Week VI: neighbours of the West

Key words list

Arab (Ar "nomad") -- Arabia

Basil II Bulgaroktonos (Gk "Bulgar-slayer") -- Macedonian renaissance

Badr (battle)

Bedouins -- (domestication of the) camel

Byzantine (adj.) -- Byzantium (n.)

Caliph (Ar "vicar, substitute [for the Prophet]") / Caliphate

Corpus Iuris Civilis (CIC; Lat "Compilation of Civil Legislation") -- Codex -- Digest -- Institutes -- Novellae

Cyril & Methodius -- glagolitic -- cyrillic -- Old Church Slavonic

dhimmi (Ar "protected [peoples]," the so-called "peoples of the Book") -- jizya ("poll tax")

Dome of the Rock

emir (Ar "general") / emirate

Five Pillars of Islam -- zakat (Ar "alms") -- salat ("prayer") -- hajj (Ar "pilgrimage") -- Ramadan -- Shahada (Ar "profession [of faith]")

Greek fire

hadith (Ar "tradition," "custom")

Hagia Sophia ([pron. "AH-ya SO-fi-ya"] Gk "holy wisdom")

hijra (Ar "migration") -- Muslim calendar: AH (anno hegirae, "in the year of the hijra ...") -- lunar calendar

icon -- iconoclasm (Gk "breaking of icons") -- Leo III the Isaurian

Islam (Ar "submission") -- Muslim

Jahim (Ar "raging fire," "inferno," "hell") / Jahannam (Ar "hell," "Gehenna")

jihad (Ar "striving, struggle [in the path of God]")

Justinian I -- Theodora -- Procopius -- Justinianic plague -- silk

Mecca -- Ka'aba -- Quraysh -- Medina (formerly known as Yathrib)

the mountain arena

Muhammad -- last prophet (Ar khatam an-nabiyyin, "seal of prophets") -- doctrtine of Jewish & Christian scriptural distortion (tahrif) -- doctrine of prophets' impeccability (i.e. prophets are incapable of sinning)

Ravenna

Qur'án (Ar "recitation") -- "Iqra!" (Ar imperative: "read! recite!")

Sassanid empire -- Ctesiphon -- Chosroes II -- Heraclius -- True Cross

Shari'a

Slavs -- Avars -- Bulgars -- Lombards

strategos (pl. strategoi) -- theme (Gk thema, pl. themata)

Sunni -- Sunnat Allah (Ar "God's providence," "the path prescribed by God") -- Shi'i / Shi'ite -- Shi'at 'Ali (Ar "Ali's faction")

Sura[h]

taqwa (Ar "mindfulness," "righteousness," "moral vigilance")

Turkic (languages, peoples)

Umayyad -- Damascus -- Abbasid -- Baghdad -- Fatimid -- Cairo -- Mamluk

ummah (Ar "nation," "community [of the faithful]")