AP WORLD HISTORY STUDY VOCAB

hajj

A pilgrimage to Mecca

Bedouin

member of the nomadic desert peoples of North Africa and Southwest Asia

Muhammad

Founder of Islam

Khadija

First wife of muhammad and first to convert to Islam.

Allah

God of Islam

Quaran

The holy book of Islam

Hadith

A tradition relating the words or deeds of the Prophet Muhammad; next to the Quran

Mecca

City in western Arabia; birthplace of the Prophet Muhammad

Ka'ba

the stone cubical structure in the courtyard of the Great Mosque of Mecca

Hijra

Muhammad's move to Medina. Start of the Islamic calendar (632 CE)

Umma

The community of all Muslims

Seal of the Prophets

Muhammad's name for himself

Five Pillars of Islam

Declaration of faith

Sharia

Islamic law

Abu Bakr

first caliph after death of Muhammad

Caliph

A supreme political and religious leader in a Muslim government

Expansion of Islam

Rapid expansion in the century after Muhammad's death was the work of early caliphs who spread the word through pilgrimages.

Shia

the branch of Islam whose members acknowledge Ali and his descendants as the rightful successors of Muhammad

Ali

the fourth caliph of Islam who is considered to be the first caliph by Shiites

Sunni

A branch of Islam whose members acknowledge the first four caliphs as the rightful successors of Muhammad

Umayyad Dynasty

An Islamic Dynasty based on succession rather than election following the first period of caliphates. Continued advances in the kingdom

Jizya

Poll tax that non-Muslims had to pay when living within a Muslim empire

Abbasid Dynasty

From 750-1258 this was the 3rd dyansty of the Islamic Caliphate. They built their capital in Baghdad after overthrowing the Umayyad caliphate.

Battle of Talas River

Arab victory over the Chinese in 751 CE that checked Chinese expansion to the west and enabled the conversion of Central Asia to Islam

Baghdad

Capital of Iraq

Ulama

Muslim religious scholars. From the ninth century onward

Qadis

Muslim judges who carried out the judicial functions of the state

Harun Al-Rashid

One of the great Islamic rulers of the Abbasid era

Sultan

Muslim ruler

Camel Caravans

Used to travel across deserts. Fleets in the desert were camel caravans. Fleets usually meant groups on ships.

Sakk

Letters of credit that were common in the medieval Islamic banking world.

Al-Andalus

A Muslim-ruled region in what is now Spain

Veiling of women

When Islam expanded into Byzantine and Sassanid empires

Madrasas

Islamic institutions of higher education that originated in the tenth century.

Sufis

mystical Muslim group that believed they could draw closer to God through prayer

Al-Ghazali

Brilliant Islamic theologian; struggled to fuse Greek and Qur'anic traditions; not entirely accepted by ulama

Omar Khayyam

A Muslim poet

The Arabian Nights

A famous collection of Asian stories

Xuanzang

A famous Chinese Buddhist monk

Yang Jian

Founder of the Sui dynasty

Sui Dynasty

The short dynasty between the Han and the Tang; built the Grand Canal

The Grand Canal

The 1

Tang Dynasty

(618-907 CE) The Chinese dynasty that was much like the Han

Tang Taizong

(627- 649) He reconquerored the northern and western land that China had since the decline of the Han Dynasty. He started the achievements of the Tang Dynasty.

Equal Field System

This Chinese system allotted land to individuals and their families according to the land's fertility and the recipients' needs.

Kowtow

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

Uighurs

A group of Turkic-speakers who controlled their own centralized empire from 744 to 840 in Mongolia and Central Asia.

Song Taizu

Founder of the Song Dynasty

Song Dynasty

(960-1279 CE) The Chinese dynasty that placed much more emphasis on civil administration

Jin Empire

established by the Jurchen people in Northern China after they conquered the northern part of the Song Dynasty

Li Bai

one of the most popular poets of the Tang era

Foot Binding

Practice in Chinese society to mutilate women's feet in order to make them smaller; produced pain and restricted women's movement; made it easier to confine women to the household.

Wu Zhao

Became Empress in 690. She assumed the title herself- the only woman in China to do so.

porcelain/china

a thin

Metallurgy

the science of working with metals

Gunpowder

The formula

Printing

A mechanical device for transferring text or graphics from a woodblock or type to paper using ink. Presses using movable type first appeared in Europe in about 1450.

Naval Technology

Magnetic compass and rudders

Paper Money

legal currency issued on paper; it developed in China as a convenient alternative to metal coins

Chan (Zen) Buddhism

upholds simplicity and straightforwardness in grasping reality and acting on it

Pure Land Buddhism

Emphasized salvationist aspects of Chinese Buddhism; popular among masses of Chinese society.

Neo-Confucianism

term that describes the resurgence of Confucianism and the influence of Confucian scholars during the T'ang Dynasty; a unification of Daoist or Buddhist metaphysics with Confucian pragmatism

Zhu Xi

(1130-1200) Most prominent of neo-Confucian scholars during the Song dynasty in China; stressed importance of applying philosophical principles to everyday life and action

Silla Dynasty

The dynasty in Korea that rallied to prevent Chinese domination in the seventh century CE.

Nam Viet

A Vietnamese kingdom conquered by the Chinese in 111 B.C.

Shinto

The traditional religion of Japan

Heian Japan

(794-1185 C.E.) local rulers on the island of Honshu recognized the emperor as Japan's supreme political authority

Tale of Genji

written by Lady Murasaki; first novel in any languange; relates life history of prominent and amorous son of the Japanese emperor's son; evidence for mannered style of the Japanese society.

Shogun

A general who ruled Japan in the emperor's name

Tokugawa Dynasty

This Dynasty ended Japan's medieval period. Centralized power and unified Japan in the sixteenth century

Samurai

Class of warriors in feudal Japan who pledged loyalty to a noble in return for land.

Harsha

(r.606-648 CE) He restored centralized rule in northern India after the collapse of the Gupta. He can be compared to Charlemagne.

Sindh

an area corresponding to present-day southeastern Pakistan.

Mahmud of Ghazni

Third ruler of Turkish slave dynasty in Afghanistan; led invasions of northern India; credited with sacking one of wealthiest of Hindu temples in northern India; gave Muslims reputation for intolerance and aggression.

Sultante of Delhi

Muslim state created by the advances of Mahmud

Chola Kingdom

Kingdom situated in the deep south. At its high point

Kingdom of Vijayanagar

-Based in the northern Deccan

-Credit origins due to sultan of Delhi who were trying to push their kingdom into the south

-Sent two court officials to implement sultans rule

Instead

they made their own kingdom

-1336 renounced Islam

returned to Hindu faith

-No tensions between Muslims and Hindus

-Dominant state in s India from mid 14th century to 1565 (fell to alliance of Muslim kingdoms)

Monsoons

seasonal wind patterns that cause wet and dry seasons

Dhows

Large ships favored by Indian

Junks

Chinese ships

Kingdom of Axum

Founded in the highlands of northern Ethiopia

Hindu Devotional Cults

bhaktic cults

Funan

An early complex society in Southeast Asia between the first and sixth centuries C.E. It was centered in the rich rice-growing region of southern Vietnam

Angkor Thom

Capital of the Angkor kingdom

Raja

an Indian prince

Srivijaya

A Malay kingdom that dominated the Straits of Malacca between 670 and 1025 C.E.; noted for its creation of a native/Indian hybrid culture.

Melaka

The first major center of Islam in Southeast Asia

Charlemagne

800 AD crowned by the Pope as the head of the Holy Roman Empire

Charles Martel

Carolingian monarch of Franks; responsible for defeating Muslims in battle of Tours in 732; ended Muslim threat to western Europe.

Medieval

Another name for the Middle Ages.

Constantinople

Capital of the Byzantine Empire

Caesaropapism

A political-religious system in which the secular ruler is also head of the religious establishment

Justinian

Byzantine emperor in the 6th century A.D. who reconquered much of the territory previously ruler by Rome

Theodora

the wife of Justinian