MUSLIM WARS 1
Islamic conquests prior to the first Crusade:
Year AD
570 – Muhammad was born in Mecca
610 – Muhammad had a religious experience on Mount Hira.
613 – Persians capture Damascus and Antioch
614 – Persians sack Jerusalem
615 – Muhammad invited the Hashimites to adopt Islam.
615 – Persecution of Muslims by the Quaraish in Mecca intensified and a group of Muslims leave for Abyssinia (modern Ethiopia).
621 – Abu Jahl became leader of a mounting opposition to Muslims in Mecca and organized a boycott of merchants in Mohammad's clan, the Hashim.
622 – About 75 converts from Medina took the two Pledges of al-Aqaba, professing to Islam and to protect Muhammad from all danger.
622 – The Hijra: emigration of Muhammad and his followers to Yathrib (now: Madinat al-Nabi, "the city of the Prophet," or simply, al-Madina). Foundation of the first Islamic community; social and economic reforms. Starting point of the Islamic calendar.
624 – Muhammad broke with his Jewish supporters because they refused to recognize him as a prophet and adopt Islam. He chose now to emphasize the Arabness of the new religion, and has his followers face Mecca when praying instead of Jerusalem. In the end, all the Jews were either banished or executed.
624 – Battle of Badr, Muhammad and his followers defeated an army from Mecca. Muhammad's chief rival in Mecca, Abu Jahl, was executed. This battle was Mohammed’s first real victory. He owed it chiefly to the Ansar. The Ansar, or Medina champions, indeed might be rated the real founders of Islam.
627 – Meccan leader Abu Sufyan laid siege to Muhammad's forces in Medina during the battle of the Trench. He was unsuccessful. Muhammad suspected the Banu Quraiza Jews of helping the Meccans. The men, six hundred in number, had their hands bound behind their backs and were confined in one of their immense houses, where they passed the night in reciting psalms and in prayer. The next morning Mohammed went to the marketplace and ordered deep trenches to be made. The men were led to the brink, one by one, with their hands tied behind their backs, their heads were hewn with sabers, and they were thrown into the pits. The slaughter lasted the whole day and was carried on by torchlight.
630 – An army of 30,000 Muslims marched on Mecca which surrendered.
632: Death of Muhammad. His father-in-law, AbuBakr, and Umar devised a system to allow Islam to sustain religious and political stability. Accepting the name of caliph ("deputy of the Prophet"), Abu-Bakr begins a military exhibition to enforce the caliph's authority over Arabian followers of Muhammad. AbuBakr then moved northward, defeating Byzantine and Persian forces. Abu-Bakr died two years later and Umar succeeded him as the second caliph, launching a new campaign against the neighboring empires.
633 – Battle of Yamama. It is said that the 70 Muslims who had memorized the Quran were killed in the battle, including Salim. He was one of the few authorized to teach it while Muhammad lived. At Umar's insistence, Abu Bakr ordered the collection of the scattered pieces of the Quran into one copy, which has since been lost.
633 – Muslims conquer Syria and Iraq.
634 – Victory against the Byzantines in Palestine (Ajnadayn).
634-644 – Umar reigns as the second caliph. The Muslims subjugate Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Mesopotamia and Persia. Garrisons are established in the conquered lands, and the Muslim rulers begin to take control of financial organisation. 635 – Muslims begin the conquest of Persia and Syria
635 – Arab Muslims capture the city of Damascus
636-637 – Arab domination of Syria
637 – Arabs occupy Ctesiphon
637 – Jerusalem falls to Muslim forces. The Umayyad Caliphs commission the construction of the al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock. The Mosque was completed in
688, the Dome in 692. 638 – Caliph Umar I enters Jerusalem 639 – Muslims conquer Egypt and Persia
641 – Islam spreads into Egypt
641 – Muslims conquer Alexandria
649 – Muawiya I leads raid against Cyprus sacking the capital Salamis-Constantia
652 – Sicily is attacked by Muslims
653 – Quran (or Koran – 114 suras) compiled by Uthman, the third caliph (reign 644 to 656)
653 – Muawiya I leads raid against Rhodes
654 – Muawiya I conquers Cyprus
655 – Battle of the Masts
661-680 Muawiya moves capital from Mecca to Damascus
662 – Egypt falls to the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates
667 – Sicily is attacked by Muslims; Arabs occupy Chalcedon.
668 – First siege of Constantinople
669 – Muslim conquest reaches Morocco
672 – Muslims capture the island of Rhodes
674 – Arab conquest reaches Indus River
698 – Muslims capture Carthage
700 – Muslims raid Island of Sicily
711 – Muslims conquest of Sindh in Afghanistan
711 – Battle of Guadalate
712 – Conquest of Andulusia
715 – Muslim conquest of Spain
716 – Muslims captured Lisbon
717 – Cordova becomes capital of Andalusia (Spain); second siege of Constantinople.
719 – Muslims attack Septimania in Southern France
721 – Muslims cross the Pyrenees
722 – Battle of Covadonga First defeat of Muslims by Christians
724 – Muslims raid southern France and capture Carcassone and Nimes
725 – Muslim forces occupy Nimes, France
730 – Muslim forces occupy Narbonne and Avign
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732 – Battle of Tours (Christian Victory) – With perhaps 1,500 soldiers, Charles Martel halts a Muslim force of around 40,000 to 60,000 cavalry under Abd elRahman Al Ghafiqi. Muslims call it Balat al-Shuhada, the Highway of Martyrs, and treat it as a minor engagement.
735 – Muslim invaders capture Arles
750 – Abbasids move capital to Baghdad (see map)
756 – The Emirate of Cordova is established
759 – Pippin III ends Muslim incursions in France
792 – Hisham I calls for a Jihad Thousands heed his call to cross the Pyrenees to subjugate France. Many cities are destroyed
800 – North Africa falls under the rule of the Aghlabi dynasty of Tunis.
801 – Vikings begin selling slaves to Muslims.
813 – Muslims attack the Civi Vecchia near Rome
816 – The Moors support the Basques against the Franks
827 – Sicily is invaded by Muslims
831 – Muslims capture Palermo and make it their capital
838 – Muslim raiders sack Marseille
841 – Muslim forces capture Bari (in Italy)
846 – Muslim raiders attack areas near Ostia and Rome. Some enter Rome and damage the Churches of St. Peter and St. Paul. The Leonine Wall is built to discourage further Attacks.
849 – Battle of Ostia (Christian Victory)
850 – Perfectus, a Christian priest in Muslim Cordova is executed; the first of many.
851 – Young Christians are executed for insulting the Prophet Muhammed
858 – Muslim raiders attack Constantinople
859 – Muslim invaders capture Castrogiovanni slaughtering several thousand
868 – The Sattarid dynasty extended Muslim control throughout most of Persia.
869 – Arabs capture the island of Malta
870 – Muslim invaders capture Syracuse
876 – Muslims pillage Campagna in Italy
879 – The Seljuk Empire unites Mesopotamia and a large portion of Persia
884 – Muslims invading Italy burn the monastery of Monte Cassino to the ground
900 – The Fatimid Dynasty assumes control of Egypt
902 – The Muslim conquest of Sicily is completed when the Christian city of Toorminia is captured
909 – Sicily comes under control of the Fatimids
909 – The Fatimid Dynasty assumes control of Egypt
909 – Muslims control all the passes in the Alps between France and Italy cutting off passage between the two countries
911 – Muslims control all the passes in the Alps between France and Italy
920 – Muslim forces cross the Pyrenees, enter Gascony and reach as far as the gates of Toulouse
972 – The Fatimids of Egypt conquer North Africa
981 – Ramiro III, king of Leon, is defeated at Rueda
985 – Al-Mansur Ibn Abi Aamir sacks Barcelona
994 – The monastery of Monte Cassino is destroyed a second time by Arabs
997 – Under the leadership of Almanzar, Muslim forces march out of the city of Cordova and head north to capture Christian lands.
997 – Muslim forces burn Compostela to the ground
1004 – Arab raiders sack the Italian city of Pisa
1009 – The Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem is destroyed by Muslim armies
1009 – Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah orders the Holy Sepulcher and all Christian buildings in Jerusalem be destroyed
1012 – Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah orders the destruction of all Christian and Jewish houses of worship in his lands
1012 – Berber forces capture Cordova and order that half the population be executed
1013 – Jews expelled from the Umayyad Caliphate of Cordova, then ruled by Sulaimann.
1015 – Arab Muslim forces conquer Sardinia
1023 – Muslims expel the Berber rulers from Cordova and install Abd er-Rahman V as caliph.
1038 – The Seljuk Turks become established in Persia.
1042 – The rise of the Seljuk Turks begins.
1055 – Seljuk Turks capture Baghdad.
1056 – The Almoravid (al-Murabitun) Dynasty begins its rise to power.
1064 – The Seljuk Turks conquer Christian Armenia
1070 – Seljuk Turks capture Jerusalem and begin persecuting Christian Pilgrims
1071-1085 – Seljuk Turks conquer most of Syria and Palestine
1071 – Battle of Manzikert 1073 – Seljuk Turks conquer Ankara
1078 – Seljuk Turks capture Nicaea
1084 – Seljuk Turks conquer Antioch
1086 – Battle of Zallaca – Spanish forces defeated by the Moors and their Berber allies.
1088 – Patzinak Turks begin forming settlements between the Danube and the Balkans
1090 – Granada captured by Yusuf Ibn Tashfin
1091: The last Arabic fortress in Sicily falls to the Normans.
1091 – Cordova is captured by the Almoravids
1092: After the death of Seljuk Sultan (al-sultan , "the power") Malik Shah I, the capital of the Seljuks is moved from Iconjium to Smyrna and the empire itself dissolves into several smaller states.
May 1094: El Cid captures Valencia from the Moors, carving out his own kingdom along the Mediterranean that is only nominally subservient to Alfonso VI of Castile. Valencia would be both Christian and Muslim, with adherents of both religions serving in his army.
August 1094: The Almoravids from Morocco land near Cuarte and lay siege to Valencia with 50,000 men. El Cid, however, breaks the siege and forces the Amoravids to flee - the first Christian victory against the hard-fighting Africans.
November 18,
1095 – First Crusade. After 450 years of bloodshed, Pope Urban II called upon the kings of Christendom to send a military expedition to regain the Holy Lands, which had been taken by the Muslim conquest of the Levant. 1 At the same time, the Byzantine emperor Alexis I (1081 to 1118) had asked Urban II for help against the invading Turks. Jerusalem was re-captured in 1099.Islam would not suffer a naval defeat by the Europeans until the battle of Lepanto in 1571.
http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/imperialism/notes/islamchron.html and other sources. 1 Levant: the areas around the eastern Mediterranean, including Asia Minor, Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq, and Iran
1095: Pope Urban II opens the Council of Clermont where ambassadors from the Byzantine emperor Alexius I Comnenus, asking help against the Muslims, were warmly received.
FIRST CRUSADE (1096-99)
Spring, 1096: Peasants' (or PeopleÕs) Crusade sets out from Europe. Three armies don't make it past Hungary.
Spring-Summer 1096: Massacres against German Jews occur on the way to the Holy Land.Ê Crusaders believe that the battle against Christ's enemies ought to begin at home.
August, 1096: Emperor Alexius of Constantinople shipped the Peasants' Crusade over the Bosporus.
Late Summer, 1096: First Crusade leaders depart Europe.
October 1096: Peasants' Crusade annihilated in Anatolia by the Turks.
Spring, 1097: First Crusade contingents assembling in Constantinople.
End of April 1097: First Crusade began the march in Anatolia to Nicaea.
May 14ÐJune 19 1097: Siege of Nicaea.
July 1, 1097: Battle of Dorylaeum (Eskisehir).
October 21, 1097 Ð June 3, 1098: Crusader siege of Antioch.
December 31, 1097: First Battle of Harenc. Turkish prisoners were dragged within sight of the walls of Antioch and beheaded.
February 9, 1098: Second Battle of Harenc.
February, 1098: Emperor Alexius' general Tacitius abandons the siege of Antioch.
Mar 10, 1098: Citizens of Edessa give Baldwin control of the city.
Jun 1, 1098: Stephen of Blois and a large group of French crusaders flee the siege of Antioch with news of the arrival of Emir Kerboga of Mosul and his army of 75,000.
Jun 3, 1098: Antioch falls to Bohemond and the remaining crusaders.
Jun 5-9, 1098: KerbogaÕs army arrives before Antioch, forcing Bohemond to assume the role of the beseiged.
Jun 14, 1098: Peter Bartholomew discovers the supposed Holy Lance (the weapon which had stabbed Jesus during his crucifixion.)Ê Crusader morale skyrockets.
Jun 28, 1098: Battle of Orontes. Crusader victory forces Kerboga to lift the siege of Antioch.
Nov 27-Dec 11, 1098: Crusaders capture M'arrat-an-Numan.
Jan 13, 1099: Raymond of Toulouse, after disagreeing with Bohemund about the future crusader course of action, leads the majority of crusaders away from Antioch and toward Jerusalem.
Feb 14, 1099: Raymond begins the disorganized siege of Arqah, near Tripoli.
Late Mar, 1099: Godfrey and Robert of Flanders join the siege of Arqah.
April 20, 1099: Peter Bartholomew dies after attempting an ordeal by fire to prove the authenticity of the Hold Lance.
Mid-May, 1099: Raymond lifts the siege of Argah and pushes to Jerusalem.
Jun 7, 1099: Crusaders reach the walls of Jerusalem.
Jun 13, 1099: Crusaders fail to take Jerusalem by storm.
Jul 15, 1099: In the only fully coordinated operation of the First Crusade, Godfrey's forces succeed in scaling the walls of Jerusalem (near Herod's Gate) through the effective use of a massive siege tower and ladders.ÊÊ Once in the city, the Crusaders massacre the garrison of Fatimid Moslems and a large percentage of the Moslem and Jewish population.Ê Godfrey was elected Guardian of Jerusalem.
Aug 12, 1099: Battle of Ascalon. According to most accounts (both crusader and Muslim), the Fatimids were caught unprepared and the battle was short. Al-Afdal left behind his camp and its treasures, which were captured by Robert and Tancred. Crusader losses are unknown, but the Egyptians lost about 10-12 000 men. After the battle, almost all of the remaining crusaders returned to their homes in Europe, their vows of pilgrimage having been fulfilled. There were perhaps only a few hundred knights left in Jerusalem by the end of the year, but they were gradually reinforced by new crusaders, inspired by the success of the original crusade. Ascalon itself remained under Fatimid control and was soon re-garrisoned. It became the base of operations for invasions of the Kingdom of Jerusalem every year afterwards, and numerous battles were fought there in the following years, until it was finally captured by the crusaders in 1153.
1100: Baldwin, count of Edessa, escapes an ambush near Beirut and proclaims himself king of Jerusalem.
1104: Muslim victory at Harran, which checks the Crusaders' eastward advance.
1108: Two coalitions made up of Crusaders and Muslims confront one another near Tel Bashir.
1109: Fall of Tripoli after a 2000-day siege.
1110: Fall of Beirut and Saida.
1111: Ibn al-Khashab, the qadi of Aleppo, organizes a riot against the caliph of Baghdad to demand intervention against the Frankish occupation.
1112: Victorious resistance at Tyre.
1115: Alliance of Muslim and Frankish princes of Syria against an army dispatched by the sultan.
1119: Ilghazi, ruler of Aleppo, crushes the Crusaders at Sarmada.
1124: The Crusaders take Tyre. They now occupy the entire coast, except for Ascalon.
1125: Ibn al-Khashab is murdered by the Assassins sect.
1128: Failure of Crusaders thrust at Damscus. Zangi the ruler of Aleppo.
1135: Zangi fails to take Damascus.
1137: Zangi captures Fulk, king of Jerusalem, then releases him.
1140: Alliance of Damascus and Jerusalem against Zangi.
THE SECOND CRUSADE (1144-1155)
1144: Zangi takes Edessa, destroying the first of the four Frankish states of the Orient.
1146: Murder of Zangi. His son Nur al-Din replaces him in Aleppo.
1148: Debacle at Damascus for a new Frankish expedition led by Conrad, emperor of Germany, and Louis VII, king of France.
1154: Nur al-Din takes control of Damascus, unifying Muslim Syria under his authority.
1163-1169: The struggle for Egypt. Shirkuh, lieutenant of Nur al-Din, finally wins. Proclaimed vizier, he dies two months later. He is succeeded by his nephew Saladin (Salahuddin).
1171: Saladin proclaims the overthrow of the Fatimid caliphate. Sole master of Egypt, he finds himself in conflict with Nur al-Din.
1174: Death of Nur al-Din. Saladin takes Damascus.
1183: Saladin takes Aleppo. Egypt and Syria now reunited under his aegis.
THE THIRD CRUSADE (1187-1192)
1187: The year of Islamic victory.Ê Saladin crushes the Crusaders armies at Hittin, near Lake Tiberias. He reconquers Jerusalem and the greater part of the Crusaders territories. The Crusaders now hold only Tyre, Tripoli and Antioch.
1190-92: Setback for Saladin at Acre. Intervention of Richard the Lionheart, king of England, enables the Crusaders to recover several cities from the sultan, but not Jerusalem.
1193: Saladin dies in Damascus at the age of 55. After several years of civil war, his empire is reunited under the authority of his brother al-Adil.
THE FOURTH AND FIFTH CRUSADES (1194-1201)
1204: The Crusaders take Constantinople. Sack of the city.
THE SIXTH CRUSADE (1216-1218)
1218-21: Invasion of Egypt by the Crusaders. They take Damietta and head for Cairo, but the sultan al-Kamil, son of al-Adil, finally repels them.
THE SEVENTH CRUSADE (1227-1229)
1229: Al-Kamil delivers Jerusalem to the emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, arousing a storm of indignation in the Arab world.
1244: The Crusaders lose Jerusalem for the last time.
THE EIGHTH CRUSADE (1245-1247)
1248-50: Invasion of Egypt by Louis IX, King of France, who is defeated and captured. Fall of the Ayyubid dynasty; replaced by the rule of the Mamluks.
1258: The Mongol chief Hulegu, grandson of Genghis Khan, sacks Baghdad, massacring the population and killing the last Abbasid caliph.
1260: The Mongol army, after occupying first Aleppo and then damascus, is defeated at the battle of Ayn Jalut in palestine. Baybars at the head of the Mamluk sultanate.
1268: Baybars takes Antioch, which had been allied with the Mongols.
1270: Louis IX dies near Tunis in the course of a failed invasion.
1289: The mamluk sultan Qalawun takes Tripoli.
1291: The sultan Khalil, son of Qalawun, takes Acre, putting an end to two centuries of Crusader presence in the Orient.
attributions - adaptions
(adapted from the Christianity vs. Islam: Timeline of the Crusades, with many additions.)
http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/imperialism/notes/islamchron.html and other sources. 1 Levant: the areas around the eastern Mediterranean, including Asia Minor, Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq, and Iran