Middle Ages
Battle of al-Qadisiyyah (636): The Fall of Sasanian Iraq
Decisive Arab Muslim victory; the Sasanian army in Iraq was broken and the capital Ctesiphon fell soon afterwards.
Era · c. 500 – 1500
Middle Ages
Kingdoms, crusades and plagues: the medieval world from the end of the Western Roman Empire to the fall of Constantinople.
Middle Ages
Battle of Yarmouk (636): Arab Victory over Byzantine Syria
Decisive Arab Muslim victory; the Byzantine Empire lost Syria and Palestine to the Rashidun caliphate.
Middle Ages
Muslim Conquest of Egypt (639-642): Amr ibn al-As and Alexandria
Egypt passed from the Byzantine Empire to the Rashidun caliphate; a Byzantine attempt to retake Alexandria in 645–646 failed.
Middle Ages
Princess Wencheng's Marriage to Songtsen Gampo of Tibet (641)
The marriage sealed peace between Tang China and the Tibetan Empire for a time; later Tibetan tradition credited Wencheng with helping bring Buddhism and Chinese crafts to Tibet.
Middle Ages
Battle of Nahavand (642): The Last Stand of Sasanian Persia
Decisive Arab Muslim victory; organised Sasanian military resistance collapsed and the Iranian plateau lay open to conquest.
Middle Ages
Taika Reform (645): Japan Remakes Itself on the Chinese Model
The Soga clan's dominance ended, and the court began a long programme of reforms that produced Japan's ritsuryō state of law codes by 701.
Middle Ages
Staffordshire Hoard: Largest Anglo-Saxon Gold Find (c. 650)
The largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver metalwork yet found, now held jointly by Birmingham and Stoke-on-Trent museums.
Middle Ages
Uthmanic Codex: How the Quran Was Compiled as a Single Text
A standard written text of the Quran was distributed to the main centres of the caliphate and other versions were suppressed.
Middle Ages
Cacaxtla Murals: Battle Scenes in Epiclassic Mexico
The murals revealed close artistic links between central Mexico and the Maya world in the centuries after Teotihuacan's fall.
Middle Ages
Xochicalco: The Hilltop City After Teotihuacan's Fall
Xochicalco became one of the leading Epiclassic cities of central Mexico before it was burned and abandoned around 900.
Middle Ages
Giant Wild Goose Pagoda in Xi'an: Xuanzang's Tower (652)
A brick pagoda was raised at the Da Ci'en Temple to protect Xuanzang's Indian scriptures; rebuilt and enlarged under Wu Zetian, it survives as the best-known landmark of Tang Chang'an.
Middle Ages
The Baqt (652): Treaty Between Christian Nubia and Muslim Egypt
A non-aggression and exchange agreement under which Makuria sent enslaved people north and received goods from Egypt, preserving Nubian independence for about 600 years.