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| Island off the coast of South America; settled by Polynesian explorers in the 6th century. |
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| Islands in the central pacific; extends from New Guinea in the west to Easter Island and the Marquesas Islands in the east. |
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| Monolithic human figures carved from rock on the Polynesian island of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) between the years 1250 and 1500. |
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| Rulers that reunite China in a 40 year period. They reestablish Confucianism as the central philosophy in China. Built a new capital called Chang’an, and were the builders of the Grand Canal. |
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| The 1100-mile waterway linking the Yellow and the Yangzi Rivers. It was begun in the Han period and completed during the Sui Empire. |
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| Empire unifying China and part of central Asia; founded in 618 and ended in 907. The emperors presided over a magnificent court at the capital (Chang’an). |
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| Empire in central and southern China (960–1126) while the Liao people controlled the north. Empire in southern China (1127–1279; the “Southern Song”) while the Jin people controlled the north. Distinguished for its advances in technology, medicine, astronomy, and mathematics. |
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| A group of Turkic-speakers who controlled their own centralized empire from 744 to 840 in Mongolia and Central Asia. |
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| A mixture of saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal, in various proportions. The formula, brought to China in the 400s or 500s, was first used to make fumigators to keep away insect pests and evil spirits. In later centuries it was used to make explosives and grenades and to propel cannonballs, shot, and bullets. |
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| The first of Japan’s decentralized military governments. (1185–1333). |
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| Quick-maturing rice that can allow two harvests in one growing season. Originally introduced into Champa from India, it was later sent to China as a tribute gift by the Champa state. |
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| Korean kingdom founded in 918 and destroyed by a Mongol invasion in 1259. |
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| The title of Temüjin when he ruled the Mongols (1206–1227). It means the “oceanic” or “universal” leader; the founder of the Mongol Empire. |
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| Mongol khanate founded by Genghis Khan’s grandson Batu. It was based in southern Russia and quickly adopted both the Turkic language and Islam. Also known as the Kipchak Horde. |
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| Adviser to the Il-khan ruler Ghazan, who converted to Islam on Rashid’s advice. |
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| Member of a prominent family of the Mongols’ Jagadai Khanate, Timur through conquest gained control over much of Central Asia and Iran. He consolidated the status of Sunni Islam as orthodox, and his descendants, the Timurids, maintained his empire for nearly a century and founded the Mughal Empire in India. |
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| One of the most important figures in the field of History and Sociology in Muslim History. |
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| Persian mathematician and cosmologist whose academy near Tabriz provided the model for the movement of the planets that helped to inspire the Copernican model of the solar system. |
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| Empire created in China and Siberia by Khubilai Khan. |
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| Last of the Mongol Great Khans (r. 1260–1294) and founder of the Yuan Empire. Original architect of the Forbidden City. |
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| A merchant from the Venetian Republic who wrote Il Milione, which introduced Europeans to Central Asia and China. He learned about trading whilst his father and uncle, Niccolò and Maffeo, voyaged through Asia and met Kublai Khan. |
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| Empire based in China that Zhu Yuanzhang established after the overthrow of the Yuan Empire. The emperor Yongle sponsored additions to the Forbidden City and the voyages of Zheng He. The later years of the empire saw a slowdown in technological development and economic decline. |
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| An imperial eunuch and Muslim, entrusted by the Ming emperor Yongle with a series of state voyages that took his gigantic ships through the Indian Ocean, from Southeast Asia to Africa. |
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| Reign of Zhu Di (1360–1424), the third emperor of the Ming Empire (r. 1403–1424). He sponsored further work on the Forbidden City, a huge encyclopedia project, the expeditions of Zheng He, and the reopening of China’s borders to trade and travel. |
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| Empire established in China by Manchus who overthrew the Ming Empire in 1644. At various times the leaders also controlled Manchuria, Mongolia, Turkestan, and Tibet. The last emperor was overthrown in 1911. |
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| Qing emperor (r. 1662–1722). He oversaw the greatest expansion of the Qing Empire. |
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| The “divine wind,” which the Japanese credited with blowing Mongol invaders away from their shores in 1281. |
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| The second of Japan’s military governments headed by a shogun (a military ruler). Sometimes called the Muromachi Shogunate. |
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| The last of the three shogunates of Japan. |
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| Literally “those who serve,” the hereditary military elite of the Tokugawa Shogunate. |
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| Moroccan Muslim scholar, the most widely traveled individual of his time. He wrote a detailed account of his visits to Islamic lands from China to Spain and the western Sudan. |
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| Centralized Indian empire of varying extent, created by Muslim invaders. |
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| Empire created by indigenous Muslims in western Sudan of West Africa from the thirteenth to fifteenth century. It was famous for its role in the trans-Saharan gold trade. |
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| Ruler of Mali (r. 1312–1337). His pilgrimage through Egypt to Mecca in 1324–1325 established the empire’s reputation for wealth in the Mediterranean world. |
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| City on the Niger River in the modern country of Mali. It was founded by the Tuareg as a seasonal camp sometime after 1000. As part of the Mali empire, Timbuktu became a major terminus of the trans-Saharan trade and a center of Islamic learning. |
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| 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. |
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| City, now in ruins (in the modern African country of Zimbabwe), whose many stone structures were built between about 1250 and 1450, when it was a trading center and the capital of a large state. |
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| Port city in the modern Southeast Asian country of Malaysia, founded about 1400 as a trading center on the Strait of Malacca. |
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| Region of western India famous for trade and manufacturing; the inhabitants are called Gujarati. |
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| East African shores of the Indian Ocean between the Horn of Africa and the Zambezi River; from the Arabic sawahil, meaning “shores.” |
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| Ship of small to moderate size used in the western Indian Ocean, traditionally with a triangular sail and a sewn timber hull. |
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| Port city in the modern south Arabian country of Yemen. It has been a major trading center in the Indian Ocean since ancient times. |
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| Islamic state founded by Osman in northwestern Anatolia ca. 1300. After the fall of the Byzantine Empire, the empire was based at Istanbul (formerly Constantinople) from 1453 to 1922. It encompassed lands in the Middle East, North Africa, the Caucasus, and eastern Europe. |
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| Infantry, originally of slave origin, armed with firearms and constituting the elite of the Ottoman army from the fifteenth century until the corps was abolished in 1826. |
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| The most illustrious sultan of the Ottoman Empire (r. 1520–1566); also known as Suleiman Kanuni, “The Lawgiver.” He significantly expanded the empire in the Balkans and eastern Mediterranean. |
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| The practice by which the Ottoman Empire conscripted boys from Christian families, who were taken from their families by force, converted to Islam, trained and enrolled in one of the four royal institutions: the Palace, the Scribes, the Religious and the Military. |
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| Iranian kingdom (1502–1722) established by Ismail Safavi, who declared Iran a Shi’ite state. |
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| Muslim state (1526–1857) exercising dominion over most of India in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. |
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| Most illustrious sultan of the Mughal Empire in India (r. 1556–1605). He expanded the empire and pursued a policy of conciliation with Hindus. |
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| From Latin caesar, this Russian title for a monarch was first used in reference to a Russian ruler by Ivan III (r. 1462–1505). |
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| Russian tsar (r. 1689–1725). He enthusiastically introduced Western languages and technologies to the Russian elite, moving the capital from Moscow to the new city of St. Petersburg. |
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| Peoples of the Russian Empire who lived outside the farming villages, often as herders, mercenaries, or outlaws; these people led the conquest of Siberia in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. |
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