Vocabulary Words Flashcards
Sheik
The patriarch of a tribe or family; chief: a term of polite address
Quran
means Koran
Islam
means The religious faith of Muslims, based on the words and religious system founded by the prophet Muhammad and taught by the Koran.
Hijab
A traditional scarf worn by Muslim women to cover the hair and neck and sometimes the face.
Haj
The pilgrimage to Mecca, which every adult Muslim is supposed to make at least once in his or her lifetime: the fifth of the Pillars of Islam.
Bedouin
An Arab of the desert, in Asia or Africa; nomadic Arab.
Jihad
A holy war undertaken as a sacred duty by Muslims.
Mosque
A Muslim temple or place of public worship.
Muhammad
Arab prophet: founder of Islam.
Abu-Bakr
A.D. 573-634, Muhammad’s father-in-law and successor: first caliph of Mecca 632-634.
Mu’āwiyah
First caliph of the Omayyad dynasty of Damascus.
Sunni
One of the two main branches of Islam, commonly described as orthodox, and differing from Shia in its understanding of the Sunna and in its acceptance of the first three caliphs.
Shiite
An adherent of the Shia branch of Islam.
Caliph
The chief Muslim civil and religious ruler, regarded as the successor of Muhammad.
The Moors
A member of a northwestern African Muslim people of mixed Berber and Arab descent.
Astrolabe
An instrument formerly used to make astronomical measurements, typically of the altitudes of celestial bodies, and in navigation for calculating latitude, before the development of the sextant.
Mecca
The birthplace of Muhammad, and thus the holiest city for Muslims.
Medina
The old Arab or non-European quarter of a North African town.
The Five Pillars
The five bases of the Islamic faith: shahada (confession of faith), salat (prayer), zakat (almsgiving), sawm (fasting, especially during the month of Ramadan), and hajj (the pilgrimage to Mecca).
Kadijah
Trustworthy
Hadith
A traditional account of things said or done by Muhammad or his companions
Ulama
The doctors of Muslim religion and law
Caliphate
The rank, jurisdiction, or government of a caliph
Ummayad
A member of a Muslim dynasty that ruled the Islamic world from AD 660 (or 661) to 750 and Moorish Spain from 756 to 1031.
Abbasid
Of or relating to a dynasty of caliphs who ruled in Baghdad from 750 to 1258.
Baghdad
The capital of the Republic of Iraq.
Dowry
Property or money brought by a bride to her husband on their marriage.
Harem
(in former times) The separate part of a Muslim household reserved for wives, concubines, and female servants.
Translation Movement
A movement started in the House of Wisdom in Baghdad which translated many Greek classics into Arabic.
