Midterm 1 Content Flashcards
Pompey 63 BCE
Pompey incorporates Palestine and rest of near east (North Africa, middle east) into Roman Empire
Nero
First Roman emperor who persecuted Christians
-responsible for death of Paul
Edict of Milan 313 AD
Issue by Roman emperor Constantine
-recognized Christianity as official religion of Roman empire and officially put end to Christian persecution
330 A.D
Constantine establishes Constantinople on eastern side of Roman empire
Constantinople
Istanbul
Byzantine empire
- controlled much of near east-(Asia minor + North Africa)
- controlled Italy, Greece, and Balkans
- Constantinople was capital of empire
- Christian empire
- Spoke Greek
570 A.D
Prophet Muhammad was born
-Byzantine and Sassanids were two empires in power during this time
Sassanid empire
-religion, extend to rule, language
ancient Persian dynasty
- ruled in the Eastern part of Near East (as far as Afghanistan and Pakistan)
- founded in 226 A.D
- capital was Ctesiphon, 20 miles from current day Baghdad
- state religion: Zoroastrianism
- spoke early form of Persian language
- fought with Byzantine empire for years
Jahiliyya, adj. Jahili
what historians call the period before Islam appeared
- Age of Ignorance (principles of Islam were not yet known
- in Qur’an: known as polytheists
Arabia Felix
- today’s Yemen
- first sedentary civilization
- has own culture and distinct form of Arabic
- wealth came from agriculture
- developed irrigation systems
- frankincense grew here
Arabia Deserta
- home to hundred of nomadic Bedouin tribes (camel raising nomads of Arabia Peninsula)
- polytheists or henotheistic
nomadism
way of carving out ecological niche in harsh environment
Henotheist
recognized a higher God over other Gods
-not to be confused with monotheists
Zamzam
well in Mecca fed by an underground spring
Mecca
center of trade, how it made its money
-center of pilgrimage
