Term | Definition |
Allah | Arabic word meaning God in Islam |
Muhammad | Founder of Islam |
Islam | Monotheistic religion that developed in Arabia in the 7th century |
Muslim | Follower of Islam |
Sahri'a | Body of law governing the lives of Muslims |
Five Pillars of Islam | Basic religious duties that all Muslims must fulfill in order to worship God |
Hajj | Pilgrimage to Mecca |
Sunni | Branch of Islam whose members acknowledge the first four caliphs as the rightful succesors of Muhammad |
Shi'a | Branch of Islam whose members acknowledge Ali and his descendants as the rightful sucessors of Muhammed |
Caliph | Supreme political and religious leader in Muslim government |
Islamic Caliphates | Political-religious state comprimising the Muslim community and the lands and peoples under its dominion in the centuries following the death of the Prophet Muhammad. |
Golden Age of Muslim Culture | Period of great advances in culture and technology throughout the Muslim Empires were the ideas of the west and east were preserved and the ideas of Islam were expanded |
Sahel | African region along the southern border of the Sahara Desert |
Animism | Belief that spirits present in animals, plants, and other natural objects. |
Migration | Act of moving from one place to settling in another |
Push-Pull Factors | Conditiond that draw people to another location (pull) or cause people to leave their homelands and move to another region (push) |
Bantu Migration | Group who migrated from West Africa into Central and Southern Africa |
Stateless Societies | Cultural groups in which authority is shared by lineages of equal power instead of being exercised by a central government |
Gold Salt Trade | Trade route across sub-Saharan Africa in which ghold from the west was traded for salt in the east, leading to cultural diffusion between the African and Islamic Worlds |
Mansa Musa | Devout Muslim ruler of Mali, who created a strong central government, promoted Islam throughout his kingdom, and was known for his obscene displays of wealth and gold. |