a code of ideal conduct meant to validate the practices of noble warriors by Christianizing knightly violence and behavior
Cluniac reform
a movement that aimed to limit the influence of aristocrats in church matters
dynatoi
members of the Byzantine elite who often compromised imperial authority
feudalism
a collection of practices that bound lesser lords to greater lords through land and privileges given in return for personal and military support
Great Schism of 1054
the conflict that solidified the separation of the eastern and western Christian churches
jihad
a religiously infused conflict waged on behalf of Islam, or any struggle a Muslim undertakes in the name of Allah
mamluks
educated, formerly enslaved men who served as soldiers and administrators in Islamic societies beginning in the ninth century
manorialism
a medieval economic system of agricultural production directed by a lord and carried out by serfs or other varieties of unfree laborers
Outremer
the French name for the four Crusader States created after the First Crusade, the County of Edessa, the Principality of Antioch, the County of Tripoli, and the Kingdom of Jerusalem
papacy
the set of administrative structures associated with the government of the Catholic Church primarily—but not exclusively—linked with the city of Rome
serfs
unfree peasants who owed labor to a feudal lord and lived under the lord’s authority
Sufism
the mystical expression of Islamic faith
sultan
a ruler who claims authority over the Islamic community but not necessarily the title of caliph