World History Honors Vocabulary #1

study for next friday

caliph

a successor of Muhammad as a spiritual and poltical leader of the Islamic community

jiihad

in Islam, the struggle of believers to surivive

caliphate

the office of dominion of a caliph

Shia

a Muslim group that originally believed that only the descendants of Muhammad’s son-in-law Ali could be the first true rulers of Islam and can be political and religious guides

mosque

a muslim place of worship

sheikh

the ruler of an Arabic tribe, chosen from one of the leading families by a council of elders

allah

Arabic for “god”; supreme god of Islam

Quran

the holy scriptures of the religion of Islam

Muslim

a person who believes in Islam

Hijrah

the journey of Muhammed and his followers to Madinah in 622, which become year 1 of the official calendar of Islam

bedouin

a nomadic Arab who lives in the Arabian, Syrian, or North African deserts

hajj

a pilgrimage to Makkah, one of the requirements of the Five Pillars of Islam

Hadith

accounts of the sayings and actions of Muhammad

Five Pillars of Islam

acts of worship every Muslim must perform; these include belief, prayer, charity, fasting, and pilgrimage

shari’ah

a low code drawn up by Muslim scholars after Muhammads’s death; it provided believers with a set of practical laws to regulate their daily lives

Sunni

a Muslim group that accepted that only capable rulers could be the true ruler of Islam, and one should look to the scholars of the Quran and Hadith for spiritual ethical guidance

vizier

a high government official in Muslim countries

sultan

the military and political head of state under the Seljuk Turks and the Ottomans “holder of power”

bazaar

a covered market in Islamic cities

dowry

a gift of money or property paid at the time of marriage, either by the bride’s parents to her husband or in Islamic societies, by a husband to his wife

astrolabe

an instrument used by sailors to determine their location by observing the positions of stars

arabesque

a geometric pattern repeated over and over to completely cover a surface with decoration

minaret

the tower of a mosque from which the muezzin calls the faithful to prayer five times a day

muezzin

the crier who calls the Muslim faithful to prayer from the minaret of a mosque