AP World Global Tapestry

Shari'ah Law

a law code drawn up by Muslim scholars after Muhammad's death; it provided believers with a set of practical laws to regulate their daily lives

Neo-Confucianism

term that describes the resurgence of Confucianism and the influence of Confucian scholars during the T'ang Dynasty and Song Dynasties

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 (as part of the tributary system.)

Mahayana Buddhism

Also known as popular Buddhism, is allows people more ways to reach enlightenment and boddhisatvas can help you reach enlightenment. Spread along trade routes to China, etc.

Theravada Buddhism

The oldest of the two major branches of Buddhism.

Silk Road

An ancient trade route between China and the Mediterranean Sea extending some 6,440 km (4,000 mi) and linking China with the Roman Empire. Marco Polo followed the route on his journey to Cathay.

Ashoka the Great

Grandson of Chandragupta Maurya; took Mauryan dynasty to its heights; converted to Buddhism and preached nonviolence

tribute system

Chinese method of dealing with foreign lands and peoples that assumed the subordination of all non-Chinese authorities and required the payment of tribute—produce of value from their countries—to the Chinese emperor (although the Chinese gifts given in return were often much more valuable). Also an Aztec custom.

kowtow

a former Chinese custom of touching the ground with the forehead as a sign of respect or submission

Examination System

Chinese system for choosing officials for positions in the Ming imperial bureaucracy. Candidates needed to pass one or more examinations that increased in difficulty for higher positions.

Arabic

A language that is the official language of several countries of North Africa and the Middle East, as well as the religion of Islam.

Sunni and Shia

two main branches within Islam (85-90% in the first; 10-15% in the second)

Muslim merchants

Traveled on the Silk Road and Indian Ocean Routes creating widespread diasporic communities.

Serfdom

A type of labor commonly used in feudal systems in which the laborers work the land in return for protection but they are bound to the land and are not allowed to leave or to peruse their a new occupation. This was common in early Medieval Europe as well as in Russia until the mid 19th century.

House of Wisdom

An academic center for research and translation of foreign texts that was established in Baghdad in 830 C.E. by the Abbasid caliph al-Mamun.

Mamluks

Under the Islamic system of military slavery, Turkic military slaves who formed an important part of the armed forces of the Abbasid Caliphate of the ninth and tenth centuries. These groups eventually founded their own states, ruling Egypt, Syria, and northern India (1250-1517)

Aztecs

Also known as Mexica, they created a powerful empire in central Mexico (1325-1521 C.E.). They forced defeated peoples to provide goods and labor as a tax thereby creating an extensive tribute system.

Byzantine Empire

Historians' name for the eastern portion of the Roman Empire from the fourth century onward, taken from 'Byzantion,' an early name for Constantinople, the Byzantine capital city. After a long decline, the empire fell to the Ottomans in 1453.

Effects of the Bubonic Plague

massive deaths throughout Europe; loss of many clergy; huge hit to monasticism that never truly recovered; decline of city centers; peasant revolts

Mali Kingdom

benefitted from trans-Saharan trade on an even larger scale than that of Ghana (and more successful); mali controlled and taxed nearly all trade passing through western Africa; caravans of camels linked Mali to North Africa; converted to Islam

Swahili city-states

Waring states that were always competing for control of trade routes and each other. established by swahili., Many of these city-states were Muslim and very cosmopolitan.

Khmer Empire

a powerful empire that lasted roughly from the 9th to the 15th centuries in what is now Cambodia, Mostly Hindu

Song Dynasty

(960-1279 CE) The Chinese dynasty that placed much more emphasis on civil administration, industry, education, and arts other than military.

Feudalism (Japan and Europe)

System of political structure in Europe based around decentralization following the fall of the Roman Empire; Mutual obligations between lords and vassals with giving of fiefs (parcels of land) and receiving of loyalty and military assistance

Commercial Revolution

the expansion of the trade and business that transformed economies at different times and places throughout history

Tenochtitlan

Capital of the Aztec Empire, located on an island in Lake Texcoco. Its population was about 150,000. Had floating gardens called Chinampas.

Inca Empire

The Western Hemisphere's largest imperial state in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries; built by a relatively small community of Quechua-speaking people (the Inca), the empire stretched some 2,500 miles along the Andes Mountains, which run nearly the entire length of the west coast of South America, and contained perhaps 10 million subjects.

Sufism

Islamic mysticism