The following Time Line provides a chronology of Islamic State with an overall view of the world at the time.
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Table of Contents
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570 (?) Third breaking of the Ma'rib dam leads to the end of ancient South Arabian high culture. The Abyssinian governor of Yemen, Abraha, leads an unsuccessful attack on Mecca ('Year of the Elephant'), directed at the authority and economic power of the shrine.
571 Year of the Elephant
571 17th April, Birth of Muhammad (pbuh)
"The Nabi" (pbuh), founder of Islam and speaker in the “Quran,” was born into the Quraysh tribe in Makkah. He was orphaned at an early age and found work in a trade caravan.
573 Aug 20, Gregory of Tours was selected as the bishop of Tours.
573 In Copan the Rosalila structure on the Acropolis culminated a period of intense construction
574 Jul 13, Pope John III died.
574 Prince Shotoku was born in Japan. He later brought the Kongo family from Korea to Osaka and had them build a Buddhist temple. The temple took 15 years to build and the Kongo family became established as the premier temple builders in Japan.
575 The Yemen became a Sasanian province (from 598 under Persian satraps.
575 Jun 2, Benedict I began his reign as Catholic Pope.
575 Northern state of Zhou attacks the South (China)
577 Battle of Dyrham. Ceawlin conquers British kingdom of Dumnonia. Saxons control England (Britain)
578 Avar capture Sirmium. Romans now paying regular tribute to the Avar (Rome)
578 Oct 5, Justinus II, Byzantine emperor (565-78), died.
578 The family business Kongo Gumi was founded in Japan by a Korean in Osaka to build Buddhist temples. The company continued to flourish in 2004 as general builder.
579 Jul 30, Pope Benedict I died.
580 Pope Pelagius left married priests alone if they kept their wives and children from inheriting church property.
580-728 Pallava kings ruled in southern India, later Tamil Nadu state. The port town of Mahabalipuram was the capital of their ancient kingdom.
580 Soga clan murders King Sujun. The pro-Soga Suiko is placed on the throne. Buddhists control Japan. Birth of proto-modern Japan (Japan)
581 Sui Dynasty begins in Northern China (China)
581-618 The Sui Dynasty ruled in China. The "Sui Shu" are the annals of the Sui Dynasty and mention of cormorant fishing in Japan is made.
587 Nov 28, Treaty of Andelot: King Guntram took cousin Childebert II as heir.
587 Soga clan massacre the anti-Buddhist Mononobe clan (Japan)
588 North Chinese empire conquers Southern China. Re-unification of China (China)
590 Feb 7, Pelagius II, Gothic Pope (579-90), died from plague.
590 Sep 3, St. Gregory I began his reign as Pope. Gregory the Great reigned until 604 and established the popes as the de facto rulers of central Italy, and strengthened the papal primacy over the Churches of the West.
590 Pope Gregory said he spotted an angel atop Hadrian’s Mausoleum. The site was then reconfigured as a fortress called Castel Sant’Angelo. In 1925 it became a national museum.
592-710 The Asuka Period of Japanese history.
593-622 The Regency of Prince Shotoku on Japan.
594 In Peru a 30-year drought began about this time that followed years of flooding in areas populated by the Moche people.
598-658 Chu Suilang: Tang Dynasty calligrapher.
600 Feb 16, Pope Gregory the Great decreed "God bless You" as the religiously correct response to a sneeze.
600 Manufacture of bark paper in Mayan civilzation
600 An unknown event destroys the (Mayan) civilization at Teotihuacán, along with the empire it supported. Tikal becomes the largest city-state in Mesoamérica.
600 Li Shimin, son of Chinese General Li Yuan (the Duke of Tang), was born about this time.
600 Yang Di (Yangdi), a Sui emperor, extended the Grand Canal. He reportedly assumed power by poisoning his father. Ma Shu-mou, aka Mahu, was one of the canal overseers and was said to have eaten a steamed 2-year-old child each day he worked on the canal. On completion the canal extended for 1,100 miles. 5.5 million people were pressed into service to complete 1,550 mile canal.
600 Quill pens, made from the outer feathers of crows and other large birds, became popular. The 1st books were printed in China.
c600 Small porkers came to Hawaii with the Polynesians some 1400 years ago, and big pigs arrived with the Europeans.
c600 Early settlers from the Marquesas built the Alakoko fishpond and taro fields on Kauai, Hawaii.
c600 The Joya de Ceren Maya site in El Salvador was buried beneath 16 feet of ash from nearby Loma Caldera.
600 Germanic invaders, who occupied England after 600AD, saw themselves as a nation of immigrants, according to Prof. Nicholas Howe (1953-2006) of UC Berkeley, author of “Migration and Mythmaking in Anglo-Saxon England” (1989).
c600 "The Navigatio Sancti Brendani Abbatis" (Voyage of St. Brendan the Abbott) recounts a 7-year trip to a land across the sea by the Irish saint and a band of acolytes about this time.
c600-625 The burial site of the Prince of Prittlewell, an East Saxon prince or king, dated to about this time.
600-700 The Tantras, Buddhist texts for generating deep religious experiences, were produced in India.
c600-700 King Songstan Gampo reigned over Tibet in the 7th century. He introduced Buddhism and started construction of the Potala Palace and Jokhang Temple. He married the Chinese princess Wen Cheng.
600-700 The library at Alexandria, Egypt, disappeared in the 7th century.
600-700 In the seventh century the Frisians clashed with the Franks and resisted Christianity, but succumbed to Frankish rule and accepted Christianity a century later. Citizens of the Netherlands’s province of Friesland are still called Frisians and the Frisian language is still spoken there.
c600-700 St. Willibrord, an Irish missionary, spread Christianity in the region of Luxembourg.
600-700 Calinicus (Callinicus), an engineer from Heliopolis, Syria, is thought to have brought "Greek fire," (flammable petrochemicals) to Constantinople. The incendiary liquid could be fired from siphons toward enemy ships or troops. The weapon helped save the Byzantine Empire from Islamic conquest for several centuries.
600-700 The Caracol Maya site in Belize was one of the most prosperous cities in the pre-Columbian world with some 120,000 people in a 65-square-mile metropolis. It has the 140-foot-high platform Caana, or "Sky-Place. "
600-700 The martial art of "tie-kwan-doe" (kick-strike-art) was developed as part of the military training for young noblemen charged with protecting the kingdoms of what became Korea.
600-700 In Vietnam Hoi An was a port site of the Cham kingdoms of central Vietnam. It may date back to the 2nd century BC.
600-800 In 2003 evidence of an Indian village was found at an Illinois site some 35 miles east of St. Louis, that dated to the Late Woodland period.
c600-800 Irish monks began to seek solace in Iceland.
600-800 Polynesian seafarers 1st landed on Easter Island, 1400 miles from the coast of South America. They later carved nearly 900 colossi of compressed volcanic ash: the moai. In 1722 A Dutch explorer stopped by on Easter Sunday. It later became a possession of Chile.
c600-850 Late Classic Mayan paintings were found at a site in eastern Chiapas, Mexico, named "Bonampak," (painted walls).
600-900 Late classic period of the Maya. The San Andres site in El Salvador flourished during the late classic. The El Tajin civilization thrived on the central coast of what became Mexico.
600-900 A three hundred year dynasty ruled over Palenque. In the Pyramid of Inscriptions is the tomb of Pakal, the greatest king of the dynasty.
600-1200 In Malaysia ceramic shards at Kampong Sungai Mas in the Bujang Valley date to this time. Brick foundations and a block of shale with a Buddhist mantra inscribed in Sanskrit was also found.
600-1600 Burma entries under Myanmar. Pagan was the seat of Burma’s greatest dynasty and the site shows the remains of more than 7,000 temples and monuments of this period.
601 Most schools in China were abolished by Sui edict.
602 End of the Lakhmids of al-Hira
604 Mar 12, Gregory I the Great (64), Pope (590-604), died. In 1997 R.A. Markus authored “Gregory the Great and His World.”
604 In Japan a 17 article constitution was promulgated by Prince Shotoku (574-622). It was a Confucian document that focused more on ethics and virtue than on the basic laws by which the state was to be run. [see 702]
604-617 King Saebert of Essex reigned in England. St. Mellitus converted him to Christianity.
605 The Holy Prophet arbitrates in a dispute among the Quraish about the placing of the Black Stone in the Kaaba.
607 Mar 13, The 12th recorded passage of Halley's Comet occurred.
607 The first envoy from Japan was sent to China.
609 May 13, Pope Boniface I turned Roman Pantheon into Catholic church.
608AD Civil war spaked by Phocas (Rome)
610AD First Wahi of Koran
610 Apr 6, Lailat-ul Qadar: The night that the Koran descended to Earth. Muhammad is believed by his followers to have had a vision of Gabriel. The angel told him to recite in the name of God. Other visions are supposed to have Gabriel lead Muhammad to heaven to meet God, and to Jerusalem to meet Abraham, Moses and Jesus. These visions convinced Mohammad that he was a messenger of God.
610 Oct 5, Heraclitus' fleet took Constantinople.
610 Arab tribes defeated an Arab-Persian army at Dhu Qar in Iraq.
610 The first revelation in the cave at Mt. Hira.
610-641 Heracles ruled the Byzantine Empire.
611 In Cambodia at Angkor Borei the earliest known Khmer inscription dates to this time.
613 1200 monks were killed at the battle of Chester. Saxon Kingdoms
613 Declaration at Mt. Sara inviting the general public to Islam.
614 Croats settled in the area between the Adriatic Sea and the rivers Sava and Drava.
614 Persians capture Jerusalem, Patriarch Zacharias and Christian population with True Cross sent as prisoners to Persia
614 Christian Palestine was invaded by the Persians. The 5th century monastery of St. Theodosius east of Beit Sahour near Bethlehem was destroyed by the Persians. The Jews of Jerusalem allied with the Persians during the invasion and entered into the cave beneath the tomb of Christ in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
614 Invitation to the Hashimites to accept Islam.
615 Ethopian Migration of Muslims
615 An Arab embassy visited China i.e. if the name Ta-shi is taken, as usual, to mean Arab.
615 May 8, St. Boniface IV ended his reign as Catholic Pope.
615 May 25, Boniface IV, Pope (608-15), died.
615 Nov 23, Columbanus, Irish explorer, monastery founder, poet and saint (Poenitentiale), died (aka St. Columba).
615 Yang Di (Yangdi), a Chinese Sui emperor, announced a 4th attempt to conquer Korea. In response to peasant rebellions in the north, Yangdi moved to the eastern city of Yangzhou.
615 Pakal (12) became the Mayan ruler of Palenque. His reign ended with his death in 683.
616 Second Hijrah to Abyssinia.
616 The Roman Empire loses Spain to the Visigoths
617AD Year of Bycott of Koresh
617 Social boycott of the Hashimites and the Holy Prophet by the Quraish. The Hashimites are shut up in a glen outside Makkah.
617 Jun, Chinese general Li Yuan (the Duke of Tang) declared his rebellion and ordered the Tang army to prepare a march against Chang’an (later Xian), capital of China and the world’s largest city.
617 Dec 12, The Chinese city of Chang’an fell to the Tang army.
617-1279 The Tang Dynasty unified China.
c.618 Chinese embassy to Constantinople
618 Some records relate that S’ad Ibn Abi Waqqas and three other Sahabah sailed to China in c.616 CE from Abyssinia (Ethiopia) with the backing of the king of Abyssinia. Sa’d then returned to Arabia, bringing a copy of the Holy Qur’an back to Guangzhou some 21 years later, which appropriately coincides with the account of Liu Chih who wrote “The Life of the Prophet” (12 vols).
618 Apr, General Li Yuan, the Duke of Tang, claimed the throne of China after receiving word that Emperor Yangdi had been assassinated in the city of Yangzhou. Yuan proclaimed himself Emperor Gaozu, the 1st monarch of the new Tang dynasty.
618-907 The Tang Dynasty was in China. The marble head of Eleven-headed Avalokiteshvara dates to the Tang period. Porcelain was invented during the T’ang dynasty.
618-907 The area of Tiananmen Square was first cleared.
619 Li Shimin led his armies against 2 warlords in northern China.
619-29 Persian occupation of Egypt
c.620 Callincus is born c.620 in Heliopolis, Egypt] in 650-659 he invents a mysterious substance (whose composition is debated today) that burns in water, and can be a potent weapon against wooden ships. It comes to be called Greek Fire. [Hellemans, p.65]
620 Journey to Taif. Ascension to the heavens.
620 Aug 22, This day corresponds to the 27th day of Rajab, 1427, in the Islamic calendar. It commemorates to the night flight of Muhammad on the winged horse Buraq to the farthest mosque, usually identified with Jerusalem, and then to heaven and back
620 In northern China Gen’l. Li Shimin (~20) attacked Luoyang, which was held by the warlord Wang Shichong.
620 The town of Cholula was founded in central Mexico. It was later said to be the oldest continuously occupied town in all of North America.
620 Mohammad gained about a hundred converts including some wealthy Meccan families. This made other Meccans hostile. Mohammad in this year dreamed of being transported from Mecca to the Rock of Mariah in Jerusalem, from which he ascended into heaven and received instructions from God for himself and his followers.
620 Year of sorrow
621 Mar, In China a force of 120,000 men from Xia province advanced to rescue the city of Luoyang.
621 First Zoroastrian temple built is Ch'ang-an
621 May 28, In China Dou Jiande, general of the Xia army, was wounded and captured by the Tang army under Gen’l. Li Shimin at Hulao Pass. 3,000 Xia were killed and 50,000 were taken prisoners. The city of Luoyang soon surrendered. Xia province surrendered in turn.
622 Migration to Medina/ 0 Hijri
622-3 Herakleios begins campaign against Persians, lands of the themata (themes) mentioned in Chronographia of Theophanes (at the year Anno Mundi 6113 = AD 620/1)
622 Jul 16, Islamic Era began. Mahomet began his flight from Mecca to Medina (Hegira).
622 Sep 20, Prophet Mohammed Abu Bakr arrived in Jathrib (Medina).
622 Sep 24, In the Hegira Muhammed left Mecca for Medina (aka Yathrib) with 75 followers. This event marked the beginning of the Islamic lunar calendar.
624 Muslims engaged non-believers for the 1st time at the Battle of Badr
627 Bani Nadir Jews joined the fight against Muhammad.
630 Muhammad began a campaign against Byzantine Syrians
c625 Raedwald, king of the East Angles and high king of the English peoples, was buried about this time.
625 Battle of Ohod
626 Aug 7, Battle at Constantinople: Slavs, Persians and Avars were defeated. Emp. Heraclius repelled the attacks. The attacks began in 625.
626 In China Gen’l. Li Shimin foiled an assassination attempt by 2 brothers. He ambushed his older brother, Jianchen, killing him him with a bow and arrow, and became the oldest son and crown prince. Li Yuan abdicated 2 months later and Shimin became the new ruler under the name Emperor Taizong.
626 Constantinople surrounded by Avar, Slavs and Persians (Rome)
626 Volcanic eruption (great eruption)
627-629 Climatic cooling event
627 Byzantine Emperor Heraclius defeated the Persian army and regained Asia Minor, Syria, Jerusalem and Egypt.
627 Tang Empire implemented the earliest Civil Service Examination system in the world. Thereafter the scholar-gentry class of China replaced the noble families as the main force of the civil service.
[Eastern] Rome invaded [New] Persia. On 2.25 of the next year, Gurdanaspa, the Persian commander, staged a coup and deposed King Khusrau II. Kobad II succeeded to the throne and negotiated peace with [Eastern] Rome. End of the Sixth Byzantine-Persian War.
Prajnaditya founded the Kingdom of Kashmir in the Kashmir region of India.
628 Apr 3, In Persia Kavadh sued for peace with the Byzantines. He handed back Armenia, Byzantine Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine and Egypt.
628 Apr 3, Chosroes II, emperor of Persia (579-628), was murdered by his son.
628 Herakleios defeats Persians, captures Nineveh, liberates Christian prisoners and True Cross; Syria, Palestine and Egypt revert to Byzantine control
628 Truce of Hudaibiya. Expedition to Khyber. The Holy Prophet addresses letters to various heads of states.
629 A Chinese pilgrim reported seeing a 1000-foot reclining Buddha at Bamiyan, Afghanistan. By 2004 the sleeping Buddha had not been seen for several hundred years. [see 632]
629 The incident (or as propagated the War) of Muta
629-64 Hsuang-Tsang, Chinese pilgrim, journeys over 5,000 miles from China to India and back to collect Buddhist teachings. He recorded fantastic tales of his adventures.
630AD recovery under Heraclius (Rome)
630AD Eastern Turkic Khanate suddenly collapses
630AD Victory of Mecca
630 Mar 21, Heraclius restored the True Cross, which he had recaptured from the Persians.
630AD A volcano erupted
630 Mohammad raised an army of 10,000 and took over Mecca (Makkah). He immediately set out to destroy all the idols at Kaaba. The black stone remained embedded in the corner. The area around became the first mosque, or Muslim house of worship. Mohammad returned from Medina and began the Islamic conquest of Arabia.
632 Jun 8, Nabi Mohammad dies
632 Jun 16, Origin of Persian [Yazdegird] Era.
632 Hiuan-tsang, an Chinese pilgrim, visited the great Buddhas of Bamiyan, Afghanistan.
633 Gen Khalid ibn al-Walid sent a letter to the Persian emperor that said: "Submit to our authority and we shall leave you and your land and go against others. If not, you will be conquered against your will by men who love death as you love life."
c633 Nikbanou, a 7th century Persian Zoroastrian princess, fled to a mountain refuge at Chak to escape Arab horsemen planting the green pennants of Islam in Iranian soil
633 The 4th Synod of Toledo took on the right to confirm elected kings. Jews were obliged to be baptized. The vernacular language, of Latin origin, prevailed over that of the Visigoths.
634 Aug 22, Abu Bekr Abd Allah (61), [al-Siddik], successor of Mohammed, died. He was a friend, an Arabic merchant, Mohammed’s father-in-law and the first Caliph. Before his death he appointed Mohammed's adviser Omar (Umar) as his successor.
634 Khalid with 40,000 Muslims took Damascus. Islamic Wars
634-642 Oswald reunited Northumbria and restored Christianity. Anglo-Saxons
634 Sophronius (74), Christian monk, was elected patriarch and political ruler of Jerusalem.
635 Nestorian missionaries reach China
635 Damascus was captured by the Muslims.
635 One of the Sahabahs who lived in China is believed to have died in c.635 CE and was buried in the western urban part of Hami. His tomb is known as “Geys’ Mazars” and is revered by many in the surrounding region. It is in the north western autonomous province of Xinjiang (Sinkiang) and about 400 miles east of the latter’s capital, Urumqi.
635 China: First Nestorian Christian missionary arrives in Ch'ang-an
636 "Priest from Rome visits China." [D.E. Smith, p.555]
636 Summer, A Byzantine army arrived in the region of Jerusalem and was defeated by a much smaller Muslim army at the Yarmuk River. With Muslims at the gate Sophronius, head of Jerusalem, requested a meeting with Caliph Omar.
636 Jul 23, Arabs gained control of most of Palestine from Byzantine Empire.
636 Aug 15, At the Battle at Yarmuk, east of the Sea of Galilee, Islamic forces beat a Byzantine army and gained control of Syria.
636 Nov 1, Nicholas Boileau-Despreaux, French poet, was born. He was also a critic and official royal historian and wrote "Lutrin. "
636 Jundishapur (Jundi-shapur, which means a beautiful garden, but it is also spelled as Jundeshapur, or even Gondeshapur in some English texts) was a city near the ancient Greek capital of Susa in Bactria. In 489 CE, anticipating troubles from the Roman Christian orthodoxy, the Nestorians wisely transferred their scientific centre from Edessa (now Urfa in South East Turkey) to a place close to Jundishapur, which was then part of Khuzistan under the secular Persian rule. When emperor Justinian closed their Athenian Academy and banished the Nestorians from Athens in 529 CE, the Nestorians scholars left the Roman Christian Empire to avoid persecution. Some of them went to establish a centre of learning (Academy) in Jundishapur, then under the reign of the Sasanid ruler Anushirwan (531-579 CE), where they continued the study of philosophy, science and medicine, alongside pagan philosophers. The area was conquered by the Muslims in 636 CE, with its great Academy and its medical treatment centre intact.
637-651 Arab armies defeat the Sassanians and introduce Islamic religion and customs into Iran.
637 Ctesiphon, a center of Christianity southeast of Baghdad, was taken by Arabs, who renamed it Madain.
637 Muslim armies conquered Mesopotamia.
638 cJan, Sophronius met with Caliph Omar and obtained a set of guarantees and regulations that came to be known as "the Covenant of Omar."
638 Mar 11, Sophronius of Jerusalem, saint, patriarch of Jerusalem, died.
638 Around 638 Shah Yazdegerd, of the Sassanids - who then ruled much of what is today's Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan - appealed to T’ai Tsung (r. 626-___) second ruler of Tang Dynasty for help against the new, but rapidly spreading force: the Muslims.
T'ai Tsung refused to help the Sassanids, but 13 years later his successor, Kao Tsung, received an identical plea for help from Shah Peroz, son of Yazdegerd, and this time China, having come to realize that the Muslim threat was serious, encouraged and helped Peroz
638 The oldest recorded Bimarestan is of Gundishapur, established in 3rd century by Shapur I the Sasanian emperor, in present day Khuzestan province of Iran. After Sassanian Iran was conquered by Muslim Arab armies in 638, the Bimaristan survived the change of rulers and evolved into a public hospital with medical university and psychiatric facilities over the centuries under Muslim physicians.
There was also an imperial library in Ctesiphon (now Al-Mada'in), and works were also translated at the Academy of Gundishapur, during the Islamic conquest of Persia.
Due to improved medical care, the lands under Islamic rule experienced an increase in average life expectancy. In contrast to the average lifespan in the ancient Greco-Roman world (22-28 years), the average lifespan in the early Islamic Caliphate was more than 35 years. The average lifespans of the Islamic scholarly class in particular was much higher: 84.3 years in 10th-11th century Iraq and Persia
638 Abu Musa al-Ashari conquered Jundishapur in 17/638
637 Muslims defeated Persian army; Basra was founded.
637 Jerusalem capitulated to 'Umar's terms. Islamic Wars
638 Antioch bought safety for 300,000 gold coins. Islamic Wars
639 Famine and pestilence followed the conquest of Syria.
640 'Amr led the Muslim invasion of Egypt.
640 Muslim Arabs invaded Armenia and capture Dvin, its principal town.
640 The Muslim government began minting coins about this time.
641 Feb 11, Heraclius (~65), emperor of Byzantium (610-641), died.
641AD Emperor Heraclius fails to stem the Arab threat and loses Africa, Spain and Northern Italy.
641 Muslims defeated the Sassanian empire.
641 Nubian Mukurra was attacked by Arabs.
642 Syria's Muslim governor Mu'awiya invaded Armenia. Byzantine Wars
642 Sep 17, Muslims conquered Alexandria.
Medical scholarship in the early seventh century was still represented by Paul of Aegina (625-690), and a formal teaching in Alexandria may have continued after Arab conquest of Egypt in 640s. He was born in the year 625 AD on the island of Aegina, Greece. He wrote the medical encyclopedia Medical Compendium in Seven Books (Epitomes iatrikes biblio hepta) in Greek. His encyclopedia remained the most important work for 800 years. He was a teacher at Alexandria.
642 The Arabs conquered the Sassanids.
642 Pope Theodore I began using the title “Patriarch of the West.” In 2006 the Vatican took the unusual step of explaining its decision to renounce the title, saying the omission of "patriarch of the West," from the new edition of the Annuario Pontificio, the Vatican's 2,373-page directory of prelates, should benefit relations with the Orthodox Church, not hinder them.
643 ambassadors from Byzantium arrived at Ch'ang-an (Xian) (Tang Capital) just five years after those of Shah Yazdegerd (They must have brought news of Muslim conquests)
644 Nov 4, Caliph Umar is assassinated
The 2nd Caliph of Islam, was assassinated at Medina and was succeeded as caliph by Uthman. On his deathbed Umar named a council to choose the next caliph. The council appointed Uthman. Uthman continued to expand the Muslim empire.
644 Dec 8, Omar I, 2nd caliph of Islam, was murdered.
645 Between 629 and 645, Hsuang-Tsang travelled from China to India and Afghanistan to collect Buddhist teachings and wrote up the account of his travels
645 Downfall of the Soga Clan in Japan.
647 Arabs took Caesarea in Cappadocia.
647 'Abd-Allah Ibn Sa'd led invasion of North Africa.
649 May 14, Theodore, Greek Pope (642-49), excommunicated by Paul II, died.
649 Jul 5, St. Martin I began his reign as Pope.
650AD Uthman(ra), the third Caliph of Islam, sent the second Muslim envoy to China in 650 (first was sent by Nabi Muhammad in 615AD). The envoy, headed by Sa‘d ibn Abī Waqqās, arrived in the Tang capital, Chang’an, in 651 via the overseas route. Huis generally consider this date to be the official founding of Islam in China. The Ancient Record of the Tang Dynasty recorded the historic meeting, where the envoy greeted Emperor Gaozong of Tang China and tried to convert him to Islam. Although the envoy failed to convince the Emperor to embrace Islam, the Emperor allowed the envoy to proselytize in China and ordered the establishment of the first Chinese mosque in the capital to show his respect for the religion. In Arab records there are only sparse records of the event.
They built a magnificent mosque in Canton city. This mosque is known as "The Memorial Mosque". 651 is regarded by the Hui as the date of the introduction of Islam to China.
650 The Khazars’ aggressive territorial expansion drove some Bulgars westward. These Bulgars soon founded a kingdom in the southeastern Balkans that became known as Bulgaria.
c650 An early Mayan classic temple in Copan was closed and covered about this time. Ritual items of flint knives and stingray spines was later discovered.
c650 The first pyramid of the Teotihuacan culture was built in Cholula. Over the next 800 years a nested series of 4 pyramids were constructed. The most important and largest city of pre-Colombian central Mexico, the Nahuatl meaning of Teotihuacan was "Where Men Become Gods" or "The City of Gods." Just north of Mexico City, Teotihuacan was planned at about the beginning of the Christian era and was sacked and burned by invading Toltecs in 650 CE
650 Sebokht writes on Hindu Numerals.
650-659 Callincus [born c.620 in Heliopolis, Egypt] invents a mysterious substance (whose composition is debated today) that burns in water, and can be a potent weapon against wooden ships. It comes to be called Greek Fire.
650-700 In northern Peru archeological evidence later indicated that civil strife during this period, which followed some 30 years of drought, led to the demise of the Moche civilization
650-750 In Mexico the Teotihuacan culture began declining and was almost abandoned by the end of this period.
c650-850 The alliterative epic poem Beowulf was composed at least 100 years before the manuscript was written. It was written in the 8th century. In 1999 Seamus Heaney wrote a new translation of the old English tale of a Scandinavian warrior who kills a trio of monsters including Grendel. In the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf, the hero of the Geats people, mortally wounds the monster Grendelwho has been terrorizing the court of the king of Danesby tearing off one of his arms with his bare hands. Based on folk tales known to the Anglo-Saxons prior to their invasion of England, the work is made up primarily of pagan myths and legends. The poem is believed to date from the late seventh or early eighth century and the only surviving text, now in the British Museum, dates from about 1000 A.D.
651 [Muslim] Naval Battle of the Masts against the Byzantines.
651 In 651, the same year Shah Peroz appealed to Kao Tsung for support against the Arabs, Kao Tsung received a mission from 'Uthman, the Muslims' third caliph (or "successor" to Muhammad). As the T'ang annals put it: "In the year 651, the king of Arabia sent for the first time an envoy with presents to the Chinese court and at the same time announced that the Arabs had already reigned 34 years and had had three kings."
651 In Persia Yazdegird III, the last Sassanian king, was murdered.
652 Arabs introduced Islam to Afghanistan.
654 A Saxon monk founded St. Botolph’s Town in England. The name gradually changed to Boston.
654 Arab fleet captured Rhodes. Islamic Wars
655 Moslem ship-ping upon the seas defeating the Byzantine fleet in a great sea fight off the coast of Lycia (A. D. 655), but how the Moslems acquired this victorious fleet thus early we do not clearly know.
655 Muslim navy made Cyprus pay tribute.
656 Caliph Uthman is murdered
657 Jun 2, St. Eugene I ended his reign as Catholic Pope.
657 Jul 26, Mu'awiyan defeated Caliph Ali in the Battle of Siffin in Mesopotamia.
658 Hirafu Abe went to meet with the Ainu on Hokkaido after he had defeated an indigenous tribe called Emishi in the northeast region of Honshu.
659 Mu'awiya made a treaty with the Byzantine Empire.
661 Jan 27, Caliph Ali is murdered.
Caliph Ali ibn Abu Talib is , caliph of Islam (656-61), was murdered in Kufa, Iraq. Caliph Ali, son-in-law of Mohammed, was assassinated.
661 Umayyad period (661-750).
661 Muawiah became caliph. He moved the capital from Medina to Damascus. Muawija was one of the soldiers who helped capture Damascus and for 25 years he had served as governor of Syria. Muawija began the practice of appointing his own son as the next caliph, and so the Umayyads ruled for the next 90 years. Muslim forces expanded into North Africa and completely conquered Persia. The Islamic Empire continued to expand into Afghanistan and Pakistan. After the Omayyad Caliphs conquered Damascus, they build the palace at Qasr Al-Kharaneh (in Jordan) as a recreational lodge.
661-750 During the Umayyad Caliphate Sergius of Rasul’ayn (Ras el Ain or Reshaina) translated medical and philosophical works of both Hippocrates and Galen into Syriac. These were later translated into Arabic.
Some say that Sergius died about the time that Chosroes the Great began his reign. His other date of death is 539AD.
662 Aug 13, Maximus Confessor (b.c580), Greek theologian, died.
662 662 and again in 672, during the reign of Muawiya (662-680), the first great Omayyad Caliph, made two sea attacks upon Constantinople. They had to be sea attacks because Islam, so long as it was under Arab rule, never surmounted the barrier of the Taurus Mountains.
662 By 2004 Simon Martin, Mayan scholar, worked out an almost day-by-day account of events from this year in the plain of Tabasco, Mexico.
662 Severus Sebokht (d. 666/7) wrote a book. He was a titular bishop who lived in the covenant of Kenneshre on the Euphraties in the time of the patriarch Athanasius Gammala (d. 631) and his successor John. He was the most learned scholar of 7th century and distinguished himself in the studies of theology, philosophy and mathematics. At this time, Kenneshre was the chief seat of Greek learning in west Syria. One of this works which he wrote in 662 he directly refers to the Hindu numerals.
his students Athanasius Al-Baladi and Jacob Al-Rahawi and Giorgios (Bishop of the Arabs) who translated the works of Aristotle on logic.
666 The school founded by Severus Sebokht (d. 666/667) at Qennesre in Syria (active from the middle of the seventh century to the start of the eighth). He translated Greek books into Syraic.
666 Muslim attack on Sicily.
668 Jul 15, Constantine II (37), emperor of Byzantium, died.
668-1392 In Korea the Silla Kingdom united the peninsula and began the Koryo Dynasty from which Korea derived its name.
669 Theodore, a native of Tarsus in Cilicia, arrived in England to take over the See of Canterbury under the direction of Pope Vitalian. He was well received everywhere and was the first Archbishop whose authority the whole English Church was willing to acknowledge.
670AD In 670 Muslims founded the new garrison town of Al Qayrawān (in present-day Tunisia)
Conquest of North Africa by 'Uqba ibn Nafi'
c670 A Japanese inventor based the first design of a folding fan on the structure of a bat’s wing.
670 Muslims advance in North Africa. Uqba b Nafe founds the town of Qairowan in Tunisia. Conquest of Kabul.
c672 The Venerable Bede (d.735), Beda Venerabilis, English speaking church historian, was born.
672 Caliph Mu'awiya's navy captured Rhodes.
674 Muslims attacked Constantinople.
674 Caliph Mu'awiya's navy captured Crete.
674 The Muslims cross the Oxus. Bukhara becomes a vassal state.
674-678 Muslims besieged Constantinople.
675 Korean unification under Silla (Korea)
676 Foundations of Cairo laid down
677 Occupation of Sarnarkand and Tirmiz. Siege of Constantinople.
678AD Syria Earthquake
678 Jun 27, St. Agatho began his reign as Catholic Pope.
678 Mu'awiya made a peace treaty with the Byzantine empire.
679 Damascus was the Umayyad capital and was an important political and cultural center. During the Umayyad era, two new Arabic scripts appeared, Tumar and Jali. These scripts were invented by the famous calligrapher Qutbah Al Moharir. Later, improved versions of the Tumar and Jali scripts were developed and then used during the Abbasid dynasty (750-1258).
Tumar was formulated and extensively used during the reign of Mu'awiyah Ibn Abi Sufyan (660-679), the founder of the Umayyad dynasty. Tumar became the royal script of the succeeding Umayyad caliphs.
679 The T'ang annals, for instance, mention the first Umayyad caliph, Mu'awiya - calling him "Mo-ee" - and note his unsuccessful siege of Constantinople; the notice must, therefore, date after 679, the year the Muslim troops withdrew from the walls of the Byzantine capital.
Again, it must be borne in mind that the annals of the T'ang went through a number of later revisions, and it is possible that this description may be of later date.
680 Arabia conquered Albania and renamed northern Azerbaijan as Arran.
680 The first man to translate a medical work into Arabic was Masarjawaih (b. 61/680), a Jewish Physician from Basra.
Masarjawaih translated the medical Pandects of the archdeacon or presbyter Aaron (fl. c. 610-641) from the Syriac into Arabic and added to the thirty chapters of this translation two of his own.
680 Oct 10, Imam Hussein, grandson of prophet Mohammed, is murdered
681 Bulgaria’s 1st kingdom was established.
682 Aug 17, Leo II, later St. Leo, began his reign as Catholic Pope.
682-721 Ah Cacaw (Lord of Cocoa) ruled over Tikal (later Guatemala) during this period. His burial tomb was later found deep inside the 145-foot high Temple of the Great Jaguar
683 Masarjawah, the most prominent physician in Basra, was commissioned by agents of the caliph to work on the project. What resulted was Kitab Qiwa al-'Aqaqir, or The Book of the Powers of Remedies. It was in this book that the term "water-white naphtha" was first used in Islamic medicine.
683 Kabul revolted and defeated a Muslim army.
685 Zabul's army was routed by the Arabs.
683 Pacal, Mayan ruler of Palenque, died. His sarcophagus, found in 1952, has the intricately carved lid later suggested to represent an extra-terrestrial visitor.
683-685 Khazars invaded Transcaucasia and inflicted much damage and stole much booty. The Khazar invaders killed the rulers of Armenia and Georgia.
684 Jun 26, Benedict II (d.685) was consecrated as Pope.
684 The fourth Umayyad caliph, Marwan I (r. 684-685), authorized the translation of the famous medical treatises of Alexandria with additions and commentaries.
684-702 Mayan leader Kan Balam II, son of Pakal, ruled over Palenque.
685 May 8, St. Benedict II ended his reign as Catholic Pope.
685 May 21, Battle at Nechtansmere: Picts trounced the Northumbrians.
685 Zabul's army was routed by the Arabs.
685 In China a manual on calligraphy was made. It summarized the aesthetic ideals and theories of Chinese writing.
685-705 Abd al Malik, Umayyad caliph, influenced the shaping of Islamic culture. He declared Arabic as the official language of the empire and established a common coinage system that was purely Arabic. They had no images but were inscribed with quotations from the Koran.
686 Aug 2, John V, 1st Greek-Syrian Pope (685-86), died.
687-714 Pepin II united and ruled the Franks.
688 North Africa was conquered by the Muslims under Abd al Malik.
691 Muslims built the Dome of the Rock mosque in Jerusalem.
It contained inscriptions that later were held as the 1st evidence of the Koran.
691-2 Caliph Abd al Malik constructs the Dome of the Rock (mosque) at Jerusalem
691 Bishops at Constantinople forbade pagan festivals.
692 Muslims defeated the Byzantine army at Sebastopolis.
692 Syrian forces led by al-Hajjaj captured Mecca.
695 Zabul and Kabul defeated Arabs. Umayyad Caliphate
695 First Muslim coins minted in Syrian capital, Damascus
694 Nov 9, Spanish King Egica accused Jews of aiding Moslems and sentenced them to slavery.
c696 Feng Du, a 1,300-year-old Tang dynasty city near the Yangtze River gorges, known as the city of ghosts.
c697 The last major earthquake occurred in the Salt Lake City region of Utah about this time. A major quake hits the region about every 1300 years.
697 In Ireland an assembly was called at the hill of Tara to put an end to the participation of Irish women in battle.
697 In the late fourth century era of Diocletian was employed in computing a horoscope inserted into the earlier Pahlavi translation of the Greek astrological poem of Dorotheus of Sidon (first or second century AD); this may indicate the existence of a set of astronomical tables in Pahlavi using that era.
698 Arabs capture Carthage, complete Great Mosque at Kairouan.
699 Muslim army returned to conquer Zabulistan.
699 Li Po (d.762), classical Chinese poet, was born. His poems included "Drinking Alone With the Moon."
699 En no Ozunu appeared in the official Japanese national log of events or the 'Shoku Nihongi.' It is in this year that En was banished from society, following the charge that he "misused his magical powers to control people." It is believed that En No Gyoja was historically known as En no Ozunu. The Japanese ascetic En-no-Gyoja founded the Shugendo religion on Mount Omine (5,640 feet). He blended aspects of tantric Buddhism, Shintoism, Taoism, Confucianism and Japanese shamanism.
c700 The mound building Caddo culture began flourishing in the Texas and Oklahoma area. It lasted to the mid-18th cent.
c700 Nov 1, The Celts of Ireland, Great Britain and northern France celebrated Oct. 31 to Nov 2 as their New Year from around 1000-500BC. The pagan harvest event incorporated masks to ward off evil ones, as dead relatives were believed to visit families on the first evening. The Catholic holiday of All Saints' Day, set for Nov. 1, was instituted around 700 CE to supplant the Druid holiday and Pope Gregory (731-741) made it official. Halloween was transplanted to the US in the 1840s.
c700 Abd al Malik issued the first pure Islamic coins.
c700 The Chinese gained control over Manchuria from the Koreans about this time.
c700 Trade along the coast of East Africa expanded and promoted the founding of such settlements as Kismayu, Mogadiscio, Gedi, Malindi, Mombasa, Kilwas and others.
c700 In Mexico the Zapotec city of Monte Alban was abandoned about this time.
c700 The Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet, was constructed. It became the traditional home of the Dalai Lama.
700-800 Pottery factory: The first industrial complex for glass and pottery production was built in Ar-Raqqah, Syria, in the 8th century. Extensive experimentation was carried out at the complex, which was two kilometres in length. Two other similar complexes have also been discovered.
661-750 Central heating through underfloor pipes: The hypocaust heating system used by the Romans continued to be in use around the Mediterranean region during late Antiquity and by the Umayyad caliphate. By the 12th century, Muslim engineers in Syria introduced an improved central heating system, where heat travelled through underfloor pipes from the furnace room, rather than through a hypocaust. This central heating system was widely used in bath-houses throughout the medieval Islamic world.
700-800 Tar roads and pavements: Tar was a vital component of the first sealed tarmac roads. The streets of Baghdad were the first to be paved with tar from the 8th century AD. Tar was derived from petroleum, accessed from oil fields in the region, through the chemical process of destructive distillation
700-800 Agency and Aval: The first agencies were the Hawala, mentioned in texts of Islamic jurisprudence as early as the 8th century. Hawala itself later influenced the development of the agency in common law and in civil laws such as the Aval in French law and the Avallo in Italian law. The words Aval and Avallo were themselves derived from Hawala. The transfer of debt, which was 'not permissible under Roman law but became widely practiced in medieval Europe, especially in commercial transactions', was due to the large extent of the 'trade conducted by the Italian cities with the Muslim world in the Middle Ages.' The agency was also 'an institution unknown to Roman law' as no 'individual could conclude a binding contract on behalf of another as his agent.' In Roman law, the 'contractor himself was considered the party to the contract and it took a second contract between the person who acted on behalf of a principal and the latter in order to transfer the rights and the obligations deriving from the contract to him.' On the other hand, Islamic law and the later common law 'had no difficulty in accepting agency as one of its institutions in the field of contracts and of obligations in general.'
700-800 King Offa decreed that an earthen barrier be built along the border between Wales and his kingdom of Mercia. Llwybr Clawdd Offa opened as a hiking trail in 1971.
700-800 In Bulgaria the Madara Horseman in Kaspichan was carved into a sandstone cliff.
700-800 The Catholic Church changed its rules on fasting and allowed fish to be eaten on Fridays and during Lent.
c700-800 Dionysus Exiguus (Dennis the Short), a Catholic monk, created a chronology for Pope St. John I with a calendar that began in the year CE 1.
700-800 In Bhutan the Taktsang monastery was founded by tantric master Padmasambhava, often described as "another Buddha."
700-800 The Tanka (short song) poetry form emerged in Japan about this time. The unrhymed verse formalized to 31 syllables arranged in a 5 line pattern of 5-7-5-7-7. In 2005 it became popular on cell phones.
700-800 In Japan a priest in the 8th century discovered the mineral hot springs at Yamashiro Onsen.
700-800 The village site of Galu, Kenya, produced the world’s oldest crucible steel.
700-800 The Bonampak site in Chiapas, Mexico, has frescoes painted on the stucco walls of Structure I from this time. They depict war, sacrifice and celebration. The name glyph for Shield Jaguar II, king of nearby Yaxchilan, was recognized.
700-800 Invading Slavs assimilated the Thracians in the area of modern Bulgaria and parts of Greece, Romania, Macedonia and Turkey.
700-800 Slav tribes settle into the territories of present-day Slovenia, Bosnia, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia, and assimilated the Illyrian populations of these regions. The Illyrians in the south averted assimilation.
700-800 Vikings settled the Faeroe Islands in the 8th century replacing Irish settlers. In 1948 the group of 18 islands, located between Britain and Iceland, became an autonomous region of Denmark.
700-800 Vikings began arriving to the Orkney Islands.
701 Sep 8, Sergius I, Syrian and Italian Pope (687-701), died.
701 In Japan, a University system was established, with 9 Chinese works required for math students. These were the classics that directed Japanese mathematics and its scientific application of centuries to come.
704 Khalid bin Yazeed (850-704) died
He employed Greek philosophers who were living in Egypt and paid them handsomely to translate Greek and Egyptian books on Chemistry, medicine and stars.
He studied medicine under John the Grammarian of Alexandria, and chemistry under Merrinos the Greek . He also encouraged several Greek and Coptic medical books to be translated into Arabic.
Khalid preserved what he had learned in a series of alchemical poems known as The Book of Amulets, The Great and Small Books of the Scroll, and The Paradise of Wisdom.
According to al-Nadim's Fihrist, Khalid ibn Yazid ibn Mu'awiyah was the first to encourage Greek philosophers in Egypt to translate works on medicine.
702 Muslim Arabs occupied Eritrean islands.
702 Japan's first civil and penal code was promulgated
704 The earliest description of potassium nitrate (gun powder) is by Khalid ibn Yazid (635-704)
705 Psychiatric hospital: The first psychiatric hospitals were built in the medieval Islamic world. The first of these were built built in Baghdad in 705, Fes in the early 8th century, and Cairo in 800
705 Between 697 and 705 Muslims captured Carthage
705 Mar 1, John VII began his reign as Catholic Pope.
705 Oct 8, Abd al-Malik, caliph of Damascus, died.
According to Yasin Hamid Safadi in his Islamic Calligraphy (1978), the Umayyad caliph Abdul Malek Ibn Marwan (685-705) was the first to legislate the compulsory use of Arabic script for all official and state registers.
705-15 Caliph Walid constructs the Great Mosque at Damascus
706 The first known hospital (Al-Nuri Hospital) was established in Damascus in 706
707 The first Bimaristan after the Gundishapur was founded in 707 by the Muslim caliph al-Waleed bin Abdel Malek in Damascus. At the time, most Islamic hospitals had doctors that diagnosed and treated all patients, but the Bimaristan was unique in that it had doctors that specialized in certain diseases.
At this time the medical writings of Ahron of Alexandria are said to have become the first scientific works translated into Arabic under the 'Umayyads, there is no certainty as to when this took place.
708 Mar 25, Constantine began his reign as Catholic Pope.
708 In France Bishop Aubert of Avranches had a dream in which Archangel Michael persuaded him to build an oratory dedicated to the saint on the rock off the Normandy coast known as Mont Tombe. Over the years it grew and became known as Mont St. Michel.
709 Apr 24, Wilfried (~76), bishop of York, died.
709 May 25, Aldhelmus (~69) of Ealdhelm, England, abbot, bishop, poet, saint, died.
710 The Fujiwara clan established the Kasuga Shrine in Nara, Japan.
710-784 The Nara Period of Japan. Japan’s 1st permanent capital arose in the Nara basin.
711 Apr 14, Childebert III (~27), king of the French, died.
711 Jul 19, The Muslim troops crossed the Strait of Gibraltar and defeated the Visigoth king Rodrigo at the battle of Guadalete. Berbers under Tarik-ibn Ziyad occupied Northern Spain. The Umayyads with the help of the Berbers in North Africa moved across the Strait of Gibraltar and began the conquest of Spain and Portugal. The word Gibraltar comes from the term Jabal-al-Tarik, which means the hill of Tarik. Gebel-al-Tarik means "Rock of Tarik."
711 Dec 11, Justitianus II (~42), emperor of Byzantium, died.
711 Tariq's Muslims defeated Roderick's army. Umayyad Caliphate
711-718 Muslims took over most of Spain.
711 Tariq ibn Ziyad attacks southern Spain - beginning of the conquest of al-Andalus. Destruction of the Gothic army of King Roderick at Wadi Bakka. Conquest of Sind by Muhammad ibn al-Qasim.
712 About 94/712, the Umayyad Caliph, Walid I, built a desert lodge at Qusair Amrah. This romantic place was decorated by wall paintings representing allegories and various kinds of animals and plants.
712 Qutayba ibn Muslim, Arab governor of Khurasan, conquers Khwarazm and Transoxiana, including the cities of Marv, Bukhara, Samarqand.
713 Muhammad bin Qasim was now master of the whole of Sind and part of the Punjab. After the occupation of Multan, he advanced to the borders of the kingdom of Kashmir. Threatened by this move, the raja of Kashmir sent an envoy to the Chinese emperor asking for help. He received no aid, but events at home stopped further Arab advance.
713 Spain was conquered by the Muslims.
712 The publication of Kojiki in Japan, the Record of Ancient Matters. The work was compiled by the court to strengthen its control over various noble lineages. Fictitious rulers were inserted to project the nation’s founding back to 660BC
712 Muza ben-Nosair completed the Muslim conquest of Spain. The Visigothic period ended.
713 Arab ambassadors visited China (The first arab ambassadors to China were sent by Nabi Muhammad in 615AD).
714 Al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf (r. 694-714), governor in Iraq, pacifies the province disturbed by sectarian uprisings and revolts. Administrative and economic reorganization. Final removal of the Byzantines from Carthage. Monetary reform: replacement of Sasanian and Byzantine coinages by coins with Arab-Islamic legend. Introduction of Arabic as language of government. Revolt of Ibn al-Ash'ath in Southern Persia and in Iraq. Rebuilding of the church of St John in Damascus and transformation into the Umayyad mosque
715 Apr 9, Constantine I, Greek-Syrian Catholic Pope (708-15), died.
715 May 19, St. Gregory II began his reign as Catholic Pope.
715 Caliph al-Walid I (r. 86/705-96/715) built the first hospital. By some it was no more than a leprosaria because it allowed for segregation of lepers from others. It had staff of salaried doctors to attend the sick.
718 The Japanese inn Hoshi Ryokan was founded in Komatsu.
718 The Arabian army attacked the Asturias mountain area and was defeated by Pelayo, a Visigothic aristocrat. Pelayo founded the Kingdom of Asturias. Since then there emerged a number of Christian regimes in the Iberian Peninsula. In opposition to the Islamic invaders, these Christian regimes started the Reconquista Movement to recover the territories occupied by the Muslims.
719 Narbonne (France) was captured by Muslims in 719AD.
720-724 Caliph Yazid II reversed 'Umar's reforms
720 The Nihon Shoki (the Chronicle of Japan), the oldest recorded Japanese document, was published. It was compiled by the court to strengthen its control over various noble lineages.
721 Muslims were defeated at Toulouse.
721-764 Kinich Ahkal Mo' Nab ruled Palenque.
c722 In China a 233-foot Buddha was built in Sichuan province. In 2002 a $30 million restoration project was undertaken.
723 In 101 Hijri Omer bin Abdul Aziz died
During the reign of Umar bin Abdul Aziz (717-720) of the Persian Empire, it is believed that a delegation from Tibet and China requested him to send Islamic missionaries to their countries. Caliph Umar is said to have sent Salah bin Abdullah Hanafi to Tibet. The Abbasid rulers of Baghdad also maintained re1ations with Tibet in the eighth and the ninth centuries.
Death of Umer bin Abdul Aziz marked the end of true Spirit of Islamic State. After him, in theory and in practice Islamic State became a monarchy, which is against the fundamental principles of Islam.
