Chapter 12
Ming Empire
Empire based in China that Zhu Yuanzhang established after the overthrow of the Yuan Empire. The Ming emperor Yongle sponsored the building of the Forbidden City and the voyages of Zheng He. The later years of the Ming saw a slowdown in technological development and economic decline.
Genghis Khan
Founder of the Mongol Empire.
Timur
Member of a prominent family of the Mongols' Jagadai Khanate, Timur through conquest gained control over much of Central Asia and Iran. He consolidated the status of Sunni Islam as orthodox, and his descendants, the Timurids, maintained his empire.
Golden Horde
Mongol khanate founded by Genghis Khan's. It was based in southern Russia and quickly adopted both the Turkic language and Islam. Also known as the Kipchak Horde.
Kamikaze
The 'divine wind,' which the Japanese credited with blowing Mongol invaders away from their shores in 1281.
Tsar
The Russian term for ruler or king; taken from the Roman word caesar.
Ashikaga Shogunate
The second of Japan's military governments headed by a shogun (a military ruler). Sometimes called the Muromachi Shogunate.
Il-Khan
A 'secondary' or 'peripheral' khan based in Persia. The Il-khans' khanate was founded by H?leg?, a grandson of Genghis Khan, was based at Tabriz in modern Azerbaijan. It controlled much of Iran and Iraq. (p. 333)
Ottoman Empire
A Muslim empire based in Turkey that lasted from the 1300's to 1922.
Mongols
A people of this name is mentioned as early as the records of the Tang Empire, living as nomads in northern Eurasia. After 1206 they established an enormous empire under Genghis Khan, linking western and eastern Eurasia.
Nomadism
A way of life, forced by a scarcity of resources, in which groups of people continually migrate to find pastures and water.
Rashid al-Din
Adviser to the Il-khan ruler Ghazan, who converted to Islam on Rashid's advice.
Zheng He
An imperial eunuch and Muslim, entrusted by the Ming emperor Yongle with a series of state voyages that took his gigantic ships through the Indian Ocean, from Southeast Asia to Africa.
Beijing
Capital of China
Yuan Empire
He created this dynasty in China and Siberia. Khubilai Khan was head of the Mongol Empire and grandson of Genghis Khan.
lama
In Tibetan Buddhism, a teacher.
Yi
Korean dynasty that succeeded Koryo dynasty following period of Mongol invasions; established in 1392; ruled Korea to 1910; restored aristocratic dominance and Chinese influence.
Nasir al-Din Tusi
Persian mathematician and cosmologist whose academy near Tabriz provided the model for the movement of the planets that helped to inspire the Copernican model of the solar system.
Alexander Nevskii
Prince of Novgorod (r. 1236-1263). He submitted to the invading Mongols in 1240 and received recognition as the leader of the Russian princes under the Golden Horde.
Yongle
Reign period of Zhu Di (1360-1424), the third emperor of the Ming Empire (r. 1403-1424).Sponsored the building of the Forbidden City, a huge encyclopedia project, the expeditions of Zheng He, and the reopening of China's borders to trade and traveled
Khubilai Khan
Reigned in China after establishing the Yuan Dynasty; he actively promoted Buddhism; descendant of Chinggis Khan.
Bubonic Plague
disease brought to Europe from the Mongols during the Middle Ages. It killed 1/3 of the population and helps end Feudalism. Rats, fleas.