622: Arabia: Hegira of the Prophet and his companions to Medina.
626: Arabia: Battle of Uhud, death of Musab ibn Umayr, companion of the Prophet.
632: Arabia: Death of the Prophet of Islam.
636: Iraq: Battle of Qadisiyya. Final victory of Caliph Umar over the Sassanid empire.
680 (October 10): Iraq: Death of Imam Husayn ibn Ali, the Prophet’s grandson, martyred in Karbala by soldiers of the Sunni caliph Yazid.
1453 (May 29): Fall of Byzantium to Sultan Mehmed II Fatih.
1799: Egypt: Napoleon Bonaparte’s expedition.
1836: Egypt: Publication of Gold of Paris by reformist Sheikh Rifaʽa al-Tahtawi.
1916 (May 19): Signing of the Sykes-Picot Agreement.
1920: League of Nations grants mandates over the Levant to France and the United Kingdom.
1920 (August 10): Signing of the Treaty of Sèvres.
1923 (July 24): Signing of the Treaty of Lausanne.
1924 (March 3): The Ottoman caliphate ends.
1928: Egypt: Hassan al-Banna founds the Muslim Brotherhood in Ismailiyah.
1931 (September 16): Libya: The Mussolini regime hangs Omar Mukhtar.
1932 (September 21): Saudi Arabia is founded.
1936: Bosnia: Al-Hidaje, a Muslim Brotherhood-inspired group, is founded.
1941: Bosnia: The Mladi Muslimani (Young Muslims) organization is founded.
1945 (February 4–11): USSR: The Yalta Agreements are negotiated.
1945 (February 14): Egypt: U.S. President F. D. Roosevelt and King Ibn Saud conclude a pact on board the USS Quincy in the Suez Canal lakes.
1945: Yugoslavia: The Tito regime dissolves Bosnia’s Al-Hidaje organization.
1948: (May 15): Israel: David Ben-Gurion proclaims the state of Israel.
1948: (May): Palestine: Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are expelled from Palestine in the Nakba (“catastrophe”).
1949: Bosnia: The Tito regime dissolves the Mladi Muslimani organization.
1952 (July 23): Egypt: Gamal Abdel Nasser and the Free Officers take power.
1953: United States: George H. W. Bush, future United States president, starts the Zapata Petroleum Company.
1954 (October 26): Egypt: An attempt on Nasser’s life leads to prohibition and disbandment of the Muslim Brotherhood.
1956 (October): Egypt: Suez Canal crisis. Tripartite expedition of French, British, and Israeli troops to the Canal nationalized by Nasser, and their retreat under international pressure.
1956 (April): Tunisia: Habib Bourguiba takes power as prime minister. He assumes the presidency of the Republic on July 25, 1957.
1958 (October): Syria: Mustafa as-Sitt Mariam Nassar, alias Abu Musab al-Suri is born in Aleppo.
1962: Yemen: The Egyptian army supports Republican forces against the Royalists aided by Saudi Arabia.
1962 (December 15): Saudi Arabia: Crown Prince Faisal founds the Muslim World League in Mecca.
1964: Iraq: Ayatollah Khomeini begins his exile in Najaf.
1966 (August 29): Egypt: Sayyid Qutb, chief ideologue of the Muslim Brotherhood and author of Signposts, is hanged.
1966 (October 20): Jordan: Ahmad Fadeel al-Nazal al-Khalayleh, alias Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, is born in Zarqa.
1967 (June 5–10): Arab naksa (defeat) by Israel in the Six-Day War. Israel takes Gaza, the Sinai, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Golan.
1967 (November 27): France: General de Gaulle announces in a press conference that France will stop supplying arms to Israel and the warring parties.
1969 (September 1): Libya: Colonel Gaddafi deposes King Idris.
1969: Yasser Arafat, head of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), leaves Cairo and settles in Jordan.
1969 (November 3): The head of the Lebanese Army and Yasser Arafat conclude the Cairo agreements, recognizing the extraterritoriality of the Palestinian camps in Lebanon.
1970 (September 6): Jordan: The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), led by George Habache, diverts three airliners to Zarqa.
1970 (September 12): Jordan: The “Black September” Palestinian massacres are carried out.
1970 (September 28): Egypt: Nasser dies and is succeeded by Anwar Sadat.
1970: Bosnia: Alija Izetbegović publishes the Islamic Declaration, inspired by Sayyid Qutb’s Signposts.
1971 (July): Iraq: The future head of ISIS, Ibrahim Awwad Ibrahim Ali al-Badri, alias Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, is born in Samarra.
1973 (October 6–25): The Ramadan War (also Yom Kippur War or October War) breaks out. The price of oil quadruples, driven up by the Arab exporting countries.
1975 (April 13): Lebanon: A Phalangist (Maronite) militia attack on a Palestinian bus triggers civil war.
1976 (June): Lebanon: Hafez al-Assad sends in Syrian troops.
1977 (November 15): United States: Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s visit to Washington is met with violent demonstrations against him.
1977 (November 20): Egypt: Anwar Sadat addresses the Knesset.
1978 (March 14): Lebanon: Israel invades South Lebanon (Operation Litani).
1978: Ayatollah Khomeini ends his exile in Nadjaf and relocates to Neauphle-le-Château, a Paris suburb.
1979 (February 1): Iran: A triumphant Ayatollah Khomeini returns to Teheran.
1979 (March 26): United States: The Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty is signed in Washington.
1979 (November 4): Iran: Hostage taking at the American Embassy starts.
1979 (November 20): Saudi Arabia: Hostage taking by Juhayman al-Otaybi starts at the Grand Mosque of Mecca. The French National Gendarmerie SWAT team (GIGN) helps retake the holy places at the end of a two-week siege.
1979 (December 25): Afghanistan: Start of the Red Army’s invasion.
1980 (April 9): Iraq: Saddam Hussein’s regime executes Ayatollah Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr, Khomeini’s personal representative.
1980 (June 27): Syria: Hundreds of Islamist prisoners jailed in Palmyra (Tadmor) are massacred after an assassination attempt on President Hafez al-Assad.
1980 (September): Start of the Iran-Iraq War.
1981 (May): The Sunni petromonarchies of the Arabian Peninsula set up the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (better known as the Gulf Cooperation Council—GCC).
1981 (October 6): Egypt: The “Organization of Jihad” assassinates Anwar Sadat.
1981 (December 15): Lebanon: The Iraqi embassy is attacked by a suicide bomber.
1982 (June 6): Lebanon: Israel launches Operation Peace for Galilee, which reaches the Beirut suburbs. Hezbollah, a Shiite party inspired by Khomeinism, is founded.
1982 (September): Lebanon: Phalangist militias commit massacres in the Sabra and Chatila Palestinian camps. A Multinational Force (MNF) under UN auspices arrives in Lebanon.
1982: Algeria: Mustafa Bouyali founds the Armed Islamic Movement (MIA).
1982 (April 25): Egypt gets back the Sinai Peninsula, taken by Israel in 1967.
1982 (November 17): Iran: Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim sets up the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.
1983 (April): Lebanon: An attack on the American embassy results in sixty-three dead.
1983 (October 23): Lebanon: Attacks on the barracks of the American and French troop contingents of the MNF results in 256 and fifty-eight dead respectively.
1984 (March): Lebanon: The MNF withdraws.
1984: Syria: The jihadist Abu Mohammad al-Julani, future leader of the Al-Nusra Front, is born.
1984: Iran issues a postage stamp “in memory of the martyrdom of Sayyid Qutb.”
1985 (February): Lebanon: Hezbollah is officially established.
1985 (March 22): Lebanon: The taking of foreign hostages begins.
1985 (approx.): Join the Caravan by Abdullah Azzam is published in Pakistan.
1986 (April 15): Libya: American planes bomb Gaddafi’s palace in Tripoli.
1987 (November 7): Tunisia: Habib Bourguiba is deposed by Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
1987 (June): The first Intifada, known as the Revolt of the Stones, begins.
1988 (August 18): Palestine/Israel: Hamas publishes its charter.
1988 (August 20): The Iran-Iraq War ends.
1988 (October 4): Algeria: Amid rioting, Islamist leaders are received by the ruling power.
1988 (December 21) United Kingdom: A Pan American Airways 747 explodes over Lockerbie, Scotland. The attack is traced to Gaddafi.
1989 (February 14): Iran: Khomeini issues a fatwa condemning Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses, to death.
1989 (February 15): Afghanistan: The Soviet Army pulls out from Kabul.
1989 (March): Algeria: The Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) is formed at the Abdelhamid Ben Badis Mosque.
1989 (June 3): Iran: Khomeini dies.
1989 (June 30): Sudan: General Omar al-Bashir carries out a coup. The preacher Hassan al-Turabi becomes his éminence grise.
1989 (September 18): France: The Islamic veil controversy starts at Creil Middle School (Oise prefecture).
1989 (August 3): Iran: Hashemi Rafsanjani is elected president of the Republic.
1989 (September 19): Ténéré Desert: A French UTA airliner is downed on Gaddafi’s orders.
1989 (October 22): Saudi Arabia: The signing of the Taif Agreements ends the Lebanese civil war.
1989 (November 9): Germany: The Berlin Wall falls.
1989 (November 24): Pakistan: Abdullah Azzam is assassinated in Peshawar.
1990 (May 22): Yemen: Ali Abdullah Saleh succeeds in reunifying North Yemen and Marxist South Yemen.
1990 (June): Algeria: FIS wins the municipal elections.
1990 (August 2): Kuwait: The Iraqi army invades Kuwait on Saddam Hussein’s orders.
1991 (January 15): Iraq: The American Desert Storm Operation to liberate Kuwait starts. The First Gulf War ensues.
1991: Civil war starts in the former Yugoslavia.
1991 (April 25): Sudan: Hassan al-Turabi convenes the first of four Arab and Islamic Conferences.
1991 (May): Saudi Arabia: A group of Wahhabite preachers including Salman al-Auda address a letter of complaints to King Fahd.
1991 (June): Saudi Arabia: Pilgrimage by Egyptian Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman
1991 (November 28): Algeria: Jihadists attack a military post at Guemmar and behead draftees in commemoration of Abdullah Azzam’s assassination.
1991 (December 26): Algeria: The FIS wins the first round of the legislative elections.
1992 (January 11): Algeria: The army removes President Chadli Bendjedid.
1992 (January 13): Algeria: The army suspends the electoral process.
1992 (March 4): Algeria: The Islamic Salvation Front is dissolved.
1992 (June 8): Egypt: The secular writer Farag Foda is assassinated, jihad starts.
1992 (October): Algeria: The Armed Islamic Group (GIA) is created.
1992 (December): Somalia: The UN dispatches an international troop of contingents as part of Operation Restore Hope. American troops attacked by jihadists suffer losses and are withdrawn by Washington suffering “Vietmali syndrome”—the fear of getting into another Vietnam quagmire in Somalia.
1992: Francis Fukuyama’s book The End of History argues that human political evolution ended with the triumph of liberal democracy.
1992 (December 13): Israel: An Israeli non-commissioned officer kidnapped at Lod is found stabbed to death on the West Bank. Yitzhak Rabin has 417 Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders and activists arrested and exiled to Marj az Zohur in Lebanon.
1992 (December): Norway: The PLO starts secret talks with Israel to lay the groundwork for the future Oslo accords.
1993: Sudan: Carlos, a former Marxist terrorist who converted to Islam, takes refuge in Khartoum.
1993 (February 26): United States: Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, leader of the Egyptian Gamʾa Islamiyya, is accused of masterminding the first attack on the World Trade Center.
1993 (March): Algeria: Abdelhak Layada, the GIA leader, appropriates the Afghan jihad, drawing inspiration from Abdullah Azzam.
1993 (May): Saudi Arabia: Wahhabite regime opponents set up the Committee for the Defense of Legitimate Rights.
1993 (July): United Kingdom: Jihadists exiled to London, including Abu Musab al-Suri, publish the Al-Ansar bulletin in support of the Algerian GIA.
1993 (September 13): Washington: Arafat and Rabin sign the Oslo Accords.
1994: Sudan: The terrorist Carlos is abducted by the French intelligence services.
1994 (February 25): Palestine/Israel: A Jewish settler massacres thirty Muslims at prayer in the Hebron sanctuary.
1994 (April): Saudi Arabia: Muhammad al-Massʾari, leader of the opposition, is exiled to London.
1994 (May 13): Algeria: Several FIS leaders pledge loyalty to the GIA.
1994 (July 18): Algeria: The executive authority of the FIS abroad (IEFE) sets up the Islamic Army of Salvation (AIS).
1994 (October 27): Algeria: Djamel Zituni takes over as head of the GIA.
1994 (October): Egypt: Naguib Mahfouz, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, is stabbed by a jihadist.
1994 (December 24): The GIA diverts an Algiers-to-Paris Air France flight.
1995 (June 26): Ethiopia: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak escapes an assassination attempt unharmed during the Organization of African Unity summit.
1995 (June 28): Qatar: Emir Hamad overthrows his father and takes power.
1995 (July 11–October 17) France: The Algerian GIA carries out a series of attacks instigated by Khaled Kelkal.
1995 (November 4): Israel: A Jewish activist assassinates Yitzhak Rabin.
1995 (November 13): Saudi Arabia: American troops in Riyadh are attacked.
1996: Qatar: The Al Jazeera satellite TV network begins broadcasting.
1996: United States: Samuel Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations sets Islam and Confucianism in opposition against Western ideologies.
1996 (March): Egypt: Gamaʿa Islamiyya slaughters eighteen Greek tourists in Cairo.
1996 (March 29): France: Jihadists returned from Bosnia are found—and some are killed—in the northern city of Roubaix.
1996 (June 29): Libya: Gaddafi orders execution of 1,200 jihadists in Tripoli’s Abu Salim prison in reprisal for three assassination attempts on him.
1996 (August 26): Afghanistan: Osama bin Laden issues his Declaration of Jihad Against the Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holy Mosques [Mecca and Medina].
1997 (August 29–September 23): Algeria: The GIA slaughters several hundred people at Rais and Bentalha, suburbs of Algiers.
1997 (September 21): Algeria: The Islamic Army of Salvation (AIS) calls for a truce.
1997 (September 27): Algeria: The GIA ceases to exist.
1997 (November 17): Egypt: The Gamaʿa Islamiyya massacres sixty tourists in Luxor.
1998 (February 23): Afghanistan: Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri disseminate the founding charter of the World Islamic Front for Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders.
1998 (August 7): Kenya and Tanzania: The American embassy in both countries are attacked simultaneously.
1998 (August 20): Sudan and Afghanistan: American cruise missiles destroy a factory and a training camp for jihadists.
1999 (April 27): Algeria: Abdelaziz Bouteflika takes over and promotes national concord.
1999 (February 19): Iraq: The Saddam Hussein regime executes Ayatollah Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr.
1999 (March 6): Bahrain: Emir Hamed takes the throne promising political reforms.
2000 (February 6): Russia: Russian troops retake Grozny (Chechnya).
2000 (July 11–25): United States: Yasser Arafat, during a meeting with Ehud Barak and Bill Clinton at Camp David, reiterates the right of return of Palestinian refugees.
2000 (September 28): Palestine/Israel: Ariel Sharon’s stroll on the Temple Mount’s Plaza of the Mosques starts the Second Intifada.
2000 (September 30): Palestine: Television broadcasts live the death of the twelve-year-old Muhammad al-Durrah, killed in his father’s arms by an Israeli bullet.
2000 (October 12): Yemen: Jihadists attack the American destroyer USS Cole in Aden Harbor.
2001: Turkey: Publication of Strategic Depth by Ahmet Davutoğlu, future minister of foreign affairs, then President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s prime minister.
2001 (February): Israel: Ariel Sharon becomes prime minister
2001 (September 9): Afghanistan: Tunisian Jihadists from Molenbeek (Belgium) incited by Tunisian Abu Ayadh al-Tunisi assassinate Commander Ahmad Shah Massoud.
2001 (September 11): United States: Al-Qaeda carries out simultaneous attacks on New York and Washington, D.C., causing 2,977 deaths.
2001 (October 7): Afghanistan: Start of the American “War on Terror” targeting the Taliban.
2001 (December 2): Ayman al-Zawahiri’s Knights Under the Prophet’s Banner is published in the Arab press.
2002 (January 29): United States: In his State of the Union address, President George W. Bush names several countries, including Iran, as the “Axis of Evil.”
2002 (April): Tunisia: Abu Ayadh al-Tunisi is suspected of masterminding the attack on the El Ghriba synagogue.
2003 (February 5): American Secretary of State Colin Powell speaks in the UN about Saddam Hussein’s supposed massive weapons of mass destruction stockpiles and his links to al-Qaeda.
2003 (March 20): Iraq: Start of the American invasion of Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.
2003 (April 9): Iraq: Baghdad falls to American troops, symbolized by the toppling of Saddam Hussein’s statue on Paradise Square.
2003 (April 10): Iraq: The assassination of Ayatollah Abdul-Majid al-Khoei in Najaf is blamed on Muqtada al-Sadr.
2003 (April 22): Iraq: Four million Shiites take part in Muqtada al-Sadr-organized pilgrimage to Karbala commemorating the death of Imam Husayn.
2003 (May 12): Iraq: Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim, founder of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq and the Badr Brigades, returns from Iran.
2003 (May 16): Morocco: Al-Qaeda claims responsibility for attacks in Casablanca.
2003 (August 7): Iraq: The Jordanian Embassy is attacked.
2003 (August 12): Iraq: Attack on the UN offices.
2003 (August 29): Iraq: Ayatollah Baqir al-Hakim’s assassination by a suicide bomber is blamed on Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
2004 (March): Malaysia: The Libyan jihadist Abdelhakim Belhaj is arrested and turned over to the Gaddafi regime.
2004: Iraq: Muqtada al-Sadr founds the Mahdi Army.
2004 (January): Iraq: Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, future head of Islamic State, is imprisoned at Camp Bucca.
2004 (March 11): Spain: Four commuter trains heading toward Madrid’s Atocha Station are bombed, causing 191 dead.
2004 (March 15): France: The wearing of conspicuous religious insignia is prohibited in public schools.
2004 (May 7): Iraq: The beheading of American entrepreneur Nicholas Berg by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is recorded on video for the world to see.
2004 (November 2): Netherlands: The Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh is assassinated in Amsterdam by a Dutch-Moroccan jihadist in retaliation for his short film Submission.
2004 (November 11): France: Yasser Arafat dies at the Clamart military hospital.
2005 (January): Abu Musab al-Suri’s A Call for a Global Islamic Resistance is posted online.
2005 (February 14): Lebanon: Prime Minister Rafic Hariri is assassinated.
2005 (February 14): United States: YouTube obtains its operating license in California.
2005 (April): Lebanon: Syrian military occupation ends following the Cedar Spring.
2005 (June): Iraq: The Kurdistan Regional Government in Erbil is presided over by Masoud Barzani.
2005 (July 7): United Kingdom: Al-Qaeda claims attacks in London that cause fifty-six dead, seven hundred wounded.
2005 (August): Iran: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad elected president.
2005 (September 30): Islamists campaign against the publication of cartoons of the Prophet by the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten.
2005 (November–December): Egypt: The Muslim Brotherhood wins eighty-eight out of 518 seats in the parliamentary election.
2006 (January): Palestine: The Islamist Hamas party wins the election.
2006 (February): Yemen: Jihadists detained in Sanaʽa escape and return to Iraq.
2006 (February 17): Libya: Demonstrations before the Italian consulate in Benghazi against an Italian minister who wore a T-shirt bearing the Jyllands-Posten cartoons of the Prophet. Putting down the demonstration results in dozens of dead.
2006 (February 22): Iraq: Attack by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi on the Al-Askari Mosque in Samarra, home to the tomb of one of the Shiite Imams and entrance to the cave where the Mahdi disappeared.
2006 (June 7): Iraq: Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is killed by the Americans.
2006 (July12–August 14): Lebanon: Hezbollah defeats the Israeli army in the 33-Day War. The victory is celebrated throughout the Arab world.
2007 (June): Palestine: Hamas takes full powers in Gaza.
2008 (April 6): Egypt: Work stops due to massive strikes at the textile mill in al-Mahalla al-Kubra.
2009: Iran: Demonstrators rally against reelecting Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
2010 (June 6): Egypt: A young pharmacist Khaled Saeed dies under torture in police custody in Alexandria.
2010 (October 10): Iraq: The jihadist Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, emir of the Islamic State, dies in an American raid.
2010 (December 17): Tunisia: Mohamed Bouazizi sets himself aflame in Sidi Bouzid after a run-in with a police woman, triggering the Arab Spring.
2010: (December): Egypt: The regime manipulates the legislative elections.
2010 (December 31): Egypt: Attack on a Coptic church in Alexandria results in twenty-three dead.
2011 (January 14): Tunisia: President Ben Ali flees the country.
2011 (January 25): Egypt: Start of demonstrations on Tahrir Square in Cairo.
2011 (January 28): Egypt: The Muslim Brotherhood shows up on Tahrir Square.
2011 (February 3): Yemen: Sanaʽa celebrates the resignation of Ben Ali. Insurgents gather on University Square.
2011 (February 11): Egypt: President Hosni Mubarak resigns.
2011 (February 14): Bahrain: Demonstrators in the tens of thousands gather on Pearl Square in Manama.
2011 (February 18): Egypt: The Muslim Brotherhood’s Yusuf al-Qaradawi delivers the sermon at Friday prayers on Cairo’s Tahrir Square.
2011 (February 21): Tunisia: Violent demonstrations are staged in front of the Tunis Kasbah.
2011 (February 15): Libya: Riots break out in Benghazi following the arrest of a human rights activist the previous day.
2011 (February 25): Libya: The rebels take over in Cyrenaica’s Benghazi.
2011 (February 27): Libya: A National Council of Transition (NCT) is formed in Benghazi.
2011 (March 5): Libya: The NCT proclaims itself the country’s sole legitimate representative.
2011 (March 6): Syria: Twelve students are picked up in Daraa for anti-regime graffiti.
2011 (March 14): Bahrain: GCC armed forces enter Manama.
2011 (March 15–16): Syria: Demonstrations start in Damascus, Aleppo, and the big towns.
2011 (March 16): Bahrain: Saudi tanks disperse the Pearl Square sit-in.
2011 (March 17): Libya: The UN authorizes military measures for the protection of people.
2011 (March 18): Syria: Street demonstrations in Daraa intensify following the arrest of the students on March 6.
2011 (March 19): Libya: Western air strikes destroy a column of tanks sent by Gaddafi to take Benghazi.
2011 (February and March): Tunisia: Exiled political opponents are allowed to return.
2011 (late March): Syria: The regime harshly represses the street demonstrations.
2011 (March 31): Tunisia: Rached Ghannouchi, founder of the Ennahda party, returns.
2011 (April): Egypt: The former Mubarak regime’s National Democratic Party is dissolved.
2011 (May 2): Pakistan: United States Navy SEALs kill Osama bin Laden.
2011 (June): Egypt: Islamist political parties created to stand for election include the Liberty and Justice party (Muslim Brotherhood) and the Party of Light [Nour] (Salafists).
2011 (July 8): Egypt: Secularist militants begin to occupy Tahrir Square.
2011 (July 29): Egypt: Many Salafist demonstrators from the countryside gather in Tahrir Square and call for an Islamic state.
2011 (July): Syria: Creation of the Kurdish PYD (Democratic Union Party).
2011 (August 20 and 21) Libya: Tripoli falls to the rebels. The jihadist Belhaj enters the Presidential Palace with the Al-Jazeera network’s video cameras focused on him.
2011 (October): Tunisia: The Ennahda Islamist party carries the election in the National Constituent Assembly.
2011 (autumn): Syria: Start of the battle for Homs.
2011 (October 20): Libya: Muammar Gaddafi dies at the hands of a lynch mob after his convoy is stopped by a NATO air strike.
2011 (October 29): Tunisia: Hamadi Jebali, named prime minister by Ennahda, explains that his party has distanced itself from the totalitarian heritage of the Muslim Brotherhood.
2011 (November): Tunisia: The “Troika,” led by Hamadi Jebali (Ennahda), Moncef Marzouki (Congress for the Republic), and Mustapha Ben Jafar (Ettakatol) takes power.
2011 (December 23): Syria: The Al-Nusra Front attacks a building in Damascus housing the Syrian intelligence services.
2012 (January 23): On video, ISIS mentions plans for setting up an Islamic State in Syria.
2012 (February 23): Tunisia: First Friends of Syria conference.
2012 (March 19): France: Mohammed Merah carries out killings in Toulouse and Montauban.
2012 (June 30): Egypt: The Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi is elected president.
2012 (July): Libya: Legislative elections are slated to take place under international supervision.
2012 (July 19): Syria: Rebels take the eastern part of Aleppo.
2012 (July): United States: Obama declares any use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime to be crossing a “red line,” and threatens foreign intervention.
2012 (September 5): Tunisia: The last bar in Sidi Bouzid is ransacked by jihadists.
2012 (September 11): Libya: Islamist demonstrators in Benghazi kill the United States ambassador.
2012 (September 12): Tunisia: President of the Republic Moncef Marzouki describes the Ennahda militants as “democrats with a strong religious streak.”
2012 (June): Tunisia: Salafists vandalize an art exhibition at the Abdellia Palace at La Marsa. The vandals go unpunished, and the artists themselves are prosecuted for “violating the sacred.”
2012 (November 11): Qatar: The Friends of Syria meet in Doha to organize a national coalition.
2013 (January): Mali: Start of Operation Serval, a French military intervention against the taking of Timbuktu and Gao by jihadists infiltrated from Libya.
2013 (February 6): Tunisia: Boubaker El Hakim murders the Nasserite lawyer Chokri Belaid in the name of ISIS.
2013 (March 6): Syria: Raqqa falls to the rebels.
2013 (April): Egypt: Creation of the Tamarrod movement, supported by militants of January 25, 2011
2013 (April 7): Ayman al-Zawahiri sends a message of support to the Al-Nusra Front.
2013 (April 8): Syria/Iraq: Proclamation of the Islamic State in Iraq and in Shām, known as ISIS.
2013 (June 4): Syria: The loyalist army with Hezbollah’s help retakes the rebel town of al-Qusayr.
2013 (June 14): Iran: Hassan Rouhani is elected president.
2013 (June 22): Qatar: Last meeting of the Friends of Syria at Doha.
2013 (June 28): Qatar: The Emir announces his abdication in favor of Crown Prince Tamim.
2013 (June 30): Egypt: Tamarrod organizes mass demonstrations against President Mohamed Morsi. Army helicopters escort them overhead.
2013 (July 3): Egypt: Morsi is dismissed and Marshal el-Sisi takes power. The head of the Salafist En Nour party pledges support.
2013 (July 25): Tunisia: Boubaker El Hakim in the name of ISIS assassinates Mohamed Brahmi, the parliamentary representative from Sidi Bouzid.
2013 (August 14): Egypt: The army violently puts down demonstrations by the Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo, killing several hundred.
2013 (August 21): Syria: The Syrian regime uses chemical weapons in attacking the rebel-held suburb of Ghouta, resulting in 1,400 dead.
2013 (September 9): United States: President Obama consults Congress on intervening in Syria. This does not happen, despite the red line he had decreed against using chemical weapons. The West cancels the air strikes.
2013 (September 14): Switzerland: Agreement between Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov (Russia) and Secretary of State John Kerry (United States) in Geneva for Russia to assist Syria in destroying the Syrian chemical weapons arsenal under UN control.
2014 (January 7): Syria: An ISIS spokesman, Abu Mohammad Al-Adnani, pronounces takfir (anathema) and excommunication against the other rebel groups.
2014 (mid-January): Syria: Raqqa falls under total ISIS control.
2014 (January 29): Tunisia: Mehdi Jomaa is named Head of the National Unity Government
2014 (June 10): Iraq: ISIS jihadists take Mosul without a fight as the Iraqi forces flee.
2014 (June 12): Iraq: ISIS commits anti-Shiite massacres at Camp Speicher and its forces advance on Baghdad.
2014 (June 13): Iraq: Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani issues a fatwa calling for jihad against ISIS and setting up the Popular Mobilization Units (Hashad Shaʿbi).
2014 (June 29): Iraq: Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaims the caliphate in Mosul.
2014 (July 4): Iraq: Al-Baghdadi delivers the Friday sermon in Mosul’s al-Nuri Mosque.
2014 (July 25): Iraq: Ayatollah al-Sistani openly criticizes Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
2014 (August 11): Iraq: Haider al-Abadi takes over as prime minister.
2014 (September): Yemen: Houthi rebels take over the capital of Sanaʽa.
2014 (September 13): Syria: Start of the battle of Kobane between ISIS and Kurdish YPG militia.
2014 (November): Egypt: The Sinai-based jihadist group Ansar Bait al-Maqdis swears allegiance to the ISIS “caliph” and becomes the ISIS Wilayat (province) of Sinai.
2014 (December 13): Syria: The Jordanian air force pilot Muadh al-Kasasbeh is captured by ISIS and burned alive in a cage several days later, with the atrocity recorded on video.
2014 (December 31): Tunisia: Beji Caid Essebsi (Nidaa Tounis party) becomes president of the Republic.
2015 (January 4): Twitter: The jihadist Maxime Hauchard tweets threats against France.
2015 (January 7): France: The Kouachi brothers massacre twelve members of the Charlie Hebdo editorial staff.
2015 (January 9): France: Amedy Coulibaly attacks the Hypercacher supermarket and kills four Jewish customers.
2015 (January 26): Syria: ISIS loses the town of Kobane following American air strikes to the Kurdish resistance.
2015 (January 27): Libya: ISIS attacks the Corinthia Hotel in Tripoli.
2015 (February 16): Libya: ISIS disseminates a video showing twenty-one immigrant Egyptian Copt workers executed on a beach by having their throats cut.
2015 (March): Yemen: An international military coalition led by Saudi Arabia takes the field against the Houthis.
2015 (March 18): Tunisia: ISIS claims an attack on the Bardo Museum, in which twenty-two are murdered.
2015 (May 27): Abu Mohammad al-Julani is interviewed on Qatar’s Al Jazeera network.
2015 (June 26): Tunisia: ISIS murders thirty-eight tourists on a hotel beach in Sousse.
2015 (June 26): France: An employee beheads a business executive and sticks the head on a flagpole next to the ISIS flag.
2015 (July 14): Austria: The P5+1 and Iran sign the Vienna Agreements (JCPOA) on the Iranian nuclear program.
2015 (September 30): Syria: Russia intervenes directly in Syria with air strikes in the Homs region launched from its new base at Hmeimim.
2015 (October 31): Egypt: An ISIS-claimed attack on a Russian plane departing from Sharm el-Sheikh results in 222 dead.
2015 (October 18): Egypt: Death of the novelist Gamal el-Ghitani.
2015 (November 13): France: ISIS-claimed attacks in Paris and Saint-Denis take 130 lives.
2015 (November 24): Syria: Turkish air defense shoots down a Russian fighter jet over the Turkish border. A crisis between the two countries ensues.
2015 (December 15): Libya: The UN initiates mediation between the rival governments in Benghazi and Tripoli.
2016 (March 7): Tunisia: ISIS jihadists crossing from Libya occupy the town of Ben Guerdane, killing seventy in the process.
2016 (March 7–26): Syria: Loyalist forces retake of Palmyra.
2016 (May 5): Syria: Vladimir Putin organizes classical music concert at Palmyra.
2016 (June 13): France: Larossi Aballah assassinates the policeman J.-B. Salvaing and his wife at Magnanville (Yvelines). ISIS urges supporters to kill intellectuals and journalists singled out by name—including the Arabist G. Kepel.
2016 (July 15): Turkey: Erdoğan survives attempted coup d’état, which the regime blames on followers of Fethullah Gülen. Russia and Turkey reconcile.
2016 (August 24): Syria: The Turkish army launches Operation Euphrates Shield.
2016 (August 24–26): Syria: Turkish forces and SLA rebels chase ISIS out of the border towns of al-Rai and Jarabulus.
2016 (August 26): Tunisia: The secular Nidaa Tounis and Islamist Ennahda party establish a national unity majority.
2016 (August 27): Tunisia: Youssef Chahed is named to head the government.
2016 (August 27–30): Syria: Turkish troops and rebel auxiliaries bombard the SDF and Kurdish YPG to force them out of Manbij, a majority Arab town.
2016 (December 11): Egypt: ISIS takes credit for attacking Copts.
2016 (December 11): Syria: ISIS jihadists reconquer Palmyra.
2016 (December): Libya: Marshal Khalifa Haftar and his troops take Benghazi back from the jihadists.
2016 (December 20): Turkey: Russian, Turkish, and Iranian officials meet for organizing the evacuation of rebels from Aleppo.
2017 (January 8): Iran: Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani dies.
2017 (January 20): United States: Donald Trump occupies the White House.
2017 (January 14–March 2): Syria: Second and final reconquest of Palmyra by loyalist forces.
2017 (April 7): Syria: Donald Trump orders air strikes on the loyalist base at Shayrat from which a chemical attack was launched against the town of Khan Shaykhun.
2017 (April 9): Egypt: Attacks on Copts, claimed by ISIS.
2017 (May 9): Russia: Vladimir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu review the parade in Moscow celebrating Russia’s victory in World War II.
2017 (May 21–22): Saudi Arabia: Donald Trump’s first foreign trip focuses on Iran as its main target, offering full support for Riyadh and Abu Dhabi in the war on terrorism.
2017 (May 26): Egypt: Attack on Copts, claimed by ISIS.
2017 (June 5–6): The Saudi Bloc (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, and Egypt) breaks diplomatic relations with Qatar and blockades it.
2017 (June 6): Syria: The reconquest of Raqqa by the international coalition and SDF begins.
2017 (June 21): Iraq: ISIS dynamites the al-Nuri Mosque in Mosul.
2017 (June 21): Saudi Arabia: Muhammad bin Nayef, Minister of the Interior and Crown Prince, is relieved of his duties and placed under house arrest.
2017 (July): Libya: The last jihadist holdouts in Benghazi are cleaned out.
2017 (July 9–10): Iraq: The international coalition frees Mosul from the jihadists.
2017 (July): Muqtada al-Sadr pays visits to the Saudi and Emirates crown princes.
2017 (July–September): Kazakhstan: Russia, Iran, and Turkey meet at the Astana conference to end the Syrian conflict.
2017 (July): Kazakhstan: The jihadist Mohamed Alloush (Army of Islam) announces establishment of a deconfliction zone in Ghouta.
2017 (October): Palestine: Partial return of the Palestinian authority to Gaza.
2017 (October 5): Russia: King Salman visits Moscow in a first-ever visit to Russia by a Saudi monarch.
2017 (October 13): United States: Donald Trump announces that he will not provide the American certification required by the Treaty of Vienna on Iran’s nuclear program.
2017 (October 17) Syria: Kurdish YPG militia and the international coalition complete the reconquest of Raqqa, the ISIS capital.
2017 (October 17): Iraq: Kurdish forces withdraw from the town of Kirkuk, which Shiite militias occupy.
2017 (October 24): Saudi Arabia: In the Riyadh Ritz-Carlton, Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman (MBS) holds the Future Investment Initiative conference designed to attract foreign investments. He announces a series of economic, social, cultural, and religious reforms.
2017 (November 4): Saudi Arabia: MBS confines two-hundred members of the kingdom’s elite in the Ritz-Carlton as part of an anti-corruption campaign.
2017 (November 24): Egypt: A group linked to ISIS massacres more than three hundred of the faithful in the Sufi mosque of Rawda (in the Bir al-ʿAbed township) during Friday prayers.
2017 (December 4): Yemen: Houthi rebels assassinate former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, suspected of betraying them to the Saudis.
2017 (December 11): Syria: Vladimir Putin stops over at the Hmeimim base. He declares the Syrian war won and meets with Bashar al-Assad.
2017 (December 17): Libya: Marshal Haftar denounces the UN peace process.
2017 (December): Iran: Unrest and anti-regime protests against the high cost of living break out.
2018 (January 3): Iran: General Mohammad Ali Jaafari, the Pasdaran commander, calls on demonstrators to end the fitna (sedition) of the protests.
2018 (January 12): Donald Trump calls on the states of the P5+1 to apply new sanctions against Iran within 120 days, or he will renounce the JCPOA.
2018 (January 20): Syria: Start of the Turkish military Operation Olive Branch at Afrin.
2018 (February 1): Tunisia: Emmanuel Macron, in a speech to the Tunis Parliament, accepts Western responsibility for the dysfunctional situation in Libya.
2018 (February 2): Tunisia: Rached Ghannouchi reaffirms he no longer wants to exercise power unilaterally but as part of a consensus with Nidaa Tounis.
2018 (February 10): Syria: A Russian missile shoots down an Israeli fighter jet over Syria.
2018 (March): Qatar: President Erdoğan announces an increase in the number of Turkish troops at their Qatar base (three thousand men).
2018 (March): United States: Mike Pompeo is named Trump’s secretary of state and John Bolton National security adviser.
2018 (March 18): Syria: The Kurdish majority town of Afrin falls to the Turkish army.
2018 (March 21): France: Nicolas Sarkozy is indicted in connection with an inquiry into the financing of his 2007 election campaign by Gaddafi’s Libya.
2018 (March 30): United States: Donald Trump declares that American troops will soon disengage from Syria.
2018 (April 2): United States: In an interview in The Atlantic, MBS states that the Iranian revolution resulted in a regime based on an “ideology of pure evil.”
2018 (April 7): Syria: A suspected chemical attack by loyalist forces in the Douma region kills 40.
2018 (April 9): Russia: The minister of foreign affairs calls on Turkey to give up the positions it recently occupied in Syria (Afrin) to the Syrian government.
2018 (April 9): Syria: The Israelis bomb targets held by Hezbollah and the Qods Force of the Revolutionary Guards, causing the death of several Iranian advisers.
2018 (April 11): Syria: End of the reconquest of the Damascus suburbs by loyalist forces.
2018 (April 14): Syria: A pre-announced nighttime tripartite strike by the Western coalition (United States, France, and the United Kingdom) against loyalist positions intended as punishment for the suspected use of chemical weapons on April 7 results in little damage and no casualties.
2018 (April 26): Syria: Israeli bombing.
2018 (May): The price of a barrel of Brent crude reaches seventy euros (eighty U.S. dollars), a 45 percent annual increase.
2018 (May 6): Lebanon: Hezbollah and its allies emerge the victors in the legislative elections, despite an important breakthrough by Samir Geagea and the Lebanese Forces in the country’s north.
2018 (May 8): United States: Donald Trump announces the withdrawal from the Vienna Agreement on the Iranian nuclear program (JCPOA).
2018 (May 8): Russia: Benjamin Netanyahu, at the conclusion of his visit to Moscow, declares that the Kremlin has given the green light for him to conduct operations in the region in defense of Israel’s security.
2018 (May 9): Israel/Syria: Iranian rockets are fired on Israeli positions on the Golan, an operation blamed on the Qods Force led by General Qasem Soleimani. Thirty Israeli planes retaliated by bombing military targets of Iran and its allies in Syria.
2018 (May 14): Israel: Move of the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Repression of Palestinian demonstrations in Gaza approaching the demarcation line results in fifty-eight dead.
2018 (May 14): Russia: Bashar al-Assad is summoned to Sochi to meet with Vladimir Putin to plan a political transition after the defeat of the rebellion.
2018 (May): Iraq: Campaigning for the parliamentary elections, Muqtada al-Sadr makes common cause with the Iraqi communist party (“Saʾiroun”—“on the march”).
2018 (May 19): Iraq: Saʾiroun comes out on top with fifty-four seats.
2018 (May 19): Russia: Alexander Lavrentiev, the Kremlin’s representative for Syria, calls on all foreign military contingents to leave Syria.
2018 (May 21): Syria: Loyalist forces reconquer the Yarmouk district of Damascus.
2018 (May 21): United States: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in a speech to the Heritage Foundation, lists a dozen demands on the Iranian ruling power equivalent to a capitulation lest they face a reimposition of international sanctions.
2018 (May 24): Lebanon: Saad Hariri, despite his party’s defeat in the parliamentary elections, repeats as prime minister.
2018 (May 29): France: A meeting at the Elysee Presidential Palace organized by Emmanuel Macron for finding a way out of the Libyan crisis brings together the head of the Libyan Government of National Accord, Fayez al-Sarraj, Marshal Haftar, and elected representatives.
2018 (May 29): Israel: Many rockets are fired at Israel from Gaza.
2018 (June 5): United States: Following a visit by the Turkish minister of foreign affairs with his American counterpart Mike Pompeo, the Kurdish YPG forces withdraw from Manbij in northeastern Syria.
2018 (June 14): Russia: Vladimir Putin receives Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman in Moscow for the kickoff of the World Cup. Russia beats Saudi Arabia 5–0 in the opening match.
2018 (June 24): Turkey: Erdoğan and his AKP party win both the presidential and parliamentary voting in scheduled legislative and presidential elections.
2018 (June 24): Saudi Arabia: The royal decree allowing women to drive in Saudi Arabia takes effect.
2018 (July 12): Syria: Loyalist forces retake Daraa, the birthplace of the rebellion.
2018 (July 15): Russia: The mixed-race French team wins the World Cup against a monoethnic Croatian team.
2018 (July 16): Finland: Helsinki summit between Donald Trump—who threatened to leave NATO and called the European Union an “enemy”—and Vladimir Putin.
2018 (October 2): Turkey: Assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul
2019 (March): Algeria: Start of Friday street protests outside the mosques that lead to the impeachment of President Bouteflika. Chief of Staff General Ahmed Gaid Salah effectively takes power on a transitional basis.
2019 (April 11): Sudan: Under pressure from popular protests, the military deposes General Omar al-Bashir, in office since June 30, 1989.
2019 (April 27): Algeria: Funeral in Algiers of Abbassi Madani, former head of the Islamic Salvation Front exiled in Qatar.
2019 (April 29): In a video broadcast from an unknown location, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the fugitive ISIS caliph, exults over the uprisings in Algeria and Sudan and calls for establishing an Islamic caliphate in both countries.
2019 (May 3): Israel-Palestine: A missile barrage launched from Gaza causes several deaths.
2019 (June 3): Sudan: The military suppresses an uprising in Khartoum at the cost of 128 dead.
2019 (June 17): Egypt: Former president Morsi dies during a court appearance.
2019 (June 20): United States-Iran: President Trump announces that he backed off a strike on Iran at the last moment after Iranian forces shot down a U.S. drone over the Persian Gulf and attacked oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz.
2019 (June 30): Sudan: One million protesters take to the streets against military repression on the thirtieth anniversary of the coup by the Islamist-leaning General Omar al-Bashir.
2019 (July 25): Tunisia: death of President Beji Caïd Essebsi.
2019 (September 10) United states: Trump fires National Security Adviser John Bolton.
2019 (September 14): Saudi Arabia: Missile strike on ARAMCO oil facilities in Abqaiq cuts Saudi production by 50 percent. Claimed by Yemeni Houthis, it is attributed to Iranian proxies in the northern Persian Gulf.
2019 (September 19): Saudi Arabia: Death of former Tunisian dictator Zayn al Abidin Ben Ali in Jeddah.
2019 (September 24): United States: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi initiates impeachment inquiry against President Trump.
2019 (October 6): United States: President Trump orders American troops pullout from Northern Syria.
2019 (October 9): Syria: Turkish army and Syrian auxiliary militias cross border between Tal Abyad and Ras al Ayn. Syrian army moves north in zone formerly controlled by YPG Kurdish troops.
2019 (October 11): Syria: Kurdish female secularist activist Hevrin Khalaf killed by Syrian Turkish auxiliaries who also slaughter three other YPG fighters with cries of “Allah Akbar” and broadcast it on video. 745 ISIS prisoners in Kurdish detention facility escape.
2019 (October 13): Syria: Deal brokered by Russia on Hmeimim airforce base between Syrian and Kurdish forces.
2019 (October 16): Tunisia: Qaes Saïd elected President of the Republic with 72% of the votes.
2019 (October 17): Turkey: U.S. Vice President Mike Pence dispatched to Ankara to reach cease-fire agreement.
2019 (October 20): Syria: lines between Turkish and Syrian forces controlled by joint Russian-Turkish and Russian-Syrian patrols.
2019 (October 26-27): Syria: ISIS “caliph” Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi killed in Barisha, in Idlib deconflicting zone, 3 miles from Turkish border, by U.S. Special forces raid.
2019 (November 13): Tunisia: Ennahda leader Rached Ghannouchi elected President of National Assembly after compromised is reached with secularist Members of Parliament.
2019 (November 14): United States: Turkish President Erdoğan meets with President Trump at the White House—while the latter is accused of corruption by House Speaker Pelosi over impeachment inquiry.
Chronology compiled by Damien Saverot and Sarah Jicquel