page_title: Early modern period
section_title: Regional empires
hierarchical_section_title: Early modern period / Indian Empires / Regional empires
caption_attribution_description: English: This painting is depicting Shah Abbas receiving the Mughal ambassador Khan ‘ Alam in 1618. Shah Abbas sits to the right of the composition in the middle of a hilly landscape offering a gold wine cup to the Mughal ambassador. Their suite composed by dignitaries, musicians and pages surrounds them. A nasta’liq inscription identifying the scene has been rubbed at the bottom of the painting. A closely related painting of a later date is kept in the collection of the British Museum and published in: Canby, S. (2009) Shah ‘Abbas – The Remaking of Iran, London: The British Museum Press, p. 63. Our painting might be the prototype for the British Museum’s painting. Another painting related in the treatment of the composition and the figures, recently acquired by the Custodia Foundation, is ascribed to the painter Farhad (Inv. 2009-T.23).
context_page_description: The early modern period of modern history follows the late Middle Ages of the post-classical era. Although the chronological limits of the period are open to debate, the timeframe spans the period after the late portion of the post-classical age, known as the Middle Ages, through the beginning of the Age of Revolutions and is variously demarcated by historians as beginning with the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453, the Renaissance period in Europe and Timurid Central Asia, the Muslim conquests in the Indian subcontinent, and the end of the Reconquista and the Age of Discovery and ending around the French Revolution in 1789.
  Historians in recent decades have argued that from a worldwide standpoint, the most important feature of the early modern period was its globalizing character. New economies and institutions emerged, becoming more sophisticated and globally articulated over the course of the period. This process began in the medieval North Italian city-states, particularly Genoa, Venice, and Milan in the west, and in India's Bengal in the east. The early modern period also included the rise of the dominance of the economic theory of mercantilism.
context_section_description: On the Indian subcontinent, the Lodi dynasty ruled over the Delhi Sultanate during its last phase. The dynasty founded by Bahlul Lodi ruled from 1451 to 1526. The dynasty's last ruler, Ibrahim Lodhi, was defeated and killed by Babur in the first Battle of Panipat.
  The Vijayanagara Empire was based in the Deccan Plateau, but its power was diminished after a major military defeat in 1565 by the Deccan sultanates. The empire is named after its capital city of Vijayanagara.
  The rise of the Great Mughal Empire is usually dated from 1526, around the end of the Middle Ages. It was an Islamic Persianate imperial power that ruled most of the area as Hindustan by the late 17th and the early 18th centuries. The empire dominated South and Southwestern Asia,
  becoming the biggest global economy and manufacturing power, with a nominal GDP that valued a quarter of world GDP, superior than the combination of Europe's GDP.
  The "classic period" ended with the death of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, although the dynasty continued for another 150 years. During this period, the Empire was marked by a highly centralized administration connecting the different regions. All the significant monuments of the Mughals, their most visible legacy, date to this period which was characterised by the expansion of Persian cultural influence in the Indian subcontinent, with brilliant literary, artistic, and architectural results. The Maratha Empire was located in the south west of present-day India and expanded greatly under the rule of the Peshwas, the prime ministers of the Maratha empire. In 1761, the Maratha army lost the Third Battle of Panipat which halted imperial expansion and the empire was then divided into a confederacy of Maratha states.
caption: The Mughal ambassador Khan’Alam in 1618 negotiating with Shah Abbas the Great of Iran.
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