Silk Road An ancient caravan route that linked Xian in central China with the eastern Mediterranean. It was established during the period of Roman rule in Europe and took its name from the silk that was brought to the west from China. The Mongols reopened the route in the 13th c.
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| 1093440229 | Hijab | Head covering worn in public by some Muslim women. | 0 | |
| 1093440230 | Muslim | Follower of the religion of Islam. | 1 | |
| 1093602584 | Sassanid | The name of the last pre-Islamic Iranian empire. It was one of the two main powers in Western Asia for a period of more than 400 years. Was founded by Ardashir I after defeating the last Parthian (Arsacid) king, in Persia, also involving a revival of a revival of the Persian religion Zoroastrianism. Fought the Byzantines, which weakened them both. | 2 | |
| 1093646848 | Arab | A member of a Semitic people, originally from the Arabian peninsula and neighboring territories, inhabiting much of the Middle East and North Africa. | 3 | |
| 1093650459 | Islam | A monotheistic religion founded by Muhammad as the Prophet of Allah in the Arabian Peninsula in the 7th Century C.E. Its followers, called Muslims, believe Allah is the only God and that he spoke to the people through Muhammad, whose teachings are recorded in the Qu'ran (Koran). Muslims believe that following the Five-Pillars (Confession of faith to one god, prayer 5 times a day, charity to the needy, fasting during Ramadan, pilgrimage to Mecca) will result in salvation. | 4 | |
| 1093821683 | Quran | The Islamic sacred book, believed to be the word of God as dictated to Muhammad by the archangel Gabriel and written down in Arabic. |  | 5 |
| 1093822734 | Umma | The whole community of Muslims bound together by ties of religion. The community of believers | 6 | |
| 1093917137 | Inquisition | A formalized interrogation and persecution of heretics. Punishment for so-called nonbelievers ranged from excommunication and exile to torture and execution |  | 7 |
| 1093917138 | Matrilineal | Where power in a family is passed down through the mother or the female line, rather than the male/father's line. | 8 | |
| 1093930566 | Code of Bushido | The code of honor and morals developed by the Japanese samurai. It stressed loyalty, courage and honor; if a samurai failed to observe the code; he was expected to commit suicide. | 9 | |
| 1093932025 | Justinian | (483-565) Byzantine emperor from 527-565. | 10 | |
| 1094015834 | Sui Dynasty | A dynasty that ruled in China ad 581-618 and reunified the country. | 11 | |
| 1094651301 | Shi'ite | Branch of Islam that only supports the descendants of Muhammad as his rightful successors. |  | 12 |
| 1094930702 | Holy Roman Empire | Different from the original Roman Empire, was begun by Charlemagne in 800, but was not called the Holy Roman Empire until 962. It consisted on Northern Italy, Germany, Belgium and France. The empire marked the beginning of imperialism, especially be religious leaders. The church held a strong influence over most aspects of society. It was feudalistic, with local lords answering to the emperor. It was created by the medieval papacy in an attempt to unite Christendom under one rule. |  | 13 |
| 1094930703 | Roman Catholic Church | The part of the Christian Church that acknowledges the pope as its head. Main cultural unifying force in Western Europe during the Middle Ages. |  | 14 |
| 1095267526 | Inca Empire | These people arrived in the Cuzco Valley in Peru around 1200 C.E. When the Spanish invaded in the early 1530s, the empire covered most of modern Ecuador and Peru, much of Bolivia, and parts of Argentina and Chile. Their technology and architecture were highly developed. Their descendants, speaking Quechua, still make up about half of Peru's population. | 15 | |
| 1095403287 | Malawi | Non-Arab converts to Islam | 16 | |
| 1095494599 | Charlemagne | Charlemagne, or also known as Charles the Great or Charles I was the King of the Franks from 768-774. He was also the first emperor since the collapse of the Western Roman Empire. | 17 | |
| 1095503118 | Prince Vladimir of Kiev | Prince Vladimir was the grand prince of Kiev and all of Russia. He assembled a Varangian army and reconquered Novgorod from Yaropolk. | 18 | |
| 1095807482 | Saint Cyril | (826-869). Greek missionary from the Byzantine Empire. The invention of the Russian Cyrillic alphabet is ascribed to him. | 19 | |
| 1095961095 | Yuan Dynasty | Established when the Mongols conquered the Song dynasty in 1279. The Mongol reign was short-lived, ending when the Mongols were driven out of China in the 1300s. | 20 | |
| 1096008346 | House of Wisdom | Located in Baghdad, and was a place of learning for scholars who came from all over the Islamic world. | 21 | |
| 1096008347 | Turks | A member of any of the ancient central Asian peoples who spoke Turkic languages, including the Seljuk and Ottomans. Also a member of the ruling Muslim population of the Ottoman Empire. | 22 | |
| 1096019183 | Hundred Years War | A war between France and England, conventionally dated 1337-1453. The war consisted of a series of conflicts in which successive English kings attempted to dominate France and included an early string of English military successes, most notably Crécy and Poitiers. In 1415 England, under Henry V, delivered a crushing victory at Agincourt and occupied much of northern France, but, with the exception of Calais, all English conquests had been lost by 1453. | 23 | |
| 1096069246 | Song Dynasty | (960-1279 C.E.) Reunified China after the collapse of the Tang dynasty. This dynasty experience a long stretch of peace and prosperity, but eventually fell to Jurchin and then the Mongols in 1279. Under this dynasty, China developed printing processes and gunpowder. | 24 | |
| 1096095700 | Mansa Musa | One of the greatest Mali rulers, built a capital city at Timbuktu and added lands to his kingdom well beyond the bounds of Ghana. In 1307 he made a pilgrimage to Mecca with so many gold-carrying servants and camels that he became a sort of international Islamic celebrity. | 25 | |
| 1096156547 | Marco Polo | ( 1254- 1324) Italian traveler. With his father and uncle he traveled to China and the court of Kublai Khan via central Asia (1271-75). He eventually returned home (1292-95) via Sumatra, India, and Persia. His account of his travels spurred the European quest for the riches of the East. | 26 | |
| 1096188192 | Mita System | Mandatory labor performed by male citizens over the age of 15 in the Inca civilization. | 27 | |
| 1096221256 | Indian Ocean Trading Network | Network of trade that extended throughout the Indian Ocean and connected to East Africa, Islamic World, Mediterranean, East Asian and Southeast Asian trading zones. | 28 | |
| 1096303139 | Tang Dynasty | (618-907 C.E.) The era is known for its poetry, development of a transportation and communication network, and its tribute system (where independent countries sent ambassadors to China with gifts to acknowledge the supremacy of the emperor. | 29 | |
| 1096327416 | Ghana, Mali, and Songhay | Mali - a landlocked republic in Northwestern Africa Ghana - a republic of West Africa on the Gulf of Guinea Songhai - a Nilo - Saharan language spoken by the Songhai people in Mali and Niger | 30 | |
| 1096327417 | Foot Binding | Practice in Chinese society to mutilate women's feet in order to make them smaller; produced pain and restricted women's movement; made it easier to confine women to the household | 31 | |
| 1096594597 | Meritocracy | A government where the people who hold power are selected on the basis of their ability. | 32 | |
| 1096594598 | Mosque | A Muslim place of worship. They consist of an area reserved for communal prayers, frequently in a domed building with a minaret, and with a niche (mihrab) or other structure indicating the direction of Mecca. There may also be a platform for preaching (minbar), and an adjacent courtyard in which water is provided for the obligatory ablutions before prayer. |  | 33 |
| 1096981739 | Sufism | The hippy version of Islamic that stresses the spiritual path to mystical union with God. Effective missionaries of Islam. They boast a personal relationship with Allah, and their teachings made Islam highly adaptable to different circumstances, allowing individuals to mold their relationship with Allah to meet their needs and beliefs. Because of this, they converted many people to Islam during the Abbasid Dynasty. It is influenced by other faiths, such as Buddhism, and reached its peak in the 13th century. There are many Sufi orders, the best known being the dervishes. | 34 | |
| 1096981740 | Timbuktu | A major trading center for gold and salt on the trans-Saharan trade routes, it reached the height of its prosperity in the 16th century but fell into decline after its capture by the Moroccans in 1591. | 35 | |
| 1097057079 | Malacca | Key trading port in the Indian Ocean trading network. All trade between East Asia and the Indian Ocean passed through it. | 36 | |
| 1097070623 | Chivalry | An honor system in Western Europe that strongly condemned betrayal and promoted mutual respect and the belief that women were to be protected. Most of the lords and knights followed this code | 37 | |
| 1097233845 | Abbasid Caliphate | A dynasty of Muslim caliphs who ruled the Islamic world from their capital in Baghdad from 750 to 1258. | 38 | |
| 1097458108 | Medieval | European history period prior to Renaissance. 500/1500 BC | 39 | |
| 1097512980 | Japanese Feudalism | Under this system in Japan, the shogun was the 'chief general,' appointed by the emperor. The shogun held the real power, and the emperor became a figurehead. The daimyo (landowners and powerful samurai warriors) were below the shogun. Daimyo divided up their land among lesser samurai, who split their land up again. Peasants worked the land, and artisans ran shops to support the samurai class. | 40 | |
| 1097630704 | Aztec empire | Aztec Empire began as an alliance of three Nahua city-states or "altepetl": Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan. These city-states ruled the area in and around the Valley of Mexico from 1428 until they were defeated by the Spanish conquistadores and their native allies under Hernán Cortés in 1521. | 41 | |
| 1097962963 | Eastern Orthodox Christianity | a Christian church or federation of churches originating in the Greek-speaking church of the Byzantine Empire, not accepting the authority of the pope, and using elaborate and ancient forms of service. |  | 42 |
| 1097962969 | Icons | A painting of Jesus Christ or another holy figure, typically in a traditional style on wood, venerated and used as an aid to devotion in the Byzantine and other Eastern Churches. |  | 43 |
| 1097995146 | Umayyad Caliphate | (661-750) A Muslim dynasty that ruled the Islamic world from 660 to 750 and Moorish Spain from 756 to 1031. Enlarged the Islamic Empire significantly. Capital moved from Mecca to Damascus in Syria. | 44 | |
| 1098223795 | Primogenture | the statement that the oldest son received land from his father and younger sons seeked fortunes elsewhere | 45 | |
| 1098223796 | Theocracy | a form of government in which a deity is officially recognized as the civil Ruler and official policy is governed by officials regarded as divinely guided, or is pursuant to the doctrine of a particular religion or religious group. | 46 | |
| 1098373345 | Tenochtitlan | The ancient capital of the Aztec empire, founded c. 1320. In 1521, the Spanish conquistador Cortés destroyed it and established Mexico City on its site. | 47 | |
| 1098651989 | Yamato clan | The first important ruling family in Japan. They came to power in the 5th c and have been the only dynasty to rule Japan since then. In fact, the current Emperor (Akihito) is a descendent of the Yamato. | 48 | |
| 1098869022 | Gothic | of or relating to the Goths or their extinct East Germanic language, which provides the earliest manuscript evidence of any Germanic language (4th-6th centuries AD). | 49 | |
| 1098869025 | Heretic | a person believing in or practicing religious heresy. | 50 | |
| 1098905487 | Mongol Empire | In the 13th century C.E., the empire under Genghis Khan extended across central Asia from Manchuria in the east to European Russia in the west. It was one of the largest continuous empire in the world. It was divided into smaller territories called hordes. Under Kublai Khan, China was conquered and the Mongol capital moved to Khanbaliq (modern Beijing). The Mongol empire collapsed after a series of defeats culminating in the destruction of the Golden Horde by the Muscovites in 1380. | 51 | |
| 1098955874 | Aristocracy | A government system in which positions are inherited based on being a member of a small, privileged class or family. | 52 | |
| 1099160436 | Byzantine Empire | Coexisted with and was situated between the Roman and Islamic empires. Greek was spoken here, and it's culture had more in common with Eastern (i.e. Persian); its brand of Christianity became entirely separate branch known as Orthodox Christianity. It ended with the loss of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453 | 53 | |
| 1099413367 | Silk Road | An ancient caravan route that linked Xian in central China with the eastern Mediterranean. It was established during the period of Roman rule in Europe and took its name from the silk that was brought to the west from China. The Mongols reopened the route in the 13th c. | 54 | |
| 1099454950 | Feudalism | A political system in which nobles are granted the use of lands that legally belong to a king in return for loyalty and military service | 55 | |
| 1099484645 | Temujin/Chinggis Khan | (1162-1227). Founder of the Mongol empire; born Temujin. He took the name Genghis Khan ("ruler of all") in 1206 after uniting the nomadic Mongol tribes. When he died, his empire extended from China to the Black Sea. His grandson Kublai Khan completed the conquest of China. | 56 | |
| 1099484647 | Khubilai Khan | (1216-94). Mongol emperor of China; grandson of Genghis Khan. With his brother Mangu (then Mongol Khan), he conquered southern China (1252-59). After Mangu's death in 1259, he completed the conquest of China, founded the Yuan dynasty, and established his capital on the site of modern Beijing. | 57 | |
| 1099570884 | Crusades | Medieval military expedition made by Europeans to recover the Holy Land from the Muslims in the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries. | 58 | |
| 1099600402 | Ottoman Empire | The Turkish empire, established in northern Anatolia by Osman I at the end of the 13th century and expanded by his successors to include all of Asia Minor and much of southeastern Europe. After setbacks caused by the invasion of the Mongol ruler Tamerlane in 1402, the Ottomans captured Constantinople in 1453, and the empire reached its zenith under Suleiman in the mid 16th century. It had greatly declined by the 19th century and collapsed after World War I. | 59 | |
| 1099603047 | Safavid Empire | The Shia dynasty that ruled Persia from 1502-1736. | 60 | |
| 1099918907 | Muhammad | ( c. 570-632) Arab prophet and founder of Islam. In c. 610, in Mecca, he received the first of a series of revelations that, as the Koran, became the doctrinal and legislative basis of Islam. In the face of opposition to his preaching, he and his small group of supporters were forced to flee to Medina in 622 (the Hegira). He then led his followers into a series of battles against the Meccans. In 630, Mecca capitulated and by his death he had united most of Arabia. | 61 | |
| 1100210229 | Black Death | The great epidemic of bubonic plague that killed a large part of the population of Europe in the mid 14th century. Began in Asia and spread through merchants. It killed about 1/3 of the population of Europe. It sped the decline of the feudal system in western Europe, because many manors were closed because their lords or serfs died. It was carried by the fleas of black rats, reaching England in 1348 and killing between one third and one half of the population in a matter of months. | 62 | |
| 1100460223 | Li Po/ Li Bo | 701-762 - One of the most famous Chinese poet who supposedly drowned while trying to reach the reflection of the moon in a lake. | 63 | |
| 1103608992 | Hanseatic League | An economic and defensive alliance of the free towns in northern Germany, founded about 1241 and most powerful in the fourteenth century. |  | 64 |
| 1111962504 | Caliph/Caliphates | The emperor and religion leader in early Islam. They would serve as a head of state, military commander, chief judge, and religious leader. The theocratic Islamic Empire was referred to as a caliphate. They ruled in Baghdad until 1258 and then in Egypt until the Ottoman conquest of 1517; the title was then held by the Ottoman sultans until it was abolished in 1924 by Atatürk. | 65 | |
| 1112305605 | Civil Service Exam | Exam taken in order to gain entrance to the Chinese bureaucracy. Primarily focused on Confucian concepts. | 66 | |
| 1112305606 | Cultural Diffusion | The things and ideas from one culture that are 'borrowed' from another culture. | 67 | |
| 1112870915 | Vassals | A person in the Medieval European feudal system who entered into a mutual obligation to a lord or monarch. | 68 | |
| 1112870916 | Chang'an (Xi'an, China) | Capital of the Tang dynasty and eastern most city on the Silk Road. | 69 | |
| 1115291050 | Sunni Islam | Members do not believe Ali, son of Muhammad, is the rightful heir to the Islamic empire. They hold Ali in high esteem, but believe that their leaders should arise from a broad base of Islamic people. |  | 70 |
| 1115586027 | Tang Empress Wu | Tang Empress Wu, born Wu Zetian, was a Chinese sovereign, who ruled officially from 690 to 705; however, she had previous imperial positions under both Emperor Taizong of Tang and his son Emperor Gaozong of Tang, of the Tang Dynasty of China. Wu Zetian ruled as effective sovereign until 705. She is the only woman to rule China in her own right | 71 | |
| 1231525002 | Westernization | An adoption of the social, political, or economic institutions of Western—especially European or American—countries. | 72 |
