Religious Diversity

In which ways do the three primary Islamic empires tolerate diversity and in which ways do they seek to eradicate or stifle diversity? And is there a qualitative difference between religious and ethnic tolerance?

Mughal Empire: The Mughal Empire focused mostly on accomidating the religious diversity amoung it's people. Though only the leaders and a small amount of people were Muslim, they did not force the rest of the people in the empire to convert, instead letting them stay Hindu as the were to begin with. To accomidate more, the Emporer Akbar created a new religion that seemed to be a hybrid of Islam and Hinduism to try to make everyone comfortable, though this new religion was really more focused on worship of himself and creating loyalty. By doing this, Akbar tried to eliminate as much diversity as possible while still tolerating it. Though he probably would have liked it more if everyone had converte to his new religion in which he was worshiped, the fact that there were people of different religions in the empire did not become a problem until the reign of the leader Auranzeb. Auranzeb was incredibly Muslim, and fought to create Islamic superiority in the empire. This is part of what caused the eventual fall of the empire.

Ottoman Empire: Though this empire was spread out through both Muslim and Christian communities, it was mostly Muslim because many people were converted to Islam after the initial take over. The Ottoman Empire, in its time, was known for being religiously tolerant. Wherever there was religious persecution, those who were being persecuted were welcome in the empire. However, people who were not Muslim did have to pay a tax to the government because of their different. This was worth it thought because they were able to live in freedom. Different ethnic groups were also supported by the elite. People of any background were welcome to different jobs in the Empire.

Safavid Empire: The Safavid Empire went the opposite way on the tolerance scale then the other Muslim empires. Instead of enforcing religious tolerance, everyone in the empire was forced to convert to Shi'a Islam as it was the state religion. Since people were not free to have their own religion, they were free to speak their own language. Ethnic and linguistic diversity was favored in the Safavid Empire.

It seems that in the time of the Muslim Empires, religious tolerance was more enforced then ethnic tolerance. However, I think that the two come hand and hand because when you have people of different religions there are generally going to be different languages and ethnicities. Leaders of these old empires seemed to think that you could get rid of only religion or ethnicity, when really they both come hand and hand.