09 The Islamic Empire

Question 1

hijrah

Answer 1

migration of Muhammad and his followers from Mecca to Al-Medīnah in 622, marking the first year in the Muslim calendar

Question 2

Qur’an

Answer 2

the holy book of Islam

Question 3

jihad

Answer 3

struggle to defend the faith

Question 4

mosques

Answer 4

Muslim places of worship

Question 5

caliph

Answer 5

Islamic title meaning “successor to the prophet”

Question 6

Jabal Tariq

Answer 6

Berber name meaning the “Mountain of Tariq”; knowin in Europe as Gibraltar

Question 7

imams

Answer 7

Shi’ah leaders having spiritual and secular authority

Question 8

bedouin

Answer 8

nomadic Arab herder

Question 9

Muhammad

Answer 9

the prophet of Islam

Question 10

Abu Bakr

Answer 10

the first caliph

Question 11

Berbers

Answer 11

North African people who converted to Islam

Question 12

Moors

Answer 12

the Muslims of Spain

Question 13

Arabia

Answer 13

peninsula in southwestern Asia bounded by the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, and the Arabian Sea; today occupied mostly by Saudi Arabia

Question 14

Jidda

Answer 14

port on the Red Sea in western Saudi Arabia; the seaport of Mecca

Question 15

Mecca

Answer 15

important Islamic city in western Saudi Arabia; birthplace of Muhammad

Question 16

Al-Medīnah

Answer 16

important Islamic city in western Saudi Arabia; a.k.a. Medina

Question 17

caliphates

Answer 17

three divisions of the Muslim Empire

Question 18

dower

Answer 18

groom’s marriage gift to his bride

Question 19

sultan

Answer 19

Turkish ruler

Question 20

millets

Answer 20

self-governing religious minority groups within the Ottoman Empire

Question 21

Al-Razi

Answer 21

Muslim physician who wrote about surgery, smallpox, and measles

Question 22

Janissaries

Answer 22

the sultan’s elite army of slave soldiers

Question 23

Baghdad

Answer 23

capital of Iraq; capital of one of the Muslim caliphates; captured and looted by Timur in the early 1400s

Question 24

Cairo

Answer 24

port city on the Nile River; capital of Egypt

Question 25

Córdoba

Answer 25

city in southern Spain; capital of one of the Muslim caliphates

Question 26

suttee

Answer 26

Indian ritual in which a widow commits suicide after the death of her husband

Question 27

Harsha

Answer 27

raja who reunited the Gupta Empire

Question 28

Rajputs

Answer 28

strong local rulers who set up small kingdoms after Harsha’s death

Question 29

Timur

Answer 29

Turko-Mongol leader who captured much of India and Ottoman Empire beginning in 1380; died in 1405; a.k.a. Timur the Lame and Tamerlane

Question 30

Urdu

Answer 30

new language introduced by Muslims that combined Persian and Arabic with language from the Delhi region

Question 31

Babur

Answer 31

descendant of Timur who founded the Mughal Empire in northern and central India

Question 32

Akbar

Answer 32

Mughal ruler who fostered arts, government reforms, and religious toleration

Question 33

Shah Jahan

Answer 33

Mughal emperor who built the Taj Mahal

Question 34

Nanak

Answer 34

prophet who synthesized Hindu and Muslim beliefs into the Sikh faith

Question 35

Delhi

Answer 35

city north of New Delhi, India; important city in the Mughal Empire; sacked by Persians in 1739, ending the power of the Mughals

Question 36

Agra

Answer 36

city in northern India; location of the Taj Mahal