The Rise of Islam
From a trading town in the Arabian desert to a caliphate stretching from Iberia to Central Asia in under a century
In the early 7th century a merchant in Mecca began reciting verses he said came from God, and within a generation his followers had built a new religion, a new calendar, and an empire that outgrew Rome's at its peak. This timeline follows Islam from pre-Islamic Arabia through Muhammad's life, the Rashidun and Umayyad conquests, the Sunni-Shia split, the Abbasid Golden Age in Baghdad, and the Mongol sack of Baghdad in 1258 that ended the Abbasid Caliphate.
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- c. late 6th century CEWell documented
Reputable source · 2 sourceswhy?
Best source: Prophet Muhammad
The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry.Mecca Thrives as a Trading and Pilgrimage Town
Before Islam, Mecca sat on the Arabian Peninsula's caravan network linking Yemen's incense-producing south to Syria and the Mediterranean. The Quraysh tribe, who controlled the town, ran it as a commercial city-state with trade ties reaching Ethiopia and the Byzantine world. At the center of Mecca stood the Kaaba, a cube-shaped shrine that pre-Islamic Arabs filled with idols representing tribal deities, the chief one for the Quraysh being Hubal. Once a year Bedouin tribes called a truce and converged on Mecca on pilgrimage to honor these idols and drink from the Zamzam well, a season that doubled as a major trading fair. Muhammad's own clan, Hashim, held the hereditary duty of supplying water to these pilgrims.
Why it matters: Mecca's dual identity as a trade hub and a pilgrimage destination gave it wealth and religious authority that no other Arabian town combined at that scale. That combination is why a reform movement born there, rather than in a purely tribal or purely commercial center, could draw both merchants and worshippers into a single new community within a few decades.
How we know: The World History Encyclopedia's overview of Arabia draws on early Arabic sources and the biographical tradition about Muhammad's clan and its role at the Kaaba; the trading network is corroborated by references to Meccan caravans traveling to Syria and Iraq in the same early biographical literature.
Location: Mecca, Hejaz region, western Arabia · Ruling tribe: Quraysh · Central shrine: The Kaaba · Muhammad's clan: Banu Hashim, keepers of pilgrim water rights
Sources- World History Encyclopedia. Prophet Muhammad · reference
- World History Encyclopedia. Arabia · reference
- c. 610 CEEstimated
Reputable source · 2 sourceswhy?
Best source: Prophet Muhammad
The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry.Muhammad Receives His First Revelation on Mount Hira
By his late thirties, Muhammad had taken to retreating to a cave called Hira on Jabal al-Nour, a mountain near Mecca. According to Islamic tradition, in about 610 CE a figure identifying itself as the angel Gabriel appeared to him there with the first verses of what Muslims believe is a revelation from God. Muhammad was reportedly terrified and ran home shaking, and it was his wife Khadija who calmed him and took him to her cousin Waraqa, a Christian scholar who told Muhammad he believed he had received a genuine prophetic call. Khadija became his first convert, and his close friend Abu Bakr became the first male convert.
Why it matters: This event is the traditional starting point of Muhammad's prophetic career and, by extension, of Islam as a religious movement. Everything that follows, from the years of preaching in Mecca to the founding of a new community in Medina, is presented in Islamic tradition as flowing from this single episode.
How we know: The account rests entirely on the Islamic biographical and hadith tradition compiled decades after Muhammad's death; there is no independent contemporary record of the event, so its precise date and details are matters of religious tradition rather than external historical verification.
Location: Cave of Hira, Jabal al-Nour, near Mecca · Muhammad's age: About 40 · First convert: Khadija, Muhammad's wife · First male convert: Abu Bakr
Sources- World History Encyclopedia. Prophet Muhammad · reference
- World History Encyclopedia. Prophet Muhammad · reference
- 616-619 CEWell documented
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Best source: Prophet Muhammad
The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry.Meccan Persecution Drives Muhammad's Followers Into Exile
As Muhammad's preaching in Mecca drew more converts after 613 CE, rival clans of the Quraysh responded with bribery, physical torture, and a boycott of Muhammad's own Hashim clan from 616 to 619 CE meant to force it to withdraw its protection. Some of the earliest Muslims left Mecca for Abyssinia (modern Ethiopia) as early as 615 CE to escape the pressure. In 619 CE, remembered afterward as the Year of Sorrow, Muhammad lost both his wife Khadija and his uncle and protector Abu Talib, leaving him without his clan's shield against hostile Quraysh leaders like the new clan head Abu Lahab. That same year Muhammad traveled to the town of Taif seeking support and was driven out by a mob of street children who pelted him with stones.
Why it matters: The loss of clan protection after Abu Talib's death, combined with the failed appeal at Taif, left Muhammad and his followers with no secure base in Mecca and pushed them to seek an invitation elsewhere. That search is what led directly to the offer from Yathrib that produced the Hijra three years later.
How we know: The World History Encyclopedia's account draws on the early Islamic biographical tradition (sira literature), including the boycott dates and the Taif episode, and quotes historian Tamara Sonn's summary of the boycott's effect on Muhammad's followers.
Clan boycotted: Banu Hashim, 616-619 CE · First emigration: To Abyssinia, 615 CE · Year of Sorrow: 619 CE, deaths of Khadija and Abu Talib · Rejected at: Taif, 619 CE
Sources- World History Encyclopedia. Prophet Muhammad · reference
- World History Encyclopedia. Prophet Muhammad · reference
- 622 CEWell documented
Reputable source · 2 sourceswhy?
Best source: Prophet Muhammad
The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry.The Hijra: Muhammad Migrates to Medina
In 621 CE, citizens of the oasis town of Yathrib, impressed by Muhammad's message, invited him to relocate there and act as an arbiter and leader for the town's feuding tribes. Muhammad sent his followers ahead in small groups, then narrowly escaped a Meccan plot on his life and fled with his companion Abu Bakr, reaching Yathrib in 622 CE after evading pursuers. The town was renamed Medina, short for Madinat al-Nabi, the City of the Prophet, and the migration itself, the Hijra, became year zero of the Islamic lunar calendar. In Medina, Muhammad drew up an agreement among the Muslim emigrants, the local converts, and Medina's Jewish tribes, that set out mutual obligations and made Muhammad the community's arbiter.
Why it matters: The Hijra turned Muhammad from a persecuted preacher into the head of a self-governing community with its own laws, army, and territory, the first time the new religion had political as well as spiritual authority. Every subsequent event in Islamic history, from the conquest of Mecca to the caliphates that followed, grew out of the state built in Medina after 622.
How we know: The migration date and the invitation from Yathrib's citizens are recorded across the earliest Islamic biographical sources; the adoption of 622 CE as year one of the Islamic calendar was formalized later, under the caliph Umar, based on this tradition.
From / to: Mecca to Yathrib (renamed Medina) · Companion: Abu Bakr · Calendar impact: Year 0 AH (After Hijra) of the Islamic calendar · New role: Muhammad becomes political and religious leader of Medina
Sources- World History Encyclopedia. Prophet Muhammad · reference
- World History Encyclopedia. Prophet Muhammad · reference
- 622-624 CEDebated
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Best source: Prophet Muhammad
The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry.Muhammad Unifies Medina Under a New Charter
After arriving in Medina, Muhammad moved to end the town's long-running blood feuds by drawing up an agreement, remembered in Islamic tradition as the Constitution (or Charter) of Medina, that bound the Muslim emigrants from Mecca, the local converts, and Medina's Jewish tribes into a single political community with Muhammad as its final arbiter. Scholars who have studied the surviving text, preserved only in later chronicles rather than as an original document, describe it as establishing a new kind of group loyalty, an umma or community bound by shared agreement rather than blood ties, replacing the old system of clan-based vengeance. The World History Encyclopedia describes Muhammad revising the law code and unifying the city, using a mixture of persuasion and force of arms.
Why it matters: The Medina agreement created the first Islamic polity, a functioning government with a legal framework spanning multiple religious communities, well before Islam had the military strength to expand beyond Arabia. It gave Muhammad and his successors a template for governing a diverse population that later caliphates would draw on as the empire grew.
How we know: No original manuscript survives; the document is known only through its reproduction in later Islamic historical works, chiefly by the 8th-century biographer Ibn Ishaq as preserved by Ibn Hisham, which is why scholars debate exactly which clauses date to 622 versus later additions.
Location: Medina (formerly Yathrib) · Parties bound: Muslim emigrants, Medinan converts, Jewish tribes · Known today as: Constitution (or Charter) of Medina · Source status: No original document survives; known from later chronicles
Sources- World History Encyclopedia. Prophet Muhammad · reference
- World History Encyclopedia. Prophet Muhammad · reference
- 624 CEWell documented
Reputable source · 2 sourceswhy?
Best source: Prophet Muhammad
The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry.The Battle of Badr Establishes the Medina Community
Once settled in Medina, Muhammad's followers began raiding Meccan trade caravans, and the resulting economic pressure pushed Mecca into open conflict. In 624 CE a Meccan force of roughly 1,000 men met about 313 Muslims at Badr, and the smaller Muslim army routed them, a victory Muslims attributed to divine favor. The following year, in 625 CE, the Meccans returned in greater numbers under Abu Sufyan and fought the inconclusive Battle of Uhud, in which Muhammad himself was wounded after some of his own troops broke ranks to collect battlefield plunder.
Why it matters: Badr proved that the fledgling Medina community could defeat Mecca's established power, drawing more Arabian tribes toward Muhammad's side and cementing his authority as a military as well as religious leader. Without that credibility, the community would have remained a vulnerable exile group rather than a rising regional power.
How we know: The battle is recorded across the earliest Islamic historical sources with consistent troop figures on the Muslim side (about 313 men), making it one of the better-attested military engagements of Muhammad's life.
Location: Badr, west Arabia · Muslim forces: About 313 men · Meccan forces: About 1,000 men · Follow-up battle: Uhud, 625 CE, inconclusive
Sources - 630 CEWell documented
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Best source: Prophet Muhammad
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In 628 CE, Meccans blocked Muslim pilgrims from entering the city for the Hajj, and the two sides settled the standoff with the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah, which allowed Muslims to perform pilgrimage the following year and guaranteed mutual safety. When the Meccans broke the treaty in 630 CE by backing an attack on a tribe allied with the Muslims, Muhammad marched on Mecca with a large force. The city's gates opened without a fight, and Muhammad offered amnesty to residents who took refuge in the Kaaba or in the house of the newly converted Meccan leader Abu Sufyan. He then had the idols inside and around the Kaaba destroyed and declared it a site for Islam alone, and in 632 CE he performed his final pilgrimage there, remembered as the Farewell Pilgrimage, shortly before his death.
Why it matters: The peaceful capture of Mecca removed the last major rival power in the Hejaz and put Islam's holiest site under Muslim control without the destruction a prolonged siege would have caused. Within two years most of Arabia's tribes had aligned with Muhammad, setting up the political consolidation his successors would inherit.
How we know: The sequence from the Hudaybiyyah treaty to the 630 CE conquest is consistently recorded in the early Islamic historical tradition, including the terms of amnesty Muhammad offered and the destruction of the idols.
Treaty: Hudaybiyyah, 628 CE · Conquest: 630 CE, largely bloodless · Outcome: Idols removed from the Kaaba · Final pilgrimage: 632 CE, the Farewell Pilgrimage
Sources - 632 CEWell documented
Reputable source · 2 sourceswhy?
Best source: Prophet Muhammad
The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry.Muhammad Dies in Medina
By 632 CE Muhammad had brought most of the Arabian Peninsula's tribes into alliance with him, whether through religious conviction or political calculation. After a brief illness, he died in Medina in his own house with his wife Aisha at his side. He left no surviving sons and no explicit instructions naming a successor, a gap that immediately created uncertainty among his followers about who would lead the community next.
Why it matters: Because many tribal conversions had been political rather than purely religious, several tribes saw Muhammad's death as releasing them from their allegiance, a crisis his successor would have to put down by force. The unresolved question of succession also opened the divide between those who backed Abu Bakr and those who favored Muhammad's son-in-law Ali, a rift that would deepen over the following decades into the Sunni-Shia split.
How we know: The date and circumstances of Muhammad's death are recorded consistently across the earliest Islamic biographical sources, including his location, the presence of Aisha, and the absence of a named successor.
Location: Medina · Present at death: Aisha bint Abi Bakr · Successor named: None explicitly · Immediate crisis: Tribal defections (the Ridda, or apostasy, wars)
Sources- World History Encyclopedia. Prophet Muhammad · reference
- World History Encyclopedia. Battle of Karbala · reference
- 20 August 636 CEWell documented
Reputable source · 2 sourceswhy?
Best source: Early Muslim Conquests (622-656 CE)
The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry.The Battle of Yarmouk Opens Syria and the Levant to the Rashidun Caliphate
After Abu Bakr sent four divisions to raid Syria, the Rashidun forces took Damascus in 634 CE and pushed north, drawing a major Byzantine counterattack under commanders sent by Emperor Heraclius. The general Khalid ibn al-Walid withdrew his forces south beyond the Yarmouk River to make a stand there, and the two armies fought for six days starting in August 636 CE. On the climactic morning of 20 August, Khalid ordered an advance and enveloped the Byzantine line with cavalry, and the imperial troops routed with heavy losses; their field commander likely died in the fighting. Jerusalem capitulated the following year after receiving safety guarantees personally from Caliph Umar, and the Jewish population that Rome had banished from the city five centuries earlier was allowed to return.
Why it matters: Yarmouk broke Byzantine military power in the region for good and opened Syria, Jordan, and Palestine to Rashidun control, redirecting the empire's remaining troops toward the Sassanian Persian front. It is one of the most decisive battles of the early conquests, converting a series of raids into the permanent loss of the Levant for Byzantium.
How we know: The battle's date, the six-day engagement, and Khalid's tactics are described in the World History Encyclopedia's account of the early Muslim conquests, drawing on the Arabic historical tradition for the campaign narrative.
Location: Yarmouk River, border of modern Syria/Jordan · Rashidun commander: Khalid ibn al-Walid · Byzantine emperor: Heraclius (r. 610-641 CE) · Aftermath: Jerusalem capitulates in 637 CE
- 636 CEWell documented
Reputable source · 2 sourceswhy?
Best source: Early Muslim Conquests (622-656 CE)
The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry.The Battle of al-Qadisiyyah Breaks Sassanian Power in Iraq
As Rashidun raids into Sassanian Iraq escalated after 633 CE, Caliph Umar reinforced the front under Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas to face a large Persian army led by the general Rustam Farrokhzad. At the Battle of al-Qadisiyyah in 636 CE, the outnumbered and less well-equipped Rashidun army held on through several days of fighting until Muslim cavalry slipped past the Persian lines under cover of a sandstorm and killed Rustam. His death demoralized the Persian troops, who routed despite their numbers, and the Rashidun army swept through Iraq and captured Ctesiphon, the Sassanian capital.
Why it matters: Qadisiyyah ended organized Sassanian resistance in Iraq and opened the road to Persia itself, a conquest completed within two decades at Nahavand in 642 CE and the death of the last Sassanian king in 651 CE. It marks the point at which the Arab conquests stopped being border raids and became the destruction of a centuries-old empire.
How we know: The battle's narrative, including Rustam's death during a sandstorm, comes from the Arabic historical tradition as summarized by the World History Encyclopedia; the fall of Ctesiphon and the subsequent Nahavand campaign are recorded in the same continuous account of the Sassanian collapse.
Location: Qadisiyyah, near Kufa, modern Iraq · Rashidun commander: Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas · Sassanian commander: Rustam Farrokhzad, killed in battle · Follow-up: Battle of Nahavand, 642 CE; fall of Sassanian Empire, 651 CE
- 640-642 CEWell documented
Reputable source · 2 sourceswhy?
Best source: Early Muslim Conquests (622-656 CE)
The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry.Amr ibn al-As Conquers Byzantine Egypt
The Rashidun commander Amr ibn al-As, who had helped lead the earlier Syrian campaign, persuaded a reluctant Caliph Umar to authorize an invasion of Byzantine Egypt, arguing that leaving it in Byzantine hands would threaten Muslim territory to the north. Reinforced by Zubayr ibn al-Awwam, Amr defeated an imperial army at Heliopolis in 640 CE, and within two years most of Egypt had fallen to the Rashidun forces. Caliph Uthman, Umar's successor, allowed regional governors including Amr more autonomy to expand their territory, and in 646 CE Rashidun and local Egyptian forces beat back a major Byzantine attempt to retake Alexandria.
Why it matters: The conquest of Egypt gave the Rashidun Caliphate its wealthiest province and, combined with the new Rashidun fleet built from Syrian shipyards, allowed Muslim forces to contest Byzantine naval power in the Mediterranean, taking Cyprus by 649 CE and defeating the Byzantine fleet at the Battle of the Masts in 655 CE.
How we know: The campaign is described in the World History Encyclopedia's account of the early conquests, including the persuasion of Umar, the victory at Heliopolis, and the subsequent naval campaigns under Uthman.
Location: Egypt, Nile valley · Rashidun commander: Amr ibn al-As · Key battle: Heliopolis, 640 CE · Naval follow-up: Battle of the Masts, 655 CE
- c. 650 CEWell documented
Reputable source · 2 sourceswhy?
Best source: Quran
The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry.Uthman Standardizes the Quran's Text
The Quran's verses were first preserved through memorization and oral recitation, along with partial written records kept by Muhammad's companions and compiled once under Abu Bakr. As the Islamic empire expanded and the Quran came to be recited in different regional dialects, the third caliph Uthman ibn Affan grew concerned that variation in recitation would cause disputes over the text's meaning. Around 650 CE, roughly eighteen years after Muhammad's death, Uthman ordered Zayd ibn Thabit, one of Muhammad's former scribes, to produce a standardized text based on Abu Bakr's earlier compilation. Copies of this Uthmanic text were sent to major cities of the empire, and Uthman ordered other variant copies destroyed.
Why it matters: Standardizing the Quran under central authority fixed the text Muslims recite today across a rapidly expanding empire of many languages and regions, preventing the kind of textual fragmentation that affected other ancient religious traditions transmitted across wide areas. The move also concentrated religious authority in the caliphate's hands at a moment when that authority was already contested.
How we know: The compilation under Abu Bakr and the later standardization under Uthman are described in early Islamic historical and hadith literature; the destruction of variant copies is part of that same tradition and remains a point Islamic and non-Muslim scholars continue to study for what it implies about the text's early transmission.
Caliph: Uthman ibn Affan (r. 644-656 CE) · Scribe: Zayd ibn Thabit · Approximate date: c. 650 CE · Earlier compilation: Under Caliph Abu Bakr, following Muhammad's death
Sources- World History Encyclopedia. Quran · reference
- World History Encyclopedia. Uthman · reference
- 656 CEWell documented
Reputable source · 2 sourceswhy?
Best source: Early Muslim Conquests (622-656 CE)
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Discontent grew during Uthman's reign over his appointment of relatives from the Umayyad clan to powerful governorships, and in 656 CE rebel soldiers, many from the Egyptian garrison, murdered him in his own home in Medina. Ali ibn Abi Talib, Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law, was chosen as the fourth caliph in the chaos that followed, but Muawiya, the governor of Syria and a cousin of the slain Uthman, refused to recognize Ali's authority unless Uthman's killers were punished first. The dispute escalated into the First Fitna, the first civil war within the Islamic community, which would consume the rest of Ali's reign.
Why it matters: Uthman's murder ended the era in which the caliphate could claim unbroken continuity from Muhammad's own community and opened a period of internal war that produced the lasting political and religious split between what became Sunni and Shia Islam. Every caliphate that followed had to grapple with the precedent that a caliph could be killed by his own subjects and the succession contested by force.
How we know: The assassination and its immediate political fallout, including Muawiya's refusal to accept Ali, are recorded consistently in the early Islamic historical tradition summarized by the World History Encyclopedia.
Caliph killed: Uthman ibn Affan, 656 CE · Successor: Ali ibn Abi Talib, fourth caliph · Chief rival: Muawiya, governor of Syria · Conflict: First Fitna, 656-661 CE
Sources - 657 CEDebated
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Best source: First Fitna
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Ali marched his forces toward Syria to confront Muawiya directly, and the two armies clashed at Siffin in 657 CE. As the fighting turned against Muawiya's side, his advisor Amr ibn al-As, who had switched allegiance after Uthman's murder, suggested that Muawiya's soldiers raise pages of the Quran on their spears, signaling a call for arbitration instead of continued combat. The arbitration talks at Dumat al-Jandal proved inconclusive and, by some accounts, were manipulated so that Amr tricked Ali's representative into denouncing Ali's claim to the caliphate while leaving Muawiya's position untouched. The settlement enraged a faction within Ali's own camp, who broke away as the Kharijites, declaring that no sinful ruler had a right to lead and that arbitration itself was illegitimate.
Why it matters: Siffin cost Ali the momentum of his campaign against Muawiya and split his support base, producing the Kharijites, a radical faction hostile to both sides that Ali had to crush militarily at Nahrawan in 659 CE. That same movement would go on to assassinate Ali two years later, ending the war on terms that favored Muawiya.
How we know: The episode of the Quran pages raised on lances and the subsequent arbitration are recorded in the early Islamic historical tradition; the details of what was said during arbitration are described as contested even by medieval Muslim historians.
Location: Siffin, on the Euphrates · Ali's representative: Abu Musa al-Ash'ari · Muawiya's representative: Amr ibn al-As · Splinter faction: The Kharijites
Sources- World History Encyclopedia. First Fitna · reference
- World History Encyclopedia. First Fitna · reference
- 661 CEWell documented
Reputable source · 2 sourceswhy?
Best source: Umayyad Dynasty
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After defeating the Kharijites in battle at Nahrawan in 659 CE, Caliph Ali continued to hold Arabia and the eastern provinces from his capital at Kufa while Muawiya controlled Syria and Egypt. In 661 CE a Kharijite assassin killed Ali in Kufa in revenge for the crackdown at Nahrawan. Ali's elder son Hasan briefly held his father's position but abdicated in Muawiya's favor in exchange for a pension, and Muawiya took the title of caliph unopposed, moving the seat of government from Medina to his existing power base at Damascus and founding the Umayyad Caliphate.
Why it matters: Ali's death closed the period Sunni tradition calls the Rashidun, or rightly guided, caliphate and replaced an elective, Arabia-centered leadership with a hereditary dynasty ruling from Damascus. For Shia Muslims, Ali's death and the passing of leadership to the Umayyads rather than to his family marks the central injustice their tradition traces from this point forward.
How we know: The assassination, Hasan's abdication, and Muawiya's assumption of the caliphate are described consistently across the early Islamic historical sources summarized by the World History Encyclopedia.
Caliph killed: Ali ibn Abi Talib, 661 CE · Assassin: A Kharijite, in revenge for Nahrawan · Successor: Muawiya I, founder of the Umayyad Caliphate · New capital: Damascus
Sources- World History Encyclopedia. Umayyad Dynasty · reference
- World History Encyclopedia. Battle of Karbala · reference
- 10 October 680 CEDebated
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Best source: Battle of Karbala
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When Muawiya died in 680 CE and his son Yazid I succeeded him, breaking with Arabia's non-hereditary tradition of rule, Husayn ibn Ali, Muhammad's grandson through Ali and Fatimah, refused to recognize Yazid and set out from Mecca for Kufa in Iraq, where supporters had promised him backing. Yazid's governor suppressed the Kufan support before Husayn arrived, and an Umayyad force intercepted Husayn's small party, estimated at around 40 infantry and 32 cavalry against a much larger Umayyad army, at the desert plain of Karbala. After the Umayyads cut off the group's access to the Euphrates, fighting broke out on 10 October 680 CE, and Husayn's companions were surrounded and killed, including his ten-year-old nephew Qasim and several of his own sons and brothers, with Husayn among the dead.
Why it matters: Husayn's death at Karbala became the foundational martyrdom narrative for Shia Islam, commemorated annually in the mourning ritual of Ashura, and it hardened the political and theological break between Shia Muslims, who trace legitimate leadership through Ali's line, and the Sunni majority who accepted the Umayyad caliphate. The event also permanently damaged the Umayyads' religious legitimacy even among many Sunni Muslims.
How we know: The battle is described in the World History Encyclopedia drawing on the historians Hawting and Saunders; exact troop figures and some details of the fighting are explicitly flagged in that scholarship as difficult to separate from later legend and hagiography.
Location: Karbala, near the Euphrates, modern Iraq · Date: 10 October 680 CE · Killed: Husayn ibn Ali and most of his party · Commemoration: Ashura, observed annually by Shia Muslims
Sources- World History Encyclopedia. Battle of Karbala · reference
- World History Encyclopedia. Battle of Karbala · reference
- 711 CEWell documented
Reputable source · 2 sourceswhy?
Best source: Islamic Caliphates
The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry.Tariq ibn Ziyad Crosses Into Iberia
By the reign of the Umayyad caliph al-Walid I, Muslim forces had already conquered Tunis and much of North Africa, converting Berber populations who then joined the armies pushing further west. In 711 CE the Berber general Tariq ibn Ziyad crossed from North Africa into the Iberian Peninsula, where he defeated the Visigothic king Roderic. Tariq was reinforced by Musa ibn Nusayr, the governor of Ifriqiya, and by the time of Caliph al-Walid's death in 715 CE the two commanders had conquered most of Visigothic Spain, including the capital Toledo. The Umayyads organized the new territory into an administrative province they called Al-Andalus.
Why it matters: The conquest of Iberia extended Umayyad rule across the Strait of Gibraltar into Europe for the first time and created Al-Andalus, a Muslim-ruled territory that would persist in some form until 1492 CE, far outlasting the Umayyad Caliphate that founded it. It also set up the northward raids into Frankish territory that would culminate at the Battle of Tours two decades later.
How we know: The conquest and the resulting administrative organization of Al-Andalus are described in the World History Encyclopedia's overview of the Umayyad Dynasty and its territorial expansion under al-Walid I.
Commander: Tariq ibn Ziyad, with Musa ibn Nusayr · Opponent: Roderic, Visigothic king · Capital taken: Toledo · New province: Al-Andalus
Sources- World History Encyclopedia. Islamic Caliphates · reference
- World History Encyclopedia. Abd al-Rahman I · reference
- 717-718 CEWell documented
Reputable source · 2 sourceswhy?
Best source: Leo III
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In August 717 CE, shortly after Leo III seized the Byzantine throne, an Umayyad army of about 80,000 men and a fleet of 1,800 ships under the general Maslama besieged Constantinople. The siege dragged on for a year, but the city's fortifications held, and Byzantine ships used the incendiary weapon known as Greek Fire to devastate the Arab fleet. When the Bulgar khan Tervel sent a relieving force to aid Leo, Maslama's army, already weakened by a severe winter, famine, and disease, was forced to withdraw on 15 August 718 CE.
Why it matters: The failed siege halted Umayyad expansion toward Europe's southeastern approach and preserved Constantinople as a Christian capital for another seven centuries, a survival Byzantines commemorated annually afterward. Its failure, alongside the later defeat at Tours, marked the point at which the fastest phase of Islamic territorial expansion into Europe stalled.
How we know: The siege's scale, duration, and outcome are described in the World History Encyclopedia's biography of Leo III, drawing on Byzantine historical sources for the emperor's reign.
Location: Constantinople · Byzantine emperor: Leo III · Umayyad general: Maslama · Decisive weapon: Greek Fire
Sources- World History Encyclopedia. Leo III · reference
- World History Encyclopedia. Leo III · reference
- October 732 CEDebated
Reputable source · 2 sourceswhy?
Best source: The Legacy of Charles Martel & the Battle of Tours
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After conquering most of Iberia, Umayyad forces based in Al-Andalus began raiding across the Pyrenees into Frankish territory as early as 712 CE. In October 732 CE, a Frankish army led by Charles Martel, the Mayor of the Palace who held the Merovingian kingdom's real power, met an invading Umayyad force in a battle fought over roughly a week somewhere between the cities of Tours and Poitiers. The Franks won a decisive victory, but the World History Encyclopedia notes that internal divisions within the Umayyad Caliphate itself, which limited its capacity to sustain the campaign, were as important as Frankish battlefield strength in ending the immediate threat.
Why it matters: Tours marked the furthest point of sustained Umayyad advance into Western Europe and is often remembered as the battle that saved Frankish Gaul from conquest, though historians caution that Umayyad strength in the region was already declining for internal reasons. Charles Martel's victory strengthened the Carolingian family's hold on Frankish power, setting up the dynasty that would later produce Charlemagne.
How we know: The battle's date, location, and the caveat about its broader significance come from the World History Encyclopedia's dedicated article on Charles Martel and the battle, which draws on the standard scholarly reassessment of Tours as less militarily decisive than its later legend suggests.
Location: Between Tours and Poitiers, France · Frankish leader: Charles Martel, Mayor of the Palace · Date: October 732 CE · Dynasty strengthened: Carolingian
- 750 CEWell documented
Reputable source · 2 sourceswhy?
Best source: Abbasid Dynasty
The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry.The Abbasid Revolution Overthrows the Umayyads
Resentment against Umayyad rule, especially among non-Arab converts and supporters of Muhammad's family, built for years before erupting into open revolt under the Abbasid movement, descendants of Muhammad's uncle Abbas. In 750 CE, Abbasid forces under Abu Abbas defeated the last Umayyad caliph, Marwan II, near the Greater Zab river, and Marwan was later hunted down and killed while fleeing to Egypt. Abu Abbas, who took the title al-Saffah, the Bloodthirsty, was declared caliph at Kufa, and his forces then dug up and burned Umayyad graves in Syria while massacring surviving male members of the family. Only one prince, a young Abd al-Rahman, escaped, fleeing across North Africa to found a rival Umayyad emirate in Al-Andalus in 756 CE.
Why it matters: The Abbasid Revolution replaced an Arab-centered dynasty with one that drew heavily on Persian administrative traditions and non-Arab converts, shifting the empire's center of gravity from Syria toward Iraq and setting the stage for the move of the capital to Baghdad. The one surviving Umayyad prince's flight to Spain also split the Islamic world permanently into rival caliphates.
How we know: The battle at the Greater Zab, Marwan's death, and the purge of the Umayyad family are described in the World History Encyclopedia's account of the Abbasid Dynasty, corroborated by its dedicated biography of Abd al-Rahman I covering his escape.
Decisive battle: Greater Zab river, 750 CE · Last Umayyad caliph: Marwan II, killed fleeing to Egypt · New caliph: Abu Abbas al-Saffah · Survivor: Abd al-Rahman I, later founds Emirate of Cordoba
Sources- World History Encyclopedia. Abbasid Dynasty · reference
- World History Encyclopedia. Abd al-Rahman I · reference
- 762 CEWell documented
Reputable source · 2 sourceswhy?
Best source: Abbasid Dynasty
The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry.Al-Mansur Founds Baghdad as the Abbasid Capital
The Abbasids inherited an empire but no capital of their own suited to their new center of gravity in Iraq. Caliph al-Mansur, who took power in 754 CE after his brother al-Saffah's death, commissioned a new capital on the Tigris River in 762 CE, a city that came to be called Baghdad, built on a circular plan and, according to the World History Encyclopedia, a metropolis that outstripped every European city of its time by any measure. Al-Mansur also crushed a revolt among descendants of Ali during these same years and had his rival Abu Muslim, the general who had led the Abbasid Revolution to victory, killed and his body thrown in the Tigris once his power seemed a threat.
Why it matters: Baghdad's founding relocated the seat of Islamic political power from Damascus in Syria to Iraq, positioning it at the crossroads of trade routes running to Persia, Central Asia, India, and China. Within decades the city would host the House of Wisdom and become the intellectual center of the medieval world before its destruction by the Mongols five centuries later.
How we know: The founding of Baghdad and al-Mansur's simultaneous suppression of rivals is described in the World History Encyclopedia's Abbasid Dynasty article, which also documents the harsher aspects of his rule alongside his role as the dynasty's effective founder.
Founder: Caliph al-Mansur (r. 754-775 CE) · Founded: 762 CE · Location: On the Tigris River, Iraq · Design: Circular city plan
Sources- World History Encyclopedia. Abbasid Dynasty · reference
- World History Encyclopedia. Abbasid Dynasty · reference
- c. 790s-830s CEWell documented
Reputable source · 2 sourceswhy?
Best source: Abbasid Dynasty
The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry.Harun al-Rashid Establishes the House of Wisdom
Caliph Harun al-Rashid, who ruled from 786 to 809 CE, patronized arts and learning on a scale earlier Abbasid caliphs had not, and it was under his reign that the Grand Library of Baghdad, the Bayt al-Hikma or House of Wisdom, was established. There, scholars translated classical Greek philosophical and scientific works into Arabic, a project that expanded further under Harun's son al-Ma'mun (r. 813-833 CE), who turned the House of Wisdom into a fuller public academy and library, the first major library built since ancient Alexandria's, and who also founded observatories for Muslim astronomers.
Why it matters: The translation movement centered at the House of Wisdom preserved and extended a large body of Greek scientific and philosophical work that had been lost or neglected in much of contemporary Europe, and its Arabic translations later fed back into medieval Europe and helped fuel the Renaissance. The institution made Baghdad the intellectual capital of the medieval world for roughly two centuries.
How we know: The founding and expansion of the House of Wisdom under Harun al-Rashid and al-Ma'mun, including the observatory program, is described in the World History Encyclopedia's Abbasid Dynasty article and corroborated by the MacTutor History of Mathematics archive's account of the same institution under al-Ma'mun.
Founding caliph: Harun al-Rashid (r. 786-809 CE) · Expanded by: Al-Ma'mun (r. 813-833 CE) · Function: Translation of Greek works into Arabic · Comparable institution: First major library since ancient Alexandria's
Sources - c. 820 CEWell documented
Reputable source · 2 sourceswhy?
Best source: Al'Khwarizmi
The domain "mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk" is on our Reputable source registry.Al-Khwarizmi Writes the Book That Gives Algebra Its Name
Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi worked as a scholar at Baghdad's House of Wisdom under the patronage of Caliph al-Ma'mun, to whom he dedicated his two most influential works, a treatise on algebra and one on astronomy. His algebra treatise, Hisab al-jabr wa'l-muqabala, gives European languages the word algebra, from al-jabr, and presented the first systematic treatment of solving linear and quadratic equations using named categories of units, roots, and squares rather than modern symbolic notation. Al-Khwarizmi described the book's purpose as practical, intended to teach what people needed for inheritance division, legal disputes, trade, and land surveying.
Why it matters: Al-Khwarizmi's algebra treatise became the foundation of algebra as a distinct mathematical discipline in both the Islamic world and, through Latin translation, medieval Europe, and the Latinized form of his own name, algorithmus, gave the modern world the word algorithm. His work on Hindu-Arabic numerals also helped introduce that number system, the one still used worldwide today, into the Islamic world and eventually Europe.
How we know: Al-Khwarizmi's role at the House of Wisdom, his patron al-Ma'mun, and the content and stated purpose of his algebra treatise are documented in the MacTutor History of Mathematics archive maintained by the University of St Andrews, drawing on Frederic Rosen's 19th-century translation of the original Arabic text.
Scholar: Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi · Institution: House of Wisdom, Baghdad · Key work: Hisab al-jabr wa'l-muqabala · Legacy terms: "Algebra" and "algorithm" both derive from his name/work
- c. late 9th-early 10th century CEWell documented
Peer-reviewed · 2 sourceswhy?
Best source: Al-Razi and Islamic medicine in the 9th century
Cited as a "journal" source (no stronger domain match).Al-Razi Distinguishes Smallpox From Measles
Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi, known in the Latin West as Rhazes, trained in Baghdad after an earlier career as a musician and money-changer and became one of the most respected physicians of the medieval Islamic world, eventually serving as court physician and directing hospitals in Baghdad and his home city of Rayy in Persia. Al-Razi wrote the first clinical account that clearly distinguished smallpox from measles as separate diseases, based on direct observation of patients rather than received authority, and he proposed that survivors of smallpox gained lasting immunity. His ten-part medical textbook, known as al-Mansuri, remained in use for teaching medicine in Europe for centuries after his death.
Why it matters: Al-Razi's insistence on clinical observation over inherited theory, and his willingness to test remedies before trusting them, anticipated methods central to modern evidence-based medicine. The World Health Organization recognized his ninth-century writing on smallpox and measles as an original and accurate description centuries ahead of comparable European work.
How we know: Al-Razi's biography and his smallpox and measles treatise are documented by the University of Alabama at Birmingham's Reynolds-Finley Historical Library, which holds a 1388 CE Hebrew translation of his medical textbook, and corroborated by a peer-reviewed history of medicine article in PubMed Central.
Physician: Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi (Rhazes) · Base of practice: Baghdad and Rayy, Persia · Key work: Treatise distinguishing smallpox from measles · Later recognition: WHO called the account original and accurate (1970)
- 969-973 CEWell documented
Reputable source · 2 sourceswhy?
Best source: Historic Cairo
The domain "whc.unesco.org" is on our Reputable source registry.The Fatimids Found Cairo and al-Azhar
The Fatimids, an Ismaili Shia dynasty that traced its claimed descent from Fatima, Muhammad's daughter, and her husband Ali, had built a rival caliphate in North Africa from 909 CE, directly challenging the Abbasids' claim to sole leadership of the Islamic world. In 969 CE the Fatimid caliph al-Mu'izz conquered Egypt, and by 973 CE he had established Cairo (al-Qahira, the Victorious) as his new capital, replacing the older nearby cities of Fustat and al-Askar as Egypt's center of power. Within Cairo, the Fatimids built the mosque of al-Azhar, completed in 972 CE, which soon developed beyond a congregational mosque into a seat of learning that became the foremost center of Shia Ismaili scholarship before later becoming a major Sunni institution after the twelfth century.
Why it matters: Cairo's founding gave the Islamic world a second major caliphate and capital rivaling Baghdad, formalizing a three-way split in Islamic political leadership alongside the Abbasids in Baghdad and the Umayyad successor state in Cordoba. Al-Azhar's evolution into a center of learning made Cairo an intellectual rival to Baghdad that has continued as a center of Islamic scholarship into the present day.
How we know: The founding of Cairo and al-Azhar's role are documented by UNESCO's World Heritage inscription for Historic Cairo and corroborated by the Institute of Ismaili Studies, an academic research institute affiliated with the Aga Khan University.
Dynasty: Fatimid Caliphate, an Ismaili Shia dynasty · Founding caliph: Al-Mu'izz li-Din Allah · City founded: Cairo (al-Qahira), 969-973 CE · Key institution: Al-Azhar mosque, completed 972 CE
Sources- UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Historic Cairo · reference
- Institute of Ismaili Studies. Al-Azhar · reference
- c. 1011-1021 CEWell documented
Reputable source · 2 sourceswhy?
Best source: Ibn al-Haytham
The domain "mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk" is on our Reputable source registry.Ibn al-Haytham Rewrites the Science of Vision in Cairo
Ibn al-Haytham, born around 965 CE and known in Latin as Alhazen, spent years working in Cairo, reportedly confined for a period under house arrest, where between roughly 1011 and 1021 CE he composed his seven-volume Book of Optics (Kitab al-Manazir). In it he broke with the older Greek theory that vision worked by rays emitted from the eye, instead demonstrating through geometric analysis and constructed instruments that light travels from an object to the eye and is refracted and reflected according to fixed laws. He built and used a copper instrument to measure how light reflects from flat, spherical, cylindrical, and conical mirrors, and he proposed that Earth's atmosphere had a finite depth of about 15 kilometers, using it to explain the timing of twilight.
Why it matters: The Book of Optics established experimental method, testing a hypothesis by constructed apparatus and measurement, as a way to settle a scientific question, work historians of science treat as a foundation of the modern experimental approach in physics. Its account of vision and reflection influenced both later Islamic scholars and, once translated into Latin, European scientists including Kepler.
How we know: Ibn al-Haytham's biography, his years in Cairo, and the content of the Book of Optics, including his instrument for measuring reflection and his atmospheric depth estimate, are documented in the MacTutor History of Mathematics archive maintained by the University of St Andrews.
Scholar: Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen), c. 965-1040 CE · Location: Cairo, Egypt · Key work: Book of Optics (Kitab al-Manazir) · Core finding: Vision results from light entering the eye, not rays leaving it
- c. early 11th century CEWell documented
Reputable source · 2 sourceswhy?
Best source: Ibn Sina [Avicenna]
The domain "plato.stanford.edu" is on our Reputable source registry.Ibn Sina Completes His Medical and Philosophical System
Ibn Sina, known in the Latin West as Avicenna, was born around 970 CE near Bukhara in Central Asia, then part of the Persian-speaking Samanid realm on the eastern edge of the Islamic world. He combined Greek philosophical and scientific traditions inherited from late antiquity and early Islam into what the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy describes as a rigorous and self-consistent scientific system covering logic, natural philosophy, and metaphysics, alongside a parallel career as a practicing physician serving various rulers of his region. His medical textbook, the Canon of Medicine, organized existing medical knowledge into a systematic reference work that would be used for teaching in the Islamic world and, through Latin translation, in European universities for several centuries afterward.
Why it matters: Ibn Sina's philosophical system dominated intellectual life across the Islamic world for centuries, and reactions to it, whether acceptance, revision, or refutation by later thinkers such as al-Ghazali, shaped the subsequent development of Islamic philosophy, theology, and mysticism. His Canon of Medicine's influence in Europe placed him among the most consequential medical writers of the medieval period on either side of the Mediterranean.
How we know: Ibn Sina's biography, his origins near Bukhara, and the scope of his philosophical and scientific project are documented in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy's dedicated entry on his life and thought.
Scholar: Ibn Sina (Avicenna), c. 970-1037 CE · Origin: Near Bukhara, Central Asia · Key medical work: The Canon of Medicine · Scope: Logic, natural philosophy, and metaphysics
Sources - 26 August 1071 CEWell documented
Reputable source · 2 sourceswhy?
Best source: Battle of Manzikert
The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry.The Seljuks Crush a Byzantine Army at Manzikert
The Seljuk Turks, a nomadic people originally from the Central Asian steppe who had converted to Islam and built an empire spanning Iran, Iraq, and much of the Near East, spent the 1050s and 1060s raiding Byzantine territory in Anatolia and Armenia under Sultan Alp Arslan. In 1071 CE Byzantine emperor Romanos IV Diogenes led a large army, estimated by modern historians at 60,000 to 70,000 men, into Armenia to end the raids for good, but after splitting his forces near Lake Van he was left with roughly half his army when a rival general's contingent failed to engage. At Manzikert on 26 August 1071 CE, Alp Arslan's more mobile force encircled the Byzantine center after panic spread through the ranks on a false rumor of the emperor's death, and Romanos was captured after his horse was killed under him.
Why it matters: Manzikert did not cost Byzantium enormous territory or casualties immediately, but the psychological shock of an emperor's capture and the resulting Byzantine civil wars opened Anatolia to sustained Turkish settlement over the following decades, a process that permanently transformed the region's population and language. Historians treat it as the point after which the Byzantine Empire entered a long, largely irreversible decline in Asia Minor.
How we know: The battle's course, including the divided Byzantine command and the circumstances of Romanos's capture, is described in the World History Encyclopedia's dedicated article on Manzikert, which quotes the 11th-century Byzantine chroniclers Michael Psellos and Michael Attaleiates as primary eyewitness sources.
Location: Manzikert, Armenia (modern eastern Turkey) · Byzantine emperor: Romanos IV Diogenes, captured · Seljuk sultan: Alp Arslan · Date: 26 August 1071 CE
Sources- World History Encyclopedia. Battle of Manzikert · reference
- World History Encyclopedia. Battle of Manzikert · reference
- c. 1095 CEWell documented
Reputable source · 2 sourceswhy?
Best source: al-Ghazali
The domain "plato.stanford.edu" is on our Reputable source registry.Al-Ghazali Challenges the Philosophers
Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, active in Baghdad and across the wider Islamic world in the late 11th and early 12th centuries, became one of the most influential theologians, jurists, and mystics of Sunni Islam at a time when Aristotelian philosophy, known in Arabic as falsafa, had built up considerable authority among Muslim intellectuals following thinkers like Ibn Sina. Al-Ghazali wrote a systematic critique of twenty positions held by these philosophers in his book The Incoherence of the Philosophers, rejecting and condemning some of their conclusions, particularly on questions like the eternity of the world, while still accepting and using many of their logical methods.
Why it matters: The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy describes al-Ghazali's critique as a significant landmark in the history of philosophy that anticipated the nominalist critique of Aristotelian science that would emerge in 14th-century Europe. His work shaped how later generations of Muslim scholars engaged with Greek philosophy, encouraging a synthesis of rational argument with revealed religious authority rather than an outright rejection of either.
How we know: Al-Ghazali's role and the content of the Incoherence of the Philosophers are documented in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy's dedicated entry on his life and thought, a specialist academic reference maintained by Stanford University's Center for the Study of Language and Information.
Scholar: Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, c. 1056-1111 CE · Key work: The Incoherence of the Philosophers (Tahafut al-falasifa) · Target: Aristotelian falsafa, including Ibn Sina's system · Approach: Selective acceptance and rejection, not blanket condemnation
Sources- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. al-Ghazali · reference
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. al-Ghazali · reference
- January-February 1258 CEDebated
Reputable source · 2 sourceswhy?
Best source: Ilkhanate
The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry.The Mongols Sack Baghdad and End the Abbasid Caliphate
By the 1250s the Abbasid Caliphate, weakened by centuries of fragmenting political authority to regional dynasties and to the Seljuk and other Turkish sultans who had come to dominate its military affairs, still held Baghdad as a religious and symbolic center. The Mongol prince Hulagu Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan, was tasked with subduing western Asia, and after crushing the Nizari Ismaili state in 1256 CE he moved against the Abbasid Caliphate in Iraq, defeating it in January 1258 CE. Mongol forces captured Baghdad the following month after a brief siege, and a week-long slaughter followed, killing up to 800,000 people according to tradition, along with the execution of the last Abbasid caliph, al-Musta'sim. The Mongols destroyed the city's mosques, palaces, hospitals, and libraries, including the House of Wisdom, whose books were reportedly thrown into the Tigris River in such numbers that the water ran black with ink.
Why it matters: The sack of Baghdad ended the Abbasid Caliphate's five centuries of rule from the city and is widely treated by historians as the symbolic close of the Islamic Golden Age's Baghdad-centered phase, even though scholarship and trade continued elsewhere in the Islamic world, including in Cairo under the later Mamluk Sultanate. The destruction pushed the Mongols to the edge of Mamluk territory, setting up their defeat two years later at Ain Jalut, the first major check on Mongol expansion.
How we know: The siege's timeline and the scale of destruction are documented in the World History Encyclopedia's articles on the Ilkhanate and the Abbasid Dynasty; the 800,000 casualty figure is explicitly presented in that scholarship as a traditional estimate rather than a verified count.
Mongol commander: Hulagu Khan · Siege dates: January-February 1258 CE · Caliph executed: Al-Musta'sim, the last Abbasid caliph in Baghdad · Institution destroyed: The House of Wisdom
Sources- World History Encyclopedia. Ilkhanate · reference
- World History Encyclopedia. Abbasid Dynasty · reference
Related timelines- The Mongol Empire → · See the full campaign of Hulagu Khan and the wider Mongol conquests on the Mongol Empire timeline