Unit 1: The Global Tapestry

Global Tapestry

A metaphor for 1200–1450 emphasizing that most people lived in local/regional “threads,” but those threads were increasingly woven into larger patterns through states, belief systems, and expanding trade.

Legitimacy

The reasons people accept a ruler or political system as rightful (e.g., religion, ancestry, military success, prosperity, law, or a mix).

Administration

The practical methods rulers use to control territory and people (e.g., bureaucracy, local elites, tribute, military governors, roads, record-keeping).

Social order

A society’s system of ranking and hierarchy (class/caste/ethnicity/religion/gender) and the ways those hierarchies reproduce and support political and economic power.

Religious mysticism

A cross-religious pattern in which believers emphasize mystical experiences to draw closer to the divine, often through prayer, meditation, and disciplined practice.

Sufism

A mystical tradition within Islam that emphasized spiritual practices and often helped spread Islam through adaptable, local forms (frequently along trade routes).

Siddhartha Gautama

Founder of Buddhism; a South Asian prince who rejected wealth, became the Buddha (“Enlightened One”), and taught a path to liberation from suffering.

Four Noble Truths

Core Buddhist teachings: (1) life involves suffering, (2) suffering is caused by desire, (3) desire can be ended, and (4) ending desire requires following a prescribed path.

Theravada Buddhism

A major branch of Buddhism emphasizing meditation, simplicity, and nirvana as renunciation of consciousness and self.

Mahayana Buddhism

A major branch of Buddhism that developed more ritual and offered spiritual comfort; it spread widely across East Asia.

Brahman (Brahma[n])

In Hinduism, an ultimate reality or supreme force underlying existence; deities can be understood as manifestations of this reality.

Moksha

In Hinduism, spiritual liberation—release of the soul and union with ultimate reality—typically understood as occurring over multiple lives.

Dharma

In Hinduism, the duties and obligations associated with one’s position in society, closely tied to caste expectations.

Confucianism

An ethical and social philosophy (from Confucius) focused on restoring political and social order through education, hierarchy, and proper relationships.

Analects

A major collection of Confucius’s sayings and teachings, foundational for Confucian learning and education.

Five fundamental relationships

Confucian framework for social harmony: ruler–subject, parent–child, husband–wife, older sibling–younger sibling, and friend–friend.

Neo-Confucianism

A Song-era revival of Confucianism that engaged metaphysical questions (often in dialogue with Buddhism) and reinforced hierarchy, filial piety, and “proper roles,” closely linked to state institutions.

Five Pillars of Islam

Core Islamic practices: confession of faith, prayer five times daily, charity, fasting during Ramadan, and pilgrimage (hajj) to Mecca.

Sharia

Islamic law; a unifying institution across diverse Muslim-ruled states through legal schools, scholars, and courts.

Caliphate

An Islamic political leadership claimed to represent the Muslim community, ideally led by a caliph tied to early Islamic authority.

Civil service examination

Chinese system recruiting officials through mastery of Confucian texts, creating a professional scholar-based bureaucracy (though access favored the wealthy due to education costs).

Foot binding

A Song-era and later Chinese practice of binding girls’ feet to keep them small; reflected elite beauty standards and reinforced broader gender hierarchy under Neo-Confucian values.

Song dynasty

Chinese dynasty (960–1279) known for strong administration, commercial growth, technological innovation, and governance supported by Confucian/Neo-Confucian scholar-officials despite military pressure from northern groups.

Yuan dynasty

Chinese dynasty (1271–1368) established by Mongol conquest; preserved many Chinese administrative practices but organized society with a status hierarchy favoring Mongols and other non-Han groups.

Kublai Khan

Mongol ruler who founded the Yuan dynasty in China; an example of a conquest ruler seeking legitimacy while maintaining control over a diverse population.

Ming dynasty

Chinese dynasty (1368–1644) that replaced the Yuan and emphasized restoring Han Chinese rule, reinforcing Confucian learning, civil service recruitment, agricultural recovery, and stronger imperial institutions.

China-centered cultural sphere

A regional pattern in East Asia where neighboring states adopted and adapted Chinese ideas (writing, Confucian education, bureaucracy, Buddhism) while maintaining political independence.

Shogunate

Japanese political system (often dated from 1192) in which real power frequently rested with military leaders rather than a centralized civil bureaucracy.

Bushido

Samurai warrior code in feudal Japan emphasizing loyalty, courage, honor, and discipline.

Dar al-Islam

“Abode of Islam”; regions where Islamic rule and Muslim communities were significant, culturally connected by shared texts, scholarship, law, and trade despite political fragmentation.

Abbasid Caliphate

Major Islamic caliphate (750–1258) associated with a cultural and intellectual “golden age” and strong integration with long-distance trade networks.

House of Wisdom

An Abbasid-era institution in Baghdad often described as a major library and translation center supporting scholarship in arts, sciences, medicine, and mathematics.

Turko-Persian

A cultural blend in which Turkic rulers and military elites adopted Persian language, administrative methods, and literary culture, showing Islamic civilization’s ethnic and cultural diversity.

Mamluk Sultanate

Muslim-ruled state centered in Egypt and Syria where enslaved soldiers (Mamluks), trained and later manumitted, formed a military elite that dominated political power.

Battle of Ayn Jalut

1260 battle in the Levant where the Mamluks defeated Mongol forces, helping halt Mongol expansion in the eastern Mediterranean and preserve key Muslim-ruled centers.

Delhi Sultanate

State (1206–1526) ruling much of northern India under Turkish and Afghan elites; governed a religiously diverse population using military power, taxation, and cooperation with local social structures.

Mandala model

A Southeast Asian political pattern where authority formed overlapping circles of influence (strongest at the center and fading outward) rather than fixed, clearly bordered territories.

Khmer Empire

Southeast Asian empire (9th–15th centuries) centered at Angkor; used massive irrigation/water management to support rice surpluses, cities, and temple construction tied to Hindu and later Buddhist ideas.

Angkor Wat

Monumental temple complex at Angkor that served religious purposes and acted as a political statement of sacred kingship and state capacity.

Majapahit

Maritime empire (1293–c. 1500) in the Indonesian archipelago that gained wealth by controlling trade networks, taxing commerce, and managing port alliances; a site of cultural blending.

Mali Empire

West African empire (c. 1235–c. 1600) that built state power through gold production and taxing trans-Saharan trade; elites often used Islamic legitimacy alongside local traditions.

Trans-Saharan trade

Long-distance exchange across the Sahara that linked North and West Africa and helped expand commerce and Islamic influence into parts of sub-Saharan Africa.

Swahili city-states

East African coastal port cities integrated into Indian Ocean trade, exchanging goods like gold and ivory for Asian textiles/ceramics; Islamic influence was strong in coastal urban society.

Tribute empire

An empire maintained by extracting goods, labor, and captives from conquered communities (a key description of Mexica/Aztec rule), often while leaving local rulers in place under tribute obligations.

Mita

Inca labor system requiring subjects to perform public service (e.g., roads, terraces, military service), functioning as a form of labor taxation supporting the state.

Ayllu

Inca kin-based community unit that organized labor and social life, helping the state mobilize resources and manage local populations.

Quipu

Inca knotted-cord record-keeping system used for accounting and administration, showing sophisticated governance without alphabetic writing.

Feudalism

A political/military hierarchy in medieval Europe (and comparably in Japan) where land and protection were exchanged for loyalty and service among kings, nobles, and vassals.

Manorialism

A medieval European economic/social system centered on largely self-sufficient estates (manors/fiefs) where peasants, often serfs, worked a lord’s land for protection and subsistence access.

Magna Carta

English document forced on King John by nobles that limited royal power and helped lay foundations for later representative institutions (including the development of Parliament).