Asian History Trivia

1. Very little is known about the early days of Dubai. What is known is that around 5,000 years ago, the small nomadic communities left the area for what reason?

From Quiz History of Dubai

Answer: Desertification

It was about 5,000 years ago where the coastline of the United Arab Emirates became sandy and desertified, leaving the area largely inhospitable. It is unknown how large nomadic settlements there were at the time but nomadic communities left the area and never returned. Records and artifacts from this era are largely nonexistent. The Sumerians called the area Magan because of the vast deposits of precious metals. However, it wasn't until 1799, that firm records of Dubai can be traced back to. Dubai was around long before then but its history prior to 1799 is largely unknown.

From Quiz Portuguese Colonial History of Bengal

Answer: Chittagong

'Chittagong' was called 'Xatigan' by the Portuguese. The Portuguese called the port city as Porto Grande de Bengala, which meant 'The Grand Harbor of Bengal'. Chittagong was the largest seaport in the Sultanate of Bengal. In 1528, the Sultan of Bengal permitted the Portuguese to establish factories and customs houses in Chittagong. A fort and naval base was established in the present day location of Firingi Bandar (literally 'Foreign Port') in Chittagong. It grew into an important Eurasian port on the Bay of Bengal for the Portuguese during the Age of Discovery.

From Quiz For the Horde!

Answer: Horse

The horse was the single most important part of the Mongol's economic life. Without horses, they could never have conquered neighboring areas easily and swiftly. For example if they had had to rely on travelling by foot or caravan, they would have been too slow and thus at the mercy of violent tribes along their route. As horse-nomads they were fast, and by necessity moved along the steppes and other grasslands to maintain the herd. Even today Mongolia is known as 'The Land of the Horse'. A particular kind of horse known as the 'Takhi" was the original breed which grazed along the Eurasian steppes and became a spiritual ideal to the Mongol hordes.

From Quiz Chinese Greats

Answer: Yu

King Yu was one of the three sage-kings - Yao, Shun and, Yu. These three kings laid the cornerstone for Chinese society. Yu was the person who, the legends say, worked tirelessly for thirteen years to tame the Yellow River (Huang He).

From Quiz Tamerlane Mix

Answer: Kesh

Kesh, now known as Shahrisabz, is in the Transoxiana area of Asia. At the time it was part of the Chagatai Khanate and is now in southern Uzbekistan. It is about 50 miles south of Samarkand.

From Quiz Southeast Asia

Answer: East Timor

Indonesia's occupation of East Timor began in 1975. It had previously been under Portuguese colonial rule.

From Quiz Kuwait History

Answer: Ikaros (Icarus)

Ikaros (Icarus) and his father, Daedelus, were in exile on the Isle of Crete. Daedalus made wings from wax and feathers for himself and his son. Ikaros flew too close to the sun, and the wax melted and all the feathers fell off. Ikaros fell into the sea. The reason for this name being applied to this island is not very clear, but some speculate that it is because of the extreme heat.

From Quiz The Sinai Peninsula

Answer: turquoise

Turquoise was mined in the Sinai going back to at least 3000 BC, but the mines are depleted and no longer profitable.

From Quiz Saudi Arabian History

Answer: Abdul Aziz ibn Saud

Abdul Aziz's family, the Al Saud, have had three goes at creating a unified kingdom on the Arabian peninsula. The first of the three Saudi states lasted from 1744-1818 and was destroyed by the Ottoman empire, unhappy at the growing power of the Saudis within their kingdom. The second state lasted from 1824-1891, when it fell victim to family squabbles and was finally overthrown by a rival tribe. The Al Saud family went into exile in Kuwait for 20 years until Abdul Aziz regained his kingdom by conquering Riyadh in 1902.

From Quiz A History of Kurdistan

Answer: Persia and the Ottoman Empire

The exact boundaries between these two entities would never be firmly established, however. During the four centuries prior to the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in 1918, there were an amazing total of 18 different treaties which attempted to resolve the various boundary disputes.

From Quiz The Mighty Mughals

Answer: Babur

Zahir-ud-din Mohammad Babur founded the Mughal dynasty in 1526. He felt that because the Punjab and the Delhi Sultanate had been conquered by Timur, he had a right to rule them.

From Quiz History of the Peranakans

Answer: 10th century

During that time, the Hindu Javanese Kingdom of Majapahit established trade routes with China. Chinese merchants and traders went there in droves. An imperial edict at that time forbade women to leave China. As a result the Chinese men took local wives. The children of such mixed intermarriges were known as Peranakans.

From Quiz 20th Century Middle East

Answer: They all have one God

These three religions all developed in the Middle East. They have all divided into different sects, the Sunni and Shi'ite are sects of Islam.

From Quiz Asian History, 1947 to 2003

Answer: India

India (and Pakistan, including what became Bangladesh) gained independence from Britain in 1947. Sri Lanka became independent in 1948. Although the Declaration of Burmese Independence was made in 1947, it was not formalized till 1948 in a pact signed by Clement Attlee and Our Bogoyoke.

From Quiz The Middle East and North Africa

Answer: Tangier

Most of Morocco was turned into a French protectorate in the Treaty of Fez (1912), but Tangiers on the straits of Gibraltar was a special case: all the major European powers wanted to keep the straits a neutral zone for shipping purposes. As a result, a Convention in 1923 made Tangier an international zone and duty free port, governed jointly over the next 33 years by a combination of the UK, Spain, the USSR, Italy and the United States among others. It was only incorporated into Morocco on independence.

From Quiz A Walk Through Time- Asian History

Answer: Arabian Sea

To a large extent, civilization originated in Mesopatamia and neigboring areas. Bodies of water were used by Mesopatamian societies such as the Phoenicians, for transport.

From Quiz Muslim Empires 750-1924

Answer: Abbasids

The Abbasids moved their Caliphate to Egypt in 1258 and stayed there until 1517.

From Quiz Disputed Areas in Asia

Answer: Spratly Islands

These uninhabited islands are disputed, partly because of possible oil resources in the area.

From Quiz The Age of Conflict

Answer: Muhammad bin Qasim

Qasim was infact the first Arabian to attack India. In 712 he invaded Sindh and defeated and killed Raja Dahir, the ruler of Sindh.

From Quiz The Empire of Genghis Khan

Answer: His father had been assassinated by a rival tribe.

Originally named Temujin ('blacksmith'), Genghis was the third son of the minor chieftain Yesugei. He was 9 when his father was poisoned by the neighboring Tatars. Since Yesugei's followers then fled, the child had to become partly responsible for keeping his family from starvation.

From Quiz Asian History

Answer: Great Wall

The Great Wall of China is the longest artificial structure in the world.

From Quiz The Abbasid Dynasty

Answer: 500 years

The caliphate overthrew the Umayyad Dynasty in 750 CE and remained in power until Baghdad was destroyed in 1258. The establishment of the original caliphate came into being when the Prophet Muhammad passed away in 632 CE. In the period to 661 CE there were four "rightly guided" caliphs, but the first three did not sit well with the Shia Muslims who wrote them off as usurpers, proclaiming Ali, Muhammad's son-in-law and cousin, as the only true caliph. Ali was murdered in 661 CE which opened the door to the absolute monarchy installed by the Umayyads. To their credit, the Umayyads administered the realm successfully. Their biggest problem was that they ignored those they considered less worthy, applying politics or brute force to keep them in check. This alienated a number of Arab and non-Arab factions, the largest of these being the Shias and the Persians. The Abbasids, who were the descendants of Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib (an uncle of Muhammad), used this division to their advantage, and established a propaganda campaign that would be the fore-runner to their open revolution.

From Quiz Asian History

Answer: maintain the social order.

From Quiz History of Dubai

Answer: Pearls

Dubai (which Balbi called Dibai) is located conveniently on the Persian Gulf which makes it a prime spot for trade between Europe, Asia and Africa. Its main industries at the time were fishing and pearl diving, the latter of which brought in wealthy merchants from around the world. Still, it is not certain if Balbi was referring to the city of Dubai itself, a region that now encompasses Dubai or an entirely different area (which is unlikely but cannot be ruled out).

From Quiz Portuguese Colonial History of Bengal

Answer: Ceylon

The first commercial settlements in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) was established by Lourenço de Almeida, son of Francisco de Almeida, first viceroy of Portuguese India. On 9 May 1512, a fleet of four ships under João da Silveira from the Estado da India (literally' State of India' in Portuguese) arrived in Chittagong from Goa. Some Portuguese settled in Pipli in the present-day state of Orissa in 1514. From the settlement in Orissa, the Portuguese also visited the modern-day state of West Bengal in India. The Portuguese established a system where ships in the area needed to purchase naval licenses from them.

From Quiz Chinese Greats

Answer: Confucius

Junzi is the ideal of becoming an exemplary and perfect individual. "Ren", "li", and "xiao" are required to become a junzi. "Ren" means an attitude of benevolence, or possessing humanity. "Li" means to have correct etiquette and have knowledge of the norms of society. Finally, "xiao" means filial piety, or respect to elders. Confucius lived between 557-571 B.C.E. - and his ideas have continued to be important in China.

From Quiz Tamerlane Mix

Answer: 17 million

At the time that was 5% of the world's population! Estimates of world population between 1300 - 1400 vary between 300,000,000 to 430,000,000. Renowned historian and demographer, Colin McEvedy (1930 - 2005), wrote and produced various books, reference books and atlases (e.g. "The Atlas of World Population History (with Richard Jones)), estimated it around the 300,000,000 mark.

From Quiz The Silk Road

Answer: Pliny the Elder

Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23-79) is probably best known for his encyclopedic "Natural History." But it's not at all clear that the silk was actually coming all the way from China. It may have been made from broken cocoons of wild silkworm moths on the Aegean island of Cos. The earliest confidently datable silks definitely of Chinese origin that have been recovered by archaeologists in the Roman world were found at Palmyra (today's Syria) and date from the third century AD.

From Quiz Southeast Asia

Answer: Cambodia

Today, Angkor Wat is a major tourist destination that attracts over half a million visitors a year.

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Last Updated Dec 14 2024 5:44 AM

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