Chapter one: developments in Asia, Dar Al-islam, the americas, and Africa

Song Empire

Empire in central and southern China (960–1126) while the Liao people controlled the north. Also empire in southern China (1127–1279; the “Southern Song”) while the Jin people controlled the north. Distinguished for its advances in technology, medicine, astronomy, and mathematics.

Neo-Confucianism

Term used to describe new approaches to understanding classic Confucian texts that became the basic ruling philosophy of China from the Song period to the twentieth century.

zen

The Japanese word for a branch of Mahayana Buddhism based on highly disciplined meditation. It is known in Sanskrit as dhyana, in Chinese as Chan, and in Korean as Son

Koryo

Korean kingdom founded in 918 and destroyed by a Mongol invasion in 1259.

Champa Rice

Quick-maturing rice that can allow two harvests in one growing season. Originally introduced into Champa from India, it was later sent to China as a tribute gift by the Champa state.

gunpowder

A mixture of saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal, in various proportions. The formula, brought to China in the 400s or 500s, was first used to make fumigators to keep away insect pests and evil spirits. In later centuries it was used to make explosives and grenades and to propel cannonballs, shot, and bullets.

Grand Canal

The 1,100-mile (1,771-kilometer) waterway linking the Yellow and the Yangzi Rivers. It was begun in the Han period and completed during the Sui Empire.

junk

very large flat-bottom sailing ship produced in the Tang, Song, and Ming Empires, specially designed for long-distance commercial travel

Dar al-Islam

Region spanning North Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia where Muslim majorities secured the protection of their faith and established Islamic rule.

Mali

Empire created by indigenous Muslims in the western Sudan region of West Africa from the thirteenth to fifteenth century. It was famous for its role in the trans-Saharan gold trade.

Delhi Sultanate

Centralized Indian empire of varying extent, created by Muslim invaders.

Mansa Kankan Musa

Ruler of Mali (r. 1312–1337). His pilgrimage through Egypt to Mecca in 1324–1325 established the empire’s reputation for wealth in the Mediterranean world.

Timbuktu

City on the Niger River in the modern country of Mali. It was founded by the Tuareg as a seasonal camp sometime after 1000. As part of the Mali Empire, Timbuktu became a major terminus of the trans-Saharan trade and a center of Islamic learning.

sufism

Doctrines and rituals of mystic Islamic groups known as Sufi brotherhoods in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, giving rise to the first geographically extensive Islamic religious organizations.

urdu

A Persian-influenced literary form of Hindi written in Arabic characters and used as a literary language since the 1300s.

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.

gujarat

Region of western India famous for trade and manufacturing; the inhabitants are called Gujaratis.

Srivijaya

A state based on the Indonesian island of Sumatra between the seventh and eleventh centuries CE. It amassed wealth and power by a combination of selective adaptation of Indian technologies and concepts, control of the lucrative trade routes between India and China, and skillful showmanship and diplomacy in holding together a disparate realm of inland and coastal territories.

borobodur

A massive stone monument on the Indonesian island of Java, erected by the Sailendra kings around 800 CE. The winding ascent through ten levels, decorated with rich relief carving, is a Buddhist allegory for the progressive stages of enlightenment.

anasazi

Important culture of what is now the southwest United States (700–1300 CE). Centered on Chaco Canyon in New Mexico and Mesa Verde in Colorado, the Anasazi culture built multistory residences and worshiped in subterranean buildings called kivas.

chiefdom

Form of political organization with rule by a hereditary leader who held power over a collection of villages and towns. Less powerful than kingdoms and empires, based on gift giving and commercial links.

Altepetl

An ethnic state in ancient Mesoamerica, the common political building block of that region.

Calpolli

A group of up to a hundred families that served as a social building block of an altepetl in ancient Mesoamerica.

Tenochititlan

Capital of the Aztec Empire, located on an island in Lake Texcoco. Its population was about 125,000 on the eve of Spanish conquest. Mexico City was constructed on its ruins.

Aztecs

Also known as Mexica, the Aztecs created a powerful empire in central Mexico (1325–1521 CE). They forced defeated peoples to provide goods and labor as a tax.

inca

Also called the Inka, largest and most powerful Andean empire. Controlled the Pacific coast of South America from Ecuador to Chile from its capital of Cuzco.

khipus

System of knotted colored cords used by preliterate Andean peoples to transmit information.

Great zimbabwe

City, now in ruins (in the modern African country of Zimbabwe), whose many stone structures were built between about 1250 and 1450, when it was a trading center and the capital of a large state.