Africa
This major West African empire grew wealthy by controlling trade in gold and salt along the Niger River and across different vegetation zones.
Mali (or Ghana)
This book is the primary religious text of Islam and, along with the Sunnah, guides Muslim beliefs and daily practices.
The Qur’an
Which dynasty reunited China and helped spread Buddhism to China, Korea, and Japan?
Tang Dynasty
This country influenced brought Buddhist beliefs to Japan and revolutionized its government structure.
China
Name two vegetation zones that influenced trade in Ghana and Mali.
Forest, Desert, Savannah
Give one geographic feature of the Arabian Peninsula that shaped nomadic and sedentary ways of life.
Aridity, deserts (e.g., Rub' al Khali), proximity to Red Sea/Arabian Sea — influenced pastoral nomadism and coastal trade facilitating sedentary towns.
Which two Chinese contributions would have revolutionized written records?
woodblock printing and paper
This Japanese Prince is known as the "Father of Japanese Buddhism".
Prince Shotoku
West African society is based on this type of family unit and contributed to the growth of clans and eventually urban markets.
Extended families coordinated farming and crafts; specialization (e.g., goldsmiths, traders) supported market towns and urban growth.
Name two products or inventions that traveled along Muslim trade routes connecting Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Indian Ocean.
Spices, textiles, paper, steel, new crops (any two)
Neo-Confuscianism blended this religion with the traditional Chinese philosophic ideals.
Buddhism/Taoism
This military ruler was the true power in Japan's feudal Lord-Vassal System.
Shogun
Identify one reason the trans-Saharan caravan trade changed the religious and cultural characteristics of West Africa.
Trade routes brought Muslim merchants and scholars; conversion to Islam spread with commerce and Islamic institutions (e.g., mosques, Quranic schools).
Explain how the expansion of territory under Muslim rule helped spread both Islam and the Arabic language.
Conquests and administration under caliphates connected distant regions, establishing Arabic as administrative and liturgical language and facilitating Islam’s spread.
This Chinese invention impacted not only China, but the rest of the world.
Compass, gunpowder, block printing, tea, etc.
This form of Japanese Buddhism focuses on meditation and inner-peace.
Zen-Buddhism
These oral historians were responsible for preserving medieval West Africa's history and culture.
Griots
Which profession was most responsible for bringing Islam across the Sahara Desert?
Merchants or Berbers
Scholar-officials in China who ran the beaucracy of the empire were chosen by merit through this system.
Civil Service Exams
This social class eventually switched from primarily a warrior class to a more administrative position after the shogunate reformed Japanese society
Samurai