Timeline of Middle Eastern history

This timeline tries to compile dates of important historical events that happened in or that led to the rise of the Middle East. The Middle East is the territory that comprises today's Egypt, the Persian Gulf states, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Cyprus and Northern Cyprus, Jordan, Lebanon, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, the State of Palestine, Gaza Strip, UAE, and Yemen. The Middle East with its particular characteristics was not to emerge until the late second millennium CE. To refer to a concept similar that of today's Middle East but earlier in time, the term Ancient Near East is used.

This list is intended as a timeline of the history of the Middle East. For more detailed information, see articles on the histories of individual countries. See Ancient Near East for ancient history of the Middle East.

Neolithic period

10th millennium BCE

• 10000 BCE – earliest neolithic sanctuaries at Göbekli Tepe in southern Turkey
• 9300 BCE – first cultivating of wild emmer in Netiv HaGdud and other sites in Jordan by hunter gatherers^[1]

9th millennium BCE

• 9000 to 7000 BCE – first domestication of sheep in Mesopotamia
• 8500 BCE – first domestication of the cow (taurine line from the aurochs near Çayönü Tepesi in southeastern Turkey and Dja'de el-Mughara in northern Iraq.^[2]
• 8400 to 8100 BCE – first settlements at Nevali Cori in Turkey
• 8200 to 7650 BCE – first domestication of emmer wheat near Damascus, Syria

8th millennium BCE

• 8000 BCE – human settlements at Sagalassos in southwest Turkey
• 8000 BCE – first domestication of goats from the bezoar ibex in Iran
• 8000 BCE – first domestication of einkorn wheat near Karaca Dağ in southeast Turkey
• 8000 BCE – first domestication of Durum wheat near Karaca Dağ in the Levant and the Ethiopian Highlands
• 7500 BCE – Çatalhöyük, very large Neolithic and Chalcolithic settlement in southern Anatolia
• 7000 BCE – Jarmo, one of the oldest agricultural communities, in northern Iraq

7th millennium BCE

• 7000 to 6500 BCE – early undecorated, unglazed and low-fired pottery in Hassuna
• 6000 to 4000 BCE – invention of the potter's wheel in Mesopotamia

6th millennium BCE

• 6000 BCE – first irrigation and flood control in Mesopotamia and Egypt
• 6000 to 4300 BCE – first sail boats in Mesopotamia^[3]
• 5600 BCE – Black Sea floods according to the Black Sea deluge theory
• 5509 BCE – date of creation according to the Byzantine calendar
• 5500 BCE – first large scale agriculture by the Sumerians and in the valley of the Nile
• 5403 BCE – expulsion from the Garden of Eden according to the Genealogies of Genesis
• 5100 BCE – first Temples in South Mesopotamia

5th millennium BCE

• 4500 BCE – civilization of Susa and Kish in Mesopotamia
• 4570 to 4250 BCE – Merimde culture on the Nile
• 4400 to 4000 BCE – Badari culture on the Nile
• 4000 BCE – first use of light wooden ploughs in Mesopotamia
• 4000 BCE – Egyptians discover how to make bread using yeast

Ancient Near East

4th millennium BCE

Overview map of the Ancient Near East

• 4000 to 3000 BCE – domestication of the African wild ass in Egypt or Mesopotamia, producing the donkey
• 4000 BCE – city of Ur in Mesopotamia
• 4000 to 3100 BCE – Uruk period
• 4000 to 3000 BCE – Naqada culture on the Nile
• 3760 BCE – date of creation according to some interpretations of Jewish chronology
• 3600 BCE – first civilization in the world: Sumer (city-states) in modern-day southern Iraq^[4]
• 3500 to 3000 BCE – one of the first appearances of wheeled vehicles in Mesopotamia
• 3500 BCE – beginning of desertification of the Sahara: the shift from a habitable region to a barren desert
• 3500 BCE – first cities in Egypt
• 3300 BCE – earliest hieroglyphs
• 3200 BCE – Iry-Hor reigns as pharaoh of Upper Egypt, the earliest historical person known by name
• 3100 BCE – King Narmer unifies the Upper and Lower Egyptian Kingdoms, and gives birth to the world's first nation
• 3100 to 2686 BCE – early Dynastic Period (Egypt)
• 3000 BCE – first examples of Sumerian writing in Mesopotamia, in the cities of Uruk and Susa (cuneiform writings)

3rd millennium BCE

• 3000 to 2000 BCE – first domestication of the dromedaries in Somalia and southern Arabia
• 2900 to 2350 BCE – first ziggurats in Sumer
• 2800 BCE – beginning of Uruk's decline
• 2600 to 2350 BCE – early Dynastic III period in Mesopotamia
• 2560 BCE – completion of the Great Pyramid of Giza
• 2500 BCE – first domestication of the camel in central Asia^[5][6][7]
• 2500 BCE – Ur-Nina first king of Lagash
• 2340 to 2280 BCE – reign of Sargon of Akkad, founder of the dynasty of the Akkad
• 2334 to 2154 BCE – Akkadian Empire
• 2254 to 2218 BCE – Naram-Sin of Akkad, under whom the empire reached its maximum strength and the first taking the title "god of Akkad"
• 2200 BCE – Akkad taken by the Guti
• 2112 tot 2094 BCE – Ur-Nammu, founder of the Third Dynasty of Ur
• 2111 to 2004 BCE – Third Dynasty of Ur
• 2052 to 1570 BCE – Middle Kingdom in Egypt
• 2004 BCE – Elamites destroy Ur
• 2004 to 1763 BCE – rise of the Amorites who established several city-states in Mesopotamia
• 2000 BCE – first use of the spoke-wheel by the Andronovo culture and soon after used by horse cultures of the Caucasus region in war chariots

2nd millennium BCE

• 1900 BCE – Hittites Old Kingdom in Anatolia
• 1800 BCE – civilization in Canaan
• 1800 to 1200 BCE – emergence of the city of Ugarit when it ruled a coastal kingdom, trading with Egypt, Cyprus, the Aegean, Syria, the Hittites and others
• 1792 to 1750 BCE – reign of Hammurabi of the First Babylonian Dynasty, extended control throughout Mesopotamia, known for the Code of Hammurabi, one of the earliest codes of law
• 1763 to 1595 BCE – Paleo-Babylonian Empire
• 1600 to 1360 BCE – Egyptian domination over Canaan and Syria
• 1594 BCE – Cassites take Babylon
• 1595 to 1155 BCE – Cassite Dynasty
• 1550 to 1077 BCE – New Kingdom of Egypt
• 1500 to 1300 BCE – Kingdom Mitanni, a Hurrian-speaking state in northern Syria and southeast Anatolia
• 1500 to 539 BCE – Phoenicia and the spread of their alphabet from which almost all modern phonetic alphabets derived
• 1457 BCE – Battle of Megiddo
• 1380 to 1336 BCE – Shuppiluliuma, king of the Hittites who challenged Egypt for control of the lands between the Mediterranean and the Euphrates
• 1370 to 1200 BCE – Hittite Empire
• 1350 to 1050 BCE – Middle Assyrian Empire

The Oriental Empires about 600 BCE

• 1300 BCE – discovery of iron smelting and smithing techniques in Anatolia or the Caucasus: start of the Iron Age
• 1274 BCE – Battle of Kadesh between the Egyptian Empire under Ramesses II and the Hittite Empire under Muwatalli II,^[8] largest chariot battle ever fought^[9]
• 1245 to 1208 BCE – Tukulti-Ninurta I, king of Assyria, first native Mesopotamian ruler in Babylon, took on the ancient title "King of Sumer and Akkad"
• 1237 BCE – Battle of Nihriya, resulting in Assyrian victory over the Hittites for control over remnants of the former empire of Mitanni in Asia Minor and the Levant
• 1234 BCE – Babylon taken by the Assyrians
• 1200 to 1050 BCE – Bronze Age collapse
• 1200 BCE – oldest Phoenician alphabet inscription engraved on the sarcophagus of King Ahiram
• 1200 to 884 BCE – Sea Peoples, conjectured groups of seafaring raiders, invaded Anatolia, Syria, Canaan, Cyprus, and Egypt
• 1200 to 546 BCE – Lydian Empire
• 1190 BCE – Hattusha, capital of the Hittites, taken by the Sea Peoples
• 1184 BCE – Fall of Troy
• 1180 to 700 BCE – Neo-Hittite kingdoms
• 1155 BCE – Babylon taken by Elamites
• 1100 to 539 BCE – Neo-Elamite period
• 1087 BCE – Babylon destroyed by Assyrians
• 1070 BCE to 350 CE – Cushites, an ancient African Nubian kingdom in Sudan
• 1102 to 850 BCE – estimated period in which Homer lived
• 1069 to 664 BCE – Third Intermediate Period of Egypt
• 1050 to 930 BCE – Kingdom of Israel
• 1041 BCE – King David captures Jerusalem, designates it the capital of the united Kingdom of Israel
• 1004 BCE – King Solomon lays the foundation for the First Temple

1st millennium BCE

• 927 BCE – Jerusalem becomes the capital of the (southern) Kingdom of Judah after the split of the United Monarchy
• 884 to 858 BCE – Ashurnasirpal II, king of Assyria, embarked on a vast program of expansion, known for his harshness, moved his capital to the city of Kalhu (Nimrod)
• 884 to 612 BCE – Neo-Assyrian Empire
• 800 to 480 BCE – Archaic period in Greece with the rise of the city-states, Greek colonies, and Epic Greek poetry: onset of Classical Antiquity
• 776 BCE – first Olympic Games
• 745 to 727 BCE – Tiglath-Pileser III, king of Assyria who introduced advanced civil, military, and political systems into the empire
• 689 BCE – Babylon destroyed by Sennacherib, king of the Assyrians
• 678 to 549 BCE – Median Empire
• 672 to 525 BCE – Twenty-sixth dynasty of Egypt
• 626 to 539 BCE – Chaldean Empire (Neo-Babylonian Empire)
• 612 BCE – Fall of Niniveh by a coalition Babylonians, Medes, Persians, Chaldeans, Scythians, and Cimmerians, leading to the destruction of the Neo-Assyrian Empire
• 597 BCE – king Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon capturing Jerusalem
• 587 BCE - king Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon destroys Jerusalem and Solomon's Temple
• 600 or 576 – 530 BCE – Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon and created the Persian Achaemenid Empire
• 550 to 330 BCE – Achaemenid Empire
• 539 BCE – Fall of Babylon
• 537 BCE – Cyrus allows the Israelites to return from the Babylonian captivity and rebuild the Temple
• 522 to 486 BCE – reign of Darius the Great, third king of the Persian Achaemenid Empire
• 516 BCE – completion of he Second Temple
• 510 to 323 BCE – Classical Greek period with large annexations by the Persian Empire and a powerful influence on the Roman Empire and western civilization
• 500 BCE – Ionian Revolt
• 499 to 449 BCE – Greco-Persian Wars, finally won by the Greek city-states
• 480 to 479 BCE – Xerxes invades Greece, start of Second Persian invasion of Greece
• 477 BCE – founding of the Delian League, an association of Greek city-states under Athenian hegemony
• 431 to 404 BCE – Peloponnesian War between Sparta and Athens leading to the end of Athens' hegemony and weakening of Greece
• 353 to 350 BCE – Mausoleum at Halicarnassus built in Persia
• 330 BCE – Alexander the Great conquered Persia
• 323 to 31 BCE – Hellenistic period with Greek influence in Europe, Africa, and Asia, in the arts, exploration, literature, theatre, architecture, music, mathematics, philosophy, and science
• 247 BCE to 224 CE – Parthian Empire
• 100 to 44 BCE – Julius Caesar
• 31 BCE – emergence of the Roman Empire as signified by the Battle of Actium
• 48 BCE to 642 CE – Destruction of the Library of Alexandria, one of the largest and most significant libraries of the ancient world
• 92 BCE to 629 CE – Roman–Persian Wars

1st millennium CE

• 30 to 100 CE – Apostolic Age, onset of Christianity
• 66 to 136 CE – Jewish-Roman Wars and Jewish diaspora
• 135 CE – Roman Emperor Hadrian renamed Iudaea Province into Syria Palaestina
• 285 to 628 CE – Byzantine–Sasanian wars
• 376 CE – large-scale irruption of Goths and others, and the subsequent onset of the Fall of the Western Roman Empire
• 394 CE – Theodosius I suppressed the Olympic Games as part of the campaign to impose Christianity as the state religion
• 330 to 1453 CE – Byzantine Empire, continuation of the Roman Empire in the east, until it fell to the Ottoman Empire

Rise of Islam

1st millennium CE

Ottoman Empire, 1481–1683

In blue, the Arabic Empire in its greatest extent and in yellow the four Christian empires.

• 570 – Birth of Muhammad
• 614 – Persecution of the Muslims by the Quraish (Migration to Abyssinia)
• 616 – Second migration to Abyssinia
• 620 – Ascension to the heavens
• 622 – Constitution of Medina, establishment of the first Islamic state
• 624: Battle of Badr, expulsion of the Bani Qainuqa Jews from Medina
• 626 – Siege of Constantinople
• 629 to 1050 – Arab–Byzantine wars
• 630 – Conquest of Mecca
• 632 – Death of Muhammad, Abu Bakr chosen as caliph
• 632 to 661 – Rashidun Caliphate
• 633 to 651 – Muslim conquest of Persia
• 634 to 641 – Muslim conquest of the Levant (Syria)
• 639 to 642 – Muslim conquest of Egypt
• 642 to 799 – Khazar-Arab Wars weaken the Umayyad army and contribute to the eventual fall of the dynasty
• 642 to 870 – Islamic conquest of Afghanistan
• 656 to 661 – First Fitna (First Islamic Civil War)
• 661 to 750 – Umayyad Caliphate
• 670 to 742 – Muslim conquest of North Africa
• 680 to 692 – Second Fitna (Second Islamic Civil War)
• 711 to 718 – Umayyad conquest of Hispania
• 711 to 714 – Muslim conquest in the Indian subcontinent
• 719 to 759 – Umayyad invasion of Gaul
• 738 – Caliphate campaigns in India
• 746 to 750 – Abbasid Revolution
• 750 to 1258 – Abbasid Caliphate
• 770 to 840 – Khwarizmi, developed algebra
• 801 to 873 – Al-Kindi, promotor of Greek and Hellenistic philosophy, introduced Indian numerals
• 803 – Jabir ibn Hayyan, first to produce sulfuric acid, and other chemicals and instruments
• 810 – House of Wisdom set up in Baghdad, where Greek and Indian mathematical and astronomy works were translated into Arabic
• 821 to 979 – Iranian Intermezzo
• 821 to 873 – Tahirid dynasty in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan
• 827 to 902 – Muslim conquest of Sicily
• 836 to 901 – Thabit Ibn Qurra, discovered a theorem which enables pairs of amicable numbers to be found
• 847 to 871 – Emirate of Bari
• 861 to 1003 – Saffarid dynasty, an Iranian Persian empire
• 864 to 930 – Al-Razi, advocate of hygiene and patients' psychology, wrote on alkali, caustic soda, soap, glycerine and naphta in "Book of the Secret of Secrets
• 875/819 to 999 – Samanid dynasty, an Iranian empire
• 909 to 1171 – Fatimid Caliphate, originally based in Tunisia, spanned a vast area of the Arab lands, ultimately made Egypt its centre
• 929 to 1031 – Caliphate of Córdoba, with the Iberian peninsula as an integral province, ruled from Damascus
• 932 to 1055 – Buyid dynasty in Iran
• 942 to 979 – Sallarid dynasty in Iran, Azerbaijan and Armenia
• 965 to 1091 – Emirate of Sicily
• 970 – foundation of Al-Azhar University, oldest Islamic institution for higher studies

2nd millennium CE

• 1037 to 1194 – arrival of the Turkish Seljuq Empire, and the subsequent end of Arab dominance
• 1044 or 1048 to 1123 – Al-Khayyam gave a classification of cubic equations with geometric solutions using conic sections, extracted roots using the Indian decimal system
• 1096 to 1487 – Crusades
• 1100 to 1166 – Muhammad al-Idrissi, known for having drawn some of the most advanced ancient world maps
• 1147 to 1269 – Almohad Caliphate, a Moroccan Berber Muslim movement, started by Ibn Tumart among the Masmuda
• 1171 to 1260 – Ayyubid dynasty
• 1213 to 1288 – Ibn Al-Nafis, discovered the lesser circulatory system of the heart and the lungs), and described the mechanism of breathing and its relation to the blood
• 1218 to 1221 – Mongol conquest of Khwarezmia marked the beginning of the Mongol conquest of the Islamic states
• 1241 to 1244 – Mongol invasions of Anatolia
• 1258 – Forses of the Mongol Empire sack Baghdad and destruct the House of Wisdom, marking the end of the Islamic Golden Age
• 1260 to 1323 – Mongol invasions of the Levant
• 1261 to 1517 – Mamluk Sultanate of Cairo
• 1261 to 1517 – Abbasid Caliphate
• 1299 to 1923 – rise of the Ottoman Empire
• 1300 – deportation of the last Muslims from Lucera, Italy
• 1303 – Battle of Marj al-Saffar, defeat for the Mongols, which put an end to Ghazan Khan's invasions of Syria
• 1347 – a fleet of Genoese trading ships fleeing Caffa (Theodosia) reached the port of Messina and spreads the Black Death
• 1380 – al-Kashi, contributed to development of decimal fractions for approximating algebraic numbers and real numbers such as pi
• 1393 to 1449 – Ulugh Beg commissions an observatory at Samarqand in Uzbekistan
• 1453 to 1550 – Classical Age of the Ottoman Empire
• 1550 to 1700 – Transformation of the Ottoman Empire
• 1700 to 1789 - Ottoman ancien régime

Contemporary Middle East

2nd millennium CE

• 1798 – Napoleon Bonaparte leads a campaign in Egypt and Syria
• 1828 to 1908 – Decline and modernization of the Ottoman Empire
• 1869 – Construction of the Suez Canal is completed
• 1882 – British troops occupy Cairo – Egypt becomes British protectorate
• 1908 to 1922 – Defeat and dissolution of the Ottoman Empire
• 1917 – Lord Balfour, Foreign Minister of Great Britain, in a letter to Lord Rothschild, gives British government approval to Zionist's goal of building a "national home" in Palestine
• 1918 – Britain and France occupy former Ottoman Empire lands
• 1919 to 1921 – Franco-Syrian War
• 1919 to 1923 – Asia Minor Catastrophe reshapes Anatolia, as continuous fighting incorporates the newly founded Republic of Turkey, Armenia, France, Greece
• 1922 – Egypt is granted nominal independence from the United Kingdom.
• 1922 to 1923 – French Mandate of Syria and Lebanon and British Mandate of Palestine come into power, Emirate of Transjordan is an autonomous region under the Mandate for Israel
• 1924 – abolition of the Caliphate as part of Atatürk's Reforms
• 1925 – Sheikh Said rebellion of Kurds against Turkey
• 1927 to 1930 – Ararat rebellion of Kurds, as Republic of Ararat is declared, but dissolved upon defeat
• 1932 – Kingdom of Saudi Arabia declared in unification of Najd and Hejaz
• 1933 to 1936 – Tribal revolts in Iraq of Assyrians in Simele, Shia in the south and Kurds in the north
• 1934 – Saudi-Yemeni War
• 1935 – Persia becomes Iran
• 1937 – Dersim rebellion, is the largest uprising of the Kurds against Turkey, massive casualties
• 1939 to 1945 – Mediterranean and Middle East Theatre
• 1946 – Emirate of Transjordan becomes Kingdom of Jordan (named Transjordan until 1948)
• 1946 – Kurdish Republic of Mahabad declared along with Azerbaijan People's Government, but defeated by Iranian military forces and dissolved
• 1947 – UN General Assembly proposes to divide Palestine into an Arab and Jewish state
• 1948 – Israel declares independence and Arab-Israeli war erupts
• 1862 to 1892 – development of the internal combustion engine rivals the steam engine, and ultimately makes petroleum an important political factor in the following century
• 1952 – After a revolution in Egypt the monarchy is overthrown
• 1953 – The coup d'état in Iran
• 1954 – Gamal Abdel Nasser becomes president of Egypt
• 1954 – Central Treaty Organization
• 1956 – Suez Crisis
• 1961 – First Kurdish-Iraqi War erupts in north Iraq.
• 1963 – Ba'th Party comes to power in Iraq under the leadership of General Ahmad Hasan al-Bakr and Colonel Abdul Salam Arif
• 1964 – Abdul Rahman Arif stages military coup in Iraq against the Ba'th Party and brings his brother, Abdul Salam Arif, to power
• 1967 – Six-Day War, Israel occupies the Sinai Peninsula, Golan Heights, West Bank and Gaza Strip
• 1967 – Kurds revolt in Western Iran, the revolt is crushed
• 1968 – Ba'athists stage second military coup under General Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, Saddam Hussein is made vice president of Iraq
• 1970 – Gamal Abdel Nasser dies, Anwar Sadat becomes president of Egypt
• 1971 – The Aswan High Dam is completed with Soviet help in finance and construction; independence of Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and the UAE
• 1973 – Yom Kippur War
• 1974 – The PLO is allowed to represent the people of Palestine in the UN
• 1974 to 1975 – Second Kurdish-Iraqi War
• 1975 to 1990 – Lebanese Civil War
• 1976 – Syria invades Lebanon
• 1978 – Camp David Accords
• 1979 – Saddam Hussein becomes president of Iraq; Iranian Revolution; Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty
• 1980 to 1989 – Iran–Iraq War results in 1–1.25 million casualties, Iraq uses chemical weapons against Iran and rebel Kurds; large scale economic devastation and surge in oil prices affect the global world economy
• 1981 – Murder of Anwar Sadat
• 1982 – Israel invades Lebanon
• 1987 to 1990 – First Intifada
• 1991 – The Gulf War
• 1993 – Oslo Accords
• 1994 – 1994 civil war in Yemen

3rd millennium CE

• 2000 - Israeli troops leave Lebanon
• 2001 - Members of al-Qaeda attacked sites in the U.S.
• 2003 - The 2003 Iraq War
• 2004 to present – Shia insurgency in Yemen
• 2005 - Syrian troops leave Lebanon as a result of the Cedar Revolution
• 2006 - The 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict; Saddam Hussein executed for "crimes against humanity"
• 2010 - Arab Spring, which culminates in the Syrian Civil War with involvement of many regional powers to either support the Syrian opposition or the ruling Ba'ath party
• 2014 - ISIS rises in Iraq and Syria;rival groups try to overthrow Syrian president

See also

• History of the Middle East
• Cities of the ancient Near East
• Empires
  • Ancient Egypt
  • Sumer
  • Babylonia
  • Assyria
  • Hittite Empire
  • Persian Empire
  • Hellenistic Greece
  • Roman Empire
  • Ottoman Empire
• Mesopotamia
  • history of Iraq
  • history of Syria
• Anatolia
  • history of Anatolia
  • history of Turkey
• Canaan
  • history of Palestine
  • history of Israel
  • history of Jordan
  • history of Lebanon
  • history of Cyprus
• Egypt
  • Ancient Egypt: 3000 BCE to 332 BCE
  • Ptolemaic Egypt: 332 BCE to 30 BCE
  • Roman Egypt: 30 BCE to 639 CE
  • History of Arab Egypt: 639 to 1517
  • History of Ottoman Egypt: 1517 to 1805
  • Egypt under Mehemet Ali and his successors: 1805 to 1882
  • History of Modern Egypt: since 1882
• Iran
  • History of Iran
• Arabia
  • History of Saudi Arabia
  • History of Yemen
  • History of Oman
• Timeline of Islamic history
• Timeline of Jewish history
• Timeline of the region of Palestine
• History of pottery in the Southern Levant

References