c. 570 CE |
Birth of Muhammad. |
c. 610 CE |
Muhammad receives first vision in a cave near Mecca. |
c. 610-22 CE |
Muhammad preaches in Mecca. |
622 CE |
Hijira - Muhammad and followers flee to Medina.
Islamic calendar (AH, Anno Hegirae) begins. |
624 CE |
Muslims successfully attack Meccan caravans at Badr. |
625 |
Muslims are defeated by Meccans at Uhud. |
630 |
Muslims capture Mecca. Ka'ba is cleansed, pilgrimage rites are
Islamicized, tribes of Arabia vow allegiance to Muhammad |
632 |
Death of Muhammad. Abu Bakr chosen as caliph. |
632-33 |
Wars of ridda (apostasy) restore allegiance to Islam |
633 |
Muslim conquests (Futuhat) begin. |
633-42 |
Muslim armies take the Fertile Crescent (Egypt, Syria, Palestine,
Mesopotamia), North African coast, parts of Persian and Byzantine
Empires |
c. 650 |
Caliph Uthman has the Qur'an written down. |
656 |
Uthman is murdered; Ali becomes fourth caliph. |
657 |
Battle of Siffin. Mu'awiya, governor of Syria, claims the caliphate. |
659 |
Arbitration at Adruh is opposed by Ali's supporters. |
661 |
Ali is murdered; Mu'awiya becomes caliph. Beginning of Umayyad
Caliphate (661-750). |
680 |
Death of Husayn marks beginning of the Shi'at Ali ("party of
Ali") or Shi'a sect. |
685-705 |
Reign of Abd al-Malik. Centralization of administration - Arabic
becomes official written language (instead of Greek and Persian) and
Arab coinage is established. |
late 600s |
Ruling classes in East and West Africa convert to Islam. |
700-800s |
Groups of ascetics and mystics begin to form |
710 |
Arab armies enter Spain from North Africa. |
732 |
Muslim empire reaches its furthes extent. Battle of Tours
prevents further advance northwards. |
747 |
Revolt defeats the Umayyads. |
750 |
Abu l'Abbas becomes caliph in Iraq |
754 |
Baghdad (Madinat al-Salam, "city of peace") becomes the new capital
of the Abbasid empire. |
755 |
Abd ar-Rahman founds an Umayyad Dynasty in Cordoba, Spain. |
765 |
Division within Shi'ites - majority are the modern Imamiyya
(Twelvers) who co-exist with Abbasid caliphs; minority are more extreme
Isma'iliyaa (Seveners). |
786-809 |
Reign of Harun ar-Rashid, best known through the stories of The
Thousand and One Nights. |
800s |
Written collections of Hadith (sayings of the Prophet) are compiled.
Sicily comes under Muslim rule. |
813-33 |
Reign of Ma'mun. Theological controversy over whether the Qur'an is
created or uncreated and eternal. Center for translation of texts from
Greek to Arabic founded in Baghdad. |
869-883 |
Uprisings of black slaves (Zanj) are eventually defeated. |
908 |
First Fatimid caliph in Tunisia. |
928 |
Umayyad Abd ar-Rahman III declares himself caliph in Cordoba. |
940 |
Muhammad al-Mahdi, the twelfth imam, disappears. Twelvers still
await the future return of the "Hidden Imam." |
945 |
The Buyids (Persian) invade Baghdad and take power from caliph.
|
969 |
Fatimids gain power in Egypt and attack Palestine, Syria, and
Arabia. Cairo (Al-Qahira, "the victorious city") is founded. |
980-1037 |
Life of Avicenna, Iranian physician and Aristotelian philosopher.
|
996-1021 |
Reign of Fatimid al-Hakim. Hamza ibn Ali forms basis of esoteric
Druze religion. |
late 900s |
West Africa begins to convert to Islam |
1030 |
Umayyad caliphate in Cordoba defeated by the Christian Reconquista.
|
1055 |
Seljuk Turks take Baghdad; Abbasids now only nominal rulers. |
1000s |
Reconquista takes more of Spain, Sicily falls to the Normans,
Crusader kingdoms are briefly established in Palestine and Syria. |
1071 |
Seljuk Turks defeat Byzantines at Battle of Manzikert. |
1090 |
Hasan-i Sabbah takes Alamut in the Persian mountains, the Assassin
sect forms around him. |
1099 |
Christian Crusaders take Jerusalem. |
1100-1200s |
Sufi orders (turuq) are founded. |
1126-98 |
Life of Averroës, Muslim philosopher from Cordoba who sought to
integrate Islam with Greek thought. |
1171 |
Fatimid power ends in Egypt with the conquests of Saladin. |
1174 |
Saladin declares himself sultan of Egypt and Syria. |
1193 |
Death of Saladin; most of Crusader states have returned to Islam.
|
1200s |
Assassins wipes out by the Mongols. Indian rulers in Delhi take
title of Sultan. Spanish mystic Muhyi al-Din ibn al-Arabi (1165-1240)
flourishes. |
1221 |
Genghis Khan and the Mongols enter Persia. |
1241 |
Mongols take the Punjab. |
1258 |
Mongols capture Baghdad; city is sacked and caliph is killed. End of
Abbasid caliphate. |
1281-1324 |
Reign of Uthman (Osman), who founds the Ottoman Empire. Muslim
merchants and missionary Sufis settle in SE Asia. |
mid-1300s |
Ottomans capture Bursa and Iznik and move into Europe. |
1366 |
Capital of Ottoman Empire moved from Bursa to Adrianople. |
late 1300s |
Ottomas take control of the Balkans. |
1400s |
Islam reaches the Philippines. |
1453 |
Mehmet Fatih (rules 1451-81) conquers Constantinople.
The two halves of the Ottoman Empire are united and the sultan
becomes Byzantine emperor. |
1492 |
Castile and Aragon capture Granada. All Muslims (and Jews) expelled
from Spain. |
1501 |
Isma'il (1487-1524) claims to be the Hidden Imam and is proclaimed
Shah (king) of Persia. Twelver Shi'ism becomes official religion of
Persia. |
1516 |
Ottomans conquer Syria and Egypt. |
1517 |
Ottomans control Mecca and Medina. |
1520-66 |
Reign of Suleyman the Magnificent; Ottoman Empire reaches its
zenith. Hungary and coastlands of Algeria and Tunisia come under Ottoman
rule. |
1526 |
Babur (Mongolian) seizes the Delhi sultanate and takes control of
northern India. |
1556 |
Akbar founds the Mughal dynasty in northern India. |
1600-1700s |
Venetians, Habsburgs, and Russians divide European Ottoman lands
between them. |
1625 |
Java comes under rule of Muslim kingdom of Mataram. |
1699 |
Treaty of Karlowitz confirms first substantial losses of Ottoman
Empire in Europe. |
1700s |
Muhammad Abd al-Wahhab rejects Sufism and all innovation (bid'a).
Founds what becomes the Saudi Arabian kingdom. Hindus regain power from
Mughals in northern India. |
1738 |
Mughal empire invaded by the Afghans. |
1779 |
Afghans ousted by Qajar dynasty, which rules Persia until 1925.
|
1798 |
Napoleon's expedition to Egypt. |
1805 |
Muhammad Ali becomes governor of Egypt, which becomes independent of
the Ottomans, gains control of western Arabia and extends into the
Sudan. |
1807-76 |
Tanzimat period. Ottoman Empire undergoes extensive program of
modernization in government, law, and medicine. |
1830 |
Greece regains independence from Ottomans. |
1850s |
Non-Muslim Ottoman citizens granted equality with Muslims. |
1858 |
Last Mughal in India is deposed and India comes under British rule.
|
1876-1908 |
Reign of Abd al-Hamid II; autocratic and religiously conservative
period in Ottoman rule. |
1878 |
Congress of Berlin recognizes independence of Balkan states
previously under Muslim rule. |
1882-1952 |
Egypt occupied by the British. |
1908-18 |
Last decade of Ottoman rule. Rise of nationalistic "Young Turks."
More liberal policies develop. |
1912 |
Founding of Islamic Union (Sareket Islam), a modernizing movement in
SE Asia. |
1918 |
Fall of Ottoman Empire. League of Nations grants Britain mandatory
status over Palestine and Iraq, and France over Lebanon and Syria. |
1923 |
Republic of Turkey established. Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) is first
president. |
1927 |
Tablighi Jamaat reform movement founded in India. |
1928 |
Ikhwan al-Muslimun (Muslim Brothers) founded in Egypt. |
1941 |
Jamaat-i Islami reform movement founded in Lahore, India. |
1945 |
Indonesia becomes independent republic. |
1945-60s |
Islam spreads to the West with mass migrations from Asia, Africa,
and India. |
1947 |
Pakistan founded as an Islamic nation. Islam becomes a minority
religion in India. |
1957 |
Independent Malayan state established with Islam as the official
religion but guaranteed tolerance. |
1960s |
Familes from SE Asia and North Africa emigrate to Europe and the
Americas. |
1979 |
Shah of Iran is overthrown by Ayatullah Ruhullah Khumayni, who
establishes strict fundamentalist rule of Shi'a principles. |
late 1990s |
Taliban come to power in Afghanistan. |
2001 |
Muslim extremists attack the United States. |
2003 |
Saddam Hussein ousted by Western forces. |