Sultans of Swing
Faith, prayer, charity, fasting, and a trip to Mecca—the mandatory 5-step checklist for every Muslim
What are the Five Pillars of Islam?
Located in modern-day Iraq, this Abbasid capital became the world’s brain hub and home to the House of Wisdom
What is Baghdad?
Starting around 2000 BCE, this massive migration of farming peoples spread ironworking, agriculture, and languages across sub-Saharan Africa.
What are the Bantu Migrations?
This West African empire grew absurdly rich by controlling the gold-for-salt trade.
What is the Mali Empire?
Leaving Southeast Asia, Polynesians migrated across this massive body of water, populating islands from Hawaii to New Zealand.
What is the Pacific Ocean?
Sunnis preferred a meritocracy, while this branch of Islam insisted power belong only to Muhammad’s bloodline
What is Shia?
Think of it as a medieval think tank—this famed Abbasid library brought scholars together to translate world knowledge into Arabic
What is the House of Wisdom?
While surrounding regions converted to Islam, this East African kingdom remained majority Christian and claimed descent from King Solomon.
What is Ethiopia?
Standing as the wealthiest person in recorded history, this Malian emperor crashed Cairo's economy just by handing out gold on his way to Mecca.
Who is Mansa Musa?
Without GPS or paper maps, Pacific navigators read nature to find land, tracking ocean swells, star patterns, and these flying creatures.
What are birds?
This type of Muslim ruler runs the army and the government, but leaves the religious authority to the caliph
What is a Sultan?
This massive project saved ancient Greek, Persian, and Indian philosophy by converting it all into Arabic.
What is the Translation Movement?
Meaning "dwelling" in Bantu, this southern African kingdom built massive stone fortress walls without using a single drop of mortar.
What is Great Zimbabwe?
West African merchants gladly traded pounds of gold for this mineral—not just to season food, but because humans need it to survive in the heat.
What is salt?
To carry entire families, livestock, and crops across thousands of miles of open ocean, Polynesian voyagers built these double-hulled vessels.
What are canoes?
Starting out as captive military labor, this elite soldier class launched a coup in Egypt and held power for three centuries
What is the Mamluk Sultanate?
Dubbed the "Islamic Marco Polo," this Moroccan scholar logged over 73,000 miles exploring Africa, Asia, and the Middle East
Who is Ibn Battuta?
Merchants didn't need ships to spread Islam into West Africa—they just loaded up camel caravans to cross these desert highways.
What are Trans-Saharan trade routes?
Mansa Musa's famous 1324 journey to Mecca served as his official fulfillment of this pillar of Islam.
What is the Hajj?
Carved by the indigenous people of Easter Island, these massive stone monoliths are believed to represent honored ancestors or tribal chiefs.
What are moai?
These Islamic mystics successfully won converts across India by prioritizing personal devotion, poetry, and music over rigid legal codes
Who are Sufis (or Sufism)?
Scholars in Baghdad adopted Chinese paper-making tech, which later helped kickstart this famous European era of rebirth.
What is the Renaissance?
Ethiopia's famous churches were carved straight down into the earth as a single massive stone structure, known by this architectural term.
What is a monolith?
After returning from Mecca, Mansa Musa transformed this city into the intellectual capital of West Africa, famous for its libraries and Islamic university.
What is Timbuktu?
Indigenous to New Zealand, these Polynesian settlers are famous for their oral storytelling traditions, tattoos, and the ceremonial haka.
Who are the Māori?