| A | B |
|---|
| Omar Khayyam | a Muslim poet, mathematician, and astronomer |
| caliph | a Muslim ruler |
| Sufis | a mystical Muslim group that believed they could draw closer to God through prayer, fasting, and a simple life |
| Muhammad | the prophet and founder of Islam |
| nomads | people with no permanent home, who move from place to place in search of food, water, or pasture |
| caravan | a group of traders traveling together for safety |
| Mecca | an Arabian trading center and Muhammad's birthplace |
| Muslim | a follower of Islam |
| mosque | a Muslim house of worship |
| Quran | the holy book of Islam |
| Constantinople | the capital of the eastern Roman Empire and later of the Byzantine Empire |
| Constantine | an emperor of the Roman Empire and founder of Constantinople |
| Justinian | one of the greatest Byzantine emperors |
| Justinian's Code | an organized collection and explanation of Roman laws for use by the Byzantine Empire |
| schism | a split, particularly in a church or religion |
| migration | the movement from one country or region to settle in another |
| Bantu | a large group of central and southern Africans who speak related languages |
| savanna | an area of grassland with scattered trees and bushes |
| Sahara | a huge desert stretching across most of North Africa |
| oral history | accounts of the past that people pass down by word of mouth. |
| clan | a group of families who trace their roots to the same ancestor |
| Mansa Musa | a king of Mali in the 1300s |
| Mali | a rich kingdom of the West African savanna |
| Ghana | the first West African kingdom based on the gold and salt trade |
| Songhai | a powerful kingdom of the West African savanna |
| Ile-lfe | the capital of a kingdom of the West African rain forest |
| Benin | a kingdom of the West African rain forest |
| Kilwa | one of many trading cities on the East African coast |
| Aksum | an important East African center of trade |
| city-state | a city that is also a separate, independent state |
| Swahili | a Bantu language with Arabic words, spoken along the East African coast |
| Great Zimbabwe | a powerful southeast African city |
| Incas | people of a powerful South American empire during the 1400s and 1500s. |
| Andes | a mountain chain of western South America |
| Cuzco | the capital city of the Incan Empire, located in present-day Peru |
| census | an official count of people in a certain place at a certain time |
| quipu | a group of knotted strings used by the Incas to record information |
| terraces | steplike ledges cut into mountains to make land suitable for farming |
| Aztecs | a people who lived in the Valley of Mexico |
| Tenochtitlan | a capital city of the Aztecs |
| Mayas | people who established a great civilization in Middle America |
| slash and burn | a farming technique in which trees are cut down and burned to clear and fertilize the land |
| maize | corn |
| hieroglyphics | the signs and symbols that made up the Mayan writing system |
| Mound builders | Native American groups who built earthen mounds |
| Anasazi | one of the ancient Native American peoples of the Southwest |
| pueblo | a Native American stone or adobe dwelling, part of a cluster of dwellings built close together |
| kiva | a round room used by the pueblo people for religious ceremonies |
| Great Plains | a mostly flat and grassy region of western North America |
| Silk Road | a chain of trade routes stretching from China to the Mediterranean Sea |
| dynasty | a series of rulers from the same family |
| Tang | a dynasty that rule China for almost 300 years. |
| Song | a dynasty that ruled China after the Tang |
| merit system | a system of hiring people based on their abilities |
| Kublai Khan | a Mongol emperor of China |
| archipelago | a group or chain of many islands |
| Kyoto | the capital city of medieval Japan |
| feudalism | a system in which poor people are legally bound to work for wealthy landowners |
| samurai | Japanese warriors |
| shogun | the supreme military commander of Japan |
| sultan | a Muslim ruler |
| caste system | a Hindu social class system that controlled every aspect of daily life. |
| Mughal Empire | a period of Muslim rule of India from the 1500s to the 1700s. |
| Akbar | the greatest Mughal leader of India |
| Taj Mahal | a tomb built by Shah Jahan for his wife |
| knight | a man who received honor and land in exchange for serving a lord as a soldier |
| Middle Ages | the years between ancient and modern times |
| medieval | referring to the Middle Ages |
| feudalism | a system in which land was owned by kings or lords but held by vassals in return for loyalty |
| manor | a large estate, often including farms and a village, ruled by a lord |
| serf | a farm worker considered part of the manor on which he or she worked |
| clergy | persons with authority to perform religious services |
| excommunication | expelling someone from the Church |
| guild | a medieval organization of crafts workers or tradespeople |
| apprentice | an unpaid person training in a craft or trade |
| chivalry | the code of honorable conduct for knights |
| troubadour | a traveling poet and musician of the Middle Ages |
| Holy Land | Jerusalem and parts of the surrounding area where Jesus lived and taught |
| Crusades | a series of military expeditions launched by Christian Europeans to win the Holy Land back from Muslim control |
| Jerusalem | a city in the Holy Land, regarded as sacred by Christians, Muslims and Jews. |
| pilgrim | a person who journeys to a sacred place |
| nation | a community of people that shares territory and a government |
| Magna Carta | the "Great Charter", in which the king's power over his nobles was limited, agreed to by King John of England in 1215. |
| Model Parliament | a council of lords, clergy, and common people that advised the English king on government matters. |
| Hundred Years' War | a series of conflicts between England and France, 1337-1453 |
