AP World History: Post-Classical Era Vocabulary

Vocabulary terms and definitions covering major post-classical AP World History topics including Tang/Song China, Islamic Expansion, Feudal Europe, Mesoamerican and Andean Empires, and the Mongol Empire.

Filial Piety

Confucian family values that emphasized respect for elders, ancestor veneration, and continuing the family line.

Mahayana Buddhism

A branch of Buddhism featuring bodhisattvas and a promise of salvation for ordinary people, making it broadly popular in China.

Bodhisattvas

Compassionate, savior-like figures in Mahayana Buddhism who help ordinary people achieve liberation.

Xuanzang

A Tang Dynasty Buddhist monk who famously journeyed to India to retrieve Buddhist texts.

Emperor Wuzong

Tang Dynasty emperor who launched a massive persecution of Buddhism in 845 CE, destroying monasteries and confiscating monastic wealth.

San Jiao

The 'three teachings' of China (Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism) which were practiced together as a blended, syncretic system.

Sharia

The body of Islamic law that provided shared legal standards, rituals, and beliefs across the diverse Islamic world.

Madrasas

Islamic colleges and formal educational institutions that helped maintain a shared intellectual and legal framework across regions.

Ulama

The elite class of religious and legal scholars in Islam who preserved common institutions across different political realms.

Umma

The global community of Muslim believers that transcended ethnic, tribal, and political boundaries.

Dhimmi

Protected non-Muslim minorities (such as Jews and Christians) living in Islamic states who retained religious freedom in exchange for paying a tax.

Jizya

A special tax paid by non-Muslim protected subjects (dhimmi) to Islamic governments.

Al-Khwarizmi

A Muslim mathematician who developed algebra and helped transmit and popularize the Hindu-Arabic numeral system.

Ibn Sina (Avicenna)

A prominent Muslim physician and scholar who authored 'The Canon of Medicine', a medical encyclopedia used for centuries in Europe and Asia.

Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen)

A Muslim scholar who conducted experimental studies on light and vision, establishing foundations for optics and the scientific method.

Ibn Rushd (Averroes)

An Islamic philosopher in Spain who translated and wrote extensive commentaries on the works of Aristotle.

Champa Rice

A fast-ripening, drought-resistant rice strain from Southeast Asia that enabled double-cropping and caused a major demographic growth in Song China.

Neo-Confucianism

A revived form of Confucian philosophy during the Song Dynasty that reinforced strict patriarchy, social hierarchy, and family obligations.

Empress Wu Zetian

China's only female emperor, who held political power during the Tang Dynasty.

Foot Binding

A painful Song Dynasty practice among women that restricted physical movement, signaled elite social status, and reinforced male dependence.

Kowtow

A ritual of submission in the Chinese tribute system where foreign representatives performed deep bows before the emperor.

Great Schism of 1054

The official split of Christianity into the Roman Catholic Church in Western Europe and the Eastern Orthodox Church in the Byzantine Empire.

Reconquista

The centuries-long military campaign by Christian kingdoms in Spain to reconquer the Iberian Peninsula from Muslim rule, ending in 1492.

Feudalism

A decentralized political system in medieval Europe based on mutual land-granting obligations and military loyalty between lords and vassals.

Fief

An estate of land granted by a feudal lord to a vassal in exchange for military service and loyalty.

Manorialism

The economic system underlying feudalism, where serfs worked the land of a lord's manor in return for protection.

Serfs

Peasants who were legally bound to work a lord's estate land and owed labor and dues in exchange for protection.

Sufi Mystics

Islamic missionaries who used emotional devotion, music, and syncretic spiritual practices to successfully convert diverse populations across Afro-Eurasia.

Convivencia

The period of religious coexistence and intellectual collaboration among Muslims, Christians, and Jews in early Islamic Spain.

Taifas

Small, competing regional Muslim kingdoms that formed in Spain after the fall of the central Caliphate of Cordoba.

Huey Tlatoani

The title used for the supreme ruler or emperor of the Aztec Empire.

Chinampas

Artificial agricultural islands ('floating gardens') constructed on lakes around Tenochtitlan to supply intensive crop yields.

Huitzilopochtli

The primary Aztec sun and war god who required regular human blood and heart sacrifices to ensure the sun rose.

Sapa Inca

The absolute, semi-divine emperor of the Inca Empire who was considered a direct descendant of the sun god Inti.

Tambos

Inca rest stations placed at regular intervals along their 24,000-mile road network to aid long-distance travel and rapid communication.

Quipu

A record-keeping system using knotted cords employed by Inca administrators to log population data, resources, and taxes.

Mit'a

The mandatory labor-tax system in the Inca Empire requiring communities to provide periodic service to state construction, agricultural, and military projects.

Acllacuna

'Chosen Women' in the Inca Empire selected to weave textiles, brew chicha (corn beer), and serve in political and religious functions.

Yuan Dynasty

The Mongol-led dynastic regime established in China by Kublai Khan.

Pax Mongolica

A era of Eurasian peace and security under Mongol unification that permitted unprecedented Silk Road commerce and cultural exchange.

Ilkhanate

The Mongol state in Persia where Mongol rulers converted to Islam and adopted local bureaucratic practices.

Golden Horde

The Mongol khanate based in Sarai that exercised distant, indirect political control over Russia by demanding tribute from local princes.

Swahili Civilization

A network of East African coastal trading city-states that blended Bantu African cultural foundations with Arab and Islamic trade influences.