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AUDIO GLOSSARY
Glossary for the letter "A":
Click the audio icon to hear pronunciations. View full glossary.
| | Abbasid Caliphate 
Second Muslim government headed by the caliph (religious leader) of the Muslim community; capital was Baghdad, 750 - 1258 CE.
Abd al-Rahman
Name borne by five princes of the Umayyad dynasty, amirs and caliphs of Cordoba.
Abusua
Matrilineal clan through which the maternal life force is passed on to children in the Akan (Ghanaian) belief system.
Aceh
Muslim kingdom in northern Sumatra in the seventeenth century.
Achaemenid
Persian empire of the seventh century BCE.
Afrikaners
Afrikaans-speaking descendants of Dutch settlers in South Africa.
Afrocentrism
History from an Africa-centered perspective.
Akira Kurosawa
Japanese film director.
Aksum
Important trading kingdom dominant in Northeast Africa from fifth century BCE to tenth century CE.
akuaba
Akan (Ghanaian) wooden fertility figure in a human shape.
al-Andalus
Area of Muslim rule on the Iberian peninsula, 711 - 1492 CE.
al-Bakri
Eleventh-century Muslim geographer who described the kingdom of Ghana.
al-Harawi
Thirteenth-century Muslim pilgrim who wrote about his travels between Egypt and Iran.
al-Idrisi
Twelfth-century Muslim geographer who described the kingdom of Ghana.
Amaterasu
Shinto sun goddess.
Amerigo Vespucci
Genoan merchant and mariner who publicized his travels to South America, 1454-1512 CE.
Amon-Ra
Chief god of the ancient Egyptians.
Anasazi
Navajo word for "ancient ones": Native American group in Southwest prominent around 1200 BCE.
Andalusians
People who live in the Andalusia region of southern Spain, from the traditional name al-Andalus.
animism
The belief that personalized, supernatural beings (or souls) inhabit ordinary objects and govern their existence.
Anyang
Shang dynasty capital and site of major archaeological excavations.
Arawaks
Indigenous peoples of the Caribbean who migrated from South America centuries before Columbus.
ar-Rundi
Muslim poet and theologian who became the leading mystical thinker of North Africa in the fourteenth century.
Asante
Kingdom of the Asante people, which reached its height after 1700, was located in a gold-producing forest of what is modern-day Ghana.
Ashoka
Third-century BCE Mauryan king who converted to Buddhism and spread the religion throughout the Indian subcontinent and Sri Lanka.
Atahualpa
Last Inkan ruler.
Ataturk
Leader and first president of the Republic of Turkey who instituted secular reforms, 1881 - 1938.
Avicenna
Arabic name, Ibn Sina; Muslim philosopher and physician whose medical texts became standard for European doctors, 980 - 1037 CE.
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini
Religious leader who led the revolution against the Iranian shah in 1979.
ayllu
Communal organizations or lineages in Andean highlands, especially during the time of the Inka.
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