450 • Chronology
651 Death of last Sasanid shah completes Arab conquest of Persia
653 Uthman establishes standard version of the Quran
656 Rebels murder Uthman; Ali declared caliph; Battle of the Camel
opens first civil war (fitna)
657 Mu'awiya challenges Ali at Battle of Siffin; issues later submitted
to arbitration
659 Arbitration goes against Ali, who is challenged by Kharijites
661 Kharijite kills Ali, whose son, Hasan, abdicates to Mu'awiya
661-750 Umayyad caliphate in Damascus
667 Arabs cross Oxus River into partly Turkic Transoxiana
669-678 First Arab siege of Constantinople
680 Mu'awiya designates son Yazid as his successor, then dies;
Husayn challenges Umayyad rule and is killed at Karbala
682-692 Second fitna, as Abdallah ibn al-Zubayr founds rival caliphate in
Mecca; northern and southern Arab tribes quarrel
684 Pro-Umayyad southern Arabs defeat northern Arabs
685-687 Mukhtar leads mawali revolt in Kufa
685-705 Caliph Abd al-Malik restores order, resumes conquests, and
later Arabizes his bureaucracy and coinage
708-715 Arabs conquer Sind, Transoxiana, and Spain
717-720 Caliph Umar II equalizes status of Arabs and mawali
720-759 Arabs conquer and occupy southern France
724-743 Caliph Hisham reorganizes the fiscal system
732 Europeans defeat Arabs in the Battle of Tours
747 Abu-Muslim, backed by Shi'i mawali, starts Abbasid revolt in
Khurasan
749 Abbasids take Kufa and proclaim Abu al-Abbas as caliph
750 Abbasids defeat and murder Umayyads of Damascus
750-1258 Abbasid caliphate in Iraq
751 Arabs defeat Chinese; paper introduced into Middle East
756-1030 Umayyad dynasty in Cordoba
762 Baghdad founded as new Abbasid capital
786-809 Caliphate of Harun al-Rashid
809-813 Succession struggle between Amin and Mamun