apwh chapter 3 vocab

Caravanserai

Inns or guesthouses along the Silk Roads where merchants could rest, trade goods, and resupply animals; also became centers of cultural exchange.

Samarkand

A major Central Asian commercial city that developed from caravanserai activity and became an important hub of Silk Road trade and culture.

Dunhuang

A city in western China at a key Silk Road junction; famous as a center of Buddhist learning, painting, and sculpture with hundreds of decorated caves.

Flying cash

An early form of paper money in China that made carrying heavy coins unnecessary; called “flying” because it could blow away in the wind.

Bills of exchange

A European contract promising future payment, used to make trade easier without transporting physical money.

Mahayana Buddhism

A devotional form of Buddhism spread on the Silk Roads, emphasizing the Buddha as a deity, compassion, bodhisattvas, and earning merit.

Pure Land Buddhism

A Chinese form of Buddhism where repeating the name of Amitabha Buddha guaranteed rebirth in the Pure Land, a heavenly realm.

Chan Buddhism

A Chinese school of Buddhism influenced by Daoism, stressing meditation and simplicity; became influential during the Song dynasty.

Zen Buddhism

The Japanese adaptation of Chan Buddhism, especially popular among the samurai warrior class.

Neo-Confucianism

A reformulated Confucian philosophy during the Song dynasty that kept Confucian traditions while integrating Buddhist moral standards but rejecting its religious aspects.

Chinggis Khan

Originally Temujin (1162–1227); united the Mongols into a single Great Mongol Nation in 1206; launched conquests that created the largest land-based empire in history.

Karakorum

The Mongol capital where a centralized bureaucracy was formed; a cosmopolitan city with multiple places of worship and diverse cultural exchange.

Sack of Baghdad 1258

Mongol attack that destroyed the Abbasid caliphate and killed more than 200,000 people, marking the end of Islamic political unity under the Abbasids.

Khubilai Khan

Grandson of Chinggis Khan; ruled China from 1271 to 1294 as part of the Yuan dynasty; sought to rule as a Confucian-inspired Chinese emperor.

Yuan Dynasty

The Mongol dynasty in China established after conquest; unified a divided China but maintained Mongol dominance with discriminatory policies against the Chinese.

The Great Khanate

The Mongol realm that included China and surrounding areas, ruled directly by the successors of Chinggis Khan.

Il-Khanate

The Mongol state in Persia; its rulers converted to Islam, many Mongols adopted farming and Persian culture, and they eventually assimilated into Persian society.

Golden Horde

The Mongol state in Russia; ruled indirectly through tribute and taxation rather than direct administration; burdened Russian peasants but helped Moscow rise in power.

Chagatai/Jagadai Khanate

The Mongol state in Central Asia, named after Chinggis Khan’s son Chagatai.

Black Death/The Plague

A devastating Afro-Eurasian pandemic (14th century) spread via Mongol trade routes; killed between one-third and one-half of populations in many regions, causing massive social, economic, and political disruption.

Pax Mongolica

The period of relative peace and security created by Mongol rule across Eurasia; fostered long-distance trade, cross-cultural exchange, and diplomatic contacts.

Junk

A large Chinese seagoing ship used on the Sea Roads; part of the technological innovations that facilitated Indian Ocean trade.

Dhow

An Indian or Arab oceangoing vessel with triangular sails, central to Sea Roads commerce; traditionally built without nails by stitching hull boards together.

Great Zimbabwe

A powerful southeastern African state (ca. 1250–1350) linked to Indian Ocean gold trade; famous for huge dry-stone enclosures up to sixteen feet thick and thirty-two feet tall.

Melaka

A major Malay Muslim port city on the Strait of Melaka (founded early 1400s); grew into Southeast Asia’s largest city, a cosmopolitan trade hub with low duties and stable government, and a center for Islamic learning.

Zheng He

The Muslim eunuch admiral who commanded China’s early fifteenth-century maritime expeditions under Emperor Yongle, projecting Chinese power and managing tribute relations across the Indian Ocean.

Ming voyages

Seven massive state-sponsored Chinese expeditions (beginning 1405) with hundreds of ships and tens of thousands of crew that visited ports from Southeast Asia to East Africa to enroll states in the tribute system; abruptly ended after 1433.

Sahara

A vast desert that, instead of being just a barrier, became a major international trade route connecting North Africa and the Mediterranean world with interior West Africa.

Arabian camel

Introduced to North Africa and the Sahara in the early centuries of the Common Era; could go ten days without water, making long trans-Saharan trade possible and central from 500–1500.

Mansa Musa

The Muslim ruler (mansa) of Mali who in 1324 made a famous pilgrimage (hajj) to Mecca with a huge entourage and large amounts of gold; his journey displayed Mali’s wealth, promoted Islam, and elevated Mali’s prestige in the wider Islamic world.

Islamic Green Revolution

A spread of crops (such as sugarcane, rice, apricots, eggplants, lemons, oranges, bananas, etc.) and water-management practices across the Islamic world that increased food production, population growth, urbanization, and industrial development by 1200.

House of Wisdom

An academic center in Baghdad established in 830 by the Abbasid caliph al-Mamun for translation and research, where Greek, Indian, and other scientific and philosophical texts were studied and translated into Arabic.

Ibn Sina

Also known as Avicenna (980–1037); a prolific Muslim writer in science and philosophy, especially famous for the Canon of Medicine, a 14-volume work that became a standard for medical practice in both Islamic and Christian worlds for centuries.

Sharia

Islamic law that regulated commerce and other aspects of life, providing a predictable framework for exchange across many cultures in the Islamic world.

Madrassas

Colleges in the Islamic educational system where Islamic law (sharia) and scholarship were studied and taught by learned scholars.

Ulema

Learned scholars of Islam who taught in madrassas and attracted students from across the Islamic world.

Crusades

A series of religious wars (beginning in 1095) launched by Christian Europe against Muslims in the Middle East, aimed at regaining Jerusalem and other holy sites; reflected Christian piety and warrior values, and brought lasting cultural and political effects in Europe.

American Web

A loosely interactive network of exchange in the Americas that linked regions from the Great Lakes to the Andes through the spread of crops, cultural practices, and commerce, though on a smaller scale than Afro-Eurasian trade routes.

Cahokia

A major chiefdom near present-day St. Louis (1100–1350) that served as a key node in a widespread trading network; known for its huge terraced pyramid, stratified society, and elite burials with lavish goods.

Chaco Canyon

A regional center in northwestern New Mexico (860–1130 c.e.), with large pueblos like Pueblo Bonito, elaborate roads, turquoise production, and long-distance trade with Mesoamerica before declining after drought.

Pochteca

Professional Aztec merchants who conducted long-distance trading expeditions; although legally commoners, their wealth often rivaled or surpassed that of nobles.