Events, Verisoph

10 October 680 Battle of Karbala 0 cit. Husayn ibn Ali, grandson of Muhammad, is killed with his small band by Umayyad forces. His martyrdom becomes the defining event of Shia identity and hardens the Sunni-Shia split. religion / war ●●●●

690 Reign of Empress Wu Zetian 0 cit. Wu Zetian declared herself emperor in 690 CE, the only woman to rule China in her own name. She promoted officials by merit and patronized Buddhism. politics ●●●●

c. 696 Abd al-Malik reforms the dinar and dirham 0 cit. The Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik issued a purely Islamic coinage, the gold dinar and silver dirham, bearing inscriptions rather than images. These coins circulated widely across the Islamic world and beyond. economy / politics / religion ●●●●

c. 700 The windmill 0 cit. Vertical sail mills used wind to grind grain and pump water. Windmills gave regions without fast rivers a reliable source of mechanical power. science / technology ●●●

c. 700 Invention of woodblock printing 0 cit. Chinese craftsmen developed woodblock printing during the Tang, allowing texts and images to be reproduced. The Diamond Sutra of 868 CE is the oldest surviving dated printed book. culture / technology ●●●●

c. 700 Founding of the Kanem Empire 0 cit. The Kanem Empire formed around Lake Chad and controlled key trans-Saharan trade routes. It later merged with Bornu to form a long-lasting state. economy / politics ●●●

c. 700 The trans-Saharan slave trade 0 cit. For over a thousand years caravans carried enslaved Africans north across the Sahara to the Mediterranean and Middle East. Estimates suggest several million people were moved along these desert routes. economy / society ●●●●

c. 700 The Arab and Indian Ocean slave trade 0 cit. An eastern trade carried enslaved Africans across the Red Sea and Indian Ocean to Arabia, Persia and India. Older and longer lasting than the Atlantic trade, it moved millions of people over more than a millennium. economy / society ●●●●

c. 700 The Irminsul and continental Germanic paganism 0 cit. The continental Germanic peoples, the Saxons and their neighbors, worship at sacred pillars such as the Irminsul, a great column upholding the heavens, and in holy groves. Their gods were the southern cousins of the Norse Aesir. culture / religion ●●

c. 700 The Aesir, the Vanir, and the world-tree Yggdrasil 0 cit. Pre-Christian Scandinavians worship the Aesir, led by Odin, Thor, and Frigg, and the Vanir of fertility, in a cosmos held together by the world-ash Yggdrasil and its nine worlds. Their myths would outlast their temples by a thousand years. culture / religion ●●●

c. 700 Farming and ironworking in the highlands 0 cit. Bantu-speaking communities built settled economies on grain, bananas, and root crops, and on the smelting and forging of iron for hoes, knives, and spears. Smiths held a special, sometimes feared, standing, and iron tools and weapons moved through trade to herding neighbors who did not smelt. Groups such as the Kikuyu, Kamba, and Kisii were known for their metalwork. The craft spread with Bantu settlement across the first millennium CE. economy / technology ●●

711 Fall of the Visigothic Kingdom 0 cit. In 711 CE an Umayyad army defeated and killed the Visigothic king Roderic near the Guadalete River. Muslim forces swept across most of the Iberian Peninsula, ending the Visigothic kingdom. politics / religion / war ●●●

711 Muslim conquest of Hispania 0 cit. A largely Berber army under Tariq ibn Ziyad crosses from North Africa and defeats the Visigoths, bringing most of the Iberian Peninsula under Muslim rule within a few years. The region, called al-Andalus, becomes a center of learning and religious mixing for centuries. Muslim rule in parts of Spain lasts until 1492. politics / religion / war ●●●

711 Muhammad bin Qasim's conquest of Sindh 0 cit. An Umayyad army under Muhammad bin Qasim conquers Sindh in the Indus valley, the first lasting Muslim foothold in the Indian subcontinent. It opens the long history of Islam in South Asia. Larger Muslim states there follow with the Delhi Sultanate centuries later. politics / religion / war ●●

711 Muslim conquest of Iberia opens a new era for Jews 0 cit. Arab and Berber armies overthrow the Visigothic kingdom, whose late kings had persecuted and tried to forcibly baptize the Jews. Under Muslim rule Jews were tolerated as a protected but subordinate people, and their conditions improved sharply. This opening set the stage for centuries of Jewish life in the land they called Sepharad. politics / religion / war ●●●

712 Kojiki compiled, recording Shinto tradition 0 cit. The Japanese court compiles the Kojiki, followed by the Nihon Shoki in 720, recording the myths of the kami and the divine descent of the imperial line. The chronicles give Shinto its first written formalization. culture / religion ●●●

717 Greek fire saves Constantinople 0 cit. An Umayyad army and fleet besieged Constantinople for a year, aiming to end the empire, but the great walls and a secret incendiary weapon held them off. This 'Greek fire', sprayed from ships and burning even on water, became the empire's most feared weapon; its exact recipe was a guarded secret and is still debated. The failed siege blunted the Arab advance into Europe and let Byzantium endure. technology / war ●●

c. 725 Easter carries the name of a goddess through Bede 0 cit. The monk Bede wrote that the English word Easter came from Eostre, a spring goddess whose month gave the festival its name. The German Ostern and English Easter still preserve the old name. culture / religion ●●

725 Bede records the goddess Eostre 0 cit. The English monk Bede writes that the month of Easter was named for Eostre, a Germanic goddess of spring. English and German are almost the only languages that name the festival for her instead of for Passover, the one genuine pagan thread in the holiday's name. culture / religion ●●●

c. 726 The Iconoclasm controversy erupts 0 cit. Emperor Leo III moved against religious images, and for over a century the empire tore itself apart over whether icons were holy aids or forbidden idols. Iconoclasts smashed and whitewashed sacred art while iconodules defended it, and the quarrel deepened the rift with Rome. The dispute finally ended in 843 with the restoration of the icons, remembered in Orthodoxy as the Triumph of Orthodoxy. culture / politics / religion ●●

c. 750 to c. 900 The four Sunni schools of law take shape 0 cit. The legal traditions of Abu Hanifa, Malik, al-Shafii, and Ibn Hanbal crystallize into the four madhhabs of Sunni jurisprudence. Together they define how Sunni Muslims interpret Islamic law to this day. culture / religion ●●●

750 Fall of the Umayyad Caliphate 0 cit. In 750 CE the Abbasid revolution defeated the Umayyad army at the Battle of the Zab and overthrew the ruling dynasty. The Abbasids massacred the Umayyad family and moved the center of the caliphate eastward. politics / religion / war ●●●●

c. 750 Golden age of Tang poetry 0 cit. Poets such as Li Bai and Du Fu produced works regarded as the peak of Chinese verse. Their poems remain central to Chinese literary culture. culture ●●●

750 Founding of the Abbasid Caliphate 0 cit. The Abbasids overthrew the Umayyads and moved the center of the Islamic world to Baghdad. Their early rule is associated with a flourishing of science and scholarship. religion / science ●●●●●

750 Abbasid Revolution 0 cit. The Abbasids overthrow the Umayyad dynasty and found a new caliphate, soon moving the capital toward Iraq. The shift opens Islam's leadership to non-Arab Muslims, especially Persians. It sets the stage for the flowering of learning known as the Islamic Golden Age. politics / religion ●●●

December 755 to 763 An Lushan Rebellion 0 cit. General An Lushan revolts against the Tang dynasty, seizing both capitals in a war that kills or displaces tens of millions. The Tang survive but never recover their former power. politics / war ●●●●

756 Pepin's Donation creates the Papal States 0 cit. The Frankish king Pepin the Short defeated the Lombards and granted conquered lands in central Italy to the pope. This Donation of Pepin created the Papal States, a territory the popes would rule for over a thousand years. politics / religion / war ●●●●

756 Papal States as a theocratic realm 0 cit. The pope ruled a band of territory in central Italy as both spiritual head and temporal prince for over a thousand years. It was a leading example of religious and political authority held by one office. politics / religion ●●●

772 to 804 Charlemagne forces the Saxons to convert 0 cit. Charlemagne cuts down the Irminsul and wages decades of war to convert the pagan Saxons by the sword, including the massacre of thousands at Verden in 782. The old Germanic religion was stamped out on the continent centuries before it fell in the Norse north. religion / war ●●●

c. 780 Islam reaches the East African coast 0 cit. Islam arrived on the coast through Indian Ocean trade from about the eighth century, and early mosques such as the one excavated at Shanga in the Lamu archipelago show Muslim worship taking root among coastal communities. The faith spread first among townspeople tied to the ocean trade rather than by conquest. Over time the coast became firmly Muslim while the interior kept its older religions. The earliest dates come from archaeology, so they are approximate. culture / religion ●●●

c. 789 Cathedral and monastic schools spread in medieval Europe 0 cit. Charlemagne's Admonitio generalis of 789 pushed monasteries and cathedrals to run schools and teach clergy to read. These schools preserved literacy and Latin learning through the early Middle Ages and later grew into universities. culture / religion ●●●

June 793 The Lindisfarne raid opens the Viking Age 0 cit. Norse raiders sack the monastery of Lindisfarne off the English coast, the shock that opened the Viking Age. For nearly three centuries Norse seafarers raided, traded, and settled from Russia to North America. religion / war ●●●●

c. 794 Carolingian monetary reform 0 cit. Charlemagne standardized coinage on the silver denier and set the accounting system of pounds, shillings, and pence. This framework shaped European money for a thousand years. economy / politics ●●●●

795 Viking raids and the founding of Dublin 0 cit. Viking raids on Irish monasteries began around 795 and grew into permanent settlement. Norse traders established a fortified base at Dublin by 841 and founded other port towns including Waterford, Wexford, Cork and Limerick. These were Ireland's first true towns, and they tied the island into wider North Atlantic trade networks. economy / war ●●

25 December 800 Coronation of Charlemagne 0 cit. Pope Leo III crowns Charlemagne emperor of the Romans on Christmas Day. The act revives the idea of a Western empire under papal blessing and shapes the politics of medieval Europe. politics / religion ●●●●

c. 800 Adi Shankara and Advaita Vedanta 0 cit. The philosopher Adi Shankara travels across India teaching Advaita Vedanta, the doctrine that the self and Brahman are one, and founds monastic centers. His synthesis deeply shapes later Hindu thought. culture / religion ●●●

c. 800 Gregorian chant takes shape 0 cit. Church singers across Europe settled on a shared body of plainchant for the Latin Mass. It became the main sacred music of the medieval West. culture / religion ●●●

c. 800 Tang flying cash 0 cit. Merchants in Tang China used paper certificates called feiqian, or flying cash, to transfer value over distance without carrying heavy strings of coins. These credit notes were a forerunner of true paper money. economy / technology ●●●

800 Founding of the Carolingian Empire 0 cit. Charlemagne was crowned emperor by the pope, uniting much of western and central Europe. His empire revived learning and administration across the former Roman lands. politics ●●●●

c. 800 The Donation of Constantine forgery debunked 0 cit. The Donation of Constantine was a document, later proven to be a forgery, that claimed Emperor Constantine had granted the popes authority over Rome and the Western Empire. It was produced around the eighth century and used for centuries to support papal claims to temporal power. politics / religion ●●●●

25 December 800 Pope Leo III crowns Charlemagne emperor 0 cit. On Christmas Day, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne emperor in Saint Peter's Basilica. The act asserted that imperial authority in the West could be conferred by the pope, tying the papacy to the making of emperors. politics / religion ●●●●●

c. 800 Odin leads the Norse gods as god of wisdom and war 0 cit. Odin, chief of the Norse Aesir, sought wisdom at the cost of an eye and hung on the world tree to win the runes. He gathered slain warriors to Valhalla for the final battle. religion / war ●●●

c. 800 Thor, the thunder god, guards the Norse world with his hammer 0 cit. Thor wielded the hammer Mjolnir against giants and was the most widely worshiped Norse god among common people. His name survives in the weekday Thursday. culture / religion ●●●

25 December 800 Charlemagne crowned Holy Roman Emperor 0 cit. The pope crowned the Frankish king Charlemagne as emperor, tying kingship to the blessing of the Church. The event fed the medieval idea that rulers held power by divine sanction. politics / religion ●●●

c. 800 The Emerald Tablet: 'as above, so below' 0 cit. A short cryptic text ascribed to Hermes, the Emerald Tablet, circulates in Arabic and later Latin, its maxim 'as above, so below' becoming the founding principle of alchemy and astrology. The heavens and the earth, the great and the small, were held to mirror one another. religion / science ●●●

25 December 800 The pope crowns Charlemagne: the Church makes emperors 0 cit. Pope Leo III crowns Charlemagne emperor, asserting that worldly rulers derive their legitimacy from the Church. The power to sanctify or deny a ruler's authority made organized religion a pillar that kings themselves had to bow to. pillar / politics / religion ●●●

c. 800 Carolingian Feudal Levy and Knight Service 0 cit. Under Charlemagne and his successors, military obligation became tied to landholding: nobles who held land from the king owed him mounted warriors, knights, in return. This system of feudal levies spread across medieval Europe and made war-fighting the specialized business of an armored aristocracy rather than the general citizenry. It set the pattern for European "who fights" arrangements for the next several centuries, until the rise of paid professional and mercenary forces. society / war ●●

c. 800 The House of Wisdom gathers Greek and Indian learning 0 cit. Under the Abbasid caliphs, scholars in Baghdad translated Greek, Persian, and Indian mathematical texts into Arabic and pushed them further. This effort preserved works of Euclid, Archimedes, and Apollonius that might otherwise have been lost, and it carried Indian numerals westward. The golden age of Islamic mathematics grew from this meeting of traditions. culture / religion / science ●●●

25 December 800 Charlemagne crowned Emperor by the Pope 0 cit. On Christmas Day, Pope Leo III placed an imperial crown on Charlemagne, king of the Franks, in St Peter's Basilica. It revived the idea of a Roman emperor in the West more than three centuries after the last one. Whether Charlemagne planned the coronation or was surprised by it is a long-running dispute; his biographer Einhard claimed he disliked the title, though many historians doubt this. diplomacy / politics / religion ●●●

c. 800 The Book of Kells 0 cit. The Book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript of the four Gospels in Latin, was produced by Columban monks around 800, probably begun on Iona and finished at Kells. Its intricate decoration marks the high point of insular Christian art. It survives today at Trinity College Dublin and stands as a symbol of early medieval Irish culture. culture / religion ●●

c. 800 Swahili city-states rise along the coast 0 cit. Trading towns grew where coastal Africans met merchants crossing the Indian Ocean, producing an urban, Muslim, stone-built culture and the Swahili language. Ports such as Mombasa, Malindi, Lamu, and the walled inland town of Gede were governed by their own patrician clans and, in several cases, sultans, tied to one another by trade and rivalry rather than a single empire. The towns rose gradually from about the eighth century, so the date is approximate. culture / economy / politics ●●●

802 Founding of the Khmer Empire 0 cit. Jayavarman II declared independence and founded the Khmer Empire in mainland Southeast Asia. The empire built the vast temple complex of Angkor. politics / religion ●●●●

c. 820 Al-Khwarizmi founds algebra and lends his name to the algorithm 0 cit. Al-Khwarizmi wrote a systematic book on solving equations whose Arabic title gave us the word algebra, meaning the restoring or balancing of terms. His name, latinized as Algoritmi, became our word algorithm, and his account of Hindu numerals helped spread them across the world. He treated equation-solving as a general method rather than a set of isolated tricks. science ●●●●

c. 827 Arab scholars translate and name the Almagest 0 cit. Scholars at the Abbasid House of Wisdom translate Ptolemy into Arabic; the book's familiar name, Almagest, comes from the Arabic al-majisti, 'the greatest'. Islamic astronomers preserved, corrected, and extended his work for centuries. religion / science ●●●

c. 830 The House of Wisdom flourishes in Baghdad 0 cit. Under the Abbasid caliphs, especially al-Ma'mun, Baghdad's House of Wisdom became a hub for translating and studying Greek, Persian, and Indian works. It advanced mathematics, astronomy, and medicine during the Islamic Golden Age. religion / science ●●●●

c. 830 House of Wisdom and the Islamic Golden Age 0 cit. In Baghdad the Abbasid caliphs sponsor a major translation and research effort often linked with an institution called the House of Wisdom. Scholars translate Greek, Persian, and Indian works and advance mathematics, medicine, and astronomy. The era anchors Islam's reputation as a carrier of learning. culture / religion / science ●●●

c. 830 The House of Wisdom gathers the world's learning in Baghdad 0 cit. Under Abbasid patronage, scholars in Baghdad translated Greek, Persian, and Indian works into Arabic and pushed them forward. The picture of a single grand library called the House of Wisdom is partly a modern simplification of a broader translation movement. Either way, this era preserved and advanced knowledge that Europe had largely lost. culture / science ●●

c. 835 The church sets All Saints' and All Souls' at the start of November 0 cit. The feast of All Saints was fixed on November 1 and All Souls' on November 2, overlapping the old season of the dead. The eve became All Hallows' Eve, later Halloween. religion / society ●●

843 The Triumph of Orthodoxy restores the icons 0 cit. The Empress Theodora and a church council ended iconoclasm for good, confirming the veneration of icons first upheld at the Second Council of Nicaea in 787. The settlement fixed the visual and devotional character of Orthodox Christianity for centuries after. Its anniversary is still kept as the Feast of Orthodoxy. culture / religion ●●

843 The Treaty of Verdun splits the Carolingian Empire 0 cit. Charlemagne's grandsons divided his empire into three kingdoms. The eastern share, East Francia, grew into the German lands that would later carry the imperial title. The split set an early pattern for the fragmented map of central Europe. diplomacy / politics ●●

845 Great Anti-Buddhist Persecution 0 cit. Emperor Wuzong ordered the closure of monasteries and the seizure of Buddhist wealth in 845 CE. The campaign weakened institutional Buddhism, though the faith survived. politics / religion ●●●●

c. 850 Gunpowder 0 cit. Chinese alchemists mixed saltpeter, charcoal and sulfur into an explosive powder. Gunpowder led to firearms and cannon and changed warfare worldwide. technology / war ●●●●●

c. 850 Invention of gunpowder 0 cit. Chinese alchemists discovered gunpowder while seeking elixirs of immortality. It was gradually adapted for weapons and became a transformative technology. science / technology ●●●●●

c. 850 Abu Ma'shar carries astrology into Islam and Europe 0 cit. The Persian astrologer Abu Ma'shar (Albumasar) becomes the most influential astrologer of the Islamic Golden Age. His works, translated into Latin, carried Greek and Babylonian astrology into medieval Europe, where it was taught in the universities. religion / science ●●●

c. 850 The Anglo-Saxon witan advises the king 0 cit. Anglo-Saxon kings rule with a witan, a council of nobles and churchmen who advise on law, taxation, and the choice of king. It is not a parliament in the modern sense, but it establishes the idea that a English king should govern with the consent of leading men. politics ●●

c. 850 Manda becomes an Indian Ocean trading town 0 cit. On Manda, in the Lamu archipelago, an early Swahili town traded across the Indian Ocean, its harbour walls built of coral and its houses reached by imported Islamic and Chinese ceramics. Neville Chittick’s 1960s excavations showed it was one of the coast’s earliest stone-using ports. ●●

859 Al-Qarawiyyin is founded in Fez 0 cit. Fatima al-Fihri founded the mosque and school of al-Qarawiyyin in 859. It is often cited as one of the oldest continuously operating degree-granting institutions in the world. religion / science ●●●●

c. 862 Founding of Rus under Rurik 0 cit. According to the Primary Chronicle, the Varangian leader Rurik took power at Novgorod, an event later treated as the traditional starting point of the Rus state. The chronicle account is legendary and its details are debated by historians. politics / society ●●●●

863 Cyril and Methodius bring letters to the Slavs 0 cit. The Byzantine brothers Cyril and Methodius were sent to preach among the Slavs and devised an alphabet to write their tongue, translating scripture into Slavonic. The script they created is generally identified as Glagolitic; the later Cyrillic alphabet, named for Cyril, was most likely developed by their disciples in Bulgaria. Their mission spread Orthodox Christianity and a written culture across the Slavic world. culture / diplomacy / religion ●●●

c. 864 Bulgaria enters the Orthodox fold 0 cit. The Bulgarian ruler Boris I accepted Christianity from Constantinople rather than Rome, bringing his powerful Balkan state into the Orthodox and Byzantine cultural sphere. The choice, made after Boris weighed both churches, tied Bulgaria's church and script to the Greek east. It marked a major win in the long contest between Constantinople and Rome for the souls of eastern Europe. diplomacy / politics / religion ●●

c. 867 The Macedonian Renaissance revives Byzantine culture 0 cit. Under the Macedonian dynasty founded by Basil I the empire entered a long revival of power, wealth, and learning. Scholars copied and studied the classical Greek texts that later reached the west, and a refined art and scholarship flourished. This 'Macedonian Renaissance' preserved much of the ancient heritage that would feed later European culture. culture / politics / society ●●

869 to 883 The Zanj Rebellion 0 cit. Enslaved East Africans, known as the Zanj, rose in a massive revolt against the Abbasid Caliphate that lasted 14 years. It was one of the largest slave uprisings in history before it was crushed. society / war ●●●

c. 880 Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum 0 cit. Pact between Alfred the Great of Wessex and the Viking king Guthrum defining the boundary between English and Danish rule. It formalized the Danelaw and set legal terms between the two peoples. diplomacy / politics / war ●●

c. 882 Oleg Moves the Capital to Kiev 0 cit. The Rus ruler Oleg is said to have seized Kiev and made it the center of his realm, linking Novgorod and Kiev under one dynasty. Kiev became the political heart of what is now called Kievan Rus. politics ●●●●

885 Bagratid kingdom restores Armenian statehood 0 cit. As the caliphate weakens, Ashot I of the Bagratid (Bagratuni) family is recognized as king, reviving an independent Armenian state after centuries of foreign rule. The Bagratid kingdom oversees a revival of trade, architecture, and church building. It marks the last major era of medieval Armenian independence in the homeland. politics / society ●●

c. 900 Classic Maya Collapse 0 cit. Around 900 CE many of the great Maya cities of the southern lowlands were abandoned and their dynasties ended. Monument building stopped and populations declined sharply across the region. culture / politics ●●●●

c. 900 to c. 1100 Golden Age of Jews in Muslim Spain 0 cit. Under Muslim rule in Iberia, Jewish communities took part in a flourishing of philosophy, poetry and science, often called a golden age. Figures such as Maimonides emerged from this Sephardic world. culture / religion ●●●

c. 900 Rise of the Toltec at Tula 0 cit. The Toltec built their capital at Tula in central Mexico. Later Mesoamerican peoples, including the Aztecs, revered them as a model civilization. culture / politics ●●●

c. 900 Saqaliba and the word slave 0 cit. Medieval traders moved so many Slavic captives, called saqaliba, into Islamic lands that the ethnic name became the root of the word slave in several European languages. The trade ran across central and eastern Europe for centuries. culture / society ●●●

c. 900 Vikings and the thrall trade 0 cit. Norse raiders seized captives across the British Isles and eastern Europe and sold them as thralls. Slave trading was a major part of the Viking economy alongside raiding and settlement. economy / society ●●●

c. 900 The Germanic feast of Yule blends into Christmas 0 cit. The midwinter feast of Yule was folded into Christmas as northern peoples became Christian, and the word Yule still means Christmas. Customs such as evergreens and the Yule log carried over. culture / religion ●●

c. 900 Feudal monarchy organizes medieval Europe 0 cit. Kings granted land to lords in exchange for military service and loyalty, and lords in turn bound lesser nobles and peasants below them. Power was spread through a chain of personal obligations rather than a central state. politics / society ●●●●

c. 900 The Merseburg Charms preserve a pagan German spell 0 cit. Two short spells written in Old High German, the Merseburg Charms, are the only surviving record of continental Germanic pagan incantation, naming Wodan and other gods. Almost everything else of that religion was erased by conversion. culture / religion ●●

c. 900 Islamic astronomers build modern trigonometry 0 cit. Scholars such as al-Battani and later al-Tusi turned the Greek chord tables into the sine, cosine, and tangent functions we still use. Driven by astronomy and the need to find the direction of Mecca, they made trigonometry a subject of its own. Their tables and identities passed into Europe and underpinned later navigation and astronomy. religion / science ●●●

c. 900 Jewish communities take root in the Rhineland 0 cit. Jewish traders and families settled in towns along the Rhine, drawn by bishops and rulers who wanted their commerce. These communities became the seed of Ashkenazi Jewry, a distinct branch named for Ashkenaz, the medieval Hebrew word for the German lands. Over the next century they built the synagogues, courts, and schools that would define Ashkenazi life for a thousand years. culture / religion / society ●●●

c. 900 The Swahili and the Indian Ocean monsoon trade 0 cit. The coastal towns lived by a seasonal trade carried on the monsoon winds, which brought dhows from Arabia, Persia, and India for part of the year and carried them home on the reverse wind. The coast sent out ivory, animal hides, mangrove poles, and gold that came up from ports further south, and took in cloth, beads, and porcelain. This exchange, running for many centuries, tied East Africa into a wide Indian Ocean world. diplomacy / economy ●●●

c. 900 Decline of the Kingdom of Aksum 0 cit. Aksum faded as a power after roughly the seventh century, losing its Red Sea trade as the rise of Islam shifted commerce and cut its ports off from old markets. Environmental strain, soil exhaustion, and the loss of coinage all played a part. The centre of the Christian kingdom drifted south into the highlands, setting the stage for later dynasties. economy / politics ●

907 Collapse of the Tang Dynasty 0 cit. In 907 CE the warlord Zhu Wen forced the last Tang emperor to abdicate, ending nearly three centuries of Tang rule. China broke apart into the rival regimes of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. politics / war ●●●●

907 Collapse of the Tang and Five Dynasties 0 cit. The Tang dynasty fell in 907 CE, opening a period of fragmentation known as the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. Rival regimes competed until the Song reunified much of China. politics / war ●●●

909 Founding of the Fatimid Caliphate 0 cit. The Fatimids established a Shia caliphate in North Africa and later founded Cairo. At its peak it ruled from the Maghreb across Egypt to the Levant. politics / religion ●●●●

c. 911 Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte 0 cit. Agreement between King Charles the Simple of West Francia and the Viking leader Rollo, granting Rollo lands around Rouen in exchange for defense and baptism. It created what became the Duchy of Normandy. diplomacy / politics / war ●●●

933 Saadia Gaon defends reason in religion 0 cit. In the Book of Beliefs and Opinions, Saadia Gaon argued that reason and revelation agree and that the truths of faith can be shown by rational argument. Drawing on Islamic philosophy, he opened the medieval tradition of Jewish rationalism. religion / science ●●

c. 936 The Parsis carry the fire to India 0 cit. Zoroastrian refugees settle in India as the Parsis, keeping the faith alive for a thousand years. Their small community would later found great modern industrial houses such as Tata and Godrej, and produce figures from Freddie Mercury to Zubin Mehta. economy / religion ●●

August 955 Otto I defeats the Magyars at Lechfeld 0 cit. Otto I, king of the Germans, crushed a Magyar raiding army near Augsburg. The victory ended decades of steppe raids and made Otto the strongest ruler in the West. It set the stage for his claim to the imperial crown. politics / war ●●

960 Founding of the Song dynasty 0 cit. General Zhao Kuangyin founded the Song dynasty in 960 CE and reunified most of China. The Song brought economic growth, urbanization, and a flowering of science and culture. politics ●●●●●

c. 960 Hasdai ibn Shaprut, courtier of Cordoba 0 cit. Hasdai ibn Shaprut served the caliph Abd al-Rahman III as physician, diplomat, and customs official in Cordoba, then the largest city in western Europe. He used his position to patronize Hebrew scholarship and poetry, drawing scholars to al-Andalus. His career marks the start of what later writers called the Golden Age of Sephardic Jewry. culture / politics / science ●●●

c. 960 Dunash ben Labrat remakes Hebrew poetry 0 cit. The poet and grammarian Dunash ben Labrat adapted Arabic quantitative meter to Hebrew verse, giving Hebrew poetry a new music. Jewish poets in al-Andalus began writing not only sacred hymns but secular poems on wine, love, and friendship, in the style of their Arab neighbors. This fusion of Hebrew and Arabic culture defined the Golden Age. culture / science ●●

961 Ani becomes the Bagratid capital 0 cit. King Ashot III moves the Bagratid capital to Ani, which grows into a wealthy city on the Silk Road trade routes. Known as the city of a thousand and one churches, Ani is celebrated for its medieval Armenian architecture and may have held one hundred thousand people at its peak. Its ruins, now near the Turkey-Armenia border, are a UNESCO World Heritage site. culture / economy / religion ●●

962 Founding of the Holy Roman Empire 0 cit. Otto I was crowned emperor, linking the German kingship to the imperial title. The Holy Roman Empire remained a central institution in European politics for centuries. politics ●●●●

2 February 962 Otto I crowned Emperor, the empire's usual starting point 0 cit. Pope John XII crowned Otto I emperor in Rome, tying the German crown to the imperial title in a bond that lasted over 800 years. Most historians treat this coronation, rather than Charlemagne's, as the real beginning of the Holy Roman Empire. The state itself did not use the full name Sacrum Romanum Imperium until much later. diplomacy / politics / religion ●●●