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Byzantium,  | was an ancient Greek colony on the site that later became Constantinople, and later still Istanbul. Byzantium was colonised by the Greeks from Megara in c. 657 BC. |
| Basil II | was a Byzantine Emperor from the Macedonian dynasty who expanded the Byzantine empire |
| Justinian I | Byzantine emperor (527–565), noted for his administrative reorganization of the imperial government and for his sponsorship of a codification of laws known as the Codex Justinianus |
| Battle of Manzikert | Battle where the Byzantines were defeated by the Turks |
| Crusades | Christianity military expeditions, beginning in the late 11th century, that were organized by western European Christians in response to centuries of Muslim wars. |
| Slavs | The people of Kievan Rus and the Vikings. Originated in Russia |
| Vikings | Norse seafarers, speaking the Old Norse language, who raided and traded from their Scandinavian homelands across wide areas of northern, central and eastern Europe, during the late 8th to late 11th centuries |
| iconoclastic | is the destruction of religious icons and other images or monuments for religious or political motives |
Hagia Sophia,  | Greek Orthodox Christian patriarchal basilica (church), later an imperial mosque, and now a museum in Istanbul, Turkey |
| theocracy | a form of government in which a deity is the source from which all authority derives |
| patriarch | he male head of a family or tribe. |
| monostaries | a building or buildings occupied by a community of monks living under religious vows. |
| Cyril | Missionary who created his own alphabet |
| schism | s a division between people, usually belonging to an organization, movement, or religious denomination |
illuminated manuscripts,  | is a manuscript in which the text is supplemented with such decoration as initials, borders (marginalia) and miniature illustrations |
Hippodrome,  | was a circus that was the sporting and social centre of Constantinople, |
| Dnieper River | River where Kievan Rus was settled |
| Kievan Rus | a collection of city states along the Dnieper River that could govern themselves as long as they paid tribute to the grand prince of Kiev |
| Novgorod | a city in Kievan Rus that became a prosperous city and multicultural center |
| Constantinople | Capital of the Byzantine Empire |
| Bosporus Strait | the narrow body of water that connects the Black Sea and Sea of Marmara |
| Abbasid | One of the most powerful empires of it's time. Its capital was Baghdad and it took over the Umayyad empire. |
| Baghdad | Capital of Abbasid |
| viziers | s a high-ranking political advisor or minister. |
| Seljuk Turks | A Sunni Muslim dynasty that became the target of the first crusade |
| sultan | to refer to a powerful governor of a province within the caliphate. |
| Mamluks | Abbasid caliphs captured or bought young boys who were not Muslims as slaves and brought them up to be Sunni Muslim soldiers in a slave army. |
| Battle of Tours | Battle that was a rare defeat for Islamic soldiers and marked the rapid Islamic expansion into Western Europe |
| Muhammad | is the central figure of Islam and widely regarded as its founder by non-Muslims. He is known as the "Holy Prophet" to Muslims |
| Bedouins | are an Arab semi-nomadic ethnic group, descended from nomads who have historically inhabited the Arabian and Syrian deserts. |
| polygyny | is the most common and accepted form of polygamy, entailing the marriage of a man with several women. Most countries that permit polygamy are Muslim majority countries in which polygyny is the only form permitted. |
| Allah | God |
| Mecca | Birthplace of Muhammad, where muslims attend every year for Haj |
| Quran | Holy book for Muslims |
| Medina | Muhammad's destination after his Hijrah from Mecca, and became the capital of a rapidly increasing Muslim Empire, first under Muhammad's leadership, and then under the first four Rashidun caliphs, Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and Ali. |
| Hegira | is the migration or journey of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and his followers from Mecca to Yathrib |
| Ka'aba | is a building at the center of Islam's most sacred mosque, Al-Masjid al-Haram, in Mecca, al-Hejaz, Saudi Arabia |
| Five Pillars | are five basic acts in Islam, considered mandatory by believers and are the foundation of Muslim life |
| jihad | the spiritual struggle within oneself against sin. |
| Ramadan | is observed by Muslims worldwide as a month of fasting to commemorate the first revelation of the Quran to Muhammad according to Islamic belief |
| Shariah | is the religious law governing the members of the Islamic faith. |
| Abu Bakr | He became the first openly declared Muslim outside Muhammad's family.He ruled over the Rashidun Caliphate from 632 to 634 CE when he became the first Muslim Caliph following Muhammad's death. |
| caliph | a person considered a religious successor to the Islamic prophet, Muhammad (Muhammad ibn ʿAbdullāh), and a leader of the entire Muslim community |
| Sunnis | is the largest denomination of Islam. Its name comes from the word Sunnah, referring to the exemplary behavior of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Muhammad did not clearly designate a successor and the Muslim community acted according to his sunnah in electing his father-in-law Abu Bakr as the first caliph |
| Shias | is a branch of Islam which holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib as his successor |
| Dar al-Islam | means House of Islam |
Umayyad Dynasty,  | The fourth caliph founded this Sunni dynasty whose capital is in Damascus. They were takend down by the Abbasid empire. |
Damascus,  | Capital to the Umayyad dynasty |
dhows,  | sailing vessels that used lateen sails |
| dowries | s a transfer of parental property at the marriage of a daughter.[ |
hijab,  | is a veil traditionally worn by Muslim women in the presence of adult males outside of their immediate family, which usually covers the head and chest. |
| Sufis | Islamic sect that focused on introspection instead of the Quran |
| malaria | is a mosquito-borne infectious disease affecting humans and other animals caused by parasitic protozoans. Common in Africa |
| Ibn Battuta | was a Medieval Moroccan Muslim traveler and scholar, who is widely recognised as one of the greatest travelers of all time. He is known for his extensive travels, accounts of which were published in the Rihla |
| Zanj Rebellion | was a major uprising against the Abbasid Caliphate. The Zanj revolt to be one of the "most vicious and brutal uprisings" of the many disturbances that plagued the Abbasid central government. |
| griots | is a West African historian, storyteller, praise singer, poet and/or musician. The griot is a repository of oral tradition and is often seen as a societal leader due to his traditional position as an advisor to royal personages. |
| Indian Ocean trade | erved as an important role in history, and has been a key factor in East–West exchanges. Long distance trade in dhows and sailboats made it a dynamic zone of interaction between peoples, cultures, and civilizations stretching from Java in the East to Zanzibar and Mombasa in the West |
| Timbuktu | became a permanent settlement early in the 12th century. After a shift in trading routes, itadegr flourished from the trade in salt, gold, ivory and slaves. It became part of the Mali Empire early in the 14th century. |
| Zanj Coast | was a name used by medieval Muslim geographers to refer to both a certain portion of Southeast Africa (primarily the Swahili Coast), and to the area's Bantu inhabitants. |
| matrilineal descent | is the tracing of descent through the female line. |
| Mali | part of three famed West African empires which controlled trans-Saharan trade in gold, salt, slaves, and other precious commodities |
| Sundiata | founder of the Mali Empire, and subject of the epic known as "Sundiata" or "Son Jara" |
| Mansa Musa | had conquered 24 cities, each with surrounding districts containing villages and estates, during his reign. Gave away lots of gold |
| Songhay/Songhai Empire | Sunni Ali was leader. |
