Ottoman and Safavid empires · 1514-1639

Drawing a border: Ottomans and Safavids

For 125 years the Sunni Ottomans and the Shia Safavids fought over Iraq, Azerbaijan and the Caucasus. Students follow the wars, see how the Treaty of Zuhab drew a lasting line, and compare it with today's border.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
50 minutes
Ages
13–16
On the map
3 steps, AD 1720 to AD 2000
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

For 125 years the Sunni Ottomans and the Shia Safavids fought over Iraq, Azerbaijan and the Caucasus. Students follow the wars, see how the Treaty of Zuhab drew a lasting line, and compare it with today's border.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Describe the main stages of the Ottoman-Safavid wars from 1514 to 1639.
  • Locate Baghdad, Tabriz and the Zagros Mountains and explain why they mattered.
  • Compare the border of 1639 with the border between Iran and Iraq today.
2

Explore the map

15 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

AD 1720

Two rival empires

Open the map in 1720. Find the Ottoman Empire and the Safavid Empire. Follow the border between them from the Caucasus down to the Persian Gulf. Which mountains does it follow?

Open this view on the map
b

AD 1720

Baghdad between them

Zoom in on Baghdad with the Cities layer on. Baghdad changed hands in 1534, 1624 and 1638. Why did both empires want this city so badly?

Open this view on the map
c

AD 2000

The border today

Jump to 2000 and look at the same area. Compare the border between Iran and Iraq with the border you saw in 1720. What do you notice?

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

15 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. The Ottomans were Sunni and the Safavids Shia. How much was their rivalry about religion, and how much about land and power?
  2. Baghdad changed hands three times in about 100 years. What would that mean for the people living there?
  3. Shrine cities sacred to Shia Muslims, such as Karbala and Najaf, ended up in the Sunni Ottoman Empire. Why did that matter to the Safavids?
  4. The Kurds lived in the mountains where the border ran. How can a border between two empires affect a people living on both sides of it?
  5. The line agreed in 1639 is still close to the border between Iran and its western neighbors. Why do some borders last so long?
4

Game round

10 min

Play one round of Rule History as Suleiman the Magnificent, who took Baghdad from the Safavids in 1534. Discuss: Suleiman had to fight both in Europe and in Iran. What is the danger for an empire that fights on two fronts?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

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