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Chinggis Khan

Title meaning "universal ruler" that was given to the Mongol leader Temujin in 1206 after he united the Mongols.

Mongols

People from Central Asia when united ended up creating the largest single land empire in history.

nomadism

Movement among a definite set of places—often cyclic movement

Yuan Empire

Empire created in China and Siberia by Khubilai Khan.

bubonic plague

Also called the Black Death; is believed to be the deadly disease that spread through Asia and Europe and killed more than a third of the people in parts of China and Europe.

Il-Khan

A 'secondary' or 'peripheral' khan based in Persia.

Golden Horde

Mongol khanate founded by Genghis Khan's descendants. It was based in southern Russia and quickly adopted both the Turkic language and Islam. Also known as the Kipchak Horde.

Timur

Sometimes known as Tamerlane, this was the Central Asian leader of a Mongol tribe who attempted to re-establish the Mongol Empire in the late 1300's. His empire included Persia (Iran) and many surrounding lands. He is the great great grandfather of Babur. who later founded the Mughal Empire in India.

Rashid al-Din

Who attempted to write the first world history

Nasir al-Din Tusi

Persian mathematician and cosmologist whose academy near Tabriz provided the model for the movement of the planets that helped to inspire the Copernican model of the solar system.

Alexander Nevsky

Russian noble who gained power in Moscow

tsar

The Russian term for ruler or king; taken from the Roman word caesar.

Ottoman Empire

A Muslim empire based in Turkey that lasted from the 1300's to 1922.

Khubilai Khan

Reigned in China after establishing the Yuan Dynasty; he actively promoted Buddhism; descendant of Chinggis Khan.

lama

Buddhist religious leader

Beijing

China's northern capital, first used as an imperial capital in 906.

Ming Empire

(1368-1644) Empire based in China that Zhu Yuanzhang established after the overthrow of the Yuan Empire.

Yongle

The third emperor of the Ming Empire (r. 1403 - 1424). He sponsored the building of the Forbidden City, a huge encyclopedia project, the expeditions of Zheng He, and the reopening of China's borders to trade and travel.

Zheng He

An imperial eunuch and Muslim, entrusted by the Ming emperor Yongle with a series of state voyages that took his gigantic ships through the Indian Ocean, from Southeast Asia to Africa.

Choson Dynasty

Korean dynasty that ruled from 1392 to 1910, the longest-lived of Korea's three dynasties

kamikaze

the "divine wind" which the Japanese credited with blowing Mongol invaders away from their shores in 1281

Ashikaga Shogunate

The second of Japan's military governments headed by a shogun (a military ruler). Sometimes called the Muromachi Shogunate.

federation

A formal association containing many individual groups or countries

pluralistic

Characterized by the presence of many different ethnic, religious, or cultural groups.

horde

(n.) a vast number (as of people); a throng

capitulate

to surrender

Pandemic

an epidemic that is geographically widespread

cavalry

soldiers on horseback

tyrant

a cruel and oppressive ruler