The Crusades, Cordoba Caliphate, and Islamic Golden Age

Vocabulary terms and definitions covering the impacts of the Crusades, the Umayyad and Cordoba Caliphates, Islamic Spain, and cultural and scientific advances during the Abbasid Caliphate.

Crusades

Religious wars launched by Europeans to retake the Holy Land and establish Christian kingdoms there.

Crusaders

The European fighters who took part in the Crusades.

Umayyad Caliphate

An Islamic empire existing from around the 700s to the 900s that spanned from the borders of India to Southern France and collapsed largely because it mistreated converts to Islam.

Al Andalus

The region of Southern Spain where Umayyad leadership fled after their empire collapsed.

Cordoba Caliphate

A state established in Al Andalus in 756 by Umayyad refugees around the city of Cordoba.

Berbers

North African nomads who first conquered Spain for the Muslims by crossing the Straits of Gibraltar.

Straits of Gibraltar

The body of water crossed by the Berbers to enter and conquer Spain.

Charles the Hammer

The leader of the Kingdom of the Franks who stopped the Muslim advance in Southern France.

Dark Ages

A period in Western Europe characterized by the drying up of trade, the dramatic decline of urban civilization, and the collapse of education and libraries.

Arabesque

An architectural style combining European elements like columns with Arabic elements like arches and bright colors.

Ferdinand and Isabella

Rulers of a powerful Spanish kingdom in the 1400s who launched the Reconquista.

Reconquista

A military campaign in the 1400s led by Ferdinand and Isabella that drove the Islamic caliphate out of Spain.

Baghdad

The capital of the Abbasid Caliphate, situated along multiple trade routes, with a population around 800,000 or higher during its peak.

House of Wisdom

A major center of scholarship, library, and repository in Baghdad where Greek, Roman, and Persian texts were preserved and studied.

Indian Numbers

A base-10 numerical system that originated in India and included the concept of zero, later adopted by Arabs and introduced to Europeans as Arabic numbers.

Nasir Al Din Al Tusi

An astronomer and mathematician who proposed that the sun is at the center of the solar system centuries before Copernicus.

Parchment

An expensive writing medium partly made of animal skin that was used in Europe prior to the widespread use of paper.

Tang Dynasty

The Chinese dynasty that fought Arabic armies in 751, an interaction that led to the Arabs acquiring paper.

A Thousand and One Arabian Nights

A major collection of literary works and stories from the Islamic Golden Age, containing tales such as Sinbad the Sailor and Aladdin.