Dr. Shirley's Web Courses
History Pages - Part 11
Mohammed and the Rise of Islam - AD 600-800
- AD 570-632
- Mohammed "The Prophet" of Islam
- AD 600-700
- Slavic invasions of Northern Byzantine regions; Slavs eventually migrated into, but did not rule, southern Greece. In Greece - Widespread civil war and invasions by Persians, Arabs and Slavs
- AD 600-1300
- The Jewish Rabbinic Geonim (Gaons) - scholars and interpreters of Jewish Law
- AD 609
- The Pantheon (pagan temple) in Rome renamed the Church of Santa Maria Rotonda
- AD 610
- Call of Mohammed - his vision of Allah on Mount Hira, and start of the Quran
- AD 610-641
- Reign of Emperor Heraclius - makes Greek the official language of the Byzantine Empire. The Empire in great danger : Avars, Slavs and Bulgars overrun the Balkans, and Persians invade the eastern provinces
- AD 614
- Persians invade and take Jerusalem, Damascus, and the "Holy Cross of Christ" from the Byzantine Empire; allow Jews back, but drive them out again 3 years later
- AD 615
- Earliest records of some of Mohammed's teachings
- AD 616
- Persians overrun Egypt
- AD 622
- The Hegira - Flight of Mohammed from Medina to Mecca - Year 1 of the Muslim Calendar, 1 a.h. (anno hegirae)
- AD 622-680
- The Monothelite controversy, which was condemned by the 6th Ecumenical Council of Constantinople
- AD 624
- Mohammed marries Aysha, the 10-year old daughter of Abu Bekr
- AD 624-627
- Mohammed attacks and destroys Jewish Arabians who did not convert to Islam
- AD 625
- Mohammed begins to dictate the Quran;
Brahmagupta, Indian mathematician, teaching at Ujjain;
Paulinus of Rome goes as a missionary to Northumbria
- AD 626
- Edwin of Northumbria founds Edinburgh, sets about bringing Christianity to his people;
First great siege of Constantinople, by the Avars, and the Persians under Shahen
- AD 627
- Byzantines defeat Persians at Nineveh
- AD 628
- Mohammed captures Mecca, and writes to all the rulers of the world, explaining Islam;
Heraclius defeats the Persians and brings back "The Cross of Christ", perhaps the first full-fledged crusade
- AD 629
- Heraclius recovers Jerusalem from Persians;
The title Basileus is taken by the Emperor Heraclius, just after the final Persian defeat. A sign of the Oriental influences in the Byzantine court;
Pope Honorius I sides with Emperor Heraclius and the Monothelites
- AD 630
- The Arab (Islamic) Conquest of the Middle East begins
- AD 632
- Christianity comes to East Anglia;
Death of Mohammed. Abu Bekr, father-in-law of Mohammed, becomes the first of the "rightly guided caliphs" of Islam; Medina becomes the seat of the "rightly guided caliphs" Fatima, youngest daughter of Mohammed, founds the House of the Fatimids. Her sons were Hassan and Hussein
- AD 632-732
- Arab conquest of the Middle East, North Africa, Spain and Southern
France
- AD 633
- Moslem invasion of Antioch, Alexandria, Jerusalem, and Persia
- AD 634
- Omar I, the second Caliph, takes Syria, Persia, and Egypt, and defeats Heraclius in Holy War
- AD 635
- Christianity comes to Wessex
- AD 635-750
- Damascus becomes the capital of the Caliphs
- AD 636
- Battle of Yarmuk - Arabs defeat the Byzantine army, take Syria and Palestine;
Persian Zoroastrians flee to India, settle there;
The southern Irish Church submits to Roman Catholicism;
Building of the church at Glastonbury (on the site reputed to have been founded by Joseph of Arimathea, and the burial place of King Arthur);
Building of the church at St. Albans (site of the first Christian martyrs)
- AD 636-1,099
- First Muslim Period in Israel
- ca. AD 637
- French and German diverge into separate languages
- AD 638
- Omar I captures Jerusalem, leaves the Christian shrines alone, starts to build on the Temple Mount (derelict since the Roman destruction of AD 135), and permits Jews to return to Jerusalem;
The emperor Heraclius writes the "Ecthesis", which claims that Christ had only one "nature" - the Monothelite heresy
- AD 640
- Aidan goes as a missionary to Northumbria
- AD 641
- Arab Conquest of Egypt, led by Omar I. The School of Alexandria was destroyed, and the Library of Alexandria, "The Center of Western Culture", with 300,000 scrolls, was burned to the ground;
Death of Emperor Heraclius; the Byzantine Empire is reduced to Asia Minor, the Balkan coastline, north Africa and Sicily
- AD 641-668
- Emperor Constans II, grandson of Heraclius. The bulk of his reign was occupied with wars against the Arabs. He was murdered in Sicily
- AD 642
- Omar I conquers the Persian Empire, drives out Zoroastrianism, introduces Islam, and sets up a Caliphate which lasted until 1258
- AD 645
- Anglo-Saxon king Ethelhere dies and is buried in a ship with treasure at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk - excavated in 1939
- AD 648
- Arabs take Cyprus
- AD 650
- Introduction of Neumes for writing groups of muscial notes;
Caliph Othman organises the Quran into 114 chapters
- AD 658
- Omayyad dynasty begins in Damascus
- AD 661
- Ali (last of the four "rightly guided caliphs") assassinated
- AD 664
- Council of Whitby - to settle differences between Roman and Eastern Christian practices in Britain. King Oswy of Northumbria was persuaded to adopt the Roman traditions
- AD 669
- Theodore of Tarsus, Archbishop of Canterbury, re-organized the Church in England;
Arabs attack Constantinople
- AD 670
- Arab invasion of Africa
- AD 671
- Caedmon, first Christian English Poet and Song-writer born. Lived as a cow-herd at Whitby Abbey until his talents were discovered by Hilda of Whitby, who arranged for his education
- AD 672-735
- The Venerable Bede - English monk, historian, and translator of parts of the New Testament
- AD 673-754 (murdered)
- Boniface, missionary to the Germans
- AD 674-678
- Second siege of Constantinople by the Arabs
- AD 675-749
- John of Damascus, Christian scholar
- AD 679
- Bulgars (a Hunnish tribe) invade the Byzantine Empire and settle south of the Danube
- AD 680
- Seventh Ecumenical Council convened in Constantinople. Condemned Monophysitism and Monothelitism, and affirmed that Christ is of two wills and two energies without division, alteration, separation or confusion. An appendix to this Council, the Synod in Trullo, drew up what became the constitution and rule of the Byzantine Church. The Monophysite churches of Armenia, Syria and Egypt seceded;
Massacre of Ali's son Husayn and the Shiites in Iraq
- AD 688-741
- Charles Martel - "The Hammer"
- ca. AD 690
- The earliest Bible translations into England's vernacular, with continued work by Bede and others from that time on
- AD 691
- Construction of the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount by Caliph Abd-al-Malik
- AD 692
- The Quinisext Coucil at Constantinople settles the Canon of the Bible for the Eastern Church - the Council was not recognized by the Roman Church
- AD 697
- Carthage falls to the Arabs and they advance towards Spain
- AD 699
- Arabs overrun Armenia
- AD 700
- The Psalms translated into Anglo-Saxon;
The Lindisfarne Gospels - illuminated book of manuscript Gospels
- AD 711
- Arab Moslems invade Spain, allow Jews to live and study freely
- AD 712
- Moslem state set up in India
- AD 715
- The Moslem empire extends from the Pyrenees to China, with Damascus as its capital;
Boniface starts his missionary work in Germany
- AD 717-718
- Third siege of Constantinople
- AD 720
- The Iconoclasts - "Image breakers" - do not allow the use of images in Byzantine Churches;
Arabs invade France, capture Narbonne
- AD 725
- Boniface chops down the sacred Donar oak tree at Fritzlar in Hesse, and the Germanic tribes accept Christianity;
Charles Martel conquers Bavaria
- AD 726
- King Ine of Wessex introduces "Peter's Pence", a tax intended to support a College in Rome. This tax became a major grievance between the English and the Roman Churches;
Controversy about Images, Emperor Leo III forbade the worship of icons and followed it with the general destruction of icons representing Christ and the saints. His original motive was probably theological, but the movement became an attack on the Church, and particularly the monasteries whose power was aided by their possession of holy pictures. The icons were replaced by symbols, such as the Cross. Iconoclasm met with passionate resistance. Riots in Constantinople. The Iconoclastic conflict continued until AD 843;
Patriarchates of Antioch, Jerusalem, and Alexandria under Arab rule
- AD 730
- Pope Gregory III excommunicates the Byzantine Emperor Leo III;
The Venerable Bede writes the "Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum" - Ecclesiastical History of the English People
- AD 732
- Battle of Tours - Charles Martel leads the French forces and wins the Battle against Moslem invaders - this stops the Moslem advance into Europe
- AD 735
- Charles Martel conquers Burgundy
- AD 735-804
- Alcuin - monk, historian, reformer
- AD 742-814
- Charlemange of France, grandson of Charles Martel, Holy Roman Emperor of Europe, protected Jews in his kingdom
- AD 740-1,259
- Jewish Kingdom of Khazar - stands against Moslems, Byzantines, and Russians, until taken by Genghis Khan
- AD 750
- First recorded use of hops for brewing beer - in Bavaria
- AD 750-900
- The Pueblo Period in North America
- AD 750-1,258
- The Abbasids destroy the Omayyads, and become Islamic Caliphs of Baghdad - the "Golden Age" of Islamic culture
- AD 751
- Battle of Samarkand - Arabs defeat Chinese, and capture some Chinese paper manufacturers, who teach the Arabs the art of making paper;
Islam develops four sects - Hafenites, Malikites, Shafites, Sunnites
- AD 759
- The Franks recapture Narbonne from the Arabs
- AD 760
- Jewish Karaite sect founded by Anan Ben David; accepted only the Biblical writings, did not accept the Oral Law;
Turkish Empire founded in Armenia by Tartars;
Arabic Numerals in use
- AD 766
- Alcuin makes York a center for learning
- AD 778
- Basques defeat the army of Charlemange at Roncesvalles in the Pyrenees - the leaders Roland and Oliver become the subjects of "The Song of Roland"
- AD 780-802
- Byzantine Empress Irene, restores adoration of images in the Eastern Church
- AD 782
- Alcuin leaves York and goes to the court of Charlemagne to help develop schools and learning
- AD 786-809
- Harun al-Rashid, Caliph of the Abbasids (of the "1001 Nights" stories) - "Golden Period of Arab Learning"
- AD 787
- Eighth Ecumenical Council convened in Nikaia by Empress Irene condemns Iconoclasm and restores the use of icons;
Danes start to invade England
- AD 792
- Vikings start to attack Britain
- AD 795
- Cynewulf, Anglo-Saxon Christian poet
- AD 796
- Alcuin becomes head of the University of Tours
- AD 800
- Charlemagne crowned as Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III, December 25, in Rome;
The Synod of Aix-la-Chapelle introduces the "Filioque"; ("and the Son", referring to the Holy Spirit proceding from the Father) into the Creed. This becomes a major cause of dissension between Eastern and Western Churches;
Haroun Al-Raschid sends an Embassy to the court of Charlemagne
Main Sources : Simsothian Timelines of Ancient History, The Timetables of History (Bernard Grun)
Go here for Geography Pages
Copyright © 1999 Shirley J. Rollinson, all Rights Reserved
Dr. Rollinson
Department of Religion
ENMU
Portales, NM 88130
Last Updated: January 1, 2007
