AP WORLD VOCAB to pg 220
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145 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 Civilization | An ambiguous term often used to denote more complex societies but sometimes used by anthropologists to describe any group of people sharing a set of cultural traits. It is typically containing all of the following 1) Cities as administrative centers 2) A political system based on control of a defined territory rather than kinship connections 3) Many people engaged in specialized, non-food producing activities 4) Status distinctions based largely on accumulation of substantial wealth by some groups 5) Monumental building 6) A system for keeping permanent records 7) Long-distance trade 8) Major advances in science and the arts |
| Culture | Socially transmitted patterns of action and expression. Material culture refers to the physical objects, such as dwellings, clothing, tools and crafts. Culture also includes arts, beliefs, knowledge, and technology |
| Stone Age | The historical period characterized by the production of tools from stone or other nonmetallic materials. It was followed in some places by th3 Bronze Age and more generally the Iron Age. |
| Neolithic (8000-2000BCE) | The period of the Stone Age associated with the ancient agriculture revolutions. It follows the Paleolithic Age. |
| Foragers | people who support themselves by hunting wild animals and gathering edible plants and insects (hunting and gathering). |
| Megaliths | Structures and complexes of very large stones constructed for ceremonial and religious purposes on Neolithic times. |
| Semitic | Family of related languages spoken across parts of western Asia and northern Africa. In antiquity these languages included Hebrew, Aramaic, and Phoenician. The most widespread modern member of the Semitic family is Arabic. |
| Sumerians | The people who dominated southern Mesopotamia through the end of the third millennium BCE. They were responsible for the creation of many fundamental elements of Mesopotamian culture, such as irrigation technology, cuneiform, and religious concepts, taken over by their Semitic successors. |
| City-State | A small independent state consisting of an urban center and the surrounding agricultural territory. A characteristic political form in early Mesopotamia, Archaic and Classical Greece, Phoenicia, and early Greece. |
| Babylon | The largest and most important city on Mesopotamia. It achieved particular eminence as the capital of the Amorite king Hammurabi in the eighteenth century BCE and the Neo-Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar in the sixth century BCE. |
| Hammurabi | Amorite ruler of Babylon (r. 1792-1750BCE). He conquered many city-states in southern and northern Mesopotamia and is best known for a code of laws, inscribed on a black stone pillar, illustrating the principles to be used in legal cases. |
| Ziggurat | A massive pyramidal stepped tower made of mud bricks. It is associated with religious complexes in Mesopotamian cities, but its function is unknown. |
| Amulet | Small charm meant to protect the bearer from evil. Found frequently on archaeological excavations in Mesopotamia and Egypt, amulets reflect the religious practices of the common people. |
| Cuneiform | A system of writing in which wedge-shaped symbols are used to represent words or syllables. It originated in Mesopotamia, and was initially used for Sumerian and Akkadian but later was adapted to represent other languages of Western Asia. Because so many symbols were required to learn the language, literacy was confined to a small class of administrators and scribes. |
| Bronze | An alloy of copper with a small amount of tin (sometimes used with arsenic), which is harder and more durable than copper alone. Demands for bronze helped create long-distance trade networks. |
| Pharaoh | the central figure in ancient Egyptian state. Believed to be earthly manifestations of the gods, he used his absolute power to maintain the safety and prosperity of Egypt. |
| Ma'at | Egyptian term for the concept of divinely created and maintained order in the universe. Reflecting the ancient Egyptians' belief in an essentially beneficent world, the divine ruler was the earthly guarantor of this order. |
| Pyramid | A large, triangular stone monument, used in Egypt and Nubia as a burial place for the king. They often reflect the Egyptians;; belief the proper and spectacular burial of the ruler would guarantee the continued prosperity of the land. |
| Thebes | Capital city of Egypt; home of the ruling dynasties during the middle and New Kingdoms. |
| Memphis | The capital of Old Kingdom, near the head of the Nile Delta. |
| Hieroglyphics | A system of writing in which pictorial symbols represent sounds, syllables, or concepts. It was used for official and monumental inscriptions in ancient Egypt. Cursive writing was developed for rapid composition on other media such as papyrus. |
| Papyrus | A reed that grows along the banks of the Nile River. It was used to produce a coarse, paper like material used by people in the area. |
| Harappa | Site of one of the great cities of the Indus Valley Civilization of the third millennium BCE. It was located in the northwest frontier of the zone of civilization in modern Pakistan and may have been a center for the acquisition of raw materials, such as metals and precious stones, from Afghanistan and Iran. |
| Mohenjo-Daro | Largest of the cities of the Indus Valley Civilization. It was centrally located in the extensive floodplain of the Indus River in modern Pakistan. Little is known about the political institutions of Indus Valley communities, but the large scale of construction at Mohenjo-Daro, the orderly grid of streets, and the standardization of building materials are evidence of central planning. |
| Loess | fine, light silt deposited by wind and water. It constitutes the fertile soil of the Yellow River Valley in northern China. |
| Shang | The dominant people of the earliest Chinese dynasty fro which we have written records [ca. 1750-1045 BCE] |
| Confucius | Western name for the Chinese philosopher Kongzi (551- 479 BCE). His doctrine of duty and public service had a great influence on subsequent Chinese thought and served as a code of conduct for governmental officials |
| Daoism | Chinese school of thought, originating in the Warring States Period with Laozi. It offered an alternative to the Confucianism emphasis of hierarchy and duty. |
| Yin/yang | In Chinese belief, complementary factors that help maintain the equilibrium of the world. Yang is associated with masculine, light, and active qualities; yin with feminine, dark and passive qualities. |
| Kush | An Egyptian name for Nubia, the region alongside the Nile River south of Egypt, where the indigenous kingdom with its own distinguished institutions and cultural traditions arose beginning in the early second millennium BCE |
| Meroe | Capital of a flourishing kingdom in southern Nubia from the fourth century BCE to the fourth century CE. In this period, Nubian culture shows more independence from Egypt and the influence from Sub-Saharan Africa. |
| Celts | Peoples sharing common linguistic and cultural features that originated in Central Europe in the first half of the first millennium BCE. |
| Druids | The class of religious experts who conducted rituals and preserve sacred lore among some ancient Celtic people. |
| Olmec | The first Mesoamerican civilization. Between ca. 1200-400BCE, the Olmec people of central Mexico created a vibrant civilization that included intensive agriculture, wide-ranging trade, ceremonial centers, and monumental construction. |
| Chavin | The first major urban civilization in South America (900-250BCE) |
| Llama | A hooved animal indigenous to the Andes Mountains in South America. It was the only domesticated beast of burden in the Americas before the arrival of the Europeans. |
| Iron Age | Historians term for the period during which iron was the primary metal for tools and weapons. The advent of iron technology began at different times in different parts of the world. |
| Hittites | A people from Central Anatolia who established an empire of Anatolia and Syria in the late Bronze Age. With wealth from the trade in metals and military power based on chariot forces, the Hittites vied with New Kingdom Egypt for control of Syria-Palestine before falling to unidentified attackers ca. 1200 BCE. |
| Hatshepsut | Queen of Egypt (r. 1473- 1458 BCE). She dispatched a naval expedition to Punt (or possibly Sudan of Eritrea), the far away source of myrrh. There is evidence of opposition to a woman as ruler, and after her death, her name and image were frequently defaced. |
| Akhenaten | Egyptian pharaoh (r. 1353-1335BCE). He built a new capital at Amarna, fostered a new style of naturalistic art, and created a revolution by imposing worship of the sun disk. |
| Ramesses II | A long-lived ruler of New Kingdom Egypt (r. 1290-1224BCE). He reached an accommodation with the Hittites of Anatolia after a standoff in a battle at Kadesh I Syria. He built on a grand scale throughout Egypt (meaning many monuments in his name) |
| Minoan | Prosperous civilization of the Aegean island of Crete in the second millennium BCE. The Minoans engaged in far-flung commerce around the Mediterranean and exerted powerful cultural influences on the early Greeks. |
| Mycenae | Site of a fortified palace complex in Southern Greece that controlled a late Bronze Age kingdom. In Homer's epic poems, Mycenae was the base of King Agamemnon, who commanded the Greeks besieging Greece. Contemporary archaeologists call the complex Greek society of the second millennium BCE 'Mycenaean' |
| Shaft graves | A term used for the burial sites of elite members of Mycenaean Greek society in the mid-second millennium BCE. At the bottom of deep shafts lined with stone slabs, the bodies were laid out along with gold and bronze jewelry, implements, weapons, and masks. |
| Linear B | A set of syllabic symbols, derived from the writing system of Minoan Crete, used in Mycenaean palaces of the Late Bronze Age to write an early form of Greek. It was used primarily for palace records, and the surviving Linear B tablets provide substantial information about the economic organization of Mycenaean society and tantalizing clues about political, social, and religious institutions. |
| Neo-Assyrian Empire | An empire extending from western Iran to Syria-Palestine, conquered by the Assyrians of northern Mesopotamia between the tenth and seventh centuries BCE. They used force and terror and exploited the wealth and labor of their subjects. They also preserved and continued the cultural and scientific developments of Mesopotamian civilization. |
| Mass deportation | The forcible removal and relocation of large numbers of people or entire populations. The mass deportations practiced by the Assyrian and Persian Empires were meant as a terrifying warning of the consequences of rebellion. They also brought skilled and unskilled labor to imperial center. |
| Library of Ashurbanipal | Large collection of writings drawn form the ancient literary, religious, and scientific traditions of Mesopotamia. It was assembled by the seventh century BCE Assyrian ruler Ashurbanipal. The many tablets unearthed by archaeologists constitute one of the most important sources of present day knowledge of the long literary tradition of Mesopotamia. |
| Israel | In antiquity, the land between the eastern shore of the Mediterranean and the Jordan River, occupied by the Israelites from the early second millennium BCE. The modern state of Israel was founded in 1948. |
| Hebrew Bible | A collection of sacred books containing diverse materials concerning the origins, experiences, beliefs, and practices of the Israelites. Most of the extant text was compiled by members of the priestly class in the fifth century BCE and reflects the concerns and views of this group. |
| First Temple | A monumental sanctuary built in Jerusalem by King Solomon in the tenth century BCE to be the religious center of the Israelite god Yahweh. The temple priesthood conducted sacrifices, received a tithe or percentage of agricultural revenues, and became economically and politically powerful. |
| Monotheism | Belief in he existence of a single divine entity. Some scholars devote the earliest form of monotheism to Egypt when Akhenaten made the land worship Aten, god of the sun-disk. The Israelite worship of Yahweh developed into an exclusive belief in one god, and this concept passed into Christianity and Islam. |
| Diaspora | Greek word meaning "dispersal", used to describe the communities of a given ethnic group living outside their homeland. Jews, for example, spread from Israel to western Asia and Mediterranean lands in antiquity and today can be found throughout the world. |
| Phoenicians | Semitic speaking Canaanites living on the coast of modern Lebanon and Syria in the first millennium BCE. From major cities such as Tyre and Sidon, Phoenician merchants and sailors explored the Mediterranean, engaged in widespread commerce, and founded Carthage and other colonies in the western Mediterranean. |
| Carthage | City located in present-day Tunisia, founded by Phoenicians ca. 800 BCE. It became a major commercial center and naval power in the western Mediterranean until defeated by Rome in the third century BCE. |
| Neo-Babylonian Civilization | Under the Chaldeans (nomadic kinship groups that settled in southern Mesopotamia in the early first millennium BCE), Babylon again became a major political and cultural center in the seventh and sixth centuries BCE. After participating in the destruction of Assyrian power, the monarchs Nebopolasser and Nebuchadnezzar took over the southern portions of the Assyrian domains. |
| Cyrus | Founder of the Achaemenid Persian Empire. Between 550 and 530 BCE, he conquered Media, Lydia, and Babylon. Revered in the traditions of both Iran and the subject peoples, he employed Persians, and Medes in his administration and respected the institutions and beliefs of subjected peoples. |
| Darius I | Third ruler of the Persian Empire, (r. 521-486 BCE). He crushed the widespread initial resistance to his rule and gave all major governmental posts to Persians rather than to Medes. He established a system of provinces and tribute, began construction of Persepolis, and expanded Persian control in the east (Pakistan) and west (northern Greece) |
| Satrap | The governor of a province in the Achaemenid Persian Empire, often a relative of the king. He was responsible for protection of the province and for forwarding tribute to the central administration. Satraps in the outlying provinces enjoyed considerable autonomy. |
| Persepolis | A complex of palaces, reception halls, and treasury buildings erected by the Persian kings Darius I and Xerxes in the Persian homeland. It is believed that the New Years' Festival was celebrated here as well as the coronations, weddings, and funerals of the Persian kings, who were buried in cliff-tombs nearby. |
| Zoroastrianism | A religion originating in ancient Iran that became the official religion of the Achaemenids. It centered on a single benevolent deity, Ahuramazda, who engaged in a struggle with demonic forces before prevailing and restoring a pristine world. It emphasized truth telling, purity and reverence for nature. |
| Polis | The Greek term for a city-state, an urban center and the agricultural territory under its control. It was the characteristic form of political organization in southern and central Greece in the Archaic and Classical periods. Of the hundreds of city-states in the Mediterranean and Black Sea regions settled by Greeks, some were oligarchic, others democratic, depending on the powers delegated to the Council and the Assembly. |
| Hoplite | A heavily armored greek infantryman of the Archaic and Classical periods who fought in the close packed phalanx formation. Hoplie armies - militias composed of middle- and upper-class citizens supplying their own equipment - ere for centuries superior to other military forces. |
| Tyrant | The term used by Greeks to describe someone who seized and held power in violation of the normal procedures and traditions of the community. Tyrants appeared n many Greek city-states in the seventh and sixth centuries BCE, often taking advantage of the disaffection of the emerging middle class and, by weakening the old elite, unwittingly contributing to the evolution of democracy. |
| Democracy | System of government in which all "citizens" (however defined) have equal political and legal rights, privileges, and protections, as in the Greek city-state of Athens in the fifth and fourth centuries BCE. |
| Sacrifice | A gift given to a deity, often with the aim of creating a relationship, gaining favor, and obligating the god to provide some benefit to the sacrifice, sometimes in order to sustain the deity and hereby guarantee the continuing vitality of the natural world. |
| Herodotus | Heir to the technique of historia "investigation/research" developed by Greek sin the late Archaic period. He came form a Greek community in Anatolia and travelled extensively, collecting information in western Asia and the Mediterranean lands. He traced the antecedents and chronicled the wars between the Greek city-states and the Persian Empire, thus originating the Western tradition of historical writing. |
| Pericles | Aristocratic leader who guided the Athenian state through the transformation to full participatory democracy for all male citizens, supervised construction of the Acropolis, and pursued a policy of imperial expansion that led to the Peloponnesian War. He formulated a strategy of attrition but died from the plague early in the war. |
| Persian Wars | Conflicts between Greek city-states and the Persian Empire, ranging form the Ionian Revolt (499-494BCE) through Darius' punitive expedition that failed at Marathon (490BCE) and the defeat of Xerxes' massive invasion of Greece by the Spartan-led Hellenic League(480-479BCE). The first major setback for Perian arms launched the Greeks into a period of greatest cultural productivity. Herodotus chronicled these events in the first "history" in the Western Tradition. |
| Trireme | Greek and Phoenician warship of the fifth and fourth centuries BCE. It was sleek and light, powered by 170 oars arranged in three vertical tiers. Manned by skilled sailors, it was capable of short bursts of speed and complex maneuvers. |
| Socrates | Athenian philosopher (ca. 470-399 BCE) who shifted the emphasis of philosophical investigation from questions of natural science to ethics and human behavior. He attracted young disciples from elite families but made enemies by revealing the ignorance and pretensions of others, culminating the trail and executing by the Athenian state. |
| Peloponnesian War | A protracted (431-404BCE) and costly conflict between the Athenian and Spartan alliance systems that convulsed most of the Greek world. The war was largely a consequence of Athenian imperialism. Possession of a naval empire allowed Athens to fight a war of attrition. Ultimately, Sparta prevailed because fo Athenian errors and Persian financial support. |
| Alexander | King of Macedonia in northern Greece. Between 334 and 323 BCE, he conquered the Persian Empire, reached the Indus Valley, founded many Greek style cities, and spread Greek culture across the Middle East. Later known as Alexander the Great. |
| Ptolemies | The Macedonian dynasty, descended from one of Alexander the Great's officers, that ruled Egypt for three centuries (323-30BCE). From their magnificent capital at Alexandria on the Mediterranean coast, the Ptolemies largely took over the system created by Egyptian pharaohs to extract the wealth of the land, rewarding Greeks and Hellenized non-Greeks serving in the military an administration. |
| Alexandria | City on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt founded by Alexander. It became the capital of the Hellenistic kingdom of the Ptolemies. It contained the famous library and the museum, a center for leading scientific and literary figures. Its merchants engaged in trade with areas bordering that Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean. |
| Republic | The period from 507 to 31 BCE, during which Rome was largely governed by the aristocratic Roman Senate. |
| Senate | A council whose members were the heads of wealthy, landowning families. Originally and advisory body to early kings, in the era of the Roman Republic the Senate effectively governed the Roman state and the growing empire. Under Senate leadership, Rome conquered an empire of unprecedented extent in the lands surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. |
| Patron/client relationship | In ancient Rome, a fundamental social relationship in which the patron - a wealthy and powerful individual - provided legal and economic protection and assistance to clients, men of lesser status and means, and in the return, the clients supported the political careers and economical interests of their patron. |
| Principate | A term used to characterize Roman government in the first three centuries CE, based on the ambiguous title princeps ("first citizen")adopted by Augustus to conceal his military dictatorship. |
| Augustus | Honorific name of Octavian, founder of the Roman Principate, the military dictatorship that replaced the failing rule of the Roman Senate. After defeating all rivals, between 31 BCE and 14 CE he laid the groundwork for several centuries of stability and prosperity in the Roman Empire. |
| Equites | In ancient Italy, prosperous landowners second in wealth and status to the senatorial aristocracy. The Roman emperors allied with this group to counterbalance the influence of the old aristocracy and used the equites to staff the imperial civil service. |
| Pax Romana | Literally, "roman peace", it connoted the stability and prosperity the Roman rule brought to the lands of the Roman Empire in the first two centuries CE. The movement of people and trade goods alog Roman roads and safe seas allowed for the spread of cultural practices, technologies, and religious ideas. |
| Romanization | The process by which the Latin language and Roman culture became dominant in the Western provinces. Indigenous peoples in the provinces often chose to Romanize because of the political and economic advantages that it brought, as well as the allure of Roman success. |
| Jesus | A Jew form Galilee in northern Israel who sought to reform Jewish beliefs and practices. He was executed as a revolutionary by the Romans. Hailed as the Messiah and Son of God by his followers, he became the central figure of Christianity, a belief system that developed in the centuries after his death. |
| Paul | A Jew from the city of Tarsus in Anatolia; he initially persecuted the followers of Jesus but, after receiving a revelation on the road to Syrian Damascus, he became Christian. Taking advantage of his Hellenized background and Roman citizenship, he travelled throughout Syria-Palestine, Anatolia, and Greece, preaching this new religion and establishing new churches. He found his greatest success amongst pagans ("gentiles") which began the separation of Christianity and Judaism. |
| Aqueduct | A conduit, either elevated or underground, that used gravity to carry water from its source to a location - usually a city - that needed a fresh water source. The romans built many aqueducts during a period of substantial urbanization. |
| Third - Century Crisis | Historians' term for the political, military, and economic turmoil that beset the Roman Empire during much of the third century BCE: frequent changes of ruler, civil wars, barbarian invasion, decline of urban centers, and near-destruction of long-distance commerce and he monetary economy. After 284 CE, Diocletian restored order by making fundamental changes. |
| Constantine | Roman emperor (r. 312-337). After reuniting the Roman Empire, he moved the capital to Constantinople and made Christianity a favored religion |
| Qin | A people and state in the Wei Valley of eastern China that conquered rival states and created the first Chinese empire (221-206BCE). The Qin ruler, Shi Huangdi, standardized many features of Chinese society and ruthlessly marshaled subjects for military and constructing projects, engendering hostility that led to the fall of his dynasty shortly after his death. The Qin framework was largely taken over by the succeeding Han Empire. |
| Shi Huangdi | Founder of the shirt lived Qin Dynasty and reator of the Chinese Empire (r. 221-210BCE). He is remembered for his ruthless conquests of rival states, standardization of practices, and forcible organization of labor for military and engineering tasks. His tomb, with its army of life-size terra cotta warriors, has been partially excavated. |
| Han | A term used to designate (1) the ethnic Chinese people who originate in the Yellow River valley and spread throughout regions of China suitable for agriculture and (2) the dynasty of emperors who ruled form 202 BCE to 220 CE |
| Xiongnu | A confederation of nomadic peoples living beyond the northwest frontier of ancient China. Hinese rulers tried a variety of defenses and stratagems to ward off these "barbarians", as they called them, and finally succeeded in dispersing them in he first century CE |
| Gaozu | the throne name of Liu Bang, one of the rebel leaders who brought down the Qin and founded the Han Dynasties in 202 BCE |
| Sima Qian | Chief astrologer for the Han Dynasty emperor Wu. He composed a monumental history of Chine from its legendary origins to his own time and is regarded as the Chinese "father of history" |
| Chang'an | City n the Wei Valley in eastern China. It became the capital of the Qin and early Han empires. Its main features were imitated in the cities and towns that sprang u throughout the Han Empire. |
| Gentry | In China, the class of prosperous families, next in wealth below the rural aristocrats, from which the emperors drew their administrative personnel. Respected for their education and expertise, these officials became a privileged group and made the government more efficient and responsive than in the past. The term gentry also denotes the class of land holding families in England below the aristocracy. |
| Monsoon | Seasonal winds in the Indian Ocean caused by differences in temperature between the rapidly heating and cooling landmasses if Africa and Asia and the slowly changing ocean waters. These strong and predictable winds have long been ridden across the open sea by sailors, and the large amounts of rainfall that they deposit on parts of India, Southeast Asia, and China allow for cultivation of several crops a year. |
| Vedas | Early Indian sacred "knowledge" - the literal meaning of the term - long preserved ad communicated orally by Brahmin priests and eventually written down. These religious texts, including the thousand poetic hymns to various deities contained in the Rig Veda, are our main source of information about the Vedic period (ca. 1500-500BCE) |
| Varna/Jati | Two categories of social identity of great importance in Indian history. Varna are the four major social divisions: the Brahmin priest class, the Kshatriya warrior/administrative class, the Vaishya merchant/farmer class, and the Sudra laborer class. Within the system of Varna are many jati, regional groups of people who have a common occupational sphere and who marry, eat, and generally interact with other members of their group. |
| Karma | In Indian tradition, the residue of deeds performed in past and present lives that adheres to a "spirit" and determines what form the spirit will assume in its next life cycle. The doctrines of karma an reincarnation were used by the elite in ancient India to encourage people to accept their social position. |
| Moksha | The Hindu concept of the spirit's "liberation" from the endless cycle of rebirths. There are various avenues - such as physical discipline, meditation, and acts of devotion to the gods - by which the spirit can distance itself from desire for the things of this world and be merged with the divine force that animates the universe |
| Buddha | An Indian prince named Siddhartha Gautama, who renounced his wealth and social position. After becoming "enlightened" (the meaning of Buddha), he enunciated the principles of Buddhism. This doctrine evolved and spread throughout India and the Southwest, Southeast, and Central Asia. |
| Mahayana Buddhism | "Great Vehicle" branch of Buddhism followed in China, japan, and Central Asia. The focus is on reverence for Buddha and for bodhisattvas, enlightened persons who have postponed nirvana to help others attain it. |
| Theravada Buddhism | "Way of the Elders" branch of Buddhism followed in Sri Lanka and much of Southeast Asia. Theravada remains close to the original principles set forth by the Buddha; it downplays the importance of gods and emphasizes austerity and the individual's search for enlightenment. |
| Hinduism | A general term for a wide variety of beliefs and ritual practices that have developed in the Indian subcontinent since antiquity. Hinduism has rots in ancient Vedic, Buddhist, and south Indian religious concepts and practices. It spread along the trade routes to Southeast Asia. |
| Mauryan Empire | The first state to unify most of the Indian subcontinent. It was founded by Chandragupta Maurya in 324BCE and survived until 184BCE. From its capital at Pataliputra in the Ganges Valley it grew wealthy from taxed on agriculture, iron mining, and control of trade routes. |
| Ashoka | Third ruler of the Mauryan Empire in India (r.273-232BCE). He converted to Buddhism and broadcast his precepts on inscribed stones and pillars, the earliest surviving Indian writings. |
| Mahabharata | A vast epic chronicling the events leading up to a cataclysmic battle between related kinship groups in early India. It included the Bhagavad-Gita. |
| Bhagavad-Gita | The most important work of Indian sacred literature, a dialogue between the great warrior Arjuna and the god Krishna on duty and the fate of the spirit. |
| Tamil kingdoms | the kingdoms of southern India, inhabited primarily by speakers of the Dravidian languages, which developed in partial isolation, and somewhat differently, from the Arya north. They produced epics, poetry and performance arts. Elements of Tamil religious beliefs were merged into the Hindu synthesis. |
| Gupta Empire | A powerful Indian state, based, like its Mauryan predecessor, on a capital at Pataliputra in the Ganges Valley. It controlled most of the Indian subcontinent through a combination of military force and its prestige as a center of sophisticated culture. |
| theater-state | Historians' term for a state that aquires prestige adnd power by developing attractive cultural forms and staging elaborate public ceremonies (as well as redistributing valuable resources) to attract and bind subjects to the center. Examples include the Gupta Empire, in India and Srivijaya in Southeast Asia. |
| Funan | An early complex society in Southeast Asia between the first and sixth centuries CE. It was cetered in the rich rice-growing region of southern Vietnam, and it controlled the passage of trade across the Malaysian isthmus. |
| Silk Road | Caravan routes connecting China and the Middle East across central Asia and Iran. |
| Parthians | Iranian ruling dynasty between ca. 250 BCE abd 226 CE. |
| Sassanid Empire | Iranian Empire, established ca. 224, with the capital in Ctesiphon, Mesopotamia. The sasanid emperors established Zoroasrianism as the state religion. Islamic Arab armies overthrew the empire ca. 640. |
| stirrup | Device for securing a horsemans feet, enabling him to wield weapons more effectively. First evidence og the use of stirrups was among the Kushan people of northern Afghanistan in approximately the first century CE. |
| Indian Ocean Maritime System | In premodern times, a network of seaports, trade routes, and maritime culture linking countries on the rim of the Indian Ocean from Africa to Indonesia. |
| Trans-Saharan caravan routes | Trading network linking North Africa with sub-Saharan Africa across the Sahara Desert. |
| Sahel | Belt south of the Sahara; literally "coastland" in Arabic |
| sub-Saharan Africa | Portion of the African continent lying south of the Sahara desert. |
| steppes | Treeless plains, especially the high, flat expanses of northern Eurasia, which usually have little rain and are covered with coarse grass. They are good lands for nomads and their herds. Living on the steppes promoted the breeding of horses and the development of military skills that were essential to the rise of the Mongol Empire. |
| savanna | Tropical or sub-tropical grassland, either treeless or with occasional clumps of trees. Most extensive in sub-Saharan Africa but also present in South America. |
| tropical rain forest | High precipitation forest zones of the Americas, Africa, and Asia lying in between the tropic of Cancer and the tropic of Capricorn |
| "great traditions" | Historians' term for a literate, well-institutionalized complex of religious and social beliefs and practices adhered to by diverse societies over a broad geographical area. |
| "small traditions" | Historians' term for a localized, usually nonliterate, set of customs and beliefs adhered by a single society, often in conjunction with "great traditions" |
| Bantu | Collective name of a lerge group of sub-Saharan African languages and of the peoples speaking these languages. |
| Armenia | One of the earliest Christian kingdoms, situated in eastern Anatolia (modern day Turkey) and the western Caucasus and occupied by speakers of the Armenian language. |
| Ethiopia | East African high-land nation lying east of the Nile River. |
| Mecca | City in Western Arabia; birthplace of the prophet Muhammad and ritual center if the Islamic religion. |
| Muhammad | Arab prophet; founder of the religion of Islam. |
| Muslim | An adherent of the Islamic religion; a person who "submits" (in Arabic, Islam means submission) to the will of God. |
| Islam | Religion expounded by the Prophet Muhammad an the basis of his divine receptions, which were collected after his death into the Quran. In the tradition of Judaism and Christianity, and sharing much of their lore, Islam calls on all people to recognnize one creator god - Allah - who rewards or punishes believers after death according to how they led their lives |
| Medina | City in Western Arabia to which the Prophet Muhammad and his followers emigrated in 622 to escape persecution in Mecca. |
| umma | The community of all Muslims. A major innovation against the background of seventh-century Arabia, where traditionally kinship rather than faith has determined membership in a community. |
| caliphate | Office established in succession to the Prophet Muhammad, to rule the Islamic empire; also the name of the empire. |
| Quran | Book composed of divine revelations made to the prophet Muhammad between ca. 610 and his death in 632; the sacred text if the religion of Islam. |
| Shi'ites | Muslims belonging yo the branch of Islam believing that God vests leadership of the community on a descendant of Muhammad's son-in-law Ali. Shi'ism is the state religion of Iran. |
| Umayyad Caliphate | First hereditary dynasty of Muslim caliphs (661-750). From their capital at Damascus, the Umayyads ruled an empire that extended from Spain to India. Overthrown by the Abbasid Caliphate. |
| Sunnis | Muslims belonging to branch of Islam believing that the community should select its own ledership. The majority religion in most Islamic countries. |
| Abbasid Caliphate | Descendants of the Prophet Muhammad's uncle, al-Abbas, the Abbasids overthrew the Umayyad caliphate and ruled an Islamic empire from the capital in Baghdad (founded 762) from 750 to 1258. |
| Mamluks | Under the Islamic system of military slavery, Turkic military slaves who formed an important part of the armed forces of the Abbasid Caliphate of the ninth an tenth centuries. Mamluks eventually founded their own state, ruling Egypt and Syria (1250-1517). |
| Ghana | First known kingdom in sub-Saharan West Africa between the sixth and thirteenth centuries CE. Also the modern West African country once known as the Gold Coast. |
| ulama | Muslim religious scholars. From the ninth century onward, the primary interpreters of Islamic law and social core of Muslim urban societies. |
| hadith | A tradition relating the words or deeds of the Prophet Muhammad; next to the Quran, the most important basis form Islamic law. |
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