World History: Patterns of Interaction: Chapters 10–12

Five times a day, Muslims face toward Mecca to pray. They may
assemble at a mosque, an Islamic house of worship, or wherever they find themselves.

All Muslims who are physically and financially able perform the hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca, at least once.

In 632, Abu-Bakr became the first caliph, a title that means “successor” or “deputy.”

Muslims continued these traditions but often adapted them to suit Islamic beliefs and practices. For example, since Muslims believed that only Allah can create life, images of living beings were discouraged. Thus, many artists turned to calligraphy, or the art of beautiful handwriting.

In 730, Emperor Leo III banned the use of icons, religious images used by Eastern Christians to aid their devotions.

One pope even ordered the excommunication of a Byzantine emperor—that is, he declared the emperor to be an outcast from the Church.

Upon becoming the prince of Moscow, Ivan openly challenged Mongol rule. He took the name czar, the Russian version of Caesar, and publicly claimed his intent to make Russia the “Third Rome.”

The brilliant Nizam al-Mulk, for example, was a Persian who served as the vizier, or prime minister, of the most famous of Seljuk sultans, Malik Shah.

With movable type, a printer could arrange blocks of individual characters in a frame to make up a page for printing.

A new, much larger upper class emerged, made up of
scholar-officials and their families. Such a class of powerful, well-to-do people is called the gentry. The gentry attained their status through education and civil service positions rather than through land ownership.

Nomadic peoples were pastoralists—that is, they herded domesticated animals. They were constantly on the move, searching for good pasture to feed their herds.

Steppe nomads traveled together in kinship groups called clans. The members of each clan claimed to be descended from a common ancestor.

Since wars between rival lords were commonplace, each lord
surrounded himself with a bodyguard of loyal warriors called samurai. (Samurai means “one who serves.”)

In 1192, the emperor gave a Minamoto leader named Yoritomo
the title of shogun, or “supreme general of the emperor’s army.” In effect, the shogun had the powers of a military dictator.