Before and After Muhammad The First Millennium Refocused

A NEW PERIODIZATION | 67

MANICHEISM ISLAM R O M A N L AW MAZDAISM

10th century Latest
evidence for Mani-
cheans in Caliphate.

c. 900 Classical col-

lections of traditions

about the Prophet

(hadīth) by Bukhārī

(d. 870) and Muslim

(d. 875) already in

circulation.

c. 900 Leo VI’s

Basilics.

923 Death of Tabarī,
Qurʾān commentator
and historian of pre-
Islam and Islam.
935 Death of Ashʿarī,
theologian who rec-
onciled rational and
traditional theolog y.
940–41 Occlusion of
the last of the Twelve
Shiite Imams.

970s/980s Brethren
of Purity, Basra.

c. 1000 Sunni-Shiite
divide fully
consolidated.

1010 Completion of
Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh,
a treasury of Iranian tra-
dition but (intention-
ally) with minimal reli-
gious content.
before 1035 Deposit
of Chinese Manichean
texts in Dunhuang
cave temple on the Silk
Road; rediscovery ini-
tiates modern Mani-
chean studies in early
20th century.

1048 Death of Bīrūnī,

polymath.