Dar al-Islam
A follower of Islam is called by this name, an Arabic word meaning "one who has submitted.
Muslim
short-lived dynasty, founded after the warring states period, was the first to unify China under a single emperor.
Qin Dynasty
Stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea, this desert covers an area roughly the size of the United States and consists mostly of flat rock and gravel rather than sand dunes.
Sahara
period of massive glacial coverage lowered sea levels worldwide, exposing the land corridor that allowed the first Americans to cross from Asia.
the lord's estate, which served as the basic unit of the medieval economy and was largely self-sufficient.
manor
This is the Islamic house of worship where Muslims gather to pray, and toward which all Muslims face — regardless of where they are — during their five daily prayers.
mosque
Confucian virtue required children to devote themselves to their parents during their lifetimes and honor their memories after death through ritual.
filial piety
The Aksumites invented this agricultural technique — constructing steplike ridges on mountain slopes — to retain water, prevent soil erosion, and dramatically increase crop yields on their rugged highland terrain.
terraces
extended family group that formed the basic social and labor unit of Incan society, taking on tasks too large for a single family such as building irrigation canals and cutting terraces.
ayllu
the power or authority that is worldly rather than religious — Pope Gregory I expanded the papacy into this kind of role by raising armies and negotiating with invaders.
secular
This dynasty, which took power in 750 CE and moved the capital to Baghdad, developed a powerful bureaucracy with a treasury, a military department, and diplomats sent to courts across Europe, Africa, and Asia.
the Abbasids
In 1206, a Mongol clan leader named Temujin accepted this title, meaning "universal ruler," and went on to conquer much of Asia over the next 21 years.
Genghis Khan
Historians and geographers use this term for the forces that either drive people away from a location or attract them toward a new one, categorized as environmental, economic, or political in nature.
push-pull factors
Though the Moche never developed a written language, archaeologists learned enormous detail about their daily life through this art form, which depicted doctors, weavers, musicians, and warriors.
pottery / ceramics
important religious ceremonies in Catholicism, administered by priests, were believed to pave the way to salvation
sacraments
Though the Qur'an forbade forced conversion, non-Muslim "people of the book" living under Muslim rule paid this annual tax in exchange for exemption from military service and the right to practice their own religion.
jizya
This period of stability from the mid-1200s to the mid-1300s, enforced by Mongol control across Eurasia, guaranteed safe passage for trade caravans and allowed Chinese inventions like gunpowder to reach Europe.
Pax Mongolica
Aksum's chief seaport near present-day Massawa, this bustling port attracted traders from Egypt, Arabia, Persia, India, and the Roman Empire; it was destroyed by Islamic invaders in A.D. 710, dealing a fatal blow to Aksumite power.
Adulis
The Aztecs formed this political and military coalition in 1428 with the city-states of Texcoco and Tlacopan, which became the dominant power in the Valley of Mexico.
Frankish ruling family, which began with Pepin the Short in 751 and lasted until 987, takes its name from its most famous member, who was crowned emperor by Pope Leo III in 800.
Carolingian Dynasty
Muhammad's example — his words, deeds, and way of living — forms this source of Islamic authority, which together with the Qur'an was compiled into the body of law known as shari'a.
Sunna
Emperor seized the throne in 626 after killing his brothers, extended China's borders to the Aral Sea, and reformed the law code in ways that became models for all of East Asia.
Tang Taizong
Although population pressure and desertification in West Africa pushed these groups southward, they were also pulled by the need to find iron ore deposits and hardwood forests to fuel the smelting furnaces they carried with them across the continent over roughly 1,500 years.
Bantu-speaking peoples
This South American civilization, flourishing from 900–200 B.C., is considered a "mother culture" of the Andes in the same way the Olmec were for Mesoamerica — spreading religious imagery through pottery, stone carving, and textiles across Peru.
Chavín
The Church's legal system, which governed matters such as marriage and religious practice for all medieval Christians — kings and peasants alike — and established its own courts to try violators.
canon law