Ottoman Reforms
The wealthy landed elite that emerged in the early decades of Abbasid rule and siphoned Ottoman tax revenue
ayan
The Mamluk head who suffered a devastating defeat by Napoleon in 1798, revealing the vulnerability of the Muslim core
Murad
The Manchu emperor (1661–1722) and Confucian scholar who established a high degree of Sinification
Kangxi
The popular 1898 outburst aimed at expelling foreigners from China that failed due to Western intervention
Boxer Rebellion
The ultraconservative dowager empress who dominated the last decades of the Qing and supported the Boxers
Cixi
The Sultan who ruled from 1789 to 1807; he aimed at administrative efficiency but was toppled by Janissaries
Selim III
The Albanian officer who emerged as the effective ruler of Egypt and introduced an army based on Western tactics
Muhammad Ali
Wealthy Chinese merchants specialized in the import-export trade who linked China to the outside world
compradors
The massive 1850s rebellion led by a semi-Christianized prophet seeking to overthrow the Qing and the scholar-gentry
Taiping Rebellion
The head of the Revolutionary Alliance who led the 1911 revolt and created the Nationalist Party of China
Sun Yat-sen
The Sultan who successfully crushed the Janissaries in 1826 and initiated reforms based on Western precedents
Mahmud II
The descendants of Muhammad Ali who served as the formal rulers of Egypt until the military coup of 1952
khedives
The 1839 conflict fought to protect British trade interests that resulted in the opening of Hong Kong as a British port
Opium War
A late 19th-century movement in China, led by provincial leaders, to counter the challenge from the West
self-strengthening movement
One of the Muslim thinkers who stressed the need to adopt Western scientific learning and rational inquiry
Jamal al-Din al-Afghani
Mid-19th-century reforms that established Western-style universities, state postal systems, and the 1876 constitution
Tanzimat reforms
This 1869 waterway connected the Mediterranean to the Red Sea and led to British intervention in Egyptian politics
Suez Canal
The official charged with stamping out the opium trade who ordered a blockade of European trading areas in Canton
Lin Zexu
The Egyptian military officer who led an 1882 revolt against Turkic dominance in the khedival army
Ahmad Arabi
The scholar-gentry official who advocated for Western technology and was a staunch defender of the Qing
Zeng Guofan
Political agitators, also called "Young Turks," who opposed Abdul Hamid and desired to restore the 1876 constitution
Ottoman Society for Union and Progress
The river town that served as the administrative center of Egyptian authority in the Sudan
Khartoum
The last emperor of China, deposed as a small boy in 1912 following the revolution of 1911
Puyi
In the Sufi belief system, a promised deliverer; also the title given to the leader of the Sudanese revolt
Mahdi
The leader of the Taiping Rebellion who believed he was the younger son of Jesus
Hong Xiuquan