OCR GCSE History B key terms

The enforced separation of people by race, for example in schools, transport and places of entertainment.

The ability of a community to govern itself through its own leaders, laws and institutions.

A Turkish ruling dynasty whose leaders followed Sunni Islam and held military and political power across much of the eastern Islamic world.

Turkish Muslim rulers and armies who controlled much of Asia Minor in the late eleventh century. Their forces defeated the People’s Crusade in 1096.

A Catholic priest trained in a seminary, a college for educating priests. English priests trained abroad returned secretly to minister to Catholics in England.

A prison regime that isolated prisoners from one another, aiming to prevent criminal influence and encourage reflection, work and religious reform.

Jewish people whose family and cultural heritage is associated with Spain and Portugal.

An unfree peasant tied to a lord’s land and required to provide labour or other dues.

Businesses and organisations that provide services rather than manufacture goods, such as banking, tourism, retail and healthcare.

The establishment of a community in a place, rather than simply visiting, exploring or raiding it.

The fifth Mughal emperor, originally named Prince Khurram, who took power after Jahangir’s death in 1627. His title means ‘King of the World’.

The new imperial capital that Shah Jahan began laying out in Delhi in 1638, beside the Jamuna river; his court moved there in 1648.

A farming arrangement in which a farmer worked another person’s land in return for a share of the crop. Charges for supplies could leave the farmer indebted to the landowner.

Islamic law, governing religious duties and aspects of personal and public conduct.

A county official responsible for keeping order who could organise local men to pursue suspects in serious crimes.

A branch of Islam which gives particular religious authority to imams associated with Ali, Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law, and his family. The Fatimid dynasty represented a form of Shia Islam.

A defensive formation in which soldiers stood close together with their shields forming a protective barrier.

A fighting formation in which warriors stand close together with overlapping shields to protect the line.

Cotton with relatively short fibres and sticky seeds. It could grow across much of the southern United States, but removing its seeds by hand was slow.

A prolonged military operation that surrounds or isolates a defended place, attacking it and restricting supplies to force its surrender.

A movable wooden structure that allows attackers to approach a defensive wall under cover and reach its upper level.

The historical importance of something: what it helps explain about the past and why that matters.

A period or event that matters because of the extent of activity, development or lasting change associated with it.

A prison regime in which prisoners could work alongside others but were forbidden to communicate, with strict discipline and monotonous labour.

The buying or selling of church offices or religious privileges.

A collective name for several related Native American peoples, including the Dakota and Lakota. They did not all follow the same leaders or take the same decisions.

A system in which people are treated in law as property, deprived of freedom and forced to work for others.