Song Dynasty & East Asia
This revived philosophy helped the Song Dynasty justify their rule through social harmony and hierarchy.
What is Confucianism?
This law code based on the Quran structured Islamic legal systems and governance.
What is Sharia law?
This empire built its capital at Tenochtitlán and maintained power through a tribute system.
What is the Aztec Empire?
This language, a product of Bantu-Arabic cultural blending, shows how trade facilitated syncretism on the East African coast.
What is Swahili?
This political and social system in medieval Europe was built around land ownership in exchange for military service and loyalty.
What is feudalism?
This exam system, based on Confucian texts, determined who would serve in the Chinese bureaucracy.
What is the civil service exam?
This empire's capital, Baghdad, was a major intellectual and cultural center before its fall in 1258.
What is the Abbasid Caliphate?
This Muslim-ruled empire in Northern India attempted to spread Islam but faced resistance from Hindu kingdoms.
What is the Delhi Sultanate?
This powerful West African empire converted to Islam mainly to strengthen its trading relationships with the wider Dar al-Islam.
What is the Mali Empire?
This economic structure of medieval Europe tied peasants to the land, reflecting the decentralization of power and local self-sufficiency.
What is manorialism?
This agricultural innovation from Vietnam enabled population growth in China due to its drought resistance and multiple harvests.
What is Champa rice?
This group of mystics helped spread Islam through flexible, culturally adaptive missionary work.
What are the Sufis?
This devotional movement within Hinduism offered an emotional connection with deities and challenged caste hierarchies.
What is the Bhakti Movement?
Unlike other African states involved in Indian Ocean trade, this southern kingdom maintained indigenous religious practices instead of converting to Islam.
What is Great Zimbabwe?
This Christian denomination held major political and cultural power in Western Europe, often more than kings or emperors.
What is the Roman Catholic Church?
The growing commercialization of the Song economy was facilitated by these internal trade networks and government-built infrastructure.
What is the Grand Canal (or inland waterways and market networks)?
The decline of Arab-dominated Islamic empires led to the rise of these Turkic-led political entities.
What are the Seljuk Empire, Mamluk Sultanate, and Delhi Sultanate?
This concept explains how both the Inca and Aztecs adapted earlier cultural practices to maintain legitimacy in their empires.
What is cultural continuity (or syncretism, or legitimization through tradition)?
Though politically independent, these East African city-states were unified by a common religion, social structure, and language, largely due to Indian Ocean commerce.
What are the Swahili city-states?
One characteristic of the Renaissance, interested in the focus of the individual rather than God, sought education and reform.
What is humanism?
While Confucianism promoted social harmony, this practice toward elite women reflected deepening patriarchal values during the Song.
What is foot binding?
This Baghdad institution preserved Greek texts and helped catalyze future European intellectual developments.
What is the House of Wisdom?
The efforts of Muslim merchants and Sufi missionaries to spread Islam in Southeast Asia between 1250 and 1400
What is proselytize?
In contrast to Islamic and indigenous African religious traditions, this East African kingdom stood out for its adherence to Christianity and syncretic practices influenced by local culture.
What is Ethiopia?
He was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 962, reviving the empire in Central Europe and strengthening ties between the German states and the Catholic Church.
Who is Otto I?