Timeline 600AD-999AD

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600        Feb 16, Pope Gregory the Great decreed "God bless You" as the religiously correct response to a sneeze.
    (MC, 2/16/02)

600        Li Shimin, son of Chinese General Li Yuan (the Duke of Tang), was born about this time.
    (ON, 5/06, p.1)
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.
    (WSJ, 10/25/99, p.A50)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R51)
600        Quill pens, made from the outer feathers of crows and other large birds, became popular. The 1st books were printed in China.
    (SFC, 7/26/04, p.F4)

c600        Small porkers came to Hawaii with the Polynesians some 1400 years ago, and big pigs arrived with the Europeans.
    (WSJ, 7/25/95, p.A-6)

c600        Early settlers from the Marquesas built the Alakoko fishpond and taro fields on Kauai, Hawaii.
    (SFEC, 8/29/99, p.T6)

c600        The Joya de Ceren Maya site in El Salvador was buried beneath 16 feet of ash from nearby Loma Caldera.
    (AM, May/Jun 97 suppl. p.D)

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).
    (SFC, 10/16/06, p.B6)

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.
    (SFEM, 11/15/98, p.24)

c600-625    The burial site of the Prince of Prittlewell, an East Saxon prince or king, dated to about this time.
    (www.southend.gov.uk/content.asp?content=3686)

600-700    The Tantras, Buddhist texts for generating deep religious experiences, were produced in India.
    (SFEC,12/14/97, p.T5)
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.
    (WSJ, 8/2/01, p.A12)
600-700    The library at Alexandria, Egypt, disappeared in the 7th century.
    (WSJ, 6/1/00, p.A1)
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.
    (HNQ, 3/5/00)
600-700    Irish monastic monks founded a monastery at Skellig Michael (Michael’s Rock) during the 7th century and for the next 600 years the island was a center of their monastic life. In 1996 UNESCO listed it as a World Heritage Site.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skellig_Michael)(Econ, 9/12/09, p.94)
c600-700    St. Willibrord, an Irish missionary, spread Christianity in the region of Luxembourg.
    (SFC, 9/1/96, T3)
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.
    (AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.57)(NH, 10/98, p.24)
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. "
    (SFC, 4/26/97, p.E4)
600-700    Lady K'abel, considered the greatest ruler of the Mayan Late Classic period, ruled with her husband, K'inich Bahlam, for at least 20 years in the 7th century. She was the military governor of the Waka kingdom for her family, the imperial house of the Snake King, and she carried the title "Kaloomte" — translated as "Supreme Warrior," higher in authority than her husband, the king. In 2012 her tomb was discovered in northern Guatemala.
    (AP, 10/4/12)
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.
    (WSJ, 10/3/97, p.A1)
600-700    Serbs and Croats came into Montenegro in a second wave in the 7th century.
    (www, 6/3/98)
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.
    (AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.H)

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.
    (SFC, 4/21/03, p.A6)

c600-800    Irish monks began to seek solace in Iceland.
    (NH, 6/96, p.53)

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.
    (WSJ, 2/8/02, p.W11C)

c600-850    Late Classic Mayan paintings were found at a site in eastern Chiapas, Mexico, named "Bonampak," (painted walls).
    (AM, May/Jun 97 p.35)

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.
    (AM, May/Jun 97 suppl. p.BC)(SFC, 9/14/00, p.C8)

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.
    (SFC, 5/19/96, T-9)

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.
    (AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.F)

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.
    (AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.F)

604        Mar 12, Gregory I the Great (64), Pope (590-604), died. In 1997 R.A. Markus authored “Gregory the Great and His World.”
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Gregory_I)(WSJ, 4/12/08, p.W8)

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]
    (www.theosophy.org/tlodocs/teachers/PrinceShotoku.htm)

604-617    King Saebert of Essex reigned in England. St. Mellitus converted him to Christianity.
    (www.earlybritishkingdoms.com/kids/prittlewell_prince.html)

607        Mar 13, The 12th recorded passage of Halley's Comet occurred.
    (HN, 3/13/98)

607        The first envoy from Japan was sent to China.
    (Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)

609        May 13, Pope Boniface I turned Roman Pantheon into Catholic church.
    (MC, 5/13/02)

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.
    (ATC, p.59)(MC, 4/6/02)

610        Oct 5, Heraclitus' fleet took Constantinople.
    (MC, 10/5/01)

610-632    A Muslim tradition has it that Mohammed one day found that his favorite wife, Aisha, had purchased some cushions decorated with birds and animals. The prophet proclaimed that only God could bestow life and that pale imitations should be avoided. Thus the hadith, or tradition of the prophet, holds that: The house which contains pictures will not be entered by the angels."
    (WSJ, 7/22/96, p.A12)
610-632    During Mohammed’s ministry in Mecca and Medina the definition of jihad moved from persuasive proselytism to Muslim war against all infidels.
    (WSJ, 10/10/01, p.A10)

610-641    Heracles ruled the Byzantine Empire.
    (ATC, p.69)

611        In Cambodia at Angkor Borei the earliest known Khmer inscription dates to this time.
    (AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.D)

614        Croats settled in the area between the Adriatic Sea and the rivers Sava and Drava.
    (WSJ, 7/14/99, p.A23)

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.
    (SFEC, 12/22/96, p.T3)(WSJ, 4/5/02, p.W12)(SFC, 10/23/06, p.A15)

615        May 8, St. Boniface IV ended his reign as Catholic Pope.
    (MC, 5/8/02)

615        May 25, Boniface IV, Pope (608-15), died.
    (SC, 5/25/02)

615        Nov 23, Columbanus, Irish explorer, monastery founder, poet and saint (Poenitentiale), died (aka St. Columba).
    (MC, 11/23/01)

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.
    (ON, 5/06, p.1)

615        Pakal (12) became the Mayan ruler of Palenque. His reign ended with his death in 683.
    (SSFC, 12/7/03, p.C10)(WSJ, 9/16/04, p.D12)

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.
    (ON, 5/06, p.2)(Econ, 3/15/08, p.101)

617        Dec 12, The Chinese city of Chang’an fell to the Tang army.
    (ON, 5/06, p.2)

617-1279    The Tang Dynasty unified China.
    (ATC, p.69)

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.
    (ON, 5/06, p.3)

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.
    (Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)(NH, 7/96, p.32)(WSJ, 2/19/98, p.A20)(WSJ, 8/28/98, p.W10)

618-907    The area of Tiananmen Square was first cleared.
    (SFC, 6/25/98, p.A8)

619        Li Shimin led his armies against 2 warlords in northern China.
    (ON, 5/06, p.3)

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.
    (WSJ, 8/8/06, p.A10)(www.atheists.org/Islam/mohammedanism.html)

620        In northern China Gen’l. Li Shimin (~20) attacked Luoyang, which was held by the warlord Wang Shichong.
    (ON, 5/06, p.3)

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.
    (SSFC, 2/26/06, p.F10)

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.
    (ATC, p.59)(ON, 7/03, p.6)

621        Mar, In China a force of 120,000 men from Xia province advanced to rescue the city of Luoyang.
    (ON, 5/06, p.3)

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.
    (ON, 5/06, p.4)

622        Jul 16, Islamic Era began. Mahomet began his flight from Mecca to Medina (Hegira).
    (MC, 7/16/02)

622        Sep 20, Prophet Mohammed Abu Bakr arrived in Jathrib (Medina).
    (MC, 9/20/01)

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. The new faith was called "Islam," which means submission to Allah. Believers in Islam are called Muslims-- "Those who submit to Allah’s will." In Medina Mohammad tried to unite the Jews and Arabs and initially faced Jerusalem to pray. The Jewish leaders did not accept Mohammad as a prophet and so Mohammad expelled from the city the Jews who opposed him. From then on he commanded the Muslims to face the Kaaba in Mecca when praying.
    (V.D.-H.K.p.19)(ATC, p.60)

623-658    The first state of the Slavs living on the Middle Danube was Samo's Realm, a tribal confederation existing between 623 and 658. It encompassed the territories of Moravia, Slovakia, Lower Austria, Carantania, Sorbia at the Elbe, and probably also Bohemia, which lies between Sorbia and other parts of the realm.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Moravia)

622        The Constitution of Medina was drafted by the Islamic prophet Muhammad about this time. It constituted a formal agreement between Muhammad and all of the significant tribes and families of Yathrib (later known as Medina), including Muslims, Jews, and pagans.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_Medina)

624        Muslims engaged non-believers for the 1st time at the Battle of Badr
    (www.islaam.com/Article.aspx?id=128)

624-628    Several Jewish clans in the Arabian peninsula joined forces with an Arab tribe, the Quraysh, to make war on a renegade Qurayshi named Mohammad, who claimed he was a prophet of God.
    (Econ, 8/14/10, p.68)

c625        Raedwald, king of the East Angles and high king of the English peoples, was buried about this time.
    (Arch, 7/02, p.61)

626        Aug 7, Battle at Constantinople: Slavs, Persians and Avars were defeated. Emp. Heraclius repelled the attacks. The attacks began in 625.
    (PCh, 1992, p.60)(MC, 8/7/02)

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.
    (ON, 5/06, p.4)    

627        Byzantine Emperor Heraclius defeated the Persian army and regained Asia Minor, Syria, Jerusalem and Egypt.
    (ATC, p.45)

628        Apr 3, In Persia Kavadh sued for peace with the Byzantines. He handed back Armenia, Byzantine Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine and Egypt.
    (HN, 4/3/99)(AP, 4/3/99)
628        Apr 3, Chosroes II, emperor of Persia (579-628), was murdered by his son.
    (MC, 4/3/02)

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]
    (SFC, 8/31/04, p.A2)

629-645    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.
    (ATC, p.13)

630        Mar 21, Heraclius restored the True Cross, which he had recaptured from the Persians.
    (HN, 3/21/99)

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.
    (ATC, p.60)(WSJ, 11/15/01, p.A16)

632        Jun 8, Mohammed, the founder of Islam and unifier of Arabia, died. Iqra, which means read in Arabic, was reportedly the first word that the archangel Gabriel spoke to Mohammed. His companions compiled his words and deeds in a work called the Sunna. Here are contained the rules for Islam. The most basic are The Five Pillars of Islam. These are: 1) profession of faith 2) daily prayer 3) giving alms 4) ritual fast during Ramadan 5) Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca. The Sunna also calls for “jihad.” The term means struggle, i.e. to do one’s best to resist temptation and overcome evil. Four contenders stood out to succeed Mohammad. They were Abu Bakr, his trusted father-in-law. Umar and Uthman, long-time friends and advisers, and Ali, a cousin and blood relative. Ali was Mohammad’s son-in-law and the father of Mohammad’s grandsons. Abu Bakr was chosen as caliph i.e. successor. In 2001 Minou Reeves, Iranian-born scholar, authored “Muhammad in Europe: A Thousand Years of Western Myth-Making.” In 2013 Lesley Hazleton authored “The First Muslim: The Story of Muhammad.”
    (ATC, p.60,63)(SFC, 12/15/98, p.A7)(AP, 6/8/03)(SFC, 10/22/98, p.C5)(WSJ, 12/12/01, p.A15)(SSFC, 1/27/13, p.F1)

632        Jun 16, Origin of Persian [Yazdegird] Era.
    (MC, 6/16/02)

632        Hiuan-tsang, an Chinese pilgrim, visited the great Buddhas of Bamiyan, Afghanistan.
    (WSJ, 12/20/01, p.A13)

632-661    The Rashidun Caliphate, also known as the Rightly Guided Caliphate, comprising the first four caliphs in Islam's history, was founded after Muhammad's death. At its height, the Caliphate extended from the Arabian Peninsula, to the Levant, Caucasus and North Africa in the west, to the Iranian highlands and Central Asia in the east. It was the one of the largest empires in history up until that time.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashidun_Caliphate)

633        Muhammad’s chief clerk collected Mohammad’s revelations into one work called the Koran (Quran). Loosely translated it means "recitation." "Whoever witnesses the crescent of the month, he must fast the month." (Koran, al Baqarah 2:185) Ramadan begins the day after the crescent of the new moon is sighted and confirmed by 2 witnesses. Muslims must abstain from food and sex during daylight hours for a month to celebrate the revelation of the Koran to Mohammed. The later Sunnah holy text reported the sayings and deeds of Muhammad. The Muslim beard tradition is from the Sunnah.
    (ATC, p.60)(WSJ, 1/7/97, p.A1)(WSJ, 11/27/01, p.A14)

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."
    (WSJ, 10/19/01, p.W19)

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.
    (AP, 7/15/04)

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.
    (www.sispain.org/english/history/visigoth.html)

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.
    (ATC, p.66)(PC, 1992, p.61)

634        Sophronius (74), Christian monk, was elected patriarch and political ruler of Jerusalem.
    (ON, 7/03, p.3)

635        Damascus was captured by the Muslims.
    (ATC, p.78)

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.
    (ON, 7/03, p.5)

636        Jul 23, Arabs gained control of most of Palestine from Byzantine Empire.
    (MC, 7/23/02)

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.
    (PC, 1992, p.61)

636        Nov 1, Nicholas Boileau-Despreaux, French poet, was born. He was also a critic and official royal historian and wrote "Lutrin. "
    (HN, 11/1/99)

637        Ctesiphon, a center of Christianity southeast of Baghdad, was taken by Arabs, who renamed it Madain.
    (SFC, 3/31/03, p.W5)

637        Muslim armies conquered Mesopotamia.
    (ATC, p.78)

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."
    (ON, 7/03, p.3)

638        Mar 11, Sophronius of Jerusalem, saint, patriarch of Jerusalem, died.
    (MC, 3/12/02)

638        Arabs conquered the city of Hebron. They allowed the Jews to build a synagogue near Abraham’s burial site.
    (SFC, 12/4/08, p.A27)

640        Muslim Arabs invaded Armenia and capture Dvin, its principal town.
    (CO Enc. / Armenia)

640        The Muslim government began minting coins about this time.
    (ATC, p.83)

641        Feb 11, Heraclius (~65), emperor of Byzantium (610-641), died.
    (MC, 2/11/02)

641        Fustat was established as an encampment for the Muslim Arab conqueror of Egypt. The city reached its peak in the 12th century, with a population of approximately 200,000. It was the center of administrative power in Egypt, until it was ordered burned in 1168 by its own vizier, Shawar, to keep its wealth out of the hands of the invading Crusaders. The remains of the city were eventually absorbed by nearby Cairo, which had been built to the north of Fustat in 969 when the Fatimids conquered the region.
    (SSFC, 7/24/11, p.F7)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fustat)

642        Sep 17, Arabs conquered Alexandria and destroyed the great library. Omar, the second caliph, successor of Mohammed, conquered Alexandria, then the capital of world scholarship.
    (V.D.-H.K.p.103)(MC, 9/17/01)

642        The Arabs conquered the Sassanids.
    (ATC, p.33)

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.
    (AP, 3/23/06)

644        Nov 3, Umar of Arabia, the 2nd Caliph of Islam, was stabbed by Abu Lulu while leading the morning prayers at Medina. He died 4 days later on Nov 7. On his deathbed Umar named a council to choose the next caliph. The council appointed Uthman. Uthman continued to expand the Muslim empire.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umar)

645        Downfall of the Soga Clan in Japan.
    (Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)

649        May 14, Theodore, Greek Pope (642-49), excommunicated by Paul II, died.
    (MC, 5/14/02)

649        Jul 5, St. Martin I began his reign as Pope.
    (MC, 7/5/02)

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.
    (TJOK, 1999, p.16)

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.
    (Nat. Hist., 4/96, p.28)

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.
    (SFEC, 11/8/98, p.T10)(HNQ, 4/24/99)

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.
    (PBS, 10/1/06)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moche)

650-750    In Mexico the Teotihuacan culture began declining and was almost abandoned by the end of this period.
    (SFC, 10/22/98, p.C2)

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 Grendel--who has been terrorizing the court of the king of Danes--by 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.
    (WUD, 1994, p.140)(WSJ, 2/24/00, p.A16)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R53)(HNQ, 1/10/02)

651        In Persia Yazdegird III, the last Sassanian king, was murdered.
    (WSJ, 2/2/00, p.A24)

652         Arabs introduced Islam to Afghanistan.
    (www.afghan-web.com/history/)

653        Pope Martin I was charged with treason. He was stripped naked in public and exiled to Crimea.
    (Econ, 2/16/13, p.61)

654        A Saxon monk founded St. Botolph’s Town in England. The name gradually changed to Boston.
    (SFC, 8/12/00, p.B3)

656        In Saudi Arabia Uthman (Othman), the 3rd caliph, was murdered. Under his rule a full, standard text of the Quran was compiled. He had appointed members of his own family as regional governors and caused bitter jealousy among other families. This caused an angry mob of 500 to murder him. This gave Ali an opportunity to claim power. Some claim that Ali plotted Uthman’s murder. Civil war broke out. Muawija, Uthman’s cousin and governor of Syria, challenged Ali’s right to rule. Ali prepared for war but was murdered by an angry former supporter. The followers of Ali became known as Shiites from the Arabic meaning "the party of Ali." Those who believe that the election of the first three caliphs was valid and who claim to follow the Sunna reject the Shiite idea of the Imam, and are called the Sunnis.
    (ATC, p.67-68)(WSJ, 1/12/08, p.A6)
656        The Imam Ali mosque in Najaf marks the grave of Ali, the son-in-law of Mohammed and a central figure in Shiite Islam.
    (SFC, 4/23/98, p.A16)

657        Jun 2, St. Eugene I ended his reign as Catholic Pope.
    (SC, 6/2/02)

657        Jul 26, Mu'awiyan defeated Caliph Ali in the Battle of Siffin in Mesopotamia.
    (HN, 7/26/98)

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.
    (Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 217)

661        Jan 27, Ali ibn Abu Talib, caliph of Islam (656-61), was murdered in Kufa, Iraq. Caliph Ali, son-in-law of Mohammed, was assassinated and his followers (Shiites) broke from the majority Muslim group. A member of the anarchist sect of Kharajites assassinated Ali. This sect believed that there are no verdict’s but God’s.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_ibn_Abi_Talib)(SFC, 3/16/02, p.A14) (SSFC, 6/30/02, p.M6)(http://tinyurl.com/44dtom)

661        The Umayyad regime was founded by Muawiya ibn Abi Sufyan (602-680, long-time governor of Syria, after the end of the First Muslim Civil War.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umayyad_Caliphate)
661        Muawija became caliph. He moved the capital from Medina to Damascus. His followers were called the Umayyads. 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.
    (ATC, p.67,78)(SFEC, 4/11/99, p.9)

662        Aug 13, Maximus Confessor (b.c580), Greek theologian, died.
    (MC, 8/13/02)

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.
    (Econ, 5/22/04, p.79)

668        Jul 15, Constantine II (37), emperor of Byzantium, died.
    (MC, 7/15/02)

668-1392    In Korea the Silla Kingdom united the peninsula and began the Koryo Dynasty from which Korea derived its name.
    (SFC, 7/26/97, p.E3)

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.
    (www.britannia.com/bios/abofc/theodore.html)

c670        A Japanese inventor based the first design of a folding fan on the structure of a bat’s wing.
    (SFEC, 8/3/97, Z1 p.2)

671        Chinese monk I-Tsing, wrote that he visited Srivijaya in for 6 months during this year. Srivijaya (also written Sri Vijaya) was a powerful ancient thalassocratic Malay empire based on the island of Sumatra, modern day Indonesia, which influenced much of Southeast Asia.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srivijaya)

c672        The Venerable Bede (d.735), Beda Venerabilis, English speaking church historian, was born.
    (WSJ, 10/22/03, p.D12)

676     Cairo was built by the Arabs only 1300 years ago. The name comes from the Egyptian "El Qahir," the name of the planet Mars.
    (Enc. of Africa, 1976, p.165)(SFEC, 8/17/97, Z1 p.2)

678        Jun 27, St. Agatho began his reign as Catholic Pope.
    (SC, 6/27/02)

680        Oct 10, Imam Hussein, grandson of prophet Mohammed, was beheaded. He was killed by rival Muslim forces on the Karbala plain in modern day Iraq. He then became a saint to Shiite Muslims. Traditionalists and radical guerrillas alike commemorate his martyrdom as the ceremony of Ashura. The 10-day mourning period during the holy month of Muharram commemorates the deaths of Caliph Ali’s male relatives by Sunnis from Iraq. Shiites went on to believe that new leaders should be descendants of Mohammad and Ali. Sunnis went on to vest power in a body of Muslim scholars called the ulema.
    (http://countrystudies.us/iraq/15.htm)(SFC, 3/16/02, p.A14)(SFC, 2/24/06, p.A15)

681        Bulgaria’s 1st kingdom was established.
    (WPR, 3/04, p.28)

682        Aug 17, Leo II, later St. Leo, began his reign as Catholic Pope.
    (SC, 8/17/02)

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.
    (SFEM, 6/13/99, p.8)

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.
    (SSFC, 5/5/02, p.C5)(WSJ, 9/16/04, p.A1)

683-685     Khazars invaded Transcaucasia and inflicted much damage and stole
much booty. The Khazar invaders killed the rulers of Armenia and Georgia.
    (TJOK, p.159)

684        Jun 26, Benedict II (d.685) was consecrated as Pope.
    (PTA, 1980, p.162)

684-702    Mayan leader Kan Balam II, son of Pakal, ruled over Palenque.
    (SSFC, 12/7/03, p.C10)

685        May 8, St. Benedict II ended his reign as Catholic Pope.
    (MC, 5/8/02)

685        May 21, Battle at Nechtansmere: Picts trounced the Northumbrians.
    (MC, 5/21/02)

685        In China a manual on calligraphy was made. It summarized the aesthetic ideals and theories of Chinese writing.
    (SFEC, 10/6/96, DB p.37)

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.
    (ATC, p.83)

686        Aug 2, John V, 1st Greek-Syrian Pope (685-86), died.
    (MC, 8/2/02)

687        Cuthbert, a former monk hermit and reluctant bishop of Lindisfarne, died. His life and “miracles” were set down by the Venerable Bede. A gospel commissioned to honor Cuthbert was placed in his coffin around 698.  His remains were carried to the mainland when the monks and people of the island fled Viking invaders, and ended up in Durham. In 1104 the coffin was opened in preparation for a formal reinterment and the book was re-discovered. It was given to the Jesuits in 1769 and in 2011 they sold it to Britain for £9 million.
    (Econ, 7/16/11, p.62)(Reuters, 5/17/12)

687-714    Pepin II united and ruled the Franks.
    (ATC, p.51)

688        North Africa was conquered by the Muslims under Abd al Malik.
    (ATC, p.83)

688-714    The Maya of Tonina and Palenque fought several battles over watershed areas in the region that fed the Usumacinta river, which now marks the boundary between Mexico and Guatemala.
    (AP, 7/7/11)

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.
    (SFC, 3/2/02, p.A15)(WSJ, 5/20/06, p.P16)

692        Oct 2, A Mayan prisoner from Copan, depicted in a well-preserved stone sculpture found in 2011, was captured on this day.
    (AP, 7/8/11)

694        Nov 9, Spanish King Egica accused Jews of aiding Moslems and sentenced them to slavery.
    (MC, 11/9/01)

696        Jun 27, A Mayan ballcourt at Tonina was dedicated and sculptures, found in 2011, were created to commemorate the dedication.
    (AP, 7/8/11)

c696        Feng Du, a 1,300-year-old Tang dynasty city near the Yangtze River gorges, known as the city of ghosts.
    (WSJ, 10/8/96, p.A20)

697        The first Arab Islamic currency was struck in Damascus by the Umayyad ruler Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan (697-698 A.D.)
    (http://tinyurl.com/6c6dlco)

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.
    (SFEC, 4/6/97, p.C13)

697        In Ireland an assembly was called at the hill of Tara to put an end to the participation of Irish women in battle.
    (AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.11)

699        Li Po (d.762), classical Chinese poet, was born. His poems included "Drinking Alone With the Moon."
    (SFC, 10/30/03, p.A26)

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.
    (SSFC, 10/2/05, p.E4)(http://tinyurl.com/8s4gm)    

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. [see 835]
    (WSJ, 10/28/99, p.A24)(WSJ, 10/29/99, p.W17)

c700        The mound building Caddo culture began flourishing in the Texas and Oklahoma area. It lasted to the mid-18th cent.
    (AM, Vol. 48, No. 3)

700        The Egypttian port city of Heracleion, founded about 800BC, was swallowed by the sea about this time. Researchers later found it—150 feet beneath the surface of Egypt's Bay of Aboukir.
    (http://tinyurl.com/dxhuztk)

c700        Abd al Malik issued the first pure Islamic coins.
    (ATC, p.83)

c700        The Chinese gained control over Manchuria from the Koreans about this time.
    (WSJ, 10/9/95, p.A-1)

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.
    (Enc. of Africa, 1976, p.169)

c700        In Mexico the Zapotec city of Monte Alban was abandoned about this time.
    (SFEC, 10/3/99, p.A24)

c700        The Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet, was constructed. It became the traditional home of the Dalai Lama.
    (SSFC, 10/5/03, p.D2)

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.
    (SSFC, 4/7/02, p.C10)
700-800    In Bulgaria the Madara Horseman in Kaspichan was carved into a sandstone cliff.
    (SFEC, 8/28/98, p.T4)
700-800    The Catholic Church changed its rules on fasting and allowed fish to be eaten on Fridays and during Lent.
    (NH, 5/96, p.58)
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.
    (SFEC,11/16/97, BR p.5)
700-800    In Bhutan the Taktsang monastery was founded by tantric master Padmasambhava, often described as "another Buddha."
    (SFEC, 2/23/96, p.T5)
700-800    According to Iraqis Muslim forces "liberated" Iraq from the Persians in the 8th century qadissiyah battle.
    (SFC, 2/1/02, p.A18)
700-800    Escaped slaves called the Zanj took refuge from the early Islamic empire in the marshes of southern Iraq.
    (SSFC, 12/28/03, p.A6)
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.
    (WSJ, 10/4/05, p.A1)
700-800    In Japan a priest in the 8th century discovered the mineral hot springs at Yamashiro Onsen.
    (WSJ, 7/19/05, p.A1)
700-800    The village site of Galu, Kenya, produced the world’s oldest crucible steel.
    (NH, 6/97, p.44)
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.
    (AM, May/Jun 97 suppl. p.F)(AM, May/Jun 97 p.37)
700-800    Invading Slavs assimilated the Thracians in the area of modern Bulgaria and parts of Greece, Romania, Macedonia and Turkey.
    (SFC, 8/17/05, p.A2)
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.
    (www, Albania, 1998)
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.
    (SSFC, 7/29/07, p.G8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faroe_Islands)
700-800    Vikings began arriving to the Orkney Islands.
    (SFEC, 3/23/97, p.T3)

700-900    In Nigeria the Yoruba-speaking kingdom of Ife began to develop as a center of trade and weaving and bead manufacture.
    (Econ, 9/4/10, p.92)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ife)

701        Sep 8, Sergius I, Syrian and Italian Pope (687-701), died.
    (MC, 9/8/01)

702        Japan's first civil and penal code was promulgated. [see 604CE]
    (Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)

705        Mar 1, John VII began his reign as Catholic Pope.
    (SC, 3/1/02)

705        Oct 8, Abd al-Malik, caliph of Damascus, died.
    (MC, 10/8/01)

708        Mar 25, Constantine began his reign as Catholic Pope.
    (HN, 3/24/98)

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.
    (WSJ, 10/7/06, p.P18)

709        Apr 24, Wilfried (~76), bishop of York, died.
    (MC, 4/24/02)

709        May 25, Aldhelmus (~69) of Ealdhelm, England, abbot, bishop, poet, saint, died.
    (SC, 5/25/02)

710        The Fujiwara clan established the Kasuga Shrine in Nara, Japan.
    (Hem, 9/04, p.46)

710-784    The Nara Period of Japan. Japan’s 1st permanent capital arose in the Nara basin.
    (Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)(Hem, 9/04, p.41)

711        Apr 14, Childebert III (~27), king of the French, died.
    (MC, 4/14/02)

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."
    (ATC, p.79)(SFEC, 9/29/96, Z1 p.2)(www.sispain.org/english/history/visigoth.html)

711        Dec 11, Justitianus II (~42), emperor of Byzantium, died.
    (MC, 12/11/01)    

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
    (Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.34)

712        Muza ben-Nosair completed the Muslim conquest of Spain. The Visigothic period ended.
    (www.sispain.org/english/history/visigoth.html)

713        In China construction began on the Great Buddha of Leshan under the direction of the monk Haitong. It was completed after 90 years. In 2002 a $30 million restoration project aimed to preserve the 233-foot statue, the largest Buddha in the world.
    (Arch, 9/02, p.19)

715        Apr 9, Constantine I, Greek-Syrian Catholic Pope (708-15), died.
    (HN, 4/9/98)(MC, 4/9/02)

715        May 19, St. Gregory II began his reign as Catholic Pope.
    (HN, 5/19/98)

718        The Japanese inn Hoshi Ryokan was founded in Komatsu.
    (Econ, 12/18/04, p.104)(SFC, 4/14/06, p.D1)

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.
    (Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)(AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.34)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R46)

721-764    Kinich Ahkal Mo' Nab ruled Palenque.
    (AM, Jul-Aug/99, p.16)

c722        In China a 233-foot Buddha was built in Sichuan province. In 2002 a $30 million restoration project was undertaken.
    (SFC, 7/4/02, p.A12)

727        May 30, Hubertus (72), bishop of Tongeren-Maastricht, saint, died.
    (MC, 5/30/02)

727     Houei-tch’ao, a Korean pilgrim, visited the great Buddhas of Bamiyan, Afghanistan.
    (WSJ, 12/20/01, p.A13)

729        Apr 24, Egbertus (89), English bishop, St. Egbert, died in Iona.
    (MC, 4/24/02)

729        Emperor Leo the Isaurian ordered the destruction of an icon of Christ set in the great Bronze Gate in Constantinople. Theodosia led a group of enraged women who killed the officer removing the image. Theodosia was killed in the forum and became a martyr-saint. Her saint’s day was May 29.
    (Ot, 1993, p.3)

730         Khazar commander Barjik led Khazar troops through the Darial Pass
to invade Azerbaijan. At the Battle of Ardabil, the Khazars defeated an entire Arab army. The Battle of Ardabil lasted three days, and resulted in the death of a major Arab general named Jarrah. The Khazars then conquered Azerbaijan and Armenia and northern Iraq for a brief time.
    (TJOK, pages 160-161)

731        Feb 11, Pope Gregory II (b.669), born in Rome as Gregorius Sabellus, died.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Gregory_II)

731-741    Gregory III served as Pope.
    (WUD, 1994, p.621)

732        Oct 10, At Tours, France, Charles Martel killed Yemenite general Abd el-Rahman and halted the Muslim invasion of Europe. Islam's westward spread was stopped by the Franks at the Battle of Tours (also known as the Battle of Poitiers).
    (http://tinyurl.com/o1uj)(HN,10/10/98)

732        Pope Gregory III banned horseflesh from Christian tables after he learned that pagans of northern Europe ate it in their religious rites.
    (SFC, 5/30/98, p.E4)

735        May 26, The Venerable Bede (~62), Beda Venerabilis, English speaking church historian, died.
    (MC, 5/26/02)(WSJ, 10/22/03, p.D12)

737         Marwan, an Arab general, captured the Khazar khagan and forced him to pledge support to the Caliphate and convert to Islam.
    (TJOK, pages 162-163)

738        The great Lord 18 Rabbit built a ball court at the Mayan city of Copan. In a surprise attack he was captured and decapitated by Cauac Sky from the city of Quirigia, some 60 km. to the east. In 1998 Michael D. Coe and Justin Kerr published "The Art of the Maya Scribe," a look at the progress made in decoding the Mayan writing system.
     (Hem, Dec. 94, p.123)(SFEC, 7/5/98, BR p.10)

738        Butz Tiliw’ or Cauac Sky defeated his overlord, Copan’s 13th ruler, 18 Rabbit. Monuments to this event are at the Quirigua Maya site in Guatemala.
    (AM, May/Jun 97 suppl. p.F)

739        Nov 7, Willibrord (81), [Clemens], 1st bishop of Utrecht (695-739) and saint , died.
    (MC, 11/7/01)

740        Tah ak Chaan (Taj Chan Ank) began a 50 year rule over the city of Cancuen in what later became Guatemala.
    (SFC, 9/9/00, p.A2)(AM, 7/04, p.16)

740        The Virupaksha temple in Pattadakal, an early capital of the Chalukyas of southern India, was built by Queen Lokamahadevi about this time to commemorate her husband's victory over the Pallavas.
    (http://tinyurl.com/s6lck)

741        Jun 18, Leo III de Isaurier, Byzantine Emperor (717-41), died.
    (MC, 6/18/02)

741        Oct 22, Charles Martel of Gaul died at Quiezy. His mayoral power was divided between his two sons, Pepin III and Carloman.
    (HN, 10/22/98)

741        The Arab slave trade was one of the elements that sparked the great Berber rebellion in  North Africa and Islamic Spain (http://tinyurl.com/2zrltp).
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hisham_ibn_Abd_al-Malik)(Econ, 7/7/07, p.79)

742        Apr 2, Charlemagne (d.814), Charles I the Great, King of the Franks and first Holy Roman emperor (800-14), was born. His capital was at Aachen (Acquisgrana in Latin).
    (V.D.-H.K.p.105)(SFEM, 10/12/97, p.46)(HN, 4/2/98)

743        Mar 1, Slave export by Christians to heathen areas was prohibited.
    (SC, 3/1/02)

743-1194    In France five cathedrals were built on the site of Chartres cathedral over this period.
    (Hem., 10/97, p.83)

744        Lords of the Lowland Maya city of Caracol conducted a burning ritual in the cave at Naj Tunich, in the Peten of Guatemala.
    (AM, 7/97, p.51)

745        Some 200,000 Slovenians, settled in a pocket of the eastern slopes of the Alps, were threatened by the Avars and the Bavarians. For safety they adopted Christianity and accepted the protection of the Frankish emperor
    (SFC, 5/26/96, T-5)

745-840    The Uighur of eastern Turkestan formed an empire in the north that was ended by an invasion of the Kyrgyz peoples.
    (www.gobiexpeditions.com)

746        Jun 12, The estimated date for the dedication of the Mayan Temple 22 in Copan.
    (Nat. Hist., 4/96, p.31)

748        Wasil ibn Ata, Muslim theologian and jurist, died. He had left the teaching lessons of Hasan al-Basri after a theological dispute regarding the issue of Al-Manzilah bayna al-Manzilatayn. He and his followers, including Amr ibn Ubayd (d.761), were labeled Mu'tazili. The adherents of the Mu'tazili school (Mutazilites) are best known for their having asserted that, because of the perfect unity and eternal nature of God, the Qur'an must therefore have been created, as it could not be co-eternal with God. Mutazilites stressed human reason.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasil_ibn_Ata)(Econ, 8/6/11, p.22)

749        Dec 4, John of Damascus (b.~676), a Christian Arab theologian, died at the Mar Saba monastery near Jerusalem. He is considered "the last of the Fathers" of the Eastern Orthodox church and is best known for his strong defense of icons.
    (Econ, 3/30/13, p.80)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_of_Damascus)

749        An earthquake cause great damage in the area of the Sea of Galilee.
    (SFC, 6/18/02, p.A2)

c750    The Anasazi built entire cities into cliffs around the West since at least this time. Before that they were digging pit houses and even earlier, about 350 B.C., were probably living in Colorado caves. Their present name comes from a Navajo word meaning "the ancient ones" or "the ancient enemy."
    (HNQ, 7/1/01)

750        Constantinople, as the center of eastern rule used the Greek language for communication.
    (V.D.-H.K.p.65)

c750        Arab immigrants settled upstream from Soba, the capital of Alwa, and developed a strong new state called Funj.
    (Enc. of Africa, 1976, p.170)

c750        Teotihuacan, the 1st major urban center of Mesoamerica, fell about this time. It was burned, deserted and its people scattered. It contained the Pyramid of the Moon and the Pyramid of the Sun.
    (SSFC, 5/6/01, p.T8)

c750-850    The Maya city of La Milpa reached its peak with about 50,000 people.
    (SFC, 6/23/96, p.A10)

750-1258    Muslim power in Persia was held by the Abbassid caliphs, who claimed lands that stretched from Central Asia to North Africa and Spain. One Abbasid general, Abdullah, invited 80 Umayyad leaders to a banquet where they were killed by Abdullah’s men. Only one Umayyad, Abd al Rahman, was able to escape. He fled all the way to Spain where he united the warring Muslin groups there and built a new Umayyad government. So now the Muslims were split in two groups. The Abbassid dynasty of the Moslem Empire ruled Arabia and the eastern empire. All of the caliphs of this era claim descended from Abbas, the uncle of Mohammed.
    (AHD, 1971, p.2)(ATC, p.84)(SFC, 4/12/03, p.A14)

750-1375    The Sican culture flourished on Peru's northern desert coast. In 2006 archaeologists unearthed 22 graves containing a trove of Sican artifacts, including the first "tumi" ceremonial knives ever discovered by archaeologists rather than looted by thieves.
    (AP, 11/22/06)

751        During a raid into central Asia, the Abbasids captured some Chinese artisans skilled in paper making.
    (ATC, p.89)

751- 987    The Frankish dynasty of Pepin the Short began the Carolingian period.
    (AHD, 1971, p.205)

752        Mar 23, Pope Stephen II was elected to succeed Pope Zacharias; however, Stephen died 4 days later.
    (AP, 3/23/97)(PTA, 1980, p.184)

752        Mar 26, Pope Stephen II died 4 days after his election.
    (SS, 3/26/02)(PTA, 1980, p.184)

752        Abu Jafar al Mansur, the second Abbasid caliph, moved the capital to Baghdad.
    (ATC, p.85)

c752        Emperor Shomu built a great Buddhist temple and started a collection from the gifts that were brought to its dedication. Rulers for the next 12 centuries added to the collection.
    (WSJ, 1/13/98, p.A20)

752        The dedication of the Great Buddha of Todai Temple in Nara.
    (Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)

754        Jun 5, Friezen murdered bishop Boniface [Winfrid], English saint, archbishop of Dokkum, and over 50 companions.
    (MC, 6/5/02)

754        The Iconoclasts (image smashers) prevailed and religious art was banned in churches by an edict that remained in effect for a century.
    (WSJ, 3/10/97, p.A16)

756        May 15, Abd-al-Rahman was proclaimed the emir of Cordoba, Spain. Abd al Rahman united the Umayyad forces in Spain and made the ancient Roman city of Cordoba his new capital.
    (ATC, p.95)(HN, 5/15/98)

755        Dec 16, The An Lushan rebellion began when general An Lushan declared himself emperor in Northern China, establishing a rival Yan Dynasty. The rebellion was quashed in 763.
    (Econ, 6/9/12, p.87)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Lushan_Rebellion)

757        Apr 26, Stephen II ended his reign as Catholic Pope.
    (HN, 4/26/98)

757        May 29, St. Paul I (d.767) began his reign as Catholic Pope.
    (PTA, 1980, p.188)(SC, 5/29/02)

760        May 22, The 14th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet occurred.
    (MC, 5/22/02)

762        Jul 30, A Persian astrologer, selected by caliph al-Mansur (the Victorious), selected this day as propitious for breaking ground for the city of Baghdad. Al-Mansur was one of the founders of the Abassid dynasty.
    (WSJ, 2/14/09, p.W8)

763        Feb 17, The An Lushan rebellion, begun in 755, ended. It had spanned the reigns of 3 Tang emperors before it was quashed. The rebellion and subsequent disorder resulted in a huge loss of life and large-scale destruction.
    (Econ, 6/9/12, p.87)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Lushan_Rebellion)

763        Tibetan armies occupied the capital of China.
    (SFEM, 1/24/99, p.6)

763        Altar Q depicts Yax Pasah (Yax Pasaj), Copan’s last dynastic ruler, receiving the symbolic baton of office from founder K’inich Yax K’uk’ Mo’ in this year.
    (NG, 12/97, p.80)(AM, 3/04, p.43)

764-770    In Japan Empress Shotoku had a million miniature pagodas made in thanks for regaining control of the throne. Sacred text was placed in each one and distributed to the 10 most important temples.
    (WSJ, 7/27/00, p.A20)

765        Dec 31, The coffin of Ho-tse Shen-hui was interred in a stupa built in China.
    (MC, 12/31/01)

765-790    The Mayan palace of Cancuen, one of the largest in Guatemala, was built by King Taj Chan Ahk.
    (AP, 4/23/04)

766-787    The Chinese poet Du Fu arrived in Baidi Cheng and was given the means to write poetry by the local warlord. He wrote a third of his life’s work with many poems in the regulated style called lushi.
    (NH, 7/96, p.32)

768        Sep 24, Pepin the Short (54) of Gaul died. His dominions were divided between his sons Charles (Charlemagne) and Carloman.
    (PC, 1992, p.67)

768-814    Charlemagne becomes king of the Franks and emperor of the former Western Roman Empire.
    (V.D.-H.K.p.105)(ATC, p.72)

770        The Syrian Orthodox Church of St. Thomas (Mar Toma) was built in Mosul (Iraq).
    (SFC, 12/24/09, p.A3)

771        Dec 4, With the death of his brother Carloman, Charlemagne became sole ruler of the Frankish Empire.
    (HN, 12/4/98)

771-814    Reign of Charlemagne.
    (Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)

772        Mar 1, Po Tjiu-I (Bai Juyi), Chinese poet (d.846), Governor of Hang-tsjow, was born. His work included the narrative poem "Song of the Pipa," which protested the social evils of his day.
    (WSJ, 3/17/00, p.W2)(SC, 3/1/02)

774-814    Charlemagne became king of the Lombards.
    (V.D.-H.K.p.68)

776        Al-Jahiz (d.868), Muslim theologian and scholar, was born in Basra about this time. He is credited with writing nearly two hundred works, although fewer than one hundred survive today. His most famous work is Al-Hayawan” (The Book of animals), which merges discussions of zoology with philosophy.
    (Econ, 2/7/09, p.72)(www.enotes.com/classical-medieval-criticism/al-jahiz)

776-795    Chan Muan (Sky Screech Owl) reigned over the Bonampak site in what is now eastern Chiapas, Mexico. The site was abandoned at the end of his reign.
    (AM, May/Jun 97 p.35)

778        Aug 15, At the Battle at Roncesvalles the Basques beat Charlemagne.
    (PC, 1992, p.67)

779        King Trisong Detsen led Tibet. Under his rule the first Buddhist monastery, Samye, was built. It was built under the influence of Padmasambhava (Guru Rimpoche), Tibet’s greatest saint. Padmasambhava was an 8th century sorcerer and saint who converted Tibet to Buddhism. Legend has it that he dictated "sacred geography" texts to his queen consort and then hid them for future discovery. The texts were discovered by 17th century charismatic lamas.
    (Hem., 4/97, p.72,75)(SFEC,12/14/97, p.T5)(WSJ, 3/11/99, p.A20)

780        A group of West Africans called the Soninke took control of Ghana and developed it into a major trading empire.
    (ATC, p. 113)

781        Yakib ben Laith, a Saffarid prince from an eastern Iranian dynasty, stripped the sanctuaries of Bamiyan, Afghanistan, of their metal idols.
    (WSJ, 12/20/01, p.A13)

783        Jul 12, Bertha "with the great feet", wife of French king Pippin III, died.
    (MC, 7/12/02)

786        Feb 4, Harun al-Rashid succeeded his older brother the Abbasid Caliph al-Hadi as Caliph of Baghdad.
    (HN, 2/4/99)

786        Sep 24, Al-Hadi, Arabic caliph of Islam (185-86), died.
    (MC, 9/24/01)


786        Abd al Rahman began construction of the Great Mosque of Cordoba. It was under construction for 200 years.
    (ATC, p.95)

787        Sep 24, The 2nd Council of Nicaea (7th ecumenical council) opened in Asia Minor.
    (http://www.malaspina.com/site/person_672.asp)

787          Oct 23, Byzantine Empress Irene (c. 752-803) attended the final session of the 2nd church council at Nicaea, Bithynia [now Iznik, a city in Anatolia (now part of Turkey)]. The council formally revived the adoration of icons and reunited the Eastern church with that of Rome.
    (http://www.malaspina.com/site/person_672.asp)

c791        Croats established the principalities of Primortska Hrvatska on the Adriatic coast and Posavska Hrvatska in inland Croatia.
    (WSJ, 7/14/99, p.A23)

792        The first paper making factory in the Islamic Empire was built in Baghdad.
    (ATC, p.89)

793        Jun 8, Vikings raided the Northumbrian coast in England. Corfe served as a center of West Saxon resistance to Viking invaders. Vikings plundered the monastery and St. Cuthbert convent at Lindsfarne
    (HN, 6/8/98)(AM, 7/00, p.64)(PC, 1992, p.68)

794        Aug 10, Fastrada (30), 3rd wife of French king Charlemagne, died.
    (MC, 8/10/02)

794        Charlemagne created a single currency for his empire.
    (Econ, 6/18/11, p.30)
794        The capital of Japan was moved from Nara to Kyoto and the new Imperial Palace was built there. It remained there until 1868.
    (Hem., 2/96, p.57-58)(Hem, 9/04, p.41)

794-1185    The Heian Period in Japan. The kimono originated in this period. Prof. Helen McCullough (d.1998) of UC Berkeley and her husband translated "A Tale of Flowering Fortunes," whose notes and appendixes made it an encyclopedia of Heian court life. She published 11 volumes of studies and translations of classical Japanese poetry that included: "The Tale of the Heike" and "The Great Mirror."
    (Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)(SFC, 2/7/97, p.D1)(SFC, 4/23/98, p.B4)

795        Taj Chan Ahk, the Mayan ruler of Cancuen (Guatemala), died.
    (SFC, 11/17/05, p.A17)

795        Vikings first raided Ireland.
    (SFEC, 8/1/99, p.T8)

795-1185    The Heian period was a time of elegant and refined rice papers.
    (SFC, 5/17/97, p.A20)

796        Jul 26, Offa, king of Mercia (in central England), died.
    (MC, 7/26/02)

796        Frankfurt, Germany. This 1200 year old city of 650,000 is the hub of Germany’s banking and business community.
    (SFC, 5/5/96, p.T-7)

796        A 600-pound limestone altar was carved to honor a treaty in the Mayan city of Cancuen (Guatemala). It was uncovered in 2001 and soon stolen. It was retrieved in 2003.
    (USAT, 10/30/03, p.12D)(SFC, 10/30/03, p.A11)

796-821    Anglo Saxon king Coenwulf of Mercia, ruled a kingdom that covered vast swathes of the English midlands and northern counties to the southeast. In 2001 a metal detector enthusiast discovered a gold coin beside the River Ivel in Bedfordshire, southern England. The 4.25 gram coin depicts Anglo Saxon king Coenwulf of Mercia.
    (AFP, 2/8/06)

c797        The 1,200 year-old Book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript of the Gospels, was made by Irish monks. It was later kept in the library of Dublin’s Trinity College. The Book of Kells is a richly decorated copy of the four gospels--Matthew, Mark, Luke and John--produced by Christian monks, possibly in the late 700s on the Scottish isle of Iona or in the Irish town of Kells. Joyce later used it as a model for Ulysses.
    (SFC, 3/17/97, p.A20)(HNQ, 1/13/99)(SFEM, 5/16/99, p.7)

799        Nov 29, Pope Leo III, aided by Charlemagne, returned to Rome.
    (MC, 11/29/01)

799        Imam Musa ibn Jaafar al-Kadhim (55), one of the 12 principle Shiite saints, died from poisoning in Baghdad.
    (www.shiachat.com/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t52098.html)

c799-878    St. Ignatius Nicetas. He served as the Patriarch of Constantinople from 846-858 and 867-878.
    (WUD, 1994 p.708)

800        Dec 25, Pope Leo III crowned Frankish warrior-king Charlemagne as heir of the Roman emperors at the basilica of St. Peter's at Rome.
    (V.D.-H.K.p.105)(Econ, 9/4/10, p.56)

800        Ohlone Indians occupied the cliffs near Mussel Rock, later Daly City, Ca., beginning from about this time.
    (http://tinyurl.com/6sn59u9)

800        The Tairona peoples of Colombia made Ciudad Perdida their capital from about this time until the arrival of the conquistadors.
    (SSFC, 12/4/11, p.H4)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciudad_Perdida)

c800        England’s King Lear lived about this time. Shakespeare wrote his play “King Lear” in 1606.
    (www.rsc.org.uk/lear/current/director.html)
c800        The inhabitants of the British Isles did not comb their hair until they were taught by the Danes about this time.
    (SFC, 6/30/96, Z1 p.5)

c800        In Egypt an earthquake sent the Nile port cities of Herakleion, Canopus and Menouthis into the Mediterranean Sea.
    (SFC, 6/8/01, p.A1)

800        About this time unidentified conquerors destroyed the Mayan palace at Cancuen (Guatemala) and killed the members of the court. Archeologists in 2005 reported that King Maax, son of Taj Chan Ahk, was found buried in full regalia.
    (SFC, 11/17/05, p.A17)
c800        The height of the Mayan city of Copan. Some 20,000 people lived in the Copan pocket, a fertile section of the Copan River valley in what is now Honduras.
    (Nat. Hist., 4/96, p.29)

c800        The stone image of Fudo Myo-o, a fierce Japanese deity of fire and thunder was carved by a revered priest in Kyoto about this time. It was transferred to Narita about 940.
    (Hem, 8/95, p.56)

800        The city of Jenne-jeno on the Niger (Mali) grew to a bustling trade center of about 10,000 people. By 1400 the city was abandoned.
    (ATC, p.111)

c800        The first Polynesians come from somewhere in the central Pacific to New Zealand. These people are called the tangata whenua, which means "people of the land," but are more commonly called in English the moa-hunters, for hunting the large grass-eating, ostrich-like bird.
    (NG, Aug., 1974, p.196)

c800-900    In England Nennius wrote a history in the early 9th century and mentioned King Arthur as a fabulous figure.
    (WSJ, 3/27/98, p.W10)

c800-900    The Alawi faith was founded in the 9th century by a Muslim, who declared himself the "gateway" to the divine truth and abandoned Islam.
    (WSJ, 6/12/00, p.A30)
800-900    Buran, the wife of the Caliph of Baghdad, had a lavish wedding. The groom was led to a carpet of woven gold and 1,000 pearls were poured over his head in honor of a poet who had described the surface of a glass of white wine as: "pearls scattered like pebbles on a plain of gold."
    (SFC, 12/18/96, zz-1 p.8)

800-900    In northern Bangladesh the Buddhist monastic complex at Paharpur was built by the Pala dynasty.
    (AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.B)

800-900    In China the 9th cent. poet Chu Chen Pu wrote about the hedgehog.
    (NH, 7/98, p.54)
c800-900    "The Diamond Sutra,’ a 9th century Chinese work, was found in 1900 in a cave in Duhuang by Sir Airel Stein, a British scholar-explorer, and handed over to the British Library.
    (SFEC, 6/11/00, p.A30)

800-900    Ninth century monks called Bhutan "the hidden world."
    (WSJ, 3/6/97, p.A8)

800-900    In France monks moved inland from the Loire valley to escape the depredations of the Vikings and revived the making of Chablis wine with Chardonnay grapes.
    (SFC, 7/16/97, Z1 p.4)

c800-900    In Germany Archbishop Hatto of Mainz supposedly hoarded grain during a time of famine and said that starving masses were nothing more than mice. He was beleaguered by rodents and took refuge on his island in the Rhine where legend has it that mice devoured him.
    (SFEC, 3/15/98, p.T4)

800-900    The Mayan site of Xultun (Guatemala) dated to about this time. It was discovered in 1912. In 2010 paintings were discovered at the site dating to this period. Figures were captioned as "Older Brother Obsidian," or "Senior Obsidian," and "Younger Brother Obsidian," or perhaps "Junior Obsidian."
    (www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18018343)

800-900    The first Khmer or king, know as Kambu, founded Kambujadesa, which means "The Sons of Kambu" or Kambuja for short. Construction of the city and temple complex known as Angkor Wat was begun.
    (SFEC, 10/20/96, T5)

800-900    Muhammed ibn-Musa al-Khwarizmi, Arab mathematician and astronomer, wrote his "ab al-jabr w’ al muqabalah" (the science of reduction and comparison). The work dealt with solving equations. It was the first time that algebra was discussed as a separate branch of mathematics. In the 12th century it was translated into Latin as "Ludus algebrae et almucgrabalaeque."
    (Alg, 1990, p.87)

800-900    The Vikings brought ponies to Iceland.
    (SFC, 3/21/98, p.A9)

800-900    A timber mosque was built at Shanga, Kenya.
    (NH, 6/97, p.43)

800-900    In Poland a 9th century edict forbade Jews from baking. The law was supposedly circumvented by boiling bread and then toasting it. This process is believed to have led to the creation of the bagel.
    (WSJ, 11/29/08, p.W11)

c800-900    In Southern Korea peasant uprisings led to the establishment of 2 rival states.
    (SFEM, 6/20/99, p.6)

800-900    In Scandinavia Futhark evolved around the 9th century. Instead of 24 letters, the Scandinavian "Younger" Futhark had 16 letters. In England, Anglo-Saxon Futhorc started to be replaced by the Latin alphabet by the 9th century, and did not survive much more past the Norman Conquest. Futhark continued to be used in Scandinavia for centuries longer, but by 1600 CE, it had become nothing more than curiosities among scholars and antiquarians.
    (www.ancientscripts.com/futhark.html)

800-900    The Uygur, a Turkic people, fled the Mongolian steppe and settled in Xinjiang.
    (NG, Feb, 04, p.12)

800-900    In Thailand Sadokkokthom was a Khmer sanctuary on the Thai-Cambodian border in the Aranyaphrathet region.
    (AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.H)

800-1000    At the beginning of the ninth century, Arabian merchants frequented Lithuania to purchase fine furs, beeswax and precious amber. Brisk trading between Arabians and Lithuanians went on for about two hundred years.
    (VilNews, 12/17/10)

800-1050    Ghana controlled West Africa’s rich trade, yet villagers continued to use cowry shells for money. Koumbi, Ghana’s capital, became the busiest and wealthiest marketplace in West Africa.
    (ATC, p.107,115)

c800-1200    Wat Phu (mountain temple) in southern Laos was a religious complex patronized by the Khmer of Cambodia.
    (AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.E)

c800-1700    The Calusa Indian tribe, nicknamed "The Fierce Ones," dominated Florida’s Gulf coast from about 800 to 1700. They escaped from Florida to Cuba in the early 1700s after Spanish soldiers and other tribes overran their region.
    (AP, 3/14/04)(AM, 11/04, p.47)

802        Oct 31, Empress Irene was driven out of Byzantium.
    (MC, 10/31/01)

802        Jayavarman II proclaimed himself a "universal monarch" in a ritual that united religion and politics (Cambodia) and gave rise to the cult of the Devaraja (deified king). He declared the region’s independence from Java.
    (WSJ, 7/3/97, p.A9)(SFC, 8/14/07, p.A18)

802        Vikings stage their 1st raid of Iona (Scotland).
    (AM, 7/01, p.50)

804        Vikings returned to Iona and killed 68 of the monastic community.
    (AM, 7/01, p.50)

809        Mar 24, Harun al-Rashid (44), caliph of the Abbasid empire (786-809), died.
    (MC, 3/24/02)

810        Jul 8, Pepin, son of Charlemagne and King of Italy, died.
    (MC, 7/8/02)

811        Jul 26, Nicephorus I, Byzantine Emperor (802-11), died in the Battle at Pliska. The Bulgarian under monarch Krum beat the Byzantines.
    (MC, 7/26/02)

813        Sep 25, Al-Amin, Arabic Caliph of Islam (809-813), was murdered.
    (MC, 9/25/01)

c813        Pelayo to Dantiago, a Spanish hermit, was guided, according to legend, by strange lights in the sky to discover the long-forgotten tomb of the apostle St. James (San Tiago). This led others to make pilgrimages across northern Spain to the city of Santiago de Compostela. [see 1130]
    (SFC, 3/11/04, p.F9)

813-833    Caliph al Ma’mun founded a school in Baghdad called the House of Wisdom. In this school scholars translated Greek philosophy classics into Arabic.
    (ATC, p.89)

814        Jan 28, Charlemagne (71), German emperor, Holy Roman Emperor (800-814), died. In 1968 Jacques Boussard authored “The Civilisation of Charlemagne.”
    (MC, 1/28/02)(Econ, 1/3/04, p.39)

814        Abu-Nuwas al-Hasan ben Hani al-Hakami (b.756), one of the greatest of classical Arabic poets, died. He also composed in Persian on occasion. Born in the city of Ahvaz in Persia, of an Arab father and a Persian mother, he became a master of all the contemporary genres of Arabic poetry. Abu Nuwas has entered the folkloric tradition, and he appears several times in The Book of One Thousand and One Nights. His witty and humorous poetry, which dealt not with the traditional desert themes, but with urban life and the joys of wine and drinking (khamriyyat - khamriyaat), and ribald humor (mujuniyyat).
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Nuwas)(Econ, 12/20/03, p.68)(Econ, 8/18/12, p.55)

816        Fatima, sister of the eighth Imam, lies buried in a sanctuary at Qum, one of the sacred cities of the Shia faith.
    (NG, 9/1939, p.320)

818        Imam Reza, a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, died. Shiites later believed that he was fed poisonous grapes by a Sunni leader of the Muslim world. Reza was buried in Sanabad, which later became known as Mashad, “place of martyrdom.” A major shrine grew at the site and by 2007 the Imam Reza Shrine Foundation was the largest (bonyad) in Iran and accounted for 7.1% of the country’s GDP.
    (WSJ, 6/2/07, p.A12)

820        Jan 20, Abu Abdallah Mibn Idris al-Sjafi'i, Islamic author of Book of Mother, died.
    (MC, 1/20/02)

820        Dec 25, Leo V, the Armenian, Byzantine gen and Emperor (813-20), was murdered.
    (MC, 12/25/01)

c820        The collapse of the Mayan ruling Classic period dynasty in Copan.
    (Nat. Hist., 4/96, p.25)

825        The Buddhist temple of Borobudur on the island of Java was completed about this time under the supervision of an architect named Gunadharma. The site was abandoned after 100-200 years. In 1814 British Gov. Thomas Stamford Raffles was advised of its location and dispatched an expedition to locate and excavate the legendary monument.
    (SFEC, 3/28/99, p.T9)(WSJ, 9/13/08, p.W18)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borobudur)

828        Apr 5, Nicephorus (~77), patriarch of Constantinople (806-815), died.
    (MC, 4/5/02)

828        Venetian merchants stole the relics of Saint Mark from a Coptic church in Alexandria and brought them home in triumph.
    (Econ, 12/23/06, p.125)

830        The Utrecht Psalter was produced in the Netherlands. Its 166 ink drawings illustrated passages in the psalms. In the eleventh century an English copy was made that became known as the Harley Psalter.
    (Econ, 6/13/09, p.86)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utrecht_Psalter)

833-900    Great Moravia was founded when Mojmir I unified two neighboring states by force, referred to in modern historiography as the "Principality of Nitra" and the "Principality of Moravia". The Slavic state existed in Central Europe from the 9th century to the early 10th century.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Moravia)

835-1500    Medieval British history for this period is covered by timeref.com.
    (www.timeref.com/hsttime0.htm)

833        Jul 20, Ansegis (Ansegius, 63), French abbot of Fontenelle, author, died.
    (MC, 7/20/02)

834        Oct 31, This evening became All Hallow’s Eve with the establishment of Nov 1 as Feast of All Saints by Pope Gregory IV.
    (PTA, 1980, p.204)(SFC, 10/31/01, p.C2)

834        Nov 1, This day was declared to be All Saints’ Day by the Catholic Church.  [see 835CE]
    (SFC, 10/31/01, p.C2)

834        In southeastern Norway's Vestfold County a 65-foot vessel was buried in an enormous mound as the grave ship for a rich and powerful Viking woman. In 1904 the mound surrendered the Oseberg Viking longboat.
    (AP, 9/11/07)

835         Nov 1, After the spread of Christianity through the west, the Roman Catholic Church in 835 A.D. made November 1 a church holiday to honor all the saints. This celebration was called All Saint's Day or All Hallows and the day before it--October 31--was called All Hallow's Eve (later Halloween). Pope Gregory extended the Feast of All Saints on Nov 1 to France and Germany. [see 834CE]
    (PTA, 1980, p.204)(HNPD, 10/31/99)

836        Caliph al-Mutasim built a new capital at Samarra to replace Baghdad as the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate. It was abandoned by Caliph al-Mutamid in 892.
    (SFC, 2/23/06, p.A15)

837        Apr 13, Best view of Halley's Comet in 2000 years.
    (MC, 4/13/02)

838        Jan 4, Babak, Persian social and religious reformer, was martyred.
    (MC, 1/4/02)

839        Charles III the Fat, sometimes called Charles II of France, was born. He was the son of Louis the German and grandson of Charlemagne. Charles III the Fat was a Frankish king and emperor.  His fall in 887 marked the final disintegration of the empire of Charlemagne. He was the youngest son of Louis the German and was crowned emperor by Pope John VIII in 881 and became king of all the East Franks in 882, succeeding his brother Louis the Younger. Charles III the Fat died on January 13, 888.
    (HNQ, 8/30/99)

839        The Stone of Scone was first believed to be used in the coronation of a Scottish king at the village of Scone in southeast Scotland.
    (SFC, 11/16/96, p.A11)

839        The first official mention of Andorra was recorded in the records of the cathedral at Seu d’Urgell in Spain.
    (Hem., 3/97, p.74)

840        Mar 14, Eginhard (69), French nobleman, biographer (Vita Karoli Magni), died.
    (MC, 3/14/02)

840        Jun 6, Agobard, archbishop of Lyon (anti-Semite), died.
    (MC, 6/6/02)

840        Vikings settled in Ireland.
    (SFEC, 8/1/99, p.T8)

841        Jun 25, Charles the Bald and Louis the German defeated Lothar at Fontenay.
    (HN, 6/25/98)

842        Feb 19, The Medieval Iconoclastic Controversy ended as a council in Constantinople formally reinstated the veneration of icons in the churches.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triumph_of_Orthodoxy)

842        Mar 20, Alfonso II the Chaste, king of Asturia (791-842), died. Asturias was a kingdom in NW Spain.
    (MC, 3/20/02)(WUD, 1994 p.92)

842        Vikings attacked the Irish monastery at Clonmacnoise from bases in Ireland.
    (SFEC, 8/1/99, p.T8)

843        Apr 19, Judith, French empress, 2nd wife of Louis de Vrome, died.
    (MC, 4/19/02)

843        Jun 24, Vikings destroyed Nantes.
    (MC, 6/24/02)

843        Aug 10, Treaty of Verdun: Brothers Lotharius I, Louis the German and Charles the Bare divided France.
    (MC, 8/10/02)

844        In Scotland the Scotti and Picts united under Cinaed (Kenneth) Mac Ailpin. The Pict language disappeared following the union.
    (AM, 7/01, p.46)

846        Nov 1, Louis II, the Stutterer, King of France (877-79), was born.
    (MC, 11/1/01)

849        Alfred the Great (d.899) was said to have been born near Uffington. He became King of the West Saxons in 871. He was the 5th and youngest son of King Aethelwulf and Queen Osburga of Wessex.
    (AHD, 1971, p.32)(AM, 9/01, p.42)(ON, 4/08, p.4)

c850        Outsiders found coffee in the region of Ethiopia called Kaffa, hence the name.
    (SFEC, 10/6/96, Z1 p.4)(http://www.koffeekorner.com/koffeehistory.htm)

850        The Chicanna temple in the Mayan city of Calakmul was built about this time.
    (SSFC, 4/25/10, p.M1)

850-930    Hucbaldus Elnonensis, was a French monk and composer, who became known for writing poetry about the hairless. He wrote "Ecloga de Calvis," (In Praise of Bald Men) for Hatto, a bald archbishop. All 150 lines of the Latin verse begin with the letter c (calvus means bald in Latin).
    (WSJ, 11/23/98, p.B1)

850-933    Harold the Fairhaired. Princess Gyda is said to have incited Harold to gather the whole of Norway under his scepter. The name Gyda was later corrupted to Gjøe, the name of Amdunsen’s Northwest Passage sloop (1903-1905).
    (Ind, 4/27/02, 5A)

c850-1100    Native Indians in Chaco Canyon [New Mexico] built multistory buildings and roads. Evidence was later discovered that they designed a vast map of the yearly sun cycle and the 19-year cycle of the moon.
    (WSJ, 6/16/00, p.W2)

c853        The Baltic shoreline Curonians repulsed Danish Viking attempts at subjugation. King Olaf led Swedish Vikings in retaliation and overcame the towns of Seeburg and Apuole (Apulia).
    (TB-Com, 10/11/00)(www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/anskar.html#lifeans)

853        Olaf, King of Sweden, led his forces across the Baltic Sea and into western Lithuania. They attacked the castle at Apuole near the town of Skuodas on the Luba River. A truce was declared after 8 days of fighting. King Olaf took home much gold, silver and amber, 30 (Kursiu) local inhabitants and destroyed the castle.
    (H of L, 1931, p.14)

855        Sep 28, The Emperor Lothar died in Gaul, and his kingdom was divided between his three sons.
    (HN, 9/28/98)

855        A version of "Cinderella" came from China about this time.
    (SFEC, 5/25/97, Z1 p.7)
855        Ahmad ibn Hanbal (b.780), Muslim scholar, died in Iraq. He is considered the founder of the 4th school of Sunni Islam. The four schools of Sunni Islam include: a) The Hanafi school, named after Imam Abu Hanifa, predominates in the territories formerly under the Ottoman Empire and in Muslim India and Pakistan; it relies heavily on consensus and analogical reasoning in addition to the Quran and sunna. B) The Maliki school, named after Malik ibn Anas, is dominant in upper Egypt and West Africa; developed in Medina, it emphasizes use of hadith (sayings or acts) that were current in the Prophet's city. C) The school of Muhammad ibn Idris ash Shafii, prevailing in Indonesia, stresses reasoning by analogy. D) The fourth legal school is that of Ahmad ibn Hanbal, which is the school adhered to in Saudi Arabia.
    (http://countrystudies.us/saudi-arabia/26.htm)

858        Apr 17, Benedict III, Catholic Pope, died.
    (PTA, 1980, p.210)

858        Apr 24, Nicholas I succeeded Benedict III as the Catholic Pope.
    (HN, 4/24/98)(MC, 4/24/02)

860        Jun 18, Swedish Vikings attacked Constantinople.
    (MC, 6/18/02)

860        Aug 1, Peace of Koblenz involved Charles the Bare, Louis the German & Lotharius II.
    (MC, 8/1/02)

c860        Novgorod, Russia, was founded about this time.
    (AM, 11/00, p.32)

861         The Khazar kings converted to Judaism.  A Jewish dynasty of kings presided over the Khazar kingdom until the 960s. In 2008 Dmitry Vasilyev, a Russian professor at Astrakhan State University, said his nine-year excavation near the Caspian Sea has finally unearthed the foundations of a triangular fortress of flamed brick, along with modest yurt-shaped dwellings, and he believes these are part of what was once Itil, the Khazar capital.
    (TJOK, chap. 6)(AP, 9/20/08)

866        Sep 19, Leo VI Sophos, Byzantine Emperor (886-912) and writer (Problematica), was born.
    (MC, 9/19/01)

867        Feb 11, Theodora, the Saint, beauty queen, Byzantine Empress, died.
    (MC, 2/11/02)

867        Nov 13, Pope Nicholas I (the Great) died at age 67. He served from  858-867.
    (MC, 11/13/01)

867        A last surviving older brother of Alfred, became King Aethelred I of Wessex, an Anglo-Saxon kingdom in southern England.
    (ON, 4/08, p.4)

867        Danes fought Saxons in the battle of Eoferwic (York).
    (WSJ, 1/28/05, p.W6)

867-1057    The Byzantine Empire expanded.
    (ATC, p.24)

868        The 10th imam, Ali al-Hadi, died. His remains were placed in the Askariya shrine in Samarra (Persia-Iraq).
    (AP, 2/22/06)

869        Feb 14, Cyrillus, Greek apostle of Slavs, died.
    (MC, 2/14/02)

869        Aug 8, Lotharius II, King of Middle-France (Lotharingen) (855-869), died.
    (MC, 8/8/02)

870        In the Treaty of Mersen Louis II, the Holy Roman Emperor, forced the partition of Lorraine under King Charles the Bald. The realm was divided on the basis of revenue.
    (PC, 1992, p.71)

870        Dec 31, Skirmish at Englefield. Ethelred of Wessex beat back a Danish invasion army.
    (MC, 12/31/01)

871        Jan 4, Ethelred of Wessex was defeated by Danish forces at Reading.
    (PCh, 1992, p.72)

871        Jan 8, Ethelred of Wessex defeated the Danish forces at Ashdown.
    (PCh, 1992, p.72)

871        Mar 2, Battle at Marton (Maeretun): Ethelred van Wessex (d.871) beat the Danish invasion army. Ethelred died in April and his brother Alfred (22) took over. Alfred became Alfred the Great and ruled until 899.
    (PCh, 1992, p.72)(SC, 3/2/02)

871        Apr 23, Ethelred I, king of Wessex, brother of Alfred the Great, died.
    (MC, 4/23/02)

871-899    Saxon reign under Alfred the Great.
    (AHD, 1971, p.32)

872        Dec 14, Adrian II (~80), Italian Pope (867-72), the last married pope, died.
    (MC, 12/14/01)

872-882    Pope John VIII (b.1814). A novel by Donna Cross in 1996 is based on historical documents that indicate that he was actually female.
    (WUD, 1994, p.769)(SFEC, 11/17/96, BR p.8)

874        The 11th imam, Hassan al-Askari, son of Ali al-Hadi, died. His remains were also placed in the Askariya shrine in Samarra (Persia-Iraq). Hassan al-Askari was the father of Al-Mahdi, the hidden imam.
    (AP, 2/22/06)

874        Vikings from Norway began to survey Iceland. The monks withdrew to Ireland. The 40,000-square-mile island situated 500 miles northwest of Scotland was first settled by Norwegians.
    (NH, 6/96, p.53)(Economist, 8/25/12, p.64)

875        Aug 12, Louis II (~50), king of Italy, emperor of France, died.
    (MC, 8/12/02)

c875-925    Lord Chaak ruled over the Mayan city of Uxmal in Mexico.
    (AM, May/Jun 97 suppl. p.H)

876        Oct 8, Charles the Bald was defeated at the Battle of Andernach. Louis the Young beat Charles the Bare.
    (HN, 10/8/98)(MC, 10/8/01)

876        Charles the Bald donated a relic, the Sancta Camisia, to the city of Chartres. The relic was believed to the childbirth tunic of the Virgin Mary.
    (Hem., 10/97, p.86)

877        Oct 6, Charles II the Kale, King of France and Roman emperor (875-77), died at 54.
    (MC, 10/6/01)

878        Jan, Danish forces from north of Wessex launched an unexpected attack on Wessex, ruled by King Alfred. In 1911 G.K. Chesterton authored the historical novel “The Ballad of the White Horse” set in England during this time.
    (SSFC, 4/22/07, p.P10)(ON, 4/08, p.4)

878        Imam Mahdi went into hiding. Shiites went on to believe that he would return, along with Jesus, to lead Muslims in a struggle for justice.
    (SFC, 1/19/08, p.A7)

879        Apr 10, Louis II, the Stutterer, King of France (877-79), died and Louis III was crowned King of France.
    (MC, 4/10/02)

879        Sep 17, Charles III, [The Simple], king of France (893-923), was born.
    (MC, 9/17/01)

882        Aug 25, Louis III (19), King of France (879-82), died.
    (MC, 8/25/02)

883        Mar 8, Albumasar [Ahmad Aboe M Gafar al-Balkhi], Arabic astronomer, died.
    (MC, 3/8/02)

884        May 17, St. Adrian III began his reign as Catholic Pope.
    (MC, 5/17/02)

885        Apr 6, Methodius, Greek apostle to the Slavs, archbishop of Sirmium, died.
    (MC, 4/6/02)

886        Aug 29,  Basilius I, the Macedonian, Byzantine emperor (867-886), died.
    (MC, 8/29/01)

886        Under Muslim Arabs the Bagratid family rose to prominence in Armenia and established a line of kings from this time to the 10th century.
    (CO Enc. / Armenia)

887        Ibn Firnas (b.810), a Muslim Berber, polymath, inventor, engineer, aviator, physician, Arabic poet, and Andalusian musician, died. He is said to have jumped from a height, wings attached and covered head to toe in feathers, in a failed attempt at flying, although he survived the jump.
    (AFP, 11/17/10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbas_Ibn_Firnas)

889        Bhaktapur, Nepal, was founded under the Malla dynasty.
    (SSFC, 9/21/03, p.C8)

889        Ibn Qutayba (b.828), a renowned Islamic scholar from Kufa, Iraq, died.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_Qutaybah)

889-1324    The Khmer Empire‘s dominions roughly correspond to present-day Laos and Cambodia and reached its height during the Angkor period (889-1434 CE). The kingdom flourished from the 6th to 15th centuries CE and then declined with invasions from neighboring Thailand.
    (HNQ, 8/7/00)

890-1170    The Medieval Warm Period extended across Asia, Europe and North America.
    (SFC, 2/10/06, p.A6)

891        Feb 6, Photius, Byzantine theologist, patriarch of Constantinople, saint, died.
    (MC, 2/6/02)

891        Sep 1, Norse defeated near Louvaine, France.
    (MC, 9/1/02)

891-896    Formosus served as Pope following Stephen VI.
    (PTA, 1980, p.224)(WSJ, 6/27/01, p.A14)

894        Japan abolished the sending of envoys to China.
    (Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)

895        The Tatev Monastery was built near the village of Tatev, Armenia. The construction on the Church of Peter and Paul was completed in 906.
    (www.cilicia.com/armo5_tatev.html)

896        Feb 22, Pope Formosa was crowned king Arnulf of Carinthia, French emperor.
    (MC, 2/22/02)

896        Apr 4, Pope Formosus died. His body was exhumed by his successor in the Cadaver Synod. He was then put on trial for perjury, found guilty and dumped in the Tiber River.
    (PTA, 1980, p.224)(WSJ, 6/27/01, p.A14)

896        The founding date of Hungary. Seven tribes of Magyars settled in the Carpathian Basin. Kingdom of Hungary was formed under Arpad by seven Magyar and three Khazar tribes.
    (WSJ, 12/26/96, p.4)(SFEC, 8/8/99, p.T5)(TJOK, p. 206)(Reuters, 4/12/05)

899        Oct 26, Alfred the Great (b.849), writer and king of Wessex (871-99), died. He helped to bring about the English state, the Royal Navy and English universities. He translated Pope Gregory’s “Pastoral Care,” the universal history by Orosius, Bede’s Ecclesiastical History, and the “Consolation of Philosophy” by Boethius. Alfred also compiled England’s first code of laws, The Doom Book.
    (Econ, 5/26/07, p.18)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_the_Great)(ON, 4/08, p.5)

899        Dec 8, Arnulf of Carinthia, last emperor of Austria-France, died.
    (MC, 12/8/01)

c900        By this time the Fatimids broke away from the Abbasids and migrated to North Africa. They were descendants of Mohammad’s daughter, Fatima.
    (ATC, p.91)

c900        The east coast of Africa was impacted by trade and Arab, Persian and Indian traders mixed with the indigenous Bantu. Many of the coastal Bantu adopted Islam and the Arabic word Swahili, meaning "people of the shore," to describe themselves. By this time they had reached as far south as Sofala in Mozambique.
    (ATC, p.142)(Enc. of Africa, 1976, p.169)

900        The Abbots Bromley Horn Dance, an Old English pagan ritual, used horns from reindeer that dated to about this time. A dozen male dancers in Staffordshire traditionally performed the dance once a year in early September.
    (SFC, 9/4/10, p.A1)

c900        The Mayan city-state of Palenque [in later Mexico] was abandoned
    (SFC, 5/19/96, T-10)

c900        The Mayan city-state of Copan [in later Honduras] was abandoned
    (NG, 12/97, p.80)

c900        In Peru the Lambayeque people established themselves over areas previously developed by the Moche.
    (NG, 7/04, p.116)

900        Benedict IV succeeded John IX as Pope.
    (PTA, 1980, p.236)

c900-950    The 7-foot hanging scroll, ink-on-silk masterpiece "Riverbank" by Dong Yuan was created. It is the earliest surviving example of monumental Chinese landscape painting. The work was also thought to be a forgery by Chang Da-chien (1899-1983) through whom it passed to the New York Met.
    (WSJ, 7/2/97, p.A12)(WSJ, 7/24/97, p.A16)(WSJ, 12/13/99, p.A32)

900-1000    Alsace became part of Germany in the 10th century.
    (SFEC, 1/31/99, p.T4)
900-1000    Weimar is believed to date back to the 10th century.
    (SSFC, 8/1/04, p.D10)

900-1000    The French village of Prelenfrey dates back to the 10th Century.
    (SFC, 6/23/96, p.T8)

900-1000    The Korean rice wine Makgeolli, once known as "farmer drink", dates back at least this time. Its popularity waned in the early 1960s when the government restricted the use of rice for making alcohol in order to combat rice shortages. In 2012 South Korea's Baesangmyun Brewery announced that a brewery in Chicago will open to produce the drink.
    (AFP, 2/5/12)

900-1000    Viking longships entered the Douro River mouth in Portugal. Their ships are believed to be the design form from which the wine carrying boats "barcos rabelos" were designed.
    (SFEC, 1/12/97, p.T7)

900-1000    The Tresco Abbey was a Benedictine monastery on the Isles of Sicily off the southwest coast of England.
    (Hem., 7/96, p.66)

900-1000    The terminal classic period of the Maya.
    (AM, May/Jun 97 suppl. p.B)

c900-1000    The Japanese discovered the wasabe root growing near mountain streams and began incorporating it into their cuisine.
    (SFC, 6/3/98, Z1 p.6)

900-1000    In Thailand the site of Prasat Hin Phanom Wan was an important Khmer sanctuary in the Upper Mun River Valley of northeastern Thailand.
    (AM, Mar/Apr 97 p.G)

900-1100    A Fremont culture settlement in Horse Canyon, Utah, left extensive ruins that became known as Range Creek.
    (SFC, 6/30/04, p.A2)

900-1200    The Killke people occupied the region around Cuzco, Peru, from 900 to 1200 A.D., prior to the arrival of the Incas. In 2008 Archaeologists discovered the ruins of an ancient temple, roadway and irrigation systems at Sacsayhuaman, a famed fortress overlooking Cuzco, that shed light on the pre-Inca cultures of Peru.
    (AP, 3/15/08)

902        Aug 1, The Aghlabid rulers of Ifriqiyah (modern day Tunisia) captured Taormina, Sicily.
    (HN, 8/1/98)

902-970    In China Tao Gu lived. He wrote "Qing yi lu," (An Examination of Strange Accounts). He mentioned the Chinese use of cormorants for fishing.
    (NH, 10/98, p.69)

903        Benedict IV, Catholic Pope, died.
    (PTA, 1980, p.236)

903        Good King Wenceslaus, saint, duke of Bohemia (928-935), was born.
    (WUD, 1994 p.1622)

904        Jul 31, Arabs captured Thessalonica of the Byzantine Empire.
    (HN, 7/31/98)

905        Persian astronomer Al Sufi referred to the Andromeda galaxy as the "Little Cloud."
    (NH, 11/96, p.78)

907        Fall of the T’ang dynasty in China.
    (V.D.-H.K.p.169)

907-1279    "The Five Dynasties and the Song Period" by Richard M. Barnhart is the first section of Wu Hung’s 1997 "The Origins of Chinese Painting."
    (WSJ, 1/2/98, p.6)

910        The French abbey at Cluny was founded.
    (SFEC, 11/21/99, p.T4)

910        Rhazes, an Arab physician, wrote the 1st account of smallpox and proposed the earliest theory of immunity.
    (NW, 10/14/02, p.46)

911        Sep 2, Viking monarch Oleg of Kiev, Russia, signed a treaty with the Byzantines.
    (MC, 9/2/01)

911        The Carolingian period of Frankish rule ended in Germany.
    (AHD, 1971, p.205)

911        A relic donated by Charles the Bald, the Sancta Camisia, was displayed above the city walls of Chartres and seemed to repel a Viking attack. The relic was believed to be the Virgin Mary’s childbirth tunic.
    (Hem., 10/97, p.86)

912        Nov 23, Otto I, the Great (d.973), German king and Holy Roman emperor (962-73), was born. Otto the Great became King of Germany in 936.
    (AHD, 1971, p.931)(MC, 11/23/01)

912        Egyptian singer Nehmes Bastet died about this time. In 2012 Egyptian and Swiss archaeologists reported a roughly 1,100 year-old tomb of a female singer in the Valley of the Kings. It was the only tomb of a woman not related to the ancient royal families ever found in the Valley of the Kings. The singer's name, Nehmes Bastet, means she was believed to be protected by the feline deity Bastet. At the time of her death, Egypt was ruled by Libyan kings, but the high priests who ruled Thebes were independent.
    (AP, 1/15/12)

912-961    Abd al Rahman III, Umayyad caliph in Spain, purchased Scandinavian, African and German slaves to serve in his forces. At this time Cordoba was western Europe's largest city with a population of 200,000 people.
    (ATC, p.96)

917        Aug 20, A Byzantine counter-offensive was routed by Syeon at Anchialus, Bulgaria.
    (HN, 8/20/98)

917        In Italy the Castle Torre d’Orlando was built between Paciano and Panicale in Umbria.
    (SFEM, 10/12/97, p.49)

918        Mar 1, Balderik became bishop of Utrecht.
    (SC, 3/1/02)

918        In Ireland there was a great flood in the region of Clonmacnoise.
    (SFEC, 8/1/99, p.T8)

918-1392    During Korea's Age of Enlightenment, the period of the Goryeo Dynasty, the Buddhist aristocracy commissioned many works of art to further the Buddhist ideal.
    (SFC, 10/14/03, p.D1)

919        May 12, Duke Henry of Saxon became King Henry I of Eastern Europe.
    (MC, 5/12/02)

919        Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Canyon Nat'l Monument in Northern New Mexico had its ceremonial room completed. Occupancy lasted till c1130.
    (K.I.-365D, p.159)

921        Nov 7, Treaty of Bonn: East France and West France recognized each other.
    (MC, 11/7/01)

921        In Turkey the Armenian Akdamar church, called the Church of Surp Khach, or Holy Cross, was inaugurated. Written records say the church was near a harbor and a palace on the island on Lake Van, but only the church survived. Turkey restored the church in 2007.
    (AP, 3/25/07)

922        Mar 27, Al-Hallaj al-Mughith-al-Hsayn Mansur (64), Persian mystic, was beheaded.
    (MC, 3/27/02)

922        Jun 9, French republic chose Robert I as King of France.
    (MC, 6/9/02)

922        Mansur al-Hallaj (b.858), a Sufi mystic, was crucified in Baghdad for pronouncing in the midst of a trance that he was the truth, i.e god.
    (SFC, 4/21/04, p.A10)( http://www.uga.edu/islam/sufismearly.html#Hallaj)

923        Feb 16, Abu Dja'far Mohammed Djarir al-Tabari (83), Islamic historian, died.
    (MC, 2/16/02)

924        Apr 7, Berengarius I, Emperor of Italy, was murdered.
    (MC, 4/7/02)

924        Jul 17, Edward the Older, English king (899-924) and son of Alfred the Great, died. He was succeeded by his son Athelstan.
    (PC, 1992, p.75)

924-940    Athelstan ruled as king of England.
    (www.britannia.com/history/monarchs/mon8.html)

925        The Croatian kingdom was established.
    (WSJ, 7/14/99, p.A23)

927        May 27, Symeon, czar of Bulgaria, died.
    (MC, 5/27/02)

927        Ivan Rilski (later St. John of Rila), an Orthodox Bulgarian, chose a hermit’s life in a cave in the mountains above Sofia, Bulgaria. His students built a complex nearby that grew to become the Rila Monastery.
    (SSFC, 7/16/06, p.G4)

929        Sep 28, Wenceslaus I, duke of Bohemia, was murdered.
    (www.stfrancisvernon.org/stwenceslaus.htm)

929        Eadgyth (910-946), the sister of King Athelstan and the granddaughter of Alfred the Great, was given in marriage to Otto I, the king of Saxony and the Holy Roman Emperor. She had at least two children before her death in 946 at age 36. In 2010 her remains were found in Magdeburg Cathedral in northern Germany.
    (AFP, 1/20/10)(AFP, 6/17/10)

930        Jun 23, Icelanders established the Althing, an open-air national parliament and the world‘s oldest surviving parliamentary body. This was later credited as the first example of representative government.
    (NH, 6/96, p.53)(DrEE, 1/4/97, p.4)(SFC, 1/1/00, p.C3)(MC, 6/23/02)

930        The Aleppo Codex was written on parchment in the Holy Land town of Tiberias by the scribe Shlomo Ben Boya'a about this time. Its completion marked the end of a centuries-long process that created final text of the Hebrew Bible.
    (AP, 9/27/08)

933        Mar 15, Henry the Fowler routed the raiding Magyars at Merseburg, Germany. The Wagner opera Lohengrin is about King Henry and how he united the people of Brabant with the Saxons against the Hungarian foe.
    (HN, 3/15/99)(WSJ, 7/28/99, p.A21)

935             In the Icelandic "Egils-saga" there is an account of how Thorolf and Egil harried in Curonia (along the eastern Baltic shore) about this time.
    (DrEE, 11/23/96, p.3)(TB-Com, 10/11/00)

935        In southern Korea the last Shilla king surrendered his throne.
    (SFEM, 6/20/99, p.6)

936        Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari (b.1874), Muslim theologian, died. He had become a pupil of the great Mutazalite teacher al-Jubba'i (d.915), and himself remained a Mutazalite until his fortieth year. Disciples of his school are known as Asharites. It held that complete comprehension of the unique nature and attributes of God is beyond the capacity of human reasoning and sense experience.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_al-Hasan_al-Ash%27ari)

936-973    Otto the Great became King of Germany and later the first Holy Roman Emp.
    (AHD, 1971, p.931)

936-1531    Aachen in West Germany was the coronation city for German kings over this period.
    (WUD, 1994, p.1)

937        King Athelstan unified the various Saxon and Celtic kingdoms following the battle of Brunanburgh. He was the brother of Eadgyth, wife of Holy Roman Emp. Otto I, and is generally considered to have been the first King of England.
    (AFP, 1/20/10)

c938         In the late 930s Khazar baliqchi Pesakh defeated the Rus. According to an anonymous letter written by a Khazarian Jew in the 940s, the Rus prince Oleg captured the Khazar-held city Tmutorokan one night. Pesakh, a prominent Khazar baliqchi (governor), learned of Oleg’s actions and conquered several Crimean cities belonging to the Byzantines and also did away with many Rus.  Oleg was badly defeated, and was forced to surrender to Governor-General Pesakh.  This was a major Khazar victory over the Rus.
    (TJOK, pages 191-192)

938-1002    Al-Mansur (the Conqueror), Moorish leader. He was born Abu'Amir al-Ma'asiri and rose to power by wooing the caliph's favorite concubine. He raided Christian Spain and hauled his booty back to Cordoba and built a palace called Madinat al-Zahira, the Shining City.
    (WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R4,6)

940        The stone image of Fudo Myo-o, a fierce Japanese deity of fire and thunder, was carved by a revered priest in Kyoto about 800 CE and transferred to Narita about 940.
    (Hem, 8/95, p.56)

942        May 16, Saadiah Gaon, head of Talmudic Academy of Sura, died.
    (MC, 5/16/02)

945        In England monks settled along the Thames riverbank at Bablock Hythe.
    (SFEC, 8/20/00, p.T9)

945        The Buyids (Buwayhids) came to power in Baghdad. They were ousted by the Seljuks in 1055 under Tughril Beg.
    (www.mongabay.com/reference/country_studies/iraq/HISTORY.html)

946        May 25, Edmund the Older, king of Wessex, England, (939-46), died.
    (SC, 5/25/02)

946        Eadgyth, the sister of King Athelstan and the granddaughter of Alfred the Great, died. She had been given in marriage to Otto I, the Holy Roman Emperor, in 929. She was initially buried at the Monastery of Mauritius in Magdeburg. In 1510 her remains were transferred to Magdeburg Cathedral in northern Germany, where her bones were found in 2008.
    (AFP, 1/20/10)

950        Nov 22, Lotharius, King of Italy (947-50), died.
    (MC, 11/22/01)

c950    The Anasazi first came to Keet Seel, Arizona.
    (Hem., 5/97, p.75)

951        Sep 23, Otto I, the Great, became king of Italy.
    (MC, 9/23/01)

953        Apr 21, Otto I, the Great, granted Utrecht fishing rights.
    (MC, 4/21/02)

954        Nov 12, Lotharius became king of France.
    (MC, 11/12/01)

954        The Count of Ventimiglia ceded Seborga (in northwest Italy, twenty minutes from the Mediterranean north of Bordighera) to the monks who elected their abbot as sovereign prince.
    (SFEC, 3/30/97, p.T5)

955        May 16, Alberich II, (bastard?) son of Octavianus, was elected pope.
    (MC, 5/16/02)

955        Aug 10, Otto organized his nobles and defeated the invading Magyars at the Battle of Lechfeld in Germany.
    (HN, 8/10/98)

955        In England King Eadwig failed to appear at his coronation feast. Dunstan, chronicler of the event, found him cavorting with a young lady and her mother.
    (WSJ, 1/29/99, p.W7)

955        Sufi saint Sidi Mahmoudou died. In 2013 his tomb in Timbuktu, Mali, was destroyed by Islamist extremists.
    (AP, 1/28/13)

956        Jun 16, Hugo the Great, duke of France, died.
    (MC, 6/16/02)

956-1015    Vladimir I, Prince of Kiev and the first Christian grand prince of Russia (980-1015). He married the sister of the Byzantine emperor and thus brought in Orthodox Christianity to Russia.
    (WUD, 1994, p.1598)(WSJ, 3/28/97, p.A16)

958-1025    Basil II, Byzantine emperor. His empire held a monopoly on royal purple silk and he flourished by manufacturing and trading silk.
    (WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R6)

959        The Viking ruler Gorm the Old, the father of Harald Bluetooth, died.
    (AM, 11/00, p.21)

959-987    Harald Bluetooth, or Harald Blatand, 10th-century king of Denmark, attributed to himself the unification of Denmark and the Christianization of the Danes. He also conquered Norway and raided Normandy. He was later invaded and defeated by German emperor Otto II.
    (HNQ, 9/3/98)(AM, 11/00, p.21)

960        Denmark's King Harald Bluetooth was baptized.
    (Econ, 6/28/03, p.55)

960        Thorvald Asvaldsson, the father of Eric the Red (950-1003), committed a murder about this time and was banished from Norway. He took his family to Iceland.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_the_Red)

960-1127    The period of the Northern Song Dynasty. Most artistic representations of nature during this period carried auspicious meanings, e.g. bamboo signified resilience in the face of diversity, and the cicada bespoke immortality.
    (NH, 7/00, p.59)(SFC, 5/14/03, p.D3)

960-1279    The Sung (Song) dynasty ruled over China. It was from this period that the Japanese tea ceremony originated; the ritual was developed for a tranquility of mind. Since this period mountainous looking rocks have been prized as objects of contemplation. Porcelain from this period is particularly beautiful.
    (Hem, Dec. 94, p.64)(SFC, 6/4/96, p.E5)(WSJ, 9/27/96, p.B14)

961        Ani became the capital of Armenia. At its height it had over 100,000 inhabitants. Within a century it began falling victim to waves of conquerors including Seljuk Turks, Georgians and Mongols.
    (Econ, 6/17/06, p.59)

962        Feb 2, Otto I (912-973), founder of the Holy Roman Empire, was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope John XII.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_I,_Holy_Roman_Emperor)(AHD, 1971, p.931)

962        Abd-Er Rahman III (891-961), Muslim governor of Spain, was succeeded by his son Al-Hakim. Rahman III is famed for his quote: "I have now reigned above fifty years in victory and peace, beloved by my subjects, dreaded by my enemies, and respected by my allies. Riches and honors, power and pleasure, have waited on my call, nor does any earthly blessing appear to be wanting for my felicity. In this situation, I have diligently numbered the days of pure and genuine happiness which have fallen to my lot: they amount to fourteen.”
    (www.newadvent.org/cathen/04359b.htm)(http://tinyurl.com/985jj)

962-1030     An Islamic era in Afghanistan was established with the Ghaznavid Dynasty.
    (www.afghan-web.com/history/)

962-1140    Under the Ghaznavid Dynasty Afghanistan became the center of Islamic power and civilization.
    (www.afghan-web.com/history/)

963        Mar 15, Romanus II (25), Byzantine emperor (959-63), died.
    (MC, 3/15/02)

964        Jun, Holy Roman Emperor Otto I forced Pope Benedict V (d.965), who had recently succeeded John XII as Catholic Pope, to resign in favor of Leo VIII.
    (PTA, 1980, p.236)(Econ, 2/16/13, p.61)

964        Arab astronomers described the Great Nebula in Andromeda, our closest galaxy.
    (V.D.-H.K.p.333)

965        Mar 1, Leo VIII, Italian (anti-)Pope (963-65), died.
    (SC, 3/1/02)

965        Jul 4, Benedict V, Catholic Pope, died.
    (PTA, 1980, p.236)

965         Part of Khazaria was conquered by the Kievan Rus prince Svyatoslav.
(TJOK, pp. 193-194)

967        Nov 20, Aboe al-Faradj al-Isfahani, Arabic author (Book of liederen), died.
    (MC, 11/20/01)

969        Oct 28, After a prolonged siege, the Byzantines ended 300 years of Arab rule in Antioch.
    (HN, 10/28/98)

967        Dec 7, Abu Sa'id ibn Aboa al-Chair, Persian mystic, was born.
    (MC, 12/7/01)

969        Dec 10, Nicephorus II Phocas, Byzantine co-Emperor (963-69), was murdered.
    (MC, 12/10/01)

969        Named El Qahira -"the victorious," Cairo gained power from its position beside the Nile.
    (NG, May 1985, R. Caputo, p.603)

969CE        By this time the Fatimids had conquered most of North Africa and claimed Cairo as their capital. The Shiites gained control of Egypt.
    (ATC, p.91)(SSFC, 2/8/04, p.M2)

969-1000    Olaf Tryggvesson, Olav I, King of Norway from 995-1000.
    (WUD, 1994, p.1002)

971-1030    Machmud of Ghazni, ruler of Afghanistan. He made annual invasions to northern India where he pillaged temples, captured slaves, and transported his goods back by elephant. His library had a large collection of erotic manuscripts and he shared his palace with 400 poets.
    (WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R6)

972        John I Tzimiskes, the Byzantine Emperor at Constantinople (969-976), granted a charter for the Monastic Republic of Holy Mount Athos in Greece.
    (SSFC, 10/8/06, p.H1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_I_Tzimisces)

973        Jan 19, Benedict VI was consecrated as Catholic Pope. He succeeded John XIII.
    (PTA, 1980, p.236)

973        May 6, Henry II, German King (1002) and Holy Roman Emperor (1014-1024), was born.
    (HN, 5/6/98)(MC, 5/6/02)

973        Otto I, the Great (b.912), German king and Holy Roman emperor (962-73), died.
    (AHD, 1971, p.931)(MC, 11/23/01)

974        Pope Benedict VI was strangled to death by a priest named Stephen under directions of anti-Pope Boniface Franco, who called himself Boniface VII.
    (PTA, 1980, p.270)

975        Jul 25, Thietmar bishop of Merseburg, German chronicler, was born.
    (SC, 7/25/02)

975        Al-Azhar University in Egypt was founded and became the chief center of Arabic literature and Sunni Islamic learning in the world. As of 2008 it was world's second oldest surviving degree granting university.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Azhar_University)

975-1038    St. Stephen of Hungary. His crown was a fusion of Greek and Latin elements.
    (WSJ, 11/18/96, p.A10)

0976        Oct 1, Al-Hakam II, the caliph of Cordoba, died.
    (MC, 10/1/01)

976        Nov 14, T'ai tsu, emperor of China and founder of Sung-dynasty, died.
    (MC, 11/14/01)

976        The Great Mosque of Cordoba (Spain) was completed and served as a religious, social and educational center. The largest of the 70 libraries in Cordoba contained 500,000 volumes. 70,000 books a year were hand-copied to satisfy the citizen’s literary appetites.
    (ATC, p.95,98)

976-1025    The reign of Basil the Bulgar-Slayer, ruler of Byzantium. [see 330CE]
    (WSJ, 10/14/95, p.A-12)

977        The shrine of Imam Ali, a gold-domed mosque, was built in Najaf, Iraq, on the burial site of Imam Ali, son-in-law of the prophet Mohammed.
    (SFC, 8/30/03, p.A1)

978        Mar 18, Edward the Martyr (15), King of Anglo-Saxons (975-78), was murdered.
    (MC, 3/18/02)

979        Apr 14, There was a challenge to throne of King Aethelred II, the Unrede (Unready), of England (979-1016). He attempted to buy peace with from Scandinavian invaders and called for England’s 1st general tax, the Danegeld. Some 140,000 pounds of silver was paid in tribute.
    (WSJ, 5/24/01, p.A20)(MC, 4/14/02)

979        The Isle of Man parliament, the Tynwald Court, was established.
    (SSFC, 8/13/06, p.G5)

980-1037    Avicenna (Ibn Sina, Afghan scientist), the Muslim philosopher-scientist, was born in Bukhara (Balkh). He wrote "The Book of Healing," a vast philosophical and scientific encyclopedia, and "The Canon of Medicine," an encyclopedia of the medical knowledge of his time. Both works were translated to Latin and exerted great influence on Scholastics in the West.
    (www.afghan-web.com/history/)(V.D.-H.K.p.115)

981        Adherents to the Jainist faith consecrated a 57-foot statue of their most important siant, Bahubali, in the town of Shravana Belgola, India.
    (Sm, 3/06, p.23)

982        Eric the Red (950-1003), killed a neighbor and some other men about this time and was banished from Iceland for 3 years.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_the_Red)
982        Eric the Red, father of Leif Ericson, landed in Greenland and spent the next 3 years exploring the area.
    (SFEM, 11/15/98, p.24)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_the_Red)

983        Dec 7, Otto II the Red (~28), German king and emperor (973-83), died  in Italy. Otto III [aged 3] took the throne after his father's death.
    (HN, 12/7/98)(MC, 12/7/01)

985        Eric Thorvaldsson, aka Eric the Red, left Iceland and returned to Greenland establishing his 1st settlement there.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_the_Red)

c985        Montpellier, France, was founded at the intersection of 3 trade and pilgrimage routes.
    (WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R22)

985-1014    The Brihadeshwarar temple was built in southeastern India’s Tamil Nadu state.
    (WSJ, 10/1/04, p.A10)

985-1200    The Chola Kingdom prospered in southern India. Arts flourished and the economy prospered under expanding trade and military conquests. Ganesha, son of Shiva, was the first god invoked at the beginning of a new enterprise.
    (WSJ, 10/8/99, p.W14)(WSJ, 10/8/99, p.W14)

986        Mar 2, Lotharius (44), King of France (954-86), died.
    (SC, 3/2/02)

986        Eric the Red and his followers began to settle Greenland.
    (SFEM, 11/15/98, p.24)

986        Bjarni Herjolfsson sailed from Norway to Iceland with cargo for his father, who had moved on to Greenland. Herjjolfsson was blown off course and reached Labrador, which he described as "worthless country."
    (NG, V184, No. 4, Oct. 1993, p.4)(WSJ, 7/6/04, p.D5)

987        May 21, Louis V, last Carolingian King of France (966-987), died. The Carolingian period of Frankish rule from the dynasty of Pepin the Short ended in France with the death of Louis V (20). [see May 22]
    (PCh, 1992, p.78)(AHD, 1971, p.205)(MC, 5/21/02)

987        May 22, Louis V le Faineant (20), the Lazy, king of France (986-87), was allegedly poisoned by his mother. [see May 21]
    (MC, 5/22/02)

987        Jul 3, The count of Paris, Hugh Capet (49), became king of France. Paris soon emerged as the center of French political, cultural and religious life, once again becoming the capital.
    (PCh, 1992, p.78)(HNQ, 4/18/02)(MC, 7/3/02)

987        Dec 30, French King Hugh Capet crowned his son Robert the Compassionate.
    (MC, 12/30/01)

988        May 6, Dirk II, West Frisian count of Holland, died.
    (MC, 5/6/02)

988        May 19, Dunstanus, English archbishop of Canterbury, died.
    (MC, 5/19/02)

988        Prince Vladimir of Kiev accepted Byzantine Orthodoxy. This is the traditional date for the beginning of Russian Christianity.
    (DVD, Criterion, 1998)(SSFC, 6/24/01, p.A14)

989-1020    Ani, a medieval city-site situated in the Turkish province of Kars, beside the border with Armenia, attained the peak of its power during the long reign of King Gagik I (989-1020). It was the capital of a medieval Armenian kingdom that covered much of present day Armenia and eastern Turkey. Armenian chroniclers such as Yeghishe  and Ghazar Parpetsi first mentioned Ani in the 5th century AD.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ani)

990        A set of instructions on chess, the Versus de Scachis (Poem About Chess), emerged in Switzerland about this time. The game had begun in India before the 6th century.
    (Arch, 1/05, p.40)(Econ, 10/29/11, p.97)

991        Aug 11, Danes under Olaf Tryggvason killed Ealdorman Brihtnoth and defeated the Saxons at Maldon.
    (HN, 8/10/98)

992        Constantinople granted Venetian goods lower tariffs than other merchandise.
    (WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R50)

992        Ghana captured its chief trading rival, the Berber town of Audoghast.
    (Enc. of Africa, 1976, p.172)

993        The south Indian Cola Empire captured Anuradhapura (Sri Lanka).
    (Arch, 7/02, p.34)

994        Nov 7, Muhammad ibn Hazm, historian, jurist, author of Islamic Spain, was born.
    (MC, 11/7/01)

994-1035    Life of Canute, later King of England, Denmark and Norway.
    (AHD,1971, p.198)

995        Guido d’Arezzo (d.~1049, Italian monk and musical theorist, was born. He is generally credited with developing current musical notation.
    (WUD, 1994, p.629)(WSJ, 5/27/97, pB1)

995-1000    In Norway Olaf I was king.
    (WUD, 1994, p.1002)

995-1027    Heydey of the Fujiwara Clan in Japan.
    (Jap. Enc., BLDM, p. 214)

995-1030    Olaf Haraldsson, aka Saint Olaf, the patron saint of Norway. He was king from 1016-1029. He and a crew of Vikings attacked London and pulled down the London Bridge with ropes. This is remembered in the nursery rhyme "London Bridge is falling down..."
    (WUD, 1994, p.1002)(SFC, 8/23/97, p.E3)

996        May 21, Otto III (16) was crowned the Roman Emperor by his cousin Pope Gregory V.
    (HN, 5/21/98)(MC, 5/21/02)

996        Oct 24, Hugh Capet, king of France (987-96), died at 58.
    (MC, 10/24/01)

c996        In Iran the Astan Ghods Ravazi religious foundation was started.
    (WSJ, 7/11/96, p.A4)

997        The name "Austria" first appeared in a medieval manuscript.
    (WSJ, 4/16/97, p.A16)

997        St. Adalbert was martyred. He brought Christianity to Bohemia.
    (SFC, 4/26/97, p.A12)

997        The Polish city of Gdansk was founded. From 1920 to 1939 it was known as the Free City of Danzig.
    (SSFC, 3/3/13, p.N4)

c998-1061    Bao Qingtian (Bao Zheng), Chinese judge of the Song Dynasty, had a reputation for sticking up for the common man.
    (Econ, 4/23/05, p.43)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bao_Zheng)

999        Feb 18, Gregory V, [Bruno] 1st German Pope, died.
    (MC, 2/18/02)

999        Turkish dynasties became the rulers of Transoxania, and area that covered much of what later became Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan.
    (Econ, 7/26/03, p.46-4 )

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