Key Vocabulary of Muslim Expansion

Ghazi

a warrior for Islam.

Ottoman

a powerful Turkish empire that ruled over large parts of Southeast Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries.

Sultan

"overlord" or "one with power"; title for Ottoman rulers during the rise of the Ottoman Empire.

Timur the Lame

a rebellion warrior and conqueror from Samarkand in Central Asia, who briefly halted the expansion of the Ottoman Empire.

Mehmed II

known as Mehmed the Conqueror, an Ottoman ruler who captured the city of Constantinople and helped rebuild the city.

Suleiman the Lawgiver

a great ruler of the Ottoman Empire, who took power in 1520.

Devshirme

in the Ottoman Empire, the policy of taking boys from conquered Christian peoples to be trained as Muslim soldiers.

Janissary

a member of an elite force of soldiers in the Ottoman Empire.

Safavid

a member of a Shi'a Muslim dynasty that built an empire in Persia in the 16th-18th centuries.

Isma'il

the founder of Safavid dynasty in Persia.

Shah

hereditary monarch of Iran.

Shah Abbas

known as Abbas the Great, he took the throne of the Safavid Empire in 1587 and helped create a Safavid culture and golden age that drew from the best of the Ottoman, Persian, and Arab worlds.

Esfahan

a new capital city of the Safavid Empire built by Shah Abbas.

Mughal

one of the nomads who invaded the Indian subcontinent in the 16th century and established a powerful empire there.

Babur

the founder of the Mughal Empire.

Akbar

Babur's grandson, who ruled India with wisdom and tolerance from 1556 to 1605.

Sikh

a member of a nonviolent religious group whose beliefs blend elements of Buddhism, Hinduism and Sufism.

Shah Jahan

a Mughal Emperor of India who built the Taj Mahal.

Taj Mahal

a beautiful tomb in Agra, India, built by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan for his wife Mumtaz Mahal.

Aurangzeb

the third son of Shah Jahan.