| A | B |
|---|
| Allah | Arabic name for God |
| Muhammad | believed he was a prophet of Allah; received revelations and began Islam |
| Islam | "submission to the will of Allah" |
| Muslim | "one who has submitted" |
| Hijrah | migration from Mecca to Yathrib; turning point for Muhammad and his followers |
| Qur'an | the holy book of the Muslims |
| mosque | Islamic house of worship |
| haji | pilgrimage to Mecca |
| Sunna | Muhammad's example; the best model for proper living in Islam |
| shari'a | the body of law composed of the guidance of the Qur'an and Sunna |
| caliph | title that means "successor" or "deputy"; Abu-Bakr was the first |
| Umayyads | a family who came to power and established a hereditary system of succession and moved teh Muslim capital to Damascus |
| Shi'a | group who resisted the rule of the Umayyads; believes that the caliph needs to be a relative of the Prophet; means "party" of Ali |
| Sunni | means followeers of Muhammad's example; didn't outwardly resist the Umayyads |
| Sufi | reacted to the Umayyads by pursuing a life of poverty and devotion to a spiritual path |
| Abbasids | most powerful rebel group who took control after overthrowing the Umayyads |
| al-Andalus | Muslim state established in southern Spain by the Berbers |
| Fatimid | dynasty named after Muhammad's daughter; began in North Africa and spread to western Arabia and Syria |
| House of Wisdom | library/academy/translation center opened by Caliph al-Ma'um in the early 800s |
| calligraphy | the art of beautiful handwritting |
