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1,200 Years Ago in Mediterranean

Portal of doorway of Jorjir, at the Mosque of Masjed-e-Hakim in Isfahan, Iran (persia).

The Umayyad dynasty, ruling from Damascus in Syria (Mecca remained as the religious centre), expands the Arab Empire to its maximum size, reaching from India in the east to Spain in the west. The Arab armies are finally stopped at the battle of Poitiers in France in 732. The Umayyads had been unable to resolve an internal dispute in the Muslim world, which had become split into the orthodox Sunnis, supporters of the Umayyads, and the reformist Shiites, followers of Ali, the son-in-law of Mohammed. In 750, a Shiite revolt leads to the massacre of almost the whole Umayyad family. Only the Umayyads in Spain escape, which becomes an independent kingdom.

In 754 AD, Al Mansur founds the Abbasid dynasty in Egypt and takes over the Arabic empire as the new caliph. His power was based on Persian troops. In 763, a new capital, Baghdad, is built in the old Persian province of Mesopotamia (modern Iraq). While Arabic cultural influences remained important (the beautiful and flowing Arabic script is still used throughout most of the region), the political leadership and main cultural influence in the empire had now shifted to Persia. In some ways, this marks the rebirth of a new Islamic Persian empire.

The Eastern Roman Empire, now more commonly called the Byzantine Empire, survives attacks by the Arabs between 674-678 but is forced to give up Palestine, Syria and eastern Anatolia. The Danube region is surrendered to Slavic tribes, but these later acknowledge the overlordship of the Byzantines.

On Christmas Day, in the year 800, Charlemagne, king of the Franks, is crowned emperor in Rome by the pope. This marks the definitive split of Christian Europe into a two halves, a western Catholic one dominated by the Franks, called the Holy Roman Empire, and an eastern Orthodox Christian half ruled from Constantinople.

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