TIMELINE OF KEY EVENTS

570		Birth of the Prophet Muhammad.
603–28		The war between Byzantium and Sassanian Persia leaves both of the main political powers in western Asia exhausted.
632		Death of Muhammad.
632–61		The Rashidun, or ‘rightly guided’, caliphs.
633		Muslim state most powerful political entity in Arabia. Risings crushed in Oman and Yemen in the Ridda Wars.
633–42		Arab conquest of Palestine, Syria, Iraq and Egypt.
643–707		Muslim conquest of North Africa.
644		Arab invasion of Iran.
651		Iran conquered, standard text of Quran completed.
656		Murder of the third caliph, Uthman, by Muslim mutineers.
656		The Battle of the Camel outside Basra. The Prophet’s widow attempts rebellion against Caliph Ali but she is defeated.
657		Battle of Siffin between Caliph Ali and Muawiya, governor of Syria.
661		Murder of Ali by Kharijites, establishment of Umayyad caliphate under Muawiya.
661–750		Umayyad caliphate.
674–715		Conquest of Transoxania.
680		Massacre of Husain, Ali’s son and the Prophet’s grandson, and of his family and supporters at Karbala by Umayyad troops. The idea of the imam as the rightful ruler in Islam now applied to the descendants of Ali.
683–90		Civil wars in Syria between Arab tribes.
685		Shiite revolt in Kufa under Mukhtar. Claims that Ali’s descendant, al-Hanafiyya, is the Mahdi.
711–16		Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula.
732		Battle of Poitiers. Muslim advance into France halted.
740		Zaydite Revolt in Kufa in the name of Jafar al-Sadiq, the sixth imam.
744–8		Widespread Kharijite uprisings in Persia.
747–50		Abbasid revolution in Khurasan.
750		Overthrow of Umayyad dynasty, establishment of Abbasid caliphate.
751		Chinese defeated on the Jaxartes River, Muslim hegemony in central Asia established.
762		An Alid claimant to the caliphate, Muhammad, rebels in Medina but is killed with his supporters by the Abbasids.
765		Death of the imam Jafar al-Sadiq. The succession is disputed. Shiites divide into two branches. The Twelvers who follow the line of Musa and the Seveners or Ismailis who follow the line of Ismail.
788–809		Quasi-independent dynasties in Morocco and Tunisia. Sardinia conquered.
809–12		Independent dynasties in Oman and Yemen. Abbasid civil war, siege of Baghdad.
813–33		Reign of Caliph al-Mamun. Through the mihna he attempts to enforce orthodoxy across the Muslim world. The attempt fails and sets off more religious rebellion.
820		Independent Tahirid Dynasty in Khurasan. Abbasid dominion now shattered but Islam unites the empire.
836		Abbasid capital moved from Baghdad to Samarra.
861		Slave soldiers of Samarra riot and kill the caliph. Caliphs are the puppets of their own bodyguards.
867–72		Independent Saffarid Dynasty defeats Tahirids and occupies all of Persia.
869–83		Black slaves revolt in Iraq.
877		Quasi-independent Tulunid governors of Egypt take Syria from direct Abbasid control.
899		Ismaili Shiite republics set up by the Qarmatians in eastern Arabia and in Yemen.
907		The Khitai conquer Northern China and start to push steppe Turks from Central Asia into the eastern Islamic lands.
909		The Fatimids establish a rival Ismaili Shiite caliphate in Tunisia and occupy Sicily and Sardinia. Large-scale Ismaili missionary work spreads the creed across Islam.
927		Qarmatians nearly seize Baghdad.
930		Qarmatians seize the holy black stone from the Kaaba and massacre pilgrims.
944		Kharijite rebellion against the Fatimids suppressed in North Africa.
945		The Shiite Buyids from Iran occupy Iraq but retain the Abbasid caliphs for political reasons. The tenth century is the ‘Shiite Century’.
960		The Fatimids conquer Egypt from the Ikhshidids. The Saljuq Turks enter eastern Islam from Central Asia and convert to Sunni Islam.
962–1024		Former Islamic slave soldiers, the Ghaznavids, forge an empire in Afghanistan and northern India and occupy eastern Iran.
969		Foundation of Cairo by the Fatimids. Ismaili House of Propaganda founded.
1040		Battle of Dandanqan, the Saljuqs defeat the Ghaznavids and take control of Iran.
1055		The Saljuqs take Baghdad and ‘liberate’ the Abbasid caliphate from the Shiite Buyids, their sultanate begins.
1065–97		Fatimid–Saljuq war in Syria.
1070–92		The Ismailis, soon to become the Assassins, take castles in northern Persia as strongholds. Hasan-i-Sabbah, the founder of the Assassins starts his career as a Fatimid missionary.
1071		Saljuqs defeat Byzantines at Manzikert.
1092		Murder of the Saljuq great wazir Nizam al-Mulk by the Assassins. The Saljuq Empire is shattered.
1094		The Fatimid succession is contested. Nizar is murdered in favour of his brother by the wazir and the Nizari Ismailis, the Assassins, formally split away from the Fatimids.
1099		First Crusade takes Jerusalem.
1099–1105		Fatimids engaged repeatedly by the Crusaders.
1100		First Assassin missionaries sent to Syria.
1100–10		Assassins’ murder campaign against the sons of Nizam al-Mulk in Persia.
1101		Sultan Berkyaruq regains some control over Persia and begins a campaign against the Assassins.
1106		First castle seized by Assassins in Syria.
1108–9		Sunni religious leaders in Nishapur and Isfahan killed by Assassins.
1111		Aleppo’s lord, under pressure from the Assassins, closes the city’s gates to the sultan’s army as it is on its way to fight the Crusaders.
1113		The Sunnis of Aleppo massacre the Assassins in their city.
1113		The emir Mawdud leads an expedition against the Crusaders but he is killed in Damascus’s great mosque by the Assassins.
1118		Almost constant Saljuq raids on Assassin territories in Persia ending only with the sultan’s death.
1119		Battle of Ager Sainguinis. Before the battle a Sunni judge preaches to the troops. Hatred of the Assassins by both groups is a catalyst for the union between Sunnism and the Turkish military men and jihad.
1120–40s		The rise of Zangi, lord of Mosul.
1121		The King of Georgia invades Islam and the Assassins begin a campaign of murder to stop the Georgians. Al-Afdal, the Fatimid wazir, is assassinated in Cairo. Fatimid resistance to the Crusaders in Syria collapses as the state undergoes sustained political crises.
1122		Balak, the new lord of Aleppo, takes on the jihad against the Crusaders and persecutes the Assassins’ sect.
1124		Death of Balak at siege of Manbj. Death of Hasan-i-Sabbah, the first Assassin grand master.
1125		Sunni judge of Aleppo murdered by the Assassins.
1126		Sultan Sanjar resumes war with the Assassins.
1129		In Damascus a Sunni mob massacres Assassins and sympathisers.
1130		The Fatimid caliph, al-Amir, is murdered by the Assassins.
1130–40		Rise of the Khwarazm shahs in Transoxania. Syrian Assassins consolidate their position by obtaining castles.
1131		Buri, the lord of Damascus, is assassinated.
1135		The Assassins kill the Abbasid caliph with the collusion of the sultan.
1138		The Assassins kill their second caliph.
1141		Battle of Qatwan Steppe, Saljuqs defeated by the Khitai.
1143		The Saljuq governor of Rayy builds towers out of the skulls of suspected Assassins as he goes to war with them. The Saljuq sultan of Baghdad is assassinated with the collusion of Zangi, the new lord of Mosul.
1144		The Zangi’s counter-crusade takes Edessa.
1146		Death of Zangi.
1148		The Second Crusade reaches the Holy Land.
1149		Assassin irregulars fight in the army of Raymond of Antioch against Nur al-Din.
1152		Count Raymond II of Tripoli is the first Crusader murdered by the Assassins.
1153		Sultan Sanjar is defeated by the Ghuzz Turks; they hold him captive for three years.
1154		Nur al-Din takes Damascus. Sunni jihad against the Assassins and Crusaders.
1157		Death of Sanjar, break up of eastern Saljuq Empire.
1162		Rashid al-Din becomes chief missionary for the Assassins in Syria.
1164		The Assassin grand master announces the end of the sharia and the Resurrection. He is portrayed as a direct agent of God.
1171		Saladin brings the Fatimid Empire to an end and holds Egypt.
1174–92		Career of Saladin. The Assassins try to kill him three times but eventually make an accord with the sultan. Saladin defeats the Crusaders and takes Jerusalem.
1192		The Third Crusade arrives in Syria. King Richard of England saves the Crusader state. Assassination of the Marquis Conrad of Montferrat as he awaits coronation as the new king of the Crusader kingdom. Third Crusade leaves Syria after agreement with Saladin over Jerusalem and the Syrian coast.
1193		Death of Saladin and of Rashid al-Din.
1194–6		The Khwarazm shahs make war on the last Saljuqs and on the caliph.
1199		First clash between the Assassins and the Khwarazm shahs.
1210		Assassins accept authority of the Abbasid caliph and become ‘neo-Muslims’.
1213		Raymond, son of Bohemond of Antioch, is assassinated.
1215		Chinggis Khan takes Beijing.
1218		The Khwarazm shah provokes war with the Mongols.
1219		First Mongol invasion of Islamic lands.
1220		Mongols conquer eastern territories of Islam, Bukhara is sacked.
1223		Mongol reign of terror in eastern Persia. Khwarazmians in disarray.
1227		Death of Chinggis Khan.
1228		Crusade of Frederick II. The emperor pays protection money to the Assassins.
1230		Mongol offensive into western Islam. In Syria the Assassins fight with the Hospitallers against Bohemond of Antioch.
1231		Death of last Khwarazm shah.
1238		Failure of Assassin and caliphal embassies seeking alliance against the Mongols in France and England.
1242–3		Mongols invade Anatolia, Battle of Kose Dagh.
1244		Khwarazmians desecrate the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, Battle of Harbiyya.
1249–50		Louis IX crusades to Egypt, birth of Mamluk sultanate. King Louis receives an embassy from the Assassins.
1253		Four hundred Assassins are sent to Mongolia to assassinate the Khan but the mission fails.
1253–4		Hulegu Khan is sent to Persia by the Great Khan to punish the Assassins and to end the Abbasid caliphate.
1256		Hulegu Khan invades Persia with specific mission to eliminate Assassins. The grand master’s castle, Alamut, surrenders.
1258		Mongols murder the last Caliph of Baghdad and sack the city.
1259		Mongke Khan dies, the Mongol Civil War begins.
1260		The Mongols invade Syria but are defeated by the Mamluks of Egypt at Ain Jalut.
1261–91		Mamluk–Sunni jihad against Crusaders ending with fall of last Crusader city, Acre. The Assassins’ castles in Syria are also taken by the Mamluks in their Holy War.
1270		The great Assassin castle, Girdkuh, finally falls to the Mongols. Philip of Montfort is assassinated in Acre on the orders of Baybars, the Mamluk sultan.
1271		Bohemond of Tripoli employs Assassins to kill the Mamluk sultan, but the attempt fails.
1272		Baybars sends Assassins to kill Edward of England while he is on Crusade. The Assassins are now controlled entirely by the Mamluk sultans.
1275		Assassins recapture Alamut castle from the Mongols.
1336		The Mongol state of Persia collapses. Assassin refugees spread over Asia and become the peaceful community of Ismaili Muslims that exists today.