Part III Terms Flashcards
Bedouin
The nomadic pastoralists of the Arabian Peninsula, whose culture was based on camel and goat nomadism; the early converts to Islam.
shaykhs
Leaders of tribes and clans within bedouin society; usually men with large herds, several wives, and many children.
Mecca
City located in the mountainous region along the Red Sea in the Arabian peninsula; founded by Umayyad clan of Quraysh; site of the Ka’ba and the original home of Muhammad. Location of chief religious pilgrimage point in Islam.
Umayyad
Clan of Quraysh that dominated politics and the commercial economy of Mecca. Established a dynasty under this title as rulers of Islam, 661 to 750 CE.
Quraysh
Tribe of bedouins that controlled Mecca in the 7th century CE.
Ka’ba
The most revered religious shrine in pre-Islamic Arabia; located in Mecca; focus of obligatory annual truce among bedouin tribes; later incorporated as an important shrine in Islam.
Medina
Also known as Yathrib; the town located northeast of Mecca; grew dates palms whose fruit was sold to bedouins; became refuge for Muhammad following the hijra.
hijra
Muhammad’s flight from Mecca to Medina
Allah
The Arab term for the high god in pre-Islamic Arabia that was adopted by the followers of Muhammad and the Islamic faith.
Sasanian Empires
The dynasty that ruled Persia (contemporary Iran) in the centuries before the rise of Muhammad and the early decades of Islamic expansion.
Muhammad
The prophet of Islam. Born around 570 AD the Banu Hashim clan of the Quraysh tribe in Mecca; raised by father’s family; received revelations from Allah in 610 AD, died in 632 AD.
Khadijah
555-619 AD. The first wife of the prophet Muhammad, who had worked for her as a trader.
Qur’an
Recitations of the revelations received by Muhammad and the holy book of Islam.
Ali
599-661 AD. The cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad and one of the orthodox caliphs; the focus for Shi’a.
umma
The community of the faithful within Islam; transcended old tribal boundaries to create a degree of political unity.
zakat
Taxes for charity. Obligatory for all Muslims.
The Five Pillars of Islam
The obligatory religious duties of all Muslims: shahada (confession of faith), salat (prayer), fasting during Ramadan, zakat, and the hajj.
caliph
The political and religious successor to Muhammad.
Ramadan
Islamic month of religious observance requiring fasting from dawn to sunset.
hajj
A Muslim’s pilgrimage to Mecca to worship Allah at the Ka’ba.
Abu Bakr
The first caliph of the Muslim faithful after Muhammad’s death in 632 CE. Renowned for his knowledge of the nomadic tribes who then dominated the Islamic community.
Ridda Wars
Wars that followed Muhammad’s death in 632 CE, resulting in the defeat of rival prophets and some larger clans; restored the unity of Islam.
jihads
Struggles; often used for wars in defense of the faith, but also a term to indicate personal quests for religious understanding.
Copts
The Christian sect of Egypt; tended to support Islamic invasions in their area in preference to Byzantine rule.
Nestorians
A Christian sect found in Asia; tended to support Islamic invasions in their area in preference to Byzantine rule; cut off from Europe by Muslim invasions.
Uthman
Third caliph and member of the Umayyad clan; murdered by mutinous warriors returning from Egypt; death set off a civil war in Islam between followers of Ali and the Umayyad clan.
Battle of Siffin
Fought in 657 CE between forces of Ali and the Umayyads; settled by negotiation that led to the fragmentation of Ali’s party.
Mu’awiya
602-680 First Umayyad caliph following the civil war with Ali.
Sunnis
Political and theological division within Islam; supported the Umayyads.
Shi’a
Also known as the Shi’ites; political and theological division within Islam; followers of Ali.
Karbala
The site of the defeat and death of Husayn, the son of Ali; marked the beginning of the Shi’a resistance to the Umayyad caliphate.
Damascus
Syrian city that was the capital of the Umayyad caliphate.
mawali
Non-Arab converts to Islam.
jizya
Head tax paid by all nonbelievers in Islamic territories.
dhimmi
“People of the book;” applied as inclusive term to Jews and Christians in Islamic territories; later extended to Zoroastrians and even Hindus.
hadiths
Traditions of the prophet Muhammad.
Abbasid
The dynasty that succeeded the Umayyads as caliphs within Islam; came to power in 750 CE.
Battle of the River Zab
The victory of the Abbasids over the Umayyads; resulted in the conquest of Syria and the capture of the Umayyad capital.
Baghdad
The capital of the Abbasid dynasty located in Iraq near the ancient Persian capital of Ctesiphon.
wazir
The chief administrative official under the Abbasid caliphate; initially recruited from the Persian provinces of the empire.
dhows
Arab sailing vessels with triangular or lateen sails; strongly influenced European ship design.
ayan
The wealthy landed elite that emerged in the early decades of Abbasid rule.
lateen
Triangular sails attached to the masts of dhows by large booms, or yard arms, which extended diagonally high across the fore and aft of the ship.
al-Madhi
(ruled 775-785 CE) The third of the Abbasid caliphs; attempted but failed to reconcile moderates within the Shi’a to the Abbasid dynasty; failed to resolve problem of succesion.
Harun al-Rashid
One of the great Islamic rulers of the Abbasid era.
Buyids
Regional splinter dynasty of the mid-10th century; invaded and captured Baghdad; ruled Abbasid empire under the title of sultan; retained the Abbasids as figureheads.
Seljuk Turks
Nomadic invaders from central Asia via Persia; staunch Sunnis that ruled in the name of the Abbasid caliphs from the mid-11th century
Crusades
Series of military adventures initially launched by western Christians to free the Holy Land from Muslims; temporarily succeeded in capturing Jerusalem and establishing Christian kingdoms; later used for other reasons such as commercial wars and the extermination of heresy.
Saladin
Muslim leader in the last decades of the 12th century; reconquered most of the crusader outposts for Islam.
Ibn Khaldun
(1332-1406 CE) A Muslim historian that developed a concept that dynasties of nomadic conquerors had a cycle of three generations: strong, weak, and dissolute.
ulama
Orthodox religious scholars within Islam who pressed for a more conservative and restrictive theology, becoming increasingly opposed to non-Islamic ideas and scientific thinking.
al-Ghazali
(1058-1111 CE) A brilliant Islamic theologian who struggled to fuse Greek and Qu’ranic traditions; not entirely accepted by the ulama.
Mongols
Central Asian nomadic peoples; smashed Turko-Persian kingdoms; captured Baghdad in 1258 CE and killed the last Abbasid caliph.
Chinggis Khan
Born in the 1170s CE in the decades following the death of Kabul Khan; elected khagan of all Mongol tribes in 1206 CE; reponsible for the conquest of northern kingdoms of China; territories as far west as the Abbasid regions; died in 1227 CE, prior to the conquest of most of the Islamic world.
Shah-Nama
Written by Firdawsi in the late 10th and early 11th centuries CE, it relates the history of Persia from its creation to the Islamic conquests.
Hulegu
(1217-1265 CE) Ruler of the Ilkan khanate; the grandson of Chinggis Khan; responsible for the capture and destruction of Baghdad in 1257 CE.
Mamluks
Muslim slave warriors; established a dynasty in Egypt; defeated the Mongols at Ain Jalut in 1260 CE and halted the Mongol advance.
Muhammad ibn Qasim
(661-750 CE) Arab general that conquered Sind in India; declared the region of the Indus valley to be part of the Umayyad Empire.
Mahmud of Ghazni
(971-1030 CE) The third ruler of the Turkish slave dynasty in Afghanistan; led invasions of nothern India; credited with sacking one of the wealthiest of Hindu temples in northern India; gave Muslims a reputation for intolerance and aggression.
Muhammad of Ghur
(1173-1206 CE) A military commander of Persian extraction who ruled a small mountain kingdom in Afghanistan; began the process of conquest to establish Muslim political control of northern India; brought much of the Indus valley, Sind, and northwestern India under his control.
Qutb-ud-din Aibak
Lieutenant of Muhammad of Ghur; established a kingdom in India with its capital at Delphi; proclaimed himself Sultan of India (ruling 1206-1210 CE).
bhaktic cults
Hindu groups dedicated to gods and goddesses; stressed the importance of strong emotional bonds between the devotees and the god or goddess who was the object of their veneration; most widely worshipped gods were Shiva and Vishnu.
Mira Bai
(1498-1547 CE) A celebrated Hindu writer of religious poetry; reflected the openess of the bhaktic cults to women.
Kabir
(1440-1518 CE) Muslim mystic that played down the importance of ritual differences between Hinduism and Islam.
Shrivijaya
A trading empire centered on the Malacca Straits between Malaya and Sumatra; controlled the trade of the empire; Buddhist government resisted Muslim missionaries; fall opened up southeastern Asia to Muslim conversion.
Malacca
Portuguese factory or fortified trade town located on the tip of the Malayan peninsula; traditionally a center for trade among the southeastern Asian islands.
Demak
The most powerful of the trading states on the north coast of Java; converted to Islam and served as a point of dissemination to other ports.
stateless societies
African societies organized around kinship or other forms of obligation and lacking the concentration of political power and authority associated with states.
Ifriqiya
The Arabic term for eastern north Africa.
Maghrib
The Arabic word for western north Africa.
Almohadis
A reformist movement among the Islamic Berbers of northern Africa; later than the Almoravids; penetrated into sub-Saharan Africa.
juula
Malinke merchants that formed small partnerships to carry out trade throughout the Mali empire; eventually spread throughout much of West Africa.
Sundiata
The “Lion Prince;” a member of the Keita clan; created a unified state that became the Mali Empire; died about 1260 CE.
griots
Professional oral historians who served as keepers of traditions and advisors to kings within the Mali empire.
Ibn Battuta
(b. 1304 CE) An Arab traveler who described African societies and cultures in his travel records.
Timbuktu
A port city of Mali located just off the flood plain on the great bend in the Niger River. With a population of 50,000, it contained a library and a university.
Songhay
The successor state to Mali that dominated the upper reaches of the Niger valley; formed as an independent kingdom under a Berber dynasty; capital at Gao; reached imperial status under Sunni Ali (r. 1464-1492 CE).
Muhammad the Great
An Islamic ruler of the mid-16th century that extended the boundaries of the Songhay Empire.
Hausa
People of northern Nigeria; formed into states following the demise of the Songhay Empire that combined Muslim and pagan traditions.
Sharia
Islamic law; defined among other things as the patrilineal nature of Islamic inheritance.
Zenj
Arabic term for the east African coast.
Benin
A powerful city state in present day Nigeria which came into contact with the Portuguese in 1485 but remained relatively free of European influence; an important commercial and political entity until the 19th century.
demography
The study of population.
demographic transition
The shift to low birth rates and infant death rates and a stable population; first emerged in western Europe and the U.S. in the late 19th century.
Kongo
A kingdom based on agriculture formed on the lower Congo River by the late 15th century; captital at Mbanza Kongo; ruled by hereditary monarchy.
Great Zimbabwe
A Bantu confederation of Shona-speaking peoples located between Zambezi and Limpopo rivers; developed after the 9th century, featuring royal courts built of stone; created a centralized state by the 15th century, with the king taking the title of Mwene Mutapa.
Hagia Sophia
A new church constructed in Constantinople during the reign of Justinian. A wonder of the Christian world and a significant architectural and engineering achievement.
Justinian
(r. 527-565) Byzantine emperor; rebuilt Constantinople, systematized the Roman legal code, built the Hagia Sophia, made Greek the official language of the empire.
Belisarius
(c. 505-565 CE) One of Justinian’s most important military commanders during the period of reconquest of western Europe, commanding in north Africa and Italy.
Greek fire
A Byzantine weapon consisting of a chemical mixture (petroleum, quicklime, and sulfur) that ignited when exposed to water; utilized to drive back the Arab fleets that attacked Constantinople.
Bulgaria
A Slavic kingdom established in the northern portions of the Balkan peninsula that was a constant source of pressure on the Byzantine Empire; defeated by Emperor Basil II in 1014 CE.
icon
An artistic representation, usually of a religious figure.
sahel
The extensive grassland belt at the southern edge of the Sahara.
Cyril
(827-869 CE) Along with Methodius, he was a missionary sent by the Byzantine government to eastern Europe and the Balkans; converted southern Russia and the Balkans to Orthodox Christianity; he was responsible for the creation of a written script for Slavic known as Cyrillic.
Methodius
(826-885 CE) Along with Cyril, he was a missionary sent by the Byzantine government to eastern Europe and the Balkans; converted southern Russia and the Balkans to Orthodox Christianity; responsible for the creation of a written script for Slavic known as Cyrillic.
Kiev
A trade city in southern Russia established by Scandinavian traders in the 9th century; became a focal point for a kingdom of Russia that flourished to the 12th century.