Events, Verisoph

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 ●●●

800 Event rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Coronation of Emperor Charlemagne by Pope Leo III in 800 81 4. I. ●●

800 Charlemagne crowned Emperor ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Charlemagne was crowned Emperor by the Pope during a period of chronic silver shortage in Western Europe. ●●

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 Rise of the Swahili coast city-states 5 cit. Trading towns grew along the coast where African communities met merchants crossing the Indian Ocean, producing the Swahili language and an urban, Muslim, stone-built culture. Ports such as Mombasa, Malindi, Lamu, and the walled town of Gede exported ivory, gold, and enslaved people and imported cloth, beads, and porcelain, tied by the monsoon winds to Arabia, Persia, and India. The towns rose gradually from roughly the eighth century, so the date is approximate. culture / economy / 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 ●●●●

804 804-5), the impulse to reform continued rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story 804-5), the impulse to reform continued ●●

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 ●●●

827 827) was not slow to ally itself with the much more radical rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story 827) was not slow to ally itself with the much more radical anti-Semitism of the victorious Nazis ●●

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 ●●●●

830 When the German Kaiser’s armies invaded Belgium to strike at the Franco- rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story When the German Kaiser’s armies invaded Belgium to strike at the Franco- Russian alliance, they were violating the neutrality of a state formed in the 1830s specifically to accommodate the Roman Catholic faith of its inhabitants ●●

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 ●●

832 Abbasid 'inquisition' over the ulema ai_extracted 1 cit. no story In 832 the Abbasid caliphate attempted to take control of the religious scholars, the ulema. The effort, known as the 'inquisition', failed. ●●

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 ●●

836 836-7), and which derived its particular premillennialist roots from the Millerites and rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story 836-7), and which derived its particular premillennialist roots from the Millerites and the dispensationalism of John Nelson Darby ●●

August 843 Treaty of Verdun wikidata 0 cit. no story 843 treaty dividing the Frankish Empire between the grandsons of Charlemagne ●●●

c. August 843 Formation of France 0 cit. no story The Treaty of Verdun divides the Carolingian Empire and creates West Francia, the kingdom from which modern France developed. politics ●●●●

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 ●●

844 844), and Reunion was combined with calls to the government to legislate rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story 844), and Reunion was combined with calls to the government to legislate to reduce Scotland’s Irish immigrant community ●●

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. ●●

851 851), but it had turned into little more than a means of rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story 851), but it had turned into little more than a means of disrupting Orthodox activity and parroting Communist propaganda ●●

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 ●●●

12 August 870 Treaty of Meerssen wikidata 0 cit. no story treaty ●●●

874 to 884 Huang Chao Rebellion 0 cit. no story A huge rebel army under Huang Chao sacks both Tang capitals and massacres the merchant city of Guangzhou. The devastation fatally weakens the Tang dynasty. 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 ●●

895 Engel, The Realm of St Stephen: A History of Medieval Hungary, 895-1526 rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Engel, The Realm of St Stephen: A History of Medieval Hungary, 895-1526 (London and New York, 2001), 101-3 ●●

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 ●●

900 900-902), but on an enormously larger scale rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story 900-902), but on an enormously larger scale ●●

900 14: Orthodoxy: More Than an Empire (900- 1700) 1 Tyerman, 2-3 rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story 14: Orthodoxy: More Than an Empire (900- 1700) 1 Tyerman, 2-3 ●●

900 (900- 1200) After the general introductions to the whole period listed above, rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story (900- 1200) After the general introductions to the whole period listed above, a refreshingly iconoclastic perspective is R ●●

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 ●

10th century Sung Dynasty launches the world's first paper money ai_extracted 1 cit. The world's first paper money was launched in the tenth century in China by the ruling Sung Dynasty, with the emperor as sole issuer and money creation by others punishable by death. ●●●

902 900-902), but on an enormously larger scale rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story 900-902), but on an enormously larger scale ●●

906 102 Sundkler and Steed, 408, 906 rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story 102 Sundkler and Steed, 408, 906 ●●

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 ●●

950 Moore, The Formation of a Persecuting Society: Power and Deviance in Western rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Moore, The Formation of a Persecuting Society: Power and Deviance in Western Europe, 950- 1250 (Oxford, 1987), expanded into a more general survey in R ●●

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 ●●●●●

960 Song Dynasty comes to power in China ai_extracted 1 cit. no story The Song Dynasty came to power in 960, establishing centralized rule and ending the dominance of aristocratic families that had characterized the Tang Dynasty. ●●

960 960- 61), the doctrine of this-worldly success which has over the last rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story 960- 61), the doctrine of this-worldly success which has over the last few decades leached sideways out of some influential Pentecostal congregations into Protestantism generally ●●

960 101 The weapon of choice in this Anglican contest, as in so rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story 101 The weapon of choice in this Anglican contest, as in so many others within Christianity since the 1960s, has been sexuality, and homosexuality in particular ●●

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 ●●●

963 963-5), beyond the European-initiated Churches there was now an extraordinary variety of rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story 963-5), beyond the European-initiated Churches there was now an extraordinary variety of African-initiated Christian practice which made Christianity even beyond its ancient north-eastern African heartlands at least as indigenous a religion as the gr ●●

c. 965 Unification of Denmark 0 cit. no story Harald Bluetooth unifies the Danish kingdom and converts it to Christianity, an event recorded on the Jelling stones. politics / religion ●●●

965 Tibetan Mysticism first known in India candidate ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Tibetan Mysticism (Dus-kyi Khorlo) was first known in India in 965 AD, though it claims to be a system as old as humanity ●●

4 April 970 Founding of al-Azhar 0 cit. The Fatimids begin building the al-Azhar mosque in their new capital of Cairo, completed in 972. It grows into one of the world's oldest centers of Islamic learning and, after Egypt's return to Sunnism, the leading authority of Sunni scholarship. culture / religion ●●●

c. 970 Al-Azhar is founded in Cairo 0 cit. The Fatimids built the mosque of al-Azhar around 970 and soon began teaching there. It became a leading center of Islamic learning and remains influential today. politics / religion ●●●

c. 970 The imperial church system binds bishops to the crown 0 cit. The Ottonian emperors leaned on bishops and abbots as royal officials, granting them lands and appointing them directly. Churchmen owed loyalty to the emperor and helped govern the realm. This close grip on the Church would soon collide with a reforming papacy. politics / religion ●●

976 Holmes, Basil II and the Governance of Empire (976-1025) (Oxford, 2005), 60-61 rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Holmes, Basil II and the Governance of Empire (976-1025) (Oxford, 2005), 60-61 ●●

980 Duby, The Age of the Cathedrals: Art and Society 980-1420 (London, 1981), rejected ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Duby, The Age of the Cathedrals: Art and Society 980-1420 (London, 1981), and see Doig, 169-96 ●●

c. 988 Christianization of Kievan Rus 0 cit. Grand Prince Vladimir the Great adopted Byzantine Christianity and had the people of Kiev baptized, tying the Rus to the Orthodox world. Both modern Russia and Ukraine claim this conversion as a foundational moment in their national and religious histories. politics / religion ●●●●●

c. 988 Varangian Guard formed for the Byzantine emperor 0 cit. Byzantine Emperor Basil II received several thousand Scandinavian and Rus warriors from Kievan Rus and formed them into an elite personal guard, later known as the Varangian Guard. Composed largely of Norse and, from the 11th century, Anglo-Saxon warriors, the unit was famed for its loyalty since its foreign members had no local political ties. It served as the Byzantine emperors' bodyguard for several centuries. politics / war ●●

c. 988 The conversion of the Rus legendary 0 cit. Prince Vladimir of Kiev accepted Orthodox Christianity from Constantinople and had his people baptized, an event traditionally dated to 988. Chronicles say his envoys, awed by the beauty of worship in the Hagia Sophia, reported they knew not whether they stood in heaven or on earth. The choice bound the Rus lands to Byzantine faith, art, and letters, a legacy that shaped Russia for a thousand years. culture / diplomacy / religion ●●●

c. 25 December 1000 Foundation of the Kingdom of Hungary 0 cit. no story Stephen I is crowned as the first King of Hungary, founding a Christian kingdom that anchored the Hungarian state. politics / religion ●●●