vocabulary
Ottomans
Safavids
Mughals
Russia
100
Title for the emperor/king in the Ottoman Empire.
What was a sultan?
100
The Ottoman Empire was fully established once this Byzantine capital was conquered and renamed Istanbul.
What was Constantinople?
100
Safavids followed this branch of Islam, who presently approximately 90% of Iranians identify as.
What is Shia and in the plural Shiite?
100
The Mughals claim their legitimacy to these distant relatives and central Asian conquerors.
Who were the Mongols?
100
Russian people, as well as Polish, Ukrainian, and Czechoslovakian people are grouped culturally and linguistically as this.
What are Slavic?
200
Title for a king/emperor in the Safavid and Mughal Empires.
What was a Shah?
200
At its height, the Ottoman Empire controlled most of this geographic region in southeastern Europe.
What are the Balkans?
200
The Safavids moved their capital to this city, which was further east and south, to get away from the Ottomans and closer to the Silk Trade networks.
What is Isfahan/Esfahan?
200
Although the Mughal leaders were Muslim, they governed over a majority population who followed this religion.
What is Hinduism?
200
Northern European trade network.
What was the Hanseatic League?
300
An item of significant religious and historic significance, for example the swords of Muhammed that were acquired by the Ottoman Empire and kept in Topkapi Palace.
What are relics?
300
The Bosporus and Dardanelles Straights connect this enormous body of water to the Sea of Marmara/Aegean Sea and from their the Mediterranean Sea.
What is the Black Sea?
300
This commodity, created by hand by artisans in workshops created great wealth for the Safavids, and today, antique ones of these sell for millions of dollars.
What are Persian rugs/carpets?
300
The Taj Mahal is a mausoleum Mumtaz Mahal, but it also was built to serve these other purposes.
What were caravanserais, gardens/reflecting pools and a bazaar for merchants?
300
Name for Russian nobles - keeping them in check became the way Russia unified under Ivan III.
Who were the Boyars?
400
The portion of the palace where wives, concubines, heirs and their female servants and lived. It could be a dangerous place, full of intrigues and powerful influence over the male leaders.
What was the harem?
400
Followers of this religion that were expelled from Iberia and later elsewhere in western Europe were welcomed by the sultan to the Ottoman Empire, where they would bring their knowledge and wealth.
Who were Jews?
400
The Safavids clashed with this empire to their west multiple times.
Who were the Ottomans?
400
Although attempted multiple times, the Mughals were never able to fully conquer this region of India.
What is the southern region?
400
Title for a Russian king, borrowed from Roman history to bring legitimacy, multiple alternate spellings fyi.
Who was a czar/tzar/tsar/csar?
500
Name for the slender towers built adjacent to mosques for the muezzin to call Muslims to prayer.
What are minerats?
500
Elite military corps of the Ottomans; taken through the Devshirme system as Christian baby boys, converted to Islam, to become the most educated and influential to the sultans. They became corrupted and at times more powerful than the sultans.
Who were the Janissaries?
500
Russia's laws kept most of the people (90%) in this social class, with very few rights or freedoms.
Who were serfs?
500
Other than the Hindu majority, and the Muslim minority in Mughal India (and today), these were other religious groups that made up the population of the very diverse Mughal Empire, as well as India today.
Who are Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs, Zoroastrians and small numbers of Jews and Christians, particularly after Portuguese arrival?
500
The Slavic people who came under the control of the Russian people were followers of this religion (even during their occupation by the Mongols of the Golden Horde). Russian leaders chose this because it did not ban drinking, as Islam did...
What was Eastern Orthodox Christianity?
600
Soldiers for hire.
Who are mercenaries?
600
As an alternative to mass fratricide when a new sultan ascended to the throne, heirs were kept in this, which also did not have the result of producing effective rulers.
What was the cage?
600
This was the phrase that was used to describe Isfahan at its height in the 17th century.
What was "half the world"?
600
Aurengzeb's ascension to become Shah of the Mughal Empire required he have this done to two of his brothers.
What was fratricide?
600
Russian parliament in the Romanov Dynasty in the 16th and 17th century.
What was the Zemskii Sobor?
700
Having or showing a willingness to act dishonestly in return for money or personal gain.
What is corrupt/corruption?
700
The Ottoman Empire would officially end and be dismantled in 1922 after this major global crisis.
What was World War I?
700
Presently, the country that exists, and is led by Shia Muslim governance.
What is Iran?
700
This European empire made trade agreements with rebelling kingdoms, and by the mid 19th century would come to control most of India.
What was England?
700
This iconic cathedral is named after a peasant priest who was one of the only people that Ivan the Terrible respected and revered.
Who was St. Basil?