The story
Coined by Marshall G. S. Hodgson and William H. McNeill at the University of Chicago. Hodgson used the phrase as a title in The Venture of Islam (1974).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
gunpowder empire
Today it means: Any of the Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal empires, which all had considerable military success using then-innovative firearms, especially cannon and small arms. Full definition →