottoman sultan. millet system — the system through which non-Muslim religious communities were allowed to regulate their internal affairs according to their own religious laws. Sultanate of Women — the period between the tenure of Hurrem Sultan in the mid-fifteenth century and the late seventeenth century, during which wives and mothers of the sultan were able to exert….