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Chapter Two
Term | Definition |
---|---|
Fertile Crescent | A region of rich farmland that curves from the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf centered on the area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. |
Mesopotamia | The area that lies between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Southwest Asia. |
Ziggurat | A Sumerian temple made of sun-dried brick that was dedicated to the chief god or goddess of a particular city-state. |
City-State | A political unit that includes a town or a city and the surrounding land controlled by it. |
Polytheism | The belief in many gods. |
Dynasty | A family of rulers whose right to rule is hereditary |
Cuneiform | Sumerian Writing |
Sargon (died 2300 BC) | King of Akkad in Mesopotamia; he is considered the founder of Mesopotamia & conquered many cities along the middle Euphrates to northern Syria. He established trade routes with the Indus Valley, coast of the Oman islands, & the shores of the Persian Gulf |
Hammurabi (1792 - 1750 BC) | King of Babylonia; he was brilliant military leader who brought all of Mesopotamia into the Babylonian Empire. He is known for his uniform code of 282 laws, the earliest known set of written laws |
Indo-Europeans | A group of semi-nomadic people who migrated from Southern Russia to the Indian subcontinent around 700 AC. |
Nebuchadnezzar || (605 - 562 BC) | Chaldean king of Babylon from 605 to 562 BC; he rebuilt Babylon into a beautiful city noted for its famed Hanging Gardens. |
Steppes | Arid grasslands. |
Judaism | A monotheistic religion originating with the Israelites, tracing its origins back to Abraham, and having its spiritual and ethical principals embodied chiefly in the Hebrew Scriptures and the Talmud. |
Torah | The first five books of the Hebrew Bible; the most sacred texts of the Jewish faith. |
Abraham | According to the bible, the originator of the Jewish line of descent; according to the Qu'ran, the ancestor of the Arabs; he held a deep devotion to and a great trust in the will of God. |
Covenant | A binding agreement . |
Patiarch | An ancestral "father" of Judaism. |
Moses | Hebrew prophet and lawgiver; according to the Bible, he led the Hebrew people out of Egypt and back to Canaan in the Exodus. According to the Bible, it was during this journey that he received the Ten Commandments from God. |
Exodus | The escape of the Hebrews from Egypt. |
Diaspora | The dispersal of the Jews from their homeland in Palestine during the 2,600 years that followed the destruction of the Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem in 586 BC by the Chaldeans. |
Monotheism | The belief in one god. |
Cyrus the Great (died 529 BC) | King of Persia and founder of the Persian Empire; he defeated the Median army and united the Persians and Medians under his rule. |
Darius | (550 - 486) | King of Persia from 522 - 486 BC; he reorganized and strengthened the Persian Empire by reforming the army and the government. |
Satrap | Governors of ancient Persia |
Xerxes (519 - 465 BC) | King of Persia; his armies invaded Greece but were eventually defeated by the Greeks. |
Zoroaster | Religious teacher and prophet of ancient Persia; he founded a religion known as Zoroastrianism based on the idea that people have free will and can act as they choose. |
Dualism | The belief that the world is controlled by two opposing forces, good and evil. |