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2.8: Chapter Summary and Key Terms

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    282743
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    Chapter Summary

    The Muslim empires played a major role on the global stage. These empires controlled territory stretching from western Africa all the way to south Asia. They all shared some common characteristics, but there were some major differences as well. At the top was a ruling family or dynasty with a sultan, shah, or emperor. These governments promoted expansion along an adjacent frontier. There was a focus on building up the army. Rulers were not just political and military leaders but also religious leaders. They supported the construction of mosques and mosque schools. For the most part, these were land-based empires with governments that focused on agriculture and derived a lot of government revenue by taxing it. However, trade played a major role as well. The African Muslim empires received a large amount wealth from the gold trade. These empires, were controlled by Muslim elites, but there was a substantial amount of cultural diversity within the empires as well. The Ottomans, the Mughals and the African Muslim empires tolerated and accommodated to this diversity. In contrast, the Safavids forced all of its subjects to adopt Shi’a Islam.

    Key Terms

    Dynasty: A ruling family of an empire or kingdom

    Millets: Self-governing communites of Jews and Christians in the Ottoman Empire

    Janissaries: Christians from the Balkans who served corps of infantry soldiers for the Ottoman sultan

    Swahili: Language of coastal east Africa that combines the grammar of African Bantu languages with a Bantu and Arabic vocabulary

    Mansa: West African ruler of Mali


    This page titled 2.8: Chapter Summary and Key Terms is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Multiple Authors (ASCCC Open Educational Resources Initiative (OERI)) .

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