A category entitled "The Later Islamic Dynasties" is in many ways much too broad to give any accurate interpretation of the political and cultural situation of the Middle East from the seventh to the fifteenth century CE. Indeed, this section of the art exhibit should not be interpreted as an attempt to describe the various peoples and periods of this region and time frame as somehow uniform, but rather as a general rubric under which to organize the half-dozen art objects from this particular geographical area time frame. For in fact, no single category can accurately contain the dozens of cultures that arose under the various rulerships that left their mark on the region. Instead, a very brief introduction to the peoples and historical periods will be included in the explanatory entries given for the various objects included in the exhibit. Among these various cultures which left their mark on artistic product of the Middle East include:

1) The Abbasids, a Shiite Muslim empire that covered a huge area at its height, stretching from Transoxiania in the west, the tip of the Arabian Peninsula to the south, and the entire Maghrib region of Northern Africa to the east. Though the size of their holdings fluctuated over time, they remained in power from 750 to 1258.

2) The Seljuks, a once nomadic people of Central Asia who in 1055 founded a great Muslim empire that included Iran, Iraq and Syria. Followers of the Sunni sect of Islam, it was the Seljuks who stopped the spread of the Shiite Islam out of Egypt into the Middle East in the twelfth century. Though their empire was lost to Khwarazm-Shahs in 1194, a branch of the Seljuks survived as rulers of a much smaller state until the Mongol conquest of 1243.

3) The Khwarazm-Shahs, who ruled parts of modern Iran, Transoxiania, and much of Afghanistan from the late eleventh century until the arrival of the conquering Mongols in the 1250s.

4) The Artuqids, who ruled a large area of modern northern Iraq from 1098 to 1408. Former vassals of the Seljuks, they took the appointed governorship and, turning against their Seljuk leaders in 1098, founded an independent state. The Artuqids stayed in power for over three centuries, retaining control over much of northern Iraq until they encountered the Timurids, who eventually overcame the Artuqids in 1408.

5) The Il-Khanids, a governing body appointed by the Mongols to rule the Middle East as their representatives. This government, composed of a mixture of Mongols and representatives of other Central Asian ethnicities, were Buddhists when they first took rulership in the mid-thirteenth century, but had converted to Islam by the mid-fourteenth century, prior to the dissolution of their political control of the region.

6) The Safavids, who established a wide-ranging empire in the early sixteenth century, is usually credited with laying the foundation for a national consciousness in Iran. They centered their government in Isfahan, and enjoyed a trading monopoly after they re-routed the remaining western leg of the Silk Road through their capital. For more on the Safavids and Isfahan, see the Silk Road Seattle Cities and Architecture pages dedicated to this important city and culture.

7) The Ottomans, who at their height controlled an empire that rivaled that of the Romans. Founded by Othman, a minor leader of Türkic peoples who had migrated to Anatolia from the steppes of Central Asian in advance of Chingis Khan's Mongol troops. Othman was able to unite his people to form a confederation that came to control the buffer region between the Christian Byzantines to the west and the Islamic Sultanates to the east. They, too, adopted Islam, and with religious zeal they set out to battle for their faith. By the mid-fourteenth century, the Ottomans controlled most of modern Greece and Turkey. By the early sixteenth century, the Ottomans controlled much of the Islamic world, including all of the north coast of Africa, and had introduced the faith into the lands they had conquered in the Balkans. Over the next few centuries, the Ottoman empire slowly grew less efficient, slowly losing control of its vast holdings, until it finally met its demise in the early twentieth century, unable to recover in the aftermath of the First World War One (they allied themselves with Germany). For more on the Ottoman empire and the architecture of one of its most important cities, Bursa, see the related Silk Road Seattle Cities and Architecture pages.