APW Unit 1 vocab

Sui Dynasty

The short dynasty between the Han and the Tang; built the Grand Canal, strengthened the government, and introduced Buddhism to China

Song Dynasty

(960-1279 CE) The Chinese dynasty that placed much more emphasis on civil administration, industry, education, and arts other than military.

Tang Dynasty

(618-907 CE) The Chinese dynasty that was much like the Han, who used Confucianism. This dynasty had the equal-field system, a bureaucracy based on merit, and a Confucian education system.

Equal Field System

This Chinese system allotted land to individuals and their families according to the land's fertility and the recipients' needs.

Neo-Confucianism

The Confucian response to Buddhism by taking Confucian and Buddhist beliefs and combining them into this. However, it is still very much Confucian in belief.

Shinto

"Way of the Kami"; Japanese worship of nature spirits

Heian Period

The era in Japanese history from A.D. 794-1185, arts and writing flourished during this time

Champa Rice

a quick-maturing, drought resistant rice that can allow two harvests, of sixty days each in one growing season.

Shogun

In feudal Japan, a noble similar to a duke. They were the military commanders and the actual rulers of Japan for many centuries while the Emperor was a powerless spiritual figure.

Samurai

Class of warriors in feudal Japan who pledged loyalty to a noble in return for land.

Muhammad

Arab prophet; founder of religion of Islam.

Quran

The holy book of Islam

Ka'ba

the stone cubical structure in the courtyard of the Great Mosque of Mecca, believed to have been built by Abraham and regarded by Muslims as the sacred center of the earth

Umma

The community of all Muslims. A major innovation against the background of seventh-century Arabia, where traditionally kinship rather than faith had determined membership in a community.

Dar al-Islam

an Arabic term that means the "house of Islam" and that refers to lands under Islamic rule

Caravanserai

inn or rest station for caravans

Caliph

A supreme political and religious leader in a Muslim government

Shia

the branch of Islam whose members acknowledge Ali and his descendants as the rightful successors of Muhammad

Umayyad Dynasty

established by Muawiya, moved capital from Medina to Damascus, that action split Islam (Shi'ites & Sunnites)

Abbasid Dynasty

Muslim dynasty after Ummayd, a dynasty that lasted about two centuries that had about 150 years of Persia conquer and was created by Mohammad's youngest uncle's sons

Sunni

A branch of Islam whose members acknowledge the first four caliphs as the rightful successors of Muhammad

Dehli Sultanate

Centralized Indian empire of varying extent, created by Muslim invaders.

Dhow Ships

Arab sailing vessels with triangular or lateen sails; strongly influenced European ship design

Junk Ships

ancient Chinese sailing vessel still used today; used for extensive ocean voyages; sailed throughout Indian Ocean

Sufis

mystical Muslim group that believed they could draw closer to God through prayer, fasting, & simple life

Constantinople

A large and wealthy city that was the imperial capital of the Byzantine empire and later the Ottoman empire, now known as Istanbul

Caesaropapism

A political-religious system in which the secular ruler is also head of the religious establishment, as in the Byzantine Empire.

Code of Justinian

compilation of the complex system of Roman laws; became the system of laws for the Byzantine Empire

Hagia Sophia

the Cathedral of Holy Wisdom in Constantinople, built by order of the Byzantine emperor Justinian

Charlemagne

King of the Franks (r. 768-814); emperor (r. 800-814). Through a series of military conquests he established the Carolingian Empire, which encompassed all of Gaul and parts of Germany and Italy. Illiterate, though started an intellectual revival.

Vikings

Invaders of Europe that came from Scandinavia

Iconoclasm

Opposing or even destroying images, especially those set up for religious veneration in the belief that such images represent idol worship.

Great Schism

the official split between the Roman Catholic and Byzantine churches that occurred in 1054

Orthodox Christianity

A branch of Christianity developed in the Byzantine Empire, after its split from the Roman Empire. It spread throughout the eastern Mediterranean and Russia.

Mongol Khanates

Regions held under control of Mongol Khans including Khanates of Chaghati, Golden Horde, the Great Khan and Ilkhanate of Persia.

Genghis (Chinggis) Khan

the founder and Great Khan of the Mongol Empire

Yuan Dynasty

Dynasty in China set up by the Mongols under the leadership of Kublai Khan, replaced the Song (1279-1368)

Trans-Saharan Trade

route across the sahara desert. Major trade route that traded for gold and salt, created caravan routes, economic benefit for controlling dessert, camels played a huge role in the trading

Mali Empire

Formed in 1240 when Sundiata took control of Ghana Empire. It controlled trade across Sahara, the South and the Niger River.

Mansa Musa

Emperor of the kingdom of Mali in Africa. He made a famous pilgrimage to Mecca and established trade routes to the Middle East.

Swahili

Bantu language with Arabic loanwords spoken in coastal regions of East Africa.

Crusades

A series of holy wars from 1096-1270 AD undertaken by European Christians to free the Holy Land from Muslim rule.

Hanseatic League

An economic and defensive alliance of the free towns in northern Germany, founded about 1241 and most powerful in the fourteenth century.

Chinampa system

System in which farmers dredged up muck from the lake to plots of land, allowing some cultivators to grow up to seven crops a year

Bubonic Plague

disease brought to Europe from the Mongols during the Middle Ages. It killed 1/3 of the population and helps end Feudalism. Rats, fleas.

Marco Polo

Venetian merchant and traveler. His accounts of his travels to China offered Europeans a firsthand view of Asian lands and stimulated interest in Asian trade.

Ibn Battuta

Moroccan Muslim scholar, the most widely traveled individual of his time. He wrote a detailed account of his visits to Islamic lands from China to Spain and the western Sudan.

Primogeniture

right of inheritance belongs exclusively to the eldest son

Mit'a System

The system recruiting workers for particularly difficult and dangerous chores that free laborers would not accept.

Feudalism

A system of government based on landowners and tenants