749-54 Caliphate of Abu 'l-'Abbas al-Saffah. The last Umayyad caliph Marwan II was defeated in the decisive battle on the Great Zab and fell in Egypt (751). Massacre of the Umayyad family and its high officials.

751 Battle of Atlakh on the Talas: the Arabs defeated a Chinese army in Central Asia and become acquainted with paper from prisoners. The production of paper begins at Samarqand.

754-75 Caliphate of al-Mansur.
Break with the radical Shi'a, uprisings of 'Alid pretenders. Establishment of a standing army of Khurasanians. The post of Minister of Post and Infornmation (sahib al-barid wa'l-khabar) is made into an instrument of government control.

755 Al-Mansur has Abu Muslim murdered.

755-88 'Abd al-Rahman I, since 756 amir of Cordoba, establishes the SpanishUmayyad dynasty (755 - 1031).At first the rulers bear the title amir, but from 929 they take the title of caliph. Persistent unrest through the mutual rivalry of Arab tribes and with newly-converted Muslims.

756 (?) Execution of the Iranian writer 'Abdallah ibn al-Muqaffa' (Ibn Khordadbeh), the translator of Persian literature (Mirror for Princes, histoncal and philosophical works) into Arabic.

762-63 Al-Mansur founds Baghdad as the capital city of the 'Abbasid empire, the commercial and cultural center of the Islamic world. 'Alid uprisings in Iraq and Medina (Muhammad ibn 'Abdallah).

765 Death of Ja'far al-Sadiq Imam of the Husaynid line of the Shi'a the division of the Shi' begins after his death.

767 Death of Abu Hanifa, the authority for whom the Iraqi school of law, the Hanafites, is named.

767/768 Death of the historian Ibn Ishaq, the author of the classical biography (sira) of Muhammad.

775-85 Caliphate of al-Mahdi, the Iranian Barmecide family of viziers (until 803). Campaign against new Mazdakite and Manichean sects.

776-79 Uprising of al-Muqanna' (the Veiled One) in Khurasan.

777-909 Kharijite kingdom of the Rustamids in Tahar. (Western Algeria).

778 Failure of the expedition of Charlemagne in the Basque country and the destruction of parts of his army under Roland at Roncesvalles.

785-86 Caliphate of al-Hadi. The building of the Great Mosque at Cordoba.

786 Death of al-Khalil ibn Ahmad (also dated 776 or 791), grammarian, lexicographer and prosodist. His pupil Sibawayh produced the first systematic grammar of Arabic.

786-809 Caliphate of Harun al-Rashid. The post of chief judge (qadi 'l-qudat) was created. Abu Yusuf Yaqub wrote the Book of Land-Tax. Apogee of the caliphate and flourishing of Arabic literature and science.

789-926 The Idrisids 'Alid dynasty of Morocco.

795 Death of Malik ibn Anas, jurist and reputed founder of the Malikite school of law, in Medina.

796-822 Al-Hakam I caliph in Spain; rebellions in Cordoba, city-state in Toledo.

798 Death of the jurist Abu Yusuf Ya'qub, beside Mubammad al-Shaybani (d. 805) the most important disciple of Abu Hanifa (cf 767 above)

800 Islamic merchants in China (Canton). Foundation of a paper factory in Baghdad.

800-12 Ibn al-Aghlabid, governor of Ifriqiyya (Tunisia, capital Qayrawan). Aghlabids rule region from 800-909.

803 Harun al-Rashid murders his vizier, Ja'far the Barmecide (Al Barmak), and orders the destruction of this powerful vizierial family.

806 Conquest of Tyana; Arab advance as far as Ankyra.

808 Foundation of Fez by the Idnsids.

809-13 Caliphate of al-Amin. After the death of Harun al-Rashid the empire was divided between his two sons. Al-Ma'mun, who was supported by Khurasanian troops, defeated al-Amin and reunited the empire (813)

From 810 In Baghdad, the jurist al-Shafi'i, pupil of Malik ibn Anas begins the systematisation of the sources of the Sharia.

813 The Khurasanian army under Tahir ibn al-Husayn besieged and conquered Baghdad for al-Ma'mun. Murder of al-Amin.

813-33 Caliphate of al-Ma'mun. Cultural and scientific heyday. Promotion of translations of the works of Greek philosophers and scientists ('academy' or Bayt al-Hikma) Suppression of the traditionalist piety of the ahl al-hadith in favour of the rationalistic dogmatics of the Mu'tazila. Tendencies towards independence in the provinces.

814 [815?] Death of Abu Nuwas, representative of new themes and forms in Arabic poetry.

816 Death of the Sufi Ma'ruf al-Karkhi.

816-37 Revolts of Babak (Mazdakite sects of the Khurramiyya, dualists who believed in the transmigration of souls) against the landed nobility and Arabs in Adharbayjan, from 827 also in Western Persia. In Marv, al-Ma'mun designates the eighth Shi'ite imam 'Ali al-Rida (d.818) as his successor: short-lived attempt at reconciliation with the 'Alids.

817-9 Anti-caliphate of Ibrahim ibn al-Mahdi in Baghdad. After the overthrow of the pretender, al-Ma'mun retumed to Baghdad.

820 Death of al-Shafi'i authority of the law school that came to be named for him.

821-73 Al-Mamun appoints Tahir I ibn al-Husain governor of Persia and the east. He establishes a dynasty that retains effective control of the region until replaced by the Saffarids and Samanids.

822-52 'Abd al-Rahman II of Cordoba.

823 Death of the historian al-Waqidi.

825 or 6 Death of the poet Abu l-'Atahiya.

827 Beginning of the conquest of Sicily. Al-Ma'mun initiates the Mihna (Inquisition, continued by his successors until 848): the authority of the state supports the theological teaching of the Mu'tazila, especially the dogma of the 'createdness' of the Koran. The traditionalist Ahmad ibn Hanbal (780-855) is persecuted as the representative of the opposition of the ahl al-hadith to rationalist theology.

829-30 Uprising of the Copts in Egypt.

831 Fall of Palermo after Arab siege (remains under Islamic authority until 1072).

833-42 Caliphate of al-Mu'tasim. Formation of a bodyguard of Turkish as well as other elite troops to protect the caliph.

836 Al-Mu'tasim founds the residential and garrison city of Samarra.

837 The caliph, al-Mutasim, sends his army to Adharbayjan under general Afshin to put down the twenty year rebellion of the Khurramiyya under Babak

841 The general al-Afshin dies in prison, accused of apostasy to Zoroastrianism.

842-7 Caliphate of al-Wathiq, last representative of strong 'Abbasid political power.

844 The Normans attack Spain and occupied Seville.

847-61 Caliphate of al-Mutawakkil. End of the Mihna . The doctrine of the ahl al-hadith is recognised as orthodoxy. Anti-rationalist reaction Persecution of the Shi'a. First caliph who was murdered by his bodyguards.

c. 847 Death of the mathematician and geographer al-Khwarazmi, from whose name we derive the term algorithm.

852-86 Muhammad I of Cordoba.

855 Death of Ahmad ibn Hanbal, the teacher of hadith and the authority on the shariah who gave his name to the school of the Hanbalites.

857 Death of al-Muhasibi, an important teacher of Islamic piety and theology.

861-2 Caliphate of al-Muntasir. A decade of domination by Turkish soldiery begins.

861-945 Collapse of the 'Abbasid political power. The provinces, beginning with those at the furthest remove from Baghdad, gradually slip away from the caliphate.

862-66 Caliphate of al-Musta'in, who, like his two successors, is completely under the domination of the Turkish guard.

865 Party struggles of the Turkish generals. The population of Baghdad under the caliph defends the city against the Turkish army from Samarra.

866-9 Caliphate of al-Mu'tazz. Overthrow and murder of al-Mustain. Ya'qub ibn Laith al-Saffar (867-879) seizes control of Sistan. By the end of the ninth century he and his brother control, briefly, most of Iran except the northwest.

868 Death of the author al-lahiz master of Arabic prose and of anecdotal encyclopaedic adab literature.

868-905 Ahmad ibn Tulun(868-83) andtheTulunids independent as governors in Egypt. Egypt breaks away from the caliphate.

869 Death of Muhammad ibn Kar(r)am, teacher of the Karramiyya sect popular in Khurasan (around Nishapur).

869-70 Caliphate of al-Muhtadi. Uprising of Negro slaves (Zanj) in Southern Iraq under the 'Alid leader, 'Ali ibn Muhammad, who founds of an autonomous state (869-883).

870 Death of al-Bukhari, author of the most respected canonical collection of hadith (al-Sahih).

870-92 Caliphate of al-Mu'tamid. His brother al-Muwaffaq, as regent restores caliphal power in the territory between Syria and Khurasan.