Term
|
Definition
| Caravan routes connecting China and the Middle East across Central Asia and Iran. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Iranian ruling dynasty between ca. 250 B.C.E. and 226 C.E. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Iranian empire, established ca. 226, with a capital in Ctesiphon, Mesopotamia. The Sasanid emperors established Zoroastrianism as the state religion. Islamic Arab armies overthrew the empire ca. 640. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Device for securing a horseman's feet, enabling him to wield weapons more effectively. First evidence of the use of stirrups was among the Kushan people of northern Afghanistan in approximately the first century C.E. |
|
|
Term
| Indian Ocean Maritime System |
|
Definition
| In premodern times, a network of seaports, trade routes, and maritime culture linking countries on the rim of the Indian Ocean from Africa to Indonesia. |
|
|
Term
| Trans-Sarahan Caravan Routes |
|
Definition
| Trading network linking North Africa with sub-Saharan Africa across the Sahara. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Belt south of the Sahara; literally "coastland" in Arabic. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Portion of the African continent lying south of the Sahara. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Treeless plains, especially the high, flat expanses of northern Eurasia, which usually have little rain and are covered with coarse grass. They are good lands for nomads and their herds. Living on the steppes promoted the breeding of horses and the development of military skills that were essential to the rise of the Mongol Empire. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Tropical or subtropical grassland, either treeless or with occasional clumps of trees. Most extensive in sub-Saharan Africa but also present in South America. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| High-precipitation forest zones of the Americas, Africa, and Asia lying between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Historians' term for a literate, well-institutionalized complex of religious and social beliefs and practices adhered to by diverse societies over a broad geographical area. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Historians' term for a localized, usually nonliterate, set of customs and beliefs adhered to by a single society, often in conjunction with a "great tradition." |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Collective name of a large group of sub-Saharan African languages and of the peoples speaking these languages. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| One of the earliest Christian kingdoms, situated in eastern Anatolia and the western Caucasus and occupied by speakers of the Armenian language. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| East African highland nation lying east of the Nile River. |
|
|
