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| 7985507997 | Muhammad | (c. 570-632) introduced the religion of Islam to southwestern Asia. According to Muslim belief, he heard the voice of the angel Gabriel instructing him to serve as a messenger for God. He spent the rest of his life spreading Islam. Muslims today honor him as God's final prophet. | 0 | |
| 7985510852 | Yathrib | final destination of Muhammad's hijra and the home of the first community of Muslims; later renamed Medina; located in the northwest of present-day Saudi Arabia | 1 | |
| 7985510851 | hijra | Muhammad's journey from Mecca to Medina in 622 | 2 | |
| 7985517812 | Quran | the holy book of Islam | 3 | |
| 7985517813 | hajj | one of the Five Pillars of Islam, the pilgrimage that all Muslims are expected to make at least once in their lifetime | 4 | |
| 7985522203 | Abu Bakr | (573-634) was Muhammad's father-in-law and the first Muslim caliph, or leader, following Muhammad's death. An early convert to Islam, he advised Muhammad and traveled on the hijra with the prophet. He helped unite the Muslim people through his role as successor to Muhammad. Under his rule, the Muslim empire expanded. | 5 | |
| 7985524198 | caliph | successor to Muhammad as political and religious leader of the Muslims | 6 | |
| 7985527104 | Sufi | Muslim mystic who seeks communion with God through meditation, fasting, and other rituals | 7 | |
| 7985531702 | Sundiata | He was a West African ruler who was responsible for laying the groundwork for Mali to be a rich and powerful kingdom. He died in 1255. | 8 | |
| 7985534837 | Mansa Musa | (died c. 1337) was a devoted Islamic ruler of Mali who came to the throne in 1312 and expanded Mali's borders to the Atlantic Ocean. He was one of the richest men of his era. His famous journey to Mecca was lavish and awakened the world to the riches of Mali. | 9 | |
| 7985534838 | Songhai | medieval West African kingdom located in present-day Mali, Niger, and Nigeria | 10 | |
| 7985537124 | Axum | trading center and powerful ancient kingdom in northern present-day Ethiopia | 11 | |
| 7985540497 | King Lalibela | Ruler of Ethiopia who came to power in the 1200s. He built eleven Christian churches carved from ground level into the solid rock of the mountains below. | 12 | |
| 7985547604 | Delhi | the third-largest city in India, capital of medieval India | 13 | |
| 7985547605 | Sikhism | monotheistic religion founded in the late 1400s by Guru Nanak in the Punjab region of India | 14 | |
| 7985553078 | Babur | (1483-1530) was the founder of the Mughal Dynasty in India. He came from Turkish and Mongol heritages, a descendent of the great Mongol leader, Genghis Khan. His name is the Arabic word for "tiger," but he was as accomplished a poet as he was a warrior. His wise rule helped launch a powerful Muslim dynasty that had a permanent influence on northern India. | 15 | |
| 7985553079 | Taj Mahal | a tomb built by Shah Jahan for his wife | 16 | |
| 7985555266 | Tang Taizong | (598-649) was an accomplished general, government reformer, historian, Confucian scholar, and artist. These qualities and skills helped him to become China's most admired emperor. | 17 | |
| 7985557785 | Song Dynasty | Chinese dynasty from 960 to 1279, followed the Golden Age of the Tang | 18 | |
| 7985564807 | Genghis Khan | (1162-1227) rose from poverty to unite the warring Mongol tribes. He imposed discipline, exacted loyalty, and then proceeded to build an army that conquered the vast areas of Central Asia and China and became the Mongol empire. He was known for both his fierceness and his generosity. The Mongol empire lasted long after his death during a military campaign. His descendants added to the empire until it became the largest empire in the world prior to the British empire. | 19 | |
| 7985568018 | Kublai Khan | (1215-1294) was the grandson of Genghis Khan and founded the Yuan dynasty, conquered the Song dynasty in the south to complete Mongol control of China, and proved a strong and intelligent ruler of the vast empire. Guided by Confucian Chinese advisors, he undertook reforms in his territories and politically reunited China, but also engaged in a series of costly and fruitless wars with neighboring kingdoms. He generally left Chinese life unchanged and, although religious, was known for his acceptance of various religious practices and for granting economic privileges to favored sects. | 20 | |
| 7985571114 | Zheng He | (c. 1371-1433) was an admiral in the Ming Chinese navy and diplomat who made his first voyage in 1405 to Vietnam, India, and Africa to both explore and trade. His huge fleet of hundred of junks (Chinese ships) and thousands of sailors carried silk, porcelain, and lacquerware to trade for pearls, spices, ivory, and timber. Zheng He made seven voyages in all, exploring, trading successfully, and thereby motivating Chinese merchants to establish trade centers in Southeast Asia and India. | 21 | |
| 7985573356 | Choson Dynasty | Korean dynasty that ruled from 1392 to 1910, the longest-lived of Korea's three dynasties | 22 | |
| 7985577469 | Murasaki Shikubu | (c. 973-c. 1014 or 1025) was a lady-in-waiting in the Heian Court. Historians credit her with writing the world's first full-length novel, The Tale of Genji , written between A.D. 1000 and 1008. | 23 | |
| 7985592968 | Yuan Dynasty | Chinese dynasty ruled by the Mongols from 1279 to 1368; best-known ruler was Kublai Khan | 24 | |
| 7985598585 | Marco Polo | (c. 1254-1324) was a traveler, merchant, and adventurer from Venice who journeyed from Europe to Asia in 1271-95, spending 17 years serving the Mongol emperor Kublai Khan. Polo dictated the account of his travels, to a fellow prisoner while imprisoned during a war with Genoa. His book proved a great success, but few readers believed it was true. Evidence outside his book that he journeyed so far to the east has not been found; however, during the centuries since his death, others have confirmed the accuracy of most of what he described. | 25 | |
| 7985602286 | Sultan | Muslim ruler | 26 | |
| 7985609068 | Mughal | Muslim empire that ruled most of northern India from the mid-1500s to the mid-1700s | 27 | |
| 7985615943 | Tang Dynasty | Chinese dynasty from 618 to 907; followed the short-lived Sui Dynasty | 28 | |
| 7985624841 | Umayyad | Sunni dynasty of caliphs that ruled from 661 to 750 | 29 | |
| 7985627308 | Abbasid | Muslim dynasty that ruled in Baghdad from 750 to 1258 | 30 | |
| 7985631335 | Sunni | a member of one of the largest Muslim sects; believe that inspiration came from the example of Muhammad as recorded by his early followers | 31 | |
| 7985635633 | Shiite | a member of one of the two major Muslim sects; believe that the descendants of Muhammad's daughter and son-in-law, Ali, are the true Muslim leaders | 32 | |
| 7985638600 | Mecca | a city in western Saudi Arabia; birthplace of Muhammad, viewed by Muslims as the prophet of Islam, and the most holy city for Islamic people | 33 | |
| 7985638601 | Kaaba | the most sacred temple of Islam, located at Mecca | 34 | |
| 7985644017 | mosque | Muslim house of worship | 35 | |
| 7985649277 | Firdawsi | (c. 940-1020) was a Muslim poet most famous for the Shah Namah, or Book of Kings, which he wrote in Persian using Arabic script. He wrote at a time when Persia, or Iran, was fairly free from the control of the Muslim empire and local leaders encouraged a flowering of Persian culture. The famed poet centered his writing on the stories of royalty and heroes, and many of the themes he introduced are still relevant today. | 36 | |
| 7985655773 | Ibn Rushd | (1128-1198) was a philosopher and scientist who lived in Córdoba and influenced European thought. As a philosopher, he placed a variety of subject matter under the scrutiny of reason and analysis and argued that humans were partially but not completely controlled by fate. In the field of science, he contributed to the study of diseases. | 37 | |
| 7985658712 | Ibn Khaldun | (1332-1406) was an Arab thinker who helped establish the principles of many branches of knowledge including history and economics. He is perhaps best known for the development of standards for studying and writing about history, which he explained in his landmark book, the Muqaddimah , He also introduced or refined many economic concepts relating to labor, profits, supply and demand, use of resources, production, and supply and demand. | 38 | |
| 7985663763 | Safavid | Shiite Muslim dynasty that ruled much of present-day Iran from the 1500s into the 1700s | 39 | |
| 7985663764 | janizary | a member of the elite forces of the Ottoman army | 40 | |
| 7985670804 | Swahili | an East African culture that emerged about A.D 1000; also a Bantu-based language, blending Arabic words and written in Arabic script. | 41 | |
| 7985673718 | Great Zimbabwe | powerful East African medieval trading center and city-state located in south-eastern present-day Zimbabwe | 42 | |
| 7985676156 | patrilineal | kinship ties that are passed on through the father's side of the family | 43 | |
| 7985678462 | matrilineal | kinship ties that are passed on through the mother's side of the family | 44 | |
| 7985684820 | Istanbul | capital of the Ottoman empire, formerly called Constantinople when it was the center of the eastern Roman empire and also capital of the Byzantine empire | 45 | |
| 7985687895 | Sahara | largest desert in the world, covering almost all of North Africa | 46 | |
| 7985690516 | Ghana | early West African trading kingdom located in parts of present-day Mauritania and Mali | 47 | |
| 7985695060 | Mali | medieval West African trading empire; home of Mansa Musa | 48 | |
| 7985699206 | Bantu | root language of West Africa on which some early African migration patterns are based | 49 |
