midterm Flashcards
T-O Map
The “Isodorean” map of world geography, with Jerusalem at the center, is first found in Isidore of Seville’s multi-volume medieval encyclopedia, The Etymologies. Medieval geography divided the world into three schematic parts: Asia, Europe, and Africa. Asia was depicted on top as the birthplace of Christ and the original site of the Garden of Eden.
KMMS Map (aka the Balkhi school)
c. 977 A medieval Islamic map of the world made up of a double-edged circle in a square or rectangular form. In Abu Ishaq Ibrahim ibn Muhammad al-Farisi al-Istakhris’s Book of Routes and Realms (or Kingdoms)
Hereford map
c. 1285 Mappamundi (greatest medieval map of the world) before European hegemony that was oriented towards the east that combined Christian beliefs with geographical knowledge to show the world as scholars understood it at the time. Jerusalem at the center, with the East at the top, inhabited parts of the world as Europe, Asia, and parts of North Africa, including symbols such as the phoenix, a Christian symbol of the Resurrection.
Yuji tu
The c. 1136 Southern Song Dynasty “Map Tracing the Tracks of Yu” was a political form criticizing the dynasty’s practice of appeasement. The map is “mathematized”: It uses a square scaling grid, with each grid equivalent to 100 li. Beyond the grid, it includes “lost territories and archaic” place names, emphasizing trans-dynamic continuity—the timelessness of imperial China’s boundaries.
Huayi Tu
c. 1136 Southern Song Dynasty” Map of Chinese and Non-Chinese Territories,” carved on the opposite side of the same stone stele, shows the Great Wall. It is the earliest surviving map that displays maritime connections between China and other foreign states. Textual annotations describe dozens (even hundred) of foreign polities—potential trading partners
Cairo Geniza
An important storage place illuminating medieval economic history: merchants’ letters, ship manifests, and other documents enable modern historians to retrace medieval trade routes located in al-Fustat
Monsoon winds
A pair of seasonal, bi-directional winds, named for the general direction from which they blew (mawim = season in Arabic)
- SW monsoon took ships eastward in the summer months jun-sep
- NE monsoon took ships westward in winter months oct-feb
Dhow
A lateen-rigged ship with one or two masts used in the Indian Ocean and Red Sea regions. It facilitated the exchange of goods, people, and ideas across the Indian Ocean, the Arabian Sea, and the East African coast, opening the world’s oldest commercial sailing route
Fatimid Caliphate
An Egyptian regime that ruled through the 10th to 12th centuries that profited from maritime trade. The caliphate had an urban market with Cairo as the capital.
Dhimmi
A protective community of non-muslims who lived in Islamic States. The Cairo Geniza illustrated how Jews were a dhimmi community as they got special status under Islam. Jews were allowed to have self-governance and communal autonomy in Fatimid Egypt.
Kaifeng
The capital of China during the Northern Song dynasty, Beijing was the largest city in the world at the time, with 1.5 million people. It was characterized by lively scenes, culture, and consumerism. During its “golden age,” it was part of an industrial revolution that shifted from subsistence economy to market economy.
Jurchens
A group of northern barbarians who were viewed as a threat. They were skilled with combat and established the Jin Empire, which was conquered in 1209-1215 by Chinghis (Ghengis) Khan
Southern Song Dynasty
“Golden Age” birth of modernity, the dynasty experienced tremendous demographic growth fueled by agricultural revolution. The population was estimated at around 100 million, the same as Europe & Africa combined.
Quanzhou
A major port city in China where a lot of trade occurred. The Chinese Gazetteer of Foreign Lands explains how this city was the center of Chinese trade with the Islamic world in the 13th century. Mosques, cenotaphs, and funerary steles for Muslims (and other foreign merchant communities) were in the city
“Maghrib”
Islamic North Africa— means West. The Maghrib was pivotal in the Mediterranean trade network, facilitating exchange between sub-Saharan Africa, Europe, and the Middle East.
Swahili Coast
A vital center of trade in the Indian Ocean, it was made up of many city-states that traded with each other and with merchants from different lands. They specialized in luxury goods exchange.
Kebra Negast
This means “The Glory of the Kings, “ a 14th-century epic account from Solomonic Ethiopia written in Ge’ez. It traces the genealogy of rulers back to King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba
Lalibela
A town in Solomonic Ethiopia with stone-carved rock-hewn churches found there from the 12thand 13th centuries.
Trans-Saharan Caravan
Trade occurred across the Sahara Desert. Dakkaka was the center and flourished from the 10th tthe o 14th century. Pottery and slavewere s were tand radedwas , and gold was exchanged for Saharan salt.
Almoravid Empire
1056-1147 CE Muslim dynasty in the Western Sahara that used gold coins.
Marrakesh
The capital of the Almohads, founded by the Almoravids, was a political, economic, and intellectual center of the Western Muslim world with intricate architecture
Almohad Renaissance
A Renaissance in the 12th century North African Muslim Empire. Almohad Fez (and Marrakesh) were intellectual centers
Ibn Rushd (Averroes)
A jurist, he was one of the great figures of philosophy in Muslim context. He is best known for his commentarieson Aristotle’s work and for his role in establishing European rationalism.
Timbuktu
A large city in the Mali Empire was a thriving commercial and religious center by the 14th century. Timbuktu had institutions of higher learning and intellectual pursuits. Recovered manuscripts in the lost libraries of Timbuktu show Africa had a thriving textual culture and intellectual culture in the pre-modern world
