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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. settlement
    a community of people smaller than a town
    Caravans, small parties of merchants, carried goods from one town or settlement to the next, exchanging southern forest products such as kola nuts (chewed for their stimulant properties and everywhere offered as a symbol of hospitality), gold, ivory, wood, smoked and salted fish, cloth, and copper.
  2. ply
    travel a route regularly
    These caravans had plied the desert sands for centuries before the rise of the West African states.
  3. regularity
    the quality of being characterized by a fixed rate
    The introduction of the camel in the second century C.E. allowed greater regularity of contact than the merchants traveling on foot in the earliest centuries of Saharan trade had achieved.
  4. diplomat
    an official engaged in international negotiations
    Leo Africanus was a diplomat from al-Andalus, Spain.
  5. artisan
    a skilled worker who practices some trade or handicraft
    The shops of the artisans, the merchants, and especially weavers of cotton cloth are very numerous.
  6. congregation
    group that habitually attends a particular place of worship
    Another is, their constant custom of attending prayers with the congregation; for unless one makes haste, he will find no place left to say his prayers in.
  7. attribute
    credit to
    Source B: Detail of a map from the Catalan Atlas, attributed to Majorcan Jewish mapmakers Abraham and Jehuda Cresques, 1375.
  8. masses
    the common people generally
    The masses of rural peasants, however, remained little touched.
  9. intervention
    policy of getting involved in the affairs of other countries
    In the eleventh century, the Almoravid intervention, led by a group of Berber nomads who were strict observers of Islamic law, gave the conversion process a new momentum in the Ghana empire and beyond.
  10. momentum
    an impelling force or strength
    In the eleventh century, the Almoravid intervention, led by a group of Berber nomads who were strict observers of Islamic law, gave the conversion process a new momentum in the Ghana empire and beyond.
  11. adaptive
    having a capacity for change
    The spread of Islam throughout the African continent was neither simultaneous nor uniform, but followed a gradual and adaptive path.
  12. derive
    come from
    However, the only written documents at our disposal for the period under consideration derive from Arab sources (see, for instance, accounts by geographers al-Bakri and Ibn Battuta).
  13. aesthetic
    relating to or dealing with the philosophy of beauty
    Islamic political and aesthetic influences on African societies remain difficult to assess.
  14. assess
    estimate the nature, quality, ability or significance of
    Islamic political and aesthetic influences on African societies remain difficult to assess.
  15. flourish
    make steady progress
    The city of Timbuktu, for instance, flourished as a commercial and intellectual center, seemingly undisturbed by various upheavals.
  16. upheaval
    a violent disturbance
    The city of Timbuktu, for instance, flourished as a commercial and intellectual center, seemingly undisturbed by various upheavals.
Created on Tue Jun 18 16:12:56 EDT 2019 (updated Wed Jun 19 15:43:16 EDT 2019)

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