Developments in Dar al-Islam, Europe, and Global State Building (c. 1200 - c. 1450)

Vocabulary flashcards covering key historical terms, figures, empires, and systems across Dar al-Islam, Europe, and global state-building during c. 1200 - c. 1450.

Muhammad

The prophet who spread Islam through military, merchants, and missionaries both during his life and after his death.

House of Wisdom

An intellectual center located in Baghdad (Iraq) during the Islamic Golden Age where scholars translated Greek literature into Arabic, studied mathematics from India, and learned papermaking from China.

Abbasid Caliphate

An Islamic empire that experienced fragmentation and loss of power, giving rise to new non-Arab Turkic states.

Mamluks

A Turkic group that established a sultanate in Egypt after gaining power following the decline of the Abbasid Caliphate.

Seljuk Turks

A Turkic group led by a Sultan that rose to power in the Middle East following the fall of the Abbasid Caliphate.

Qasr al-Din al-Tusi

An Islamic scholar during the Golden Age who made notable advancements in mathematics and astronomy.

Alisha al-Balunigy (Aisha al-Ba'uniyyah)

A notable female Muslim writer and Sufi poet.

Sufis

Muslim missionaries who spread mystical Islam, making the faith accessible to a wider variety of people.

al-Andalus

An Islamic realm in Spain centered in Cordova, characterized by a climate of tolerance among Muslims, Christians, and Jews that facilitated cultural transfers leading to the European Renaissance and Scientific Revolution.

Battle of Tours

A battle in Spain where European forces defeated the Moors, stopping the northward advance of Islamic power in Western Europe.

Feudalism

A decentralized medieval European political system characterized by hierarchical relationships between monarchs, lords, vassals, and peasants.

Manorial System

An economic and social system of the Middle Ages focused on self-sufficient agricultural estates (manors).

Peter Abelard

A thinker during the High Middle Ages ($1000$ to $1450$) who studied classical philosophy.

Estates-General

An advisory body in France composed of representatives from three social classes: clergy, nobility, and commoners.

King Philip II

A French monarch who was the first to establish a real central bureaucracy in France.

Investiture Controversy

A major medieval conflict over whether a secular leader could invest bishops with the official symbols of church office.

Normans

Descendants of Vikings based in Northwest France who conquered England and later expanded into Sicily.

Magna Carta

A landmark English legal document that English nobles forced King John to sign to limit royal authority.

Hundred Years' War

A series of conflicts fought between England and France during the late medieval period.

Great Schism

The formal separation between the Roman Catholic Church (BCC) and the Eastern Orthodox Church (OC).

Christian Crusades

A series of military expeditions launched by Western Europeans to reclaim the Holy Land, which inadvertently stimulated long-distance trade and commerce.

Marco Polo

A Venetian writer and journalist whose travels documented long-distance commercial networks and foreign cultures.

Humanism

A Renaissance intellectual movement that focused on the value and achievements of individuals rather than exclusively on God.

Ivan the Great

A Moscow-based ruler who achieved independence from Mongol rule, marking the foundation of the modern state of Russia.

Song Dynasty

A Chinese dynasty that maintained steady cultural and technological progress between $1200$ and $1450$.

Chola Kingdom

A South Asian maritime empire that leveraged trade to expand its power.

Vijayanagar Empire

A empire in South Asia that expanded its influence through regional and cross-regional trade networks.

Delhi Sultanate

A prominent land-based Islamic empire established in South Asia.

Mali Empire

A West African empire that grew significantly larger and more politically centralized than its predecessor, the Ghana Empire.

Aztec Empire

A military-based tributary empire located in Mesoamerica.

Inca Empire

A highly centralized empire built in the Andes region of South America.