This document provides an overview of key terms and events related to the Middle East from ancient Mesopotamian civilizations through modern times. It covers the rise and fall of empires like Assyria, Persia, and the Ottomans. It also discusses the major world religions of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and their influence. Key figures and events mentioned include Muhammad, the expansion of Islam, Zionism, the creation of Israel, and modern conflicts like the Persian Gulf War and Intifadas.

1. Middle East AP Review Terms
Mesopotamia ● Tigris & Euphrates (Iraq)
● Irrigation → food supply → population increased → Sumer
● 1st cities= Ur, Babylon
● 1st form of writing- Cuneiform
● Polytheistic, Ziggurats, City-states
Hammurabi’s Code =1st set of written laws (Babylon)
● Rules for: punishment, murder, theft; Laws favored upper classes
Assyrian Empire ● Height of empire: 8th & 7th centuries BCE
● Covered: Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine, Anatolia, Egypt
● Govt: laws of Hammurabi, military power, officers were ranked on skill not family
connections
Iron Metallurgy =4,000 BCE- experimentation, 1,000 BCE- Iron & Bronze (Mesopotamia)
● Carbon + Iron= harder, sharper
● Spread: Mesopotamia → Anatolia, Egypt, North Africa... (cultural
diffusion)
● Assyrians used iron tools to conquer Mesopotamia
Hebrews =Nomads who settled b/t Mesopotamia & Egypt, 1st MONOTHEISTIC religion- Yahweh
(God)
● Hebrew Bible, 10 Commandments, PROPHETS: Moses, KINGS: David,
Solomon
Achaemenid Empire = includes the Medes & Persians (had military power & equestrian skills)
Cyrus= founded Persian empire, spread borders
Darius= extended empire, managed a huge empire, new capital
Achaemenid
Administration
Govt. relied on a balance b/t central administration & local governors
Darius divided into SATRAPS (with taxes and laws)
Extensive ROADS
Courier service, postal stations
Persian Wars =Greeks vs. Persians, led to the fall of the empire
Greeks thought the Persians were uncivilized
Herodotus= father of history
Persians- great military
DELIAN LEAGUE- led by Athens, alliance between Greek city-states
Lost at Battle of Marathon
Society of Classical
Perisa
CITIES- priests, priestesses, artisans, craftsmen, merchants, low-ranking civil
servants
WOMEN- worked in textiles, received food and alcohol sometimes for their labor
SLAVES acquired slaves through prisoners of war or rebellious civilians,
deprived of freedom
Govt. of Classical
Persia
Sophisticated govt.  development of a new class of educated bureaucrats
State-owned slaves  labor for large-scale construction projects: roads,
irrigation systems, city walls and places
Economics of
Classical Persia
AGRICULTURE was the foundation of the economy
SURPLUSES  military forces, govt. administrators, residents
Empire controlled fertile land
ROYAL ROAD help trade
MARKETS in large cities (Babylon)- banks, companies that invested in
commercial ventures

2. Zorastrianism = religion based on the beliefs of Zarathustra who was called by a vision to be a prophet
BELIEFS: material possessions is a blessing, monotheistic, concept of good &
evil, heaven & hell as a reward or punishment
INFLUENCED: Judaism, Christianity
Jesus =Jewish prophet and teacher
His message challenged Roman civic life because it was monotheistic and did
not worship Roman gods
After his Crucifixion, followers increased
Called the Christ (Greek for Messiah, “the anointed one”), followers were called
Christians
Early Christianity = time between the Crucifixion of Jesus (30 CE)  the 1
st
Council of Nicaea (325
CE)
Christians don’t worship Roman gods, one single god, appealed to lower classes
and women, encouraged men & women to lead faithful lives to achieve salvation
Muhammad =Last prophet of Islam (Moses & Jesus were prophets before), called 610 CE
Belief in one God (Allah)
Qur’an= words given to Muhammad by Allah
Hadith= record of Muhammad, includes 5 pillars of faith
Journey to Mecca, religious pilgrimage
Expansion of Islam =Caliphs spread Islam after Muhammad’s death
633-637- Muslims took control of Byzantine, Syria, Palestine, Mesopotamia
651- conquered Egypt, North Africa
718- Controlled Hindu India, NW Africa, Iberian Penisula
Muslims ALLOWED conquered people to keep their religion, but they had to pay
a tax (JIZYA)
Only Muslims could have positions of power
Abbasid Dynasty =After Umayyad Dynasty, led by Abu al-Abbas
Main source of power: DAR AL-ISLAM (“house of Islam”)
Headquarters: Baghdad
Grew by: military forces not conquest, led by caliphs
Focuses on: ruling their empire (which was multi-cultural) & trade
ULAMA= religious experts
QADIS= judges
The Qur’an &
Women
=Helped AND hurt women
HELPED: security in society, couldn’t murder baby girls, dowries go to brides,
described them as honorable & equal to men, not property
HURT: male dominance, descent through male line, polygamy, veils
Influences on Dar-al
Islam
= “house of Islam” & lands under Islamic rule
Persian Influence: administrative techniques; ideas of kingship; Persian
language, and political thought
Indian Influence: mathematics, Arabic/Hindi numbers, symbol for zero, algebra,
trigonometry, geometry.
Greek influences: philosophy, science, medical writings (especially Plato and
Aristotle).
Trade within
Eastern Hemisphere
=Helped by the Silk Road & other classical roads (revived by Muslims)
Camel caravan (overland trade)
TECH ADVS: compass, lateen sail, astrolabe
Credit (sakk=checks) could be used
Ottoman Empire =Founder- Osman, sultan, followers known as Ottomans
When? 11
th
Century
Where? Arrived on horseback in the Middle East
- By 1480, controlled Byzantine Empire, Greece, Balkan region
Sultan Mehmed II (the Conqueror) captured Constantinople, named it
Istanbul
Sufis = focused on personal relationship with Allah rather than a strict interpretation of Islam.
Allowed worship of traditional gods

3. Succeeded in converting people in India, sub-Saharan Africa, and SE Asia
Sufis believed that a tolerant approach to Islam would make it easier to spread
Ottoman Empire
(Rise & Expansion)
= Nomads from central Asian Turks who captured Constantinople and renamed it
Istanbul
Military success came from their gunpowder technology (from China)
Took control of the Middle East, Balkans and Crimean Peninsula (multinational
empire)
By the mid 1500s, the Ottomans were the largest & most powerful empire in
Europe & the Middle East
Suleyman the
Magnificent
=sultan of the Ottoman Empure from 1520 to 1566, he expanded the empire into
southern Europe and created an efficient centralized bureaucracy
Modernized the Ottoman army
Known as the Lawgiver for improving the legal systems- laws were based on
sharia (Islamic law)
He was a great patron of the arts & was known for his religious tolerance
Millet System = legally protected religious communities of non-Muslims
Permitted to maintain their own traditional religious beliefs
Major millets were composed of Jews, Greeks, and Armenians, who promised
not or undermine the sultan’s authority
Janissaries =soldiers in the Ottoman Empire that trained to protect and serve the sultan
Many were young Christian boys taken from the Balkan regions and forced into
the sultan’s service
There were forced to convert to Islam and pledge absolute loyalty to the
sultan; in return, they gained great privileges and honor
Over time, they sought to gain influence and control of the government
Safavid Empire =fought against the Ottoman Turks in 1514, the Safavid family consolidated their control
over modern-day IRAN and ruled until 1736
Established the SHIITE sect of Islam as the official religion of the empire
SHAH ABBAS THE GREAT (1588-1629)- moved the capital to Isfahan, the
army was modernized, and long-distance trade flourished
DECLINE: Constant conflict with the Ottomans, constant threat of a stronger
Russian Empire to the north and the Mughal Empire to the south
Zionism =nationalist movement that emerged in the late 1800s with the state goal of
establishing a Jewish state in Palestine (led by Theodore Herzl)
AFTER WW1: Jews began to settle in Palestine (mandated by the British
through the Balfour Declaration)
AFTER WW2: Zionists goals were realized, after fighting between the Arabs of
Palestine (and the recently arrived Jews), the UN took control
1948- Israel was proclaimed a Jewish state (by the UN)
This proclamation led to the Arab-Israeli conflict (continues today)
Creation of Israel =Zionist movement led to the Jews return to Palestine
Created by the UN in 1947
Divided Palestine (British mandate) into an Arab & Jewish state
Jews accepted the plan: the US & USSR recognized Israel as a nation, but
Arabs refused to recognize it
Fighting continues today
Major wars include: 6 Day War & Yom Kippur War
Soviet Invasion of
Afghanistan
=Muslim controlled Afghanistan maintained a position of nonalignment in the Cold War
until 1978, when the pro-Soviet coup dragged the country into civil war
Soviets led a coup and installed Babrak Karmal as president (unpopular move)
9 Year Battle: US, Iran, China, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan back the Afghan
Islamic warriors
UN called for a cease-fire, Soviets withdrew in 1989, though fighting continued
until 1992
Because of the political instability in the region, the Taliban gained control in
1994

4. Islamic
Fundamentalism
=extreme movement to replace secular states with Islamic ones
increased in popularity because of opposition to westernization
LIBYA- Muammar al-Qaddafi- gained power by a coup (1969), Islamic gov., led
revolutionary groups to spread Islamic beliefs
IRAN- (1979) Ayatollah Khomeini led an Islamic fundamentalists in a coup,
gained control of the ailing (sick) shah, instituted an Islamic republic
TURKEY- Kemal Ataturk, Islamic fundamentalists had influence in political
parties
Armenian Genocide =the massive and deliberate killing of Armenian civilians by the Ottoman Turks
As the Ottomans attempted to reform society in the hope of preventing the
empire’s collapse, nationalism increased
With an increase in nationalism, the government, which historically had been
tolerant of the many religious and ethnic group living in the empire, began to
distrust its citizens
In the 1890s, the Turks targeted Christian Armenians, believing that they were
supportive of Russia and no longer loyal to the empire
Genocide ensued, and millions of Armenians were killed over a 25 year period
Intifada =”uprising,” part of the Arab-Israeli conflict (struggle for control of Israel) that occurred
when the UN created Israel from lands claimed by Palestinians
1
st
intifada- launched in 1987 by young Palestinians, included attacking Israeli
soldiers and civilizations with homemade bombs and rocks, last 6 years
Crackdown on violence by the Israeli government only fueled further conflict,
including the use of suicide bombing
2
nd
intifada- started in 2000, and lasted about 5 years, a time that saw little
movement toward peace in the Arab-Israeli conflict
Arab Nationalism =Former Arab colonies easily gained independence from their mother countries post-
World War 2
A key goal was the creation/political unification of the Arab world (a
geographic region with language, culture, and history in common). These new
Arab nations included: Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and Jordan
PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization)- formed in 1967, extreme nationalists
formed the PLO in an effort to combat the Jewish state (Jews coming back to the
homeland)
Persian Gulf War
(1991)
= Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi troops invaded Kuwait and took control of its oil fields
US response- response was initially a trade embargo because they saw this as
a threat to the flow of oil and to Saudi Arabia
Middle Eastern nations pitted themselves against each other
Hussein refused to withdraw his troops; the Persian Gulf War began and quickly
ended after Kuwait was liberated and Hussein withdrew