_The Earth And Its Peoples_ Terms: Chapter 13, Western Eurasia, 1200-1500 Ce

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Bubonic plague

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A bacterial disease of fleas that can be transmitted by flea bites to rodents and humans; humans in late stages of the illness can spread the bacteria by coughing. Because of its very high mortality rate and the difficulty of preventing its spread, major outbreaks have created crises in many parts of the world in many countries.

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Genghis Khan (ca. 1167-127)

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The title of Temujin when he ruled the Mongols (1206-1227). It means the "oceanic" or "universal" leader. Genghis Khan was the founder of the Mongol Empire.

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Golden Horde

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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 ad Islam. Also known as the Kipchak Horde.

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Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406)

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Arab historian. He developed an influential theory on the rise and fall of states. Born in Tunis, he spent his later years in Cairo as a teacher and judge. In 1400 he was sent to Damascus to negotiate the surrender of the city, where he met and exchanged views with Timur.

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Il-khan

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A "secondary" or "peripheral" khan based in Persia. THe Il-khans' khanate was founded by Hulegu, a grandson of Genghis Khan, was based at Tabriz in modern Azerbaijan. It controlled much of Iran and Iraq.

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Mamluks

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Under the Islamic system of military slavery, Turkic military slaves who formed an important part of the armed forces of the Abassid Caliphate of the ninth and tenth centuries. Mamluks eventually founded their own state, ruling Egypt and Syria (1250-1517).

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Mongols

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A people of this name is mentioned as early as the records of the Tang Empire, living as nomads in northern Eurasia. After 1206 they established an enormous empire under Genghis Khan, linking western and eastern Eurasia.

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Nasir al-Din Tusi (1201-1274)

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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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Alexander Nevskii (1220-1263)

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Prince of Novgorod (r. 1236-1263). He submitted to the invading Mongols in 1240 and received recognition as the leader of the Russian princes under the Golden Horde.

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Nomadism

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A way of life, forced by a scarcity of resources, in which groups of people continually migrate to find pastures and water.

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Rashid al-Din (d.1318)

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Adviser to the Il-khan ruler Ghazan, who converted to Islam on Rashid's advice.

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Tax farming

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A government's use of private collectors to collect taxes. Individuals or corporations contract with the government to collect a fixed amount for the government and are permitted to keep as profit everything they collect over that amount.

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Timur (1336-1405)

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Member of a prominent family of the Mongols' Jagadai Khanate, Timur through conquest gained control over much of Central Asian 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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Tsar (czar)

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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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Steppes

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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.