Vocab number 3

Ibn Battuta

Muslim traveler and scholar who documented his journeys across Africa, the Middle East, and Asia during the 14th century.

Kin-based networks

Social and political organization in African societies where families and clans governed through lineage ties instead of centralized states.

Bantu

A group of sub-Saharan African peoples who spread language, agriculture, and ironworking across Africa in a massive migration.

Coptic Christianity

A branch of Christianity in Egypt that developed separate traditions from Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy.

Zanj Rebellion

A major slave revolt of East African laborers against the Abbasid Caliphate in the 9th century.

Fief

A piece of land granted by a lord to a vassal in exchange for loyalty and service in feudal Europe.

Vassal

A person who pledged loyalty and service to a lord in return for land (a fief).

Chivalry

The medieval knightly code of conduct emphasizing loyalty, honor, and protection of the weak.

Serfs

Peasant laborers bound to the land and obligated to provide services to their lords.

Three-field system

An agricultural method where farmland was divided into three parts: one for grains, one for legumes, and one left fallow, increasing food production.

Manor

The lord’s estate in feudal Europe that included villages, farmland, and peasants.

Monastery

A religious community where monks or nuns lived, worked, and worshipped.

Estates General

A French representative assembly made up of the clergy, nobility, and commoners.

Lay investiture

The appointment of religious officials (like bishops) by secular rulers rather than the Pope.

Magna Carta

A 1215 English charter that limited the power of the king and es

Parliament

England’s representative governing body, evolving from councils of nobles and clergy.

Great Schism

The 1054 split between the Roman Catholic Church (West) and the Eastern Orthodox Church (East).

Pope

The head of the Roman Catholic Church and bishop of Rome.

Marco Polo

Venetian explorer who traveled to China and recorded his experiences, influencing European interest in Asia.

Antisemitism

Prejudice, discrimination, or hostility toward Jewish people.

Humanism

Renaissance intellectual movement emphasizing human potential, classical learning, and secular concerns alongside religion.