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| 6142880612 | Khaizuran | Slave girl (ca. 739-789) who became the wife of the caliph Mahdi (r. 775-785), the third ruler of the Abbasid caliphate. Khaizuran played an active role in court politics. | 0 | |
| 6142882712 | Muhammad | (ca. 570-632) Believed by Muslims to be the last prophet who received God's revelations directly from the angel Gabriel. The first leader of the Muslim community. | 1 | |
| 6142882713 | caliph | Literally "successor." Before 945, the caliph was the successor to Muhammad and the supreme political and religious leader of the Islamic world. After 945, the caliph had no political power but served as the religious leader of all Muslims. | 2 | |
| 6142882714 | jihad | (Arabic root for "striving" or "effort") A struggle or fight against non-Muslims. | 3 | |
| 6142884255 | hajj | The pilgrimage to Mecca, required of all Muslims who can afford the trip. The pilgrimage commemorates that moment when, just as he was about to sacrifice him, Abraham freed Ishmael and sacrificed a sheep in his place. | 4 | |
| 6142884407 | qadi | A Muslim jurist. | 5 | |
| 6142886139 | Quran | The book that Muslims believe is the direct word of God as revealed to Muhammad. Written sometime around 650. | 6 | |
| 6142886140 | hadith | Testimony recorded from Muhammad's friends and associates about his speech and actions. Formed an integral part of the Islamic textual tradition, second in importance only to the Quran. | 7 | |
| 6142887939 | Five Pillars of Islam | The primary obligations of each Muslim as listed by Muhammad (the Five Pillars of Islam). | 8 | |
| 6142887940 | Sunnis | The larger of the two main Islamic groups that formed after Ali's death. Sunnis, meaning the "people of custom and the community," hold that the leader of Islam should be chosen by consensus and that legitimate claims to descent are only through the male line. Sunnis do not believe that Ali and Fatima's descendants can become caliph. | 9 | |
| 6142890397 | Shi'ites | The "shia" or "party of Ali," one of the two main groups of Islam, who support Ali's claim to succeed Muhammad and believe that the grand-children born to Ali and Fatima should lead the community. Shi'ites deny the legitimacy of the first three caliphs. | 10 | |
| 6142892011 | Maghrib | The African coastal region facing the Mediterranean whose residents largely converted to islam by the 1100s. | 11 | |
| 6142894574 | Abbasid caliphate | Dynasty of rulers (759-1258) who ruled a united empire from their capital at Baghdad until the empire fragmented in 945. They continued as religious leaders until 1258, when the last Abbasid caliph was killed by the Mongols. | 12 | |
| 6142894637 | translation movement | Between 750 and 1000, the effort by Islamic scholars, many living in Baghdad, to translate books on astronomy, medicine, mathematics, and geography from ancient Greek, Sanskrit, and Persian into Arabic. | 13 | |
| 6142897376 | astrolabe | Computational instrument that allowed observers to calculate their location on earth to determine the direction of Mecca for their prayers. Also functioned as a slide rule. | 14 | |
| 6142897377 | ulama | Learned Islamic scholars who studied the Quran, the hadith, and legal texts. They taught classes, preached, and heard legal disputes. | 15 | |
| 6142900956 | Zubaydah's Road | The pilgrimage road linking Kufa and Mecca and Medina that was rebuilt and improved by Queen Zubaydah. | 16 | |
| 6142900957 | iqta grant | A grant given by the caliph to someone who promised to collect taxes and pay the caliph a certain amount of money from their region, over which the caliph retained only nominal control. | 17 | |
| 6142902506 | al-Bakri | A Muslim geographer based in Córdoba whose Book of Routes and Realms is one of the earliest written sources about Africa. | 18 | |
| 6142903959 | Ibn Jubayr | (1145-1217) Spanish courtier from Granada, Spain, who went on the hajj pilgrimage in 1183-1185. Wrote The Travels describing his trip to Mecca - the most famous example of a travel book, called a rihla in Arabic. | 19 | |
| 6142904142 | The Standing | The rite that marks the culmination of the hajj, when pilgrims meditate and pray (they are not required to stand) at the site where Muhammad gave his last sermon. | 20 |
