Portuguese Explorers Terms

Moors
Also known as Muslims. People who follow the Islamic religion founded by the prophet, Mohammed. The  Portuguese and Spanish kingdoms on the Iberian Peninsula began the Reconquista, a series of military campaigns to regain territory which had been conquered by Arabs at the end of the 8th century BCE. The expulsion of the Moors refers to the removal of Arab presence and culture on the Iberian Peninsula. King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella completed the Reconquista in 1492.

Prestor John
Fabled priest and ruler of a vast kingdom somewhere in the Far East or Africa. He was supposedly a Christian king who would be an ally of the European monarchs. No one had ever seen him or knew where his kingdom was located. He influenced Portuguese explorers who sought him during their travels.

Ottoman Turks
Led by the Sultan of Turkey, these people dominated Syria, Egypt, Iraq, the Barbary states, the Balkan states, and parts of Hungary and Russia. The Ottoman Empire lasted from the thirteenth century to World War I.

Bartolomeu Dias (b. ca. 1450 - d. 1500)
Portuguese navigator who discovered the Cape of Good Hope and probably named it. He set the stage for explorers following him to reach India by sea. Dias died at sea when his ship sunk in a squall in the south Atlantic in May 1500.

Pope Nicolas V (b. 1397 - d. 1455)
Was Pope from 1447 until his death. He was called "the Great Humanist." He restored Rome to make it a center of art, literature, and Christianity. While he was Pope, he had the Vatican renovated.

Ptolemy (b. 100 A.D. - d. 170 A.D.)
Greek-Egyptian scientist who wrote several books on astronomy, geography, physics, and mathematics. His books on geography were in standard use for 14 centuries. Ptolemy used mathematics to plot the known world. His calculations of latitude and longitude, however, were incorrect.