Middle East History Msoe Jung Unit 1

Front 1

Abbas I, Shah

Back 1

Safavid ruler ( 1587-1629)

Front 2

Abbasid Dynasty

Back 2

Arab family descended from Abbas, Muhammad's uncle, that ruled from Baghdad over parts of the Muslim world ( 750-1258)

Front 3

Abu-Bakr

Back 3

First caliph (632-634), who put down tribal revolts and began conquests outside Arabian Peninsula

Front 4

Abu-Talib

Back 4

Muhammad's uncle and protector (d. 619)

Front 5

Alawi

Back 5

Offshoot of Shi'i Islam prevalent in part of northern Syria

Front 6

Ali

Back 6

Fourth of the early caliphs ( 656-661), regarded by Shi'i Muslims as the first imam (leader) after Muhammad

Front 7

Arab

Back 7

1) Native speaker of Arabic; (2) person who identifies with Arabic cultural tradition; (3) inhabitant of Arabia; (4) citizen of a country in which the predominant language and culture are Arabic; (5) camel nomad

Front 8

Arabic

Back 8

(1) Semitic language spoken by Arabs; (2) pertaining to the culture of Arabs

Front 9

Arian

Back 9

Pertaining to the belief of some early Christians that Jesus Christ was human, not of the same substance as God the Father

Front 10

Aryan

Back 10

Pertaining to the Indo-European language family (often used in juxtaposition with the term Semitic)

Front 11

Assyrian

Back 11

Pertaining to Nestorian Christians in Syria, Iraq, and Iran

Front 12

Ayatollah

Back 12

Title given to respected Shi'i legal experts

Front 13

Baghdad

Back 13

Capital of Iraq, seat of Abbasids ( 762-1258)

Front 14

Bedouin

Back 14

Arab camel nomad(s)

Front 15

Berber

Back 15

Native inhabitant of parts of North Africa

Front 16

Byzantine Empire

Back 16

Roman Empire of the East ( 330-1453), having its capital at Constantinople and professing Greek Orthodox Christianity

Front 17

Cairo

Back 17

Capital of Egypt, founded by the Fatimids ( 969)

Front 18

Caliph

Back 18

Successor to Muhammad as head of the ummah

Front 19

Capitulations

Back 19

System by which Muslim rulers allowed extraterritorial immunity from local laws and taxes to subjects of Western countries

Front 20

Chalecedon

Back 20

Site of 451 Christian council at which the Orthodox bishops condemned the Monophysite view of Christ's nature

Front 21

Constantine

Back 21

Roman emperor ( 306-337) who converted to Christianity

Front 22

Cordoba

Back 22

Spanish city, capital of the later Umayyads ( 756-1030)

Front 23

Divian

Back 23

(1) List of Arab troops entitled to share booty during early conquests; (2) council of ministers; (3) collection of poems. The Persian and Turkish word is divan

Front 24

Dome of the Rock

Back 24

Muslim shrine in Jerusalem, built in 692 on site of Jewish Temple; site of Abraham's sacrifice and of Muhammad's miraculous night journey

Front 25

Druze

Back 25

Pertaining to the secret religion practiced by some Arabs in Syria, Lebanon, and Israel and founded by Shaykh Darazi, who preached that the Fatimid caliph al-Hakim was the last of a series of emanations from God

Front 26

Fatima

Back 26

Muhammad's daughter, who married Ali

Front 27

Fiqh

Back 27

The science of Islamic law (jurisprudence)

Front 28

Ghazi

Back 28

Muslim border warrior

Front 29

Greek Orthodox

Back 29

Pertaining to the branch of Christianity that accepts the spiritual authority of the Constantinople patriarch and espouses the Christological doctrines adopted at the Nicaea ( 325) and Chalcedon ( 451) church councils

Front 30

Hadith

Back 30

A statement, documented by a chain of reliable witnesses, concerning a saying or action of Muhammad or an action by one of his companions that he approved, hence an authoritative source of the Shari'ah

Front 31

Hajj

Back 31

Muslim rite of pilgrimage to Mecca, or (with a lengthened vowel) a Muslim who has completed the pilgrimage rites

Front 32

Hashimite

Back 32

(1) Member of the family descended from Hashim; (2) supporter of an extremist mawali Shi'i sect in late Umayyad times;

Front 33

Hebrew

Back 33

Semitic language of ancient and modern Israel

Front 34

Husayn

Back 34

Younger son of Ali and Fatimah, killed in an anti-Umayyad revolt at Karbala ( 680), hence a martyr for Shi'i Muslims;

Front 35

Ibn Rushd

Back 35

Muslim philosopher (d. 1198); known as Averroës in Latin

Front 36

Ijtihad

Back 36

Use of reasoning to determine a specific rule in Islamic law

Front 37

Imam

Back 37

1) Muslim religious or political leader; (2) one of the succession of leaders, beginning with Ali, viewed by Shi'is as legitimate; (3) leader of Muslim congregational worship

Front 38

Isma'ili

Back 38

Pertaining to Seven-Imam Shi'ism

Front 39

Janissary

Back 39

Christian conscript foot soldier in the Ottoman army, converted to Islam and trained to use firearms

Front 40

Jihad

Back 40

(1) Defense of Islam against attackers; (2) Muslim struggle against evil within oneself, one's associates, and the ummah; (3) name of several Islamist groups

Front 41

Jinn

Back 41

Invisible creatures living on earth, capable of doing good or harm

Front 42

Jizya

Back 42

Per capita tax paid by non-Muslim males living under Muslim rule up to the nineteenth century

Front 43

Ka'ba

Back 43

Muslim shrine in Mecca housing the Black Stone, serving as the focal point for the hajj, and setting the direction for Muslim worship

Front 44

Karbala

Back 44

Iraqi city, site of Husayn's uprising and martyrdom (680); since then a Shi'l pilgrimage center

Front 45

Khadija

Back 45

Muhammad's first wife (d. 619)

Front 46

Kizilbash

Back 46

Shi'i Turks, especially Safavid horse soldiers

Front 47

Kerd

Back 47

Member of linguistic-cultural group concentrated in southeastern Turkey, northern Iraq, northwestern Iran, and parts of Syria

Front 48

Madhhab

Back 48

Sunni legal rite or school

Front 49

Madrassa

Back 49

Muslim school, especially for law

Front 50

Manzidert, Battle of

Back 50

Seljuk victory over the Byzantines ( 1071)

Front 51

Maronite

Back 51

Pertaining to a Christian sect, mainly in northern Lebanon, whose distinguishing belief is that Christ contained two natures within one will and which has been in communion with the Roman Catholic Church since the Crusades

Front 52

Mawla

Back 52

(1) Client member of an Arab tribe, entitled to protection but not all membership privileges; (2) a non-Arab convert to Islam during the early Arab conquests

Front 53

Mecca

Back 53

Birthplace of the Prophet Muhammad and chief commercial and pilgrimage center of western Arabia

Front 54

Medina

Back 54

Northwest Arabian farming oasis, formerly Yathrib, to which Muhammad and his followers went in 622

Front 55

Mehmet II

Back 55

Ottoman sultan ( 1451-1481), conqueror of Constantinople

Front 56

Mollah

Back 56

Persian Muslim teacher

Front 57

Mosque

Back 57

Place of communal worship for Muslims

Front 58

Mufti

Back 58

(1) Sunni Muslim legal consultant; (2) in modern times, leader of the ulama in a Sunni Muslim state

Front 59

Muhtasib

Back 59

Muslim market inspector

Front 60

Mujtahid

Back 60

Learned Muslim who interprets the Shari'ah, especially in Shi'i jurisprudence

Front 61

Muslim

Back 61

(1) A person who submits to God's will; (2) anyone who believes that God revealed the Quran to Muhammad

Front 62

Najaf

Back 62

Iraqi city where Ali was assassinated (661), hence a Shi'i pilgrimage center

Front 63

Nicea

Back 63

Northwest Anatolian city, site of the Christian church council in 325 that accepted the Trinitarian view of the nature of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

Front 64

Osman I

Back 64

Ottoman sultan (ca. 1280-1326)

Front 65

Persia

Back 65

Former name for Iran

Front 66

Qadi

Back 66

Muslim judge

Front 67

Quran

Back 67

The collection of revelations that Muslims believe God vouchsafed to Muhammad via Gabriel, and one of the main sources of Islamic law, literature, and culture; also known as the Koran

Front 68

Ramadan

Back 68

Month of the Arabic calendar during which Muslims refrain from eating, drinking, and sexual intercourse from daybreak to sunset, commemorating first revelations of the Quran to Muhammad

Front 69

Re'aya

Back 69

Member(s) of the Ottoman subject class

Front 70

Rum

Back 70

(1) Arabic, Persian, and Turkish word for Anatolia; (2) collective term for Greek Orthodox Christians

Front 71

Salah al-Din

Back 71

Arabic name for a Kurdish military adventurer who took Egypt over from the Fatimids and Syria from the Zengids, defeated the Crusaders in 1187, and regained Jerusalem for Islam but failed to expel the Crusaders from Acre; also known as Saladin (r. 1171-1192)

Front 72

Samarqand

Back 72

Major city in Transoxiana

Front 73

Semitic

Back 73

Pertaining to a subgroup of Asian languages, including Arabic and Hebrew, having consonantal writing systems, inflected grammars, and structured morphologies, or to a speaker of one of these languages

Front 74

Shayk al-Islam

Back 74

Chief Ottoman legal and religious officer, appointed by the sultan

Front 75

Shaytan

Back 75

Satan, or the devil, in Muslim belief

Front 76

Shi'i

Back 76

Muslim who believes that Muhammad's leadership of the ummah was bequeathed to Ali, to whom special legislative powers and spiritual knowledge were vouchsafed

Front 77

Sipahi

Back 77

Ottoman horse soldier supported by a timar

Front 78

Suleyman the Magnificent

Back 78

Ottoman sultan ( 1520-1566) Empire reached its peak

Front 79

Sunna

Back 79

The sayings and actions of Muhammad regarding correct Muslim belief or behavior; hence, next to the Quran, the most important source of Muslim law

Front 80

Sunni

Back 80

1) A Muslim who accepts the legitimacy of the caliphs who succeeded Muhammad and adheres to one of the legal rites developed in the early caliphal period; (2) careful observer of Muhammad's sunnah

Front 81

Turkish

Back 81

Pertaining to the language and culture of the Turks

Front 82

Ulama

Back 82

Muslim scholars and jurists

Front 83

Umar

Back 83

Second of the Rashidun caliphs ( 634-644), leader of the early Arab conquests

Front 84

Umayyad Dynasty

Back 84

Clan of the Quraysh tribe that ruled in Damascus ( 661-750) and in Cordoba ( 756-1030)

Front 85

Umma

Back 85

The political, social, and spiritual community of Muslims

Front 86

Uniat Catholics

Back 86

Christians of various Middle Eastern rites who are in communion with the Roman Catholic Church

Front 87

Vizier

Back 87

Government minister in a Muslim state; wazir in Arabic

Front 88

Waqf

Back 88

Muslim endowment of land or other property, usually established for a beneficent or pious purpose

Front 89

Zaydi Shi'i

Back 89

Muslim who believes that Zayd bequeathed his ummah leadership to designated successors

Front 90

Zoroastrianism

Back 90

Pre-Islamic Persian religion popularized in the sixth century B.C.E. by Zoroaster, preaching the existence of a Supreme Deity and of a cosmic struggle between Good and Evil

Front 91

Ishmael

Back 91

Mythic ancestor of the Arabs

Front 92

Islam

Back 92

The religion, now prevalent in the Middle East and many other parts of Asia and Africa, believing in one God revealed to a series of prophets, ending with Muhammad, to whom the Quran was entrusted

Front 93

Quraysh

Back 93

Leading tribe of northwest Arabia, especially Mecca