Chapter 5 WHAP: The Age of Islamic Expressionism: The Middle Ease and South/Southeast Asia

Sufi

Particularly pious Muslims who strive to alight their interior lives toward full devotion to Allah. Never a formal organized movement, Sufi mystics began to be identified as early as 8th century. Their preaching and writing would spread Sufism further in various Islamic regions, and many Sufis played a major role in missionary activities.

Buyids

Regional splinter dynasty of the mid-10th century; invaded and captured Baghdad; ruled Abbasid Empire under title of sultan; retained Abbasids as figureheads

Seljuk Turks

Nomadic invaders from central Asia via Persia; staunch Sunnis; ruled in name of Abbasid caliphs from mid-11th century

Crusades

a series of military expeditions in the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries by Westrn European Christians to reclain control of the Holy Lands from the Muslims; temporarily succeeded in capturing Jerusalem and establishing Christian kingdoms; later used of rather purposes such as commercial wars and extermination of heresy.

Saladin

Muslim leader in the last decades of the 12th century; reconquered most of the crusader outposts for Islam

Ibn Khaldun

A Muslim historian; developed concept that dynasties of nomadic conquerors had a cycle of three generations - strong, weak, dissolute.

Hulegu

Ruler of the Ilkhan khanate; grandson of Chinggis Khan; responsible for capture and destruction of Baghdad in 1257

Muhammad ibn Qasim

Arab general; conquered Sind in India; declared the region and the Indus valley to be part of Umayyad Empire

Mahmoud of Ghazni

Third ruler of Turkish Slave Dynasty in Afghanistan; led invasions of Northern India; credited with sacking one of Hindu temples in Northern India; gave Muslims reputation of intolerance and agression

Muhammad of Ghur

Military commander of Persian extraction who ruled small mountain kingdom in Afghanistan; began process of conquest to establish Muslim political control of northern India; brought much of Indus valley, Sind, and northwestern India under his control.

Qutb-ud-din Aibak

Lieutenant of Muhammad of Ghur; established kingdom in India with capital at Delphi; proclaimed himself Sultan of India

Delhi

Capital of the new Muslim Empire, location in the very center of Northern India proclaimed that Muslim dynasty rooted in the subcontinent itself.

Bhaktic cults

Hindu groups dedicated to gods and goddesses; stressed the importance of strong emotional bonds between devotees and the god or goddess who was the object of their veneration; most widely worshipped gods were Vishnu and Shiva

Mira Bai

Celebrated Hindu writer of religious poetry; reflected openness of bhaktic cults to women

Kabir

Muslim mystic; played down the importance of ritual differences between Hinduism and Islam

Shrivijaya

Trading empire centered on Malacca Straits between Malaya and Sumatra; controlled trade of empire; Buddhist government resistant to Muslim missionaries; fall opened up southeastern Asia to Muslim conversion.

Malacca

Port city located on the tip of the Malayan peninsula; traditionally a center for trade among the Southeast Asian islands

Demark

Most powerful of the trading states on north coast of Java; converted to Islam and served as point of dissemination to other ports