Chapter 12 Vocabulary (Long Definitions) Flashcards
Mongols
A people of this name is mentioned as early as the records of the Tang Empire, living as nomads in northern Eurasia. After 1206 they established an enormous empire under Chinggis Khan, linking western and eastern Eurasia.
Chinggis Khan
The title of Temüjin when he ruled the Mongols (1206 - 1227). It means the “oceanic” or “universal leader.” Chinggis Khan was the founder of the Mongol Empire.
Nomadism
A way of life, forced by a scarcity of resources, in which groups of people continually migrate to find pastures and water.
Yuan Empire
Empire created in China and Siberia by Khublai Khan.
Bubonic Plague
A bacterial disease of fleas that can be transmitted by flea bites to rodents and humans; humans in late stages of the illness can spread the bacteria by coughing. Because of its very high mortality rate and the difficulty of preventing its spread, major outbreaks have created crises in many parts of the world.
Il-khan
A “secondary” or “peripheral” khan based in Persia. The il-khans’ khanate was founded by Hülegü, a grandson of Chinggis Khan, and was based at Tabriz in the Iranian province of Azerbaijan. It controlled much of Iran and Iraq.
Golden Horde
Mongol khanate founded by Chinngis Khan’s grandson Batu. It was based in southern Russia and quickly adopted both the Turkic language and Islam. Also known as the Kipchak Horde.
Timur
Member of a prominent family of the Mongols’ Chagatai Khanate, Timur through conquest gained control over much of Central Asia and Iran. he consolidated the status of Sunni Islam as orthodox, and his descendants, the Timurids, maintained his empire for nearly a century and founded the Mughal Empire in India.
Rashid al-Din
Adviser to the Il-khan ruler Ghazan, who converted to Islam on Rashid’s advice.
Nasir al-Din Tusi
Persian mathematician and consomologist whose academy near Tabriz prodded the model for the movement of the planets that helped to inspire the Copernican model of the solar system.
Alexander Nevskii
Prince of Novgorod (r. 1236 - 1263). He submitted to the invading Mongols in 1240 and received recognition as the leader of the Russian princes under the Golden Horde.
Tsar (Czar)
From Latin caesar, this Russian title for a monarch was first used in reference to a Russian ruler by Ivan III (r. 1462 - 1505).
Ottoman Empire
Islamic state founded by Osman in north-western Anatolia around 1300. After the fall of the Byzantine Empire, the Ottoman Empire was based at Istanbul (formerly Constantinople) from 1453 to 1922. It encompassed lands in the Middle East, North Africa, the Caucasus, and eastern Europe.
Khubilai Khan
Last of the Mongol Great Khans (r. 1260 - 1294) and founder of the Yuan Empire.
Lama
In Tibetan Buddhism, a teacher.
