661 CE
West AsiaPolitical change
A caliphate centered on Damascus
The Met dates the beginning of Umayyad rule to 661, with power centered in Syria.
A thousand years.
More than one center.
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670 CE
North AfricaCities
Kairouan is founded
UNESCO dates Kairouan’s foundation to 670 and describes its later Aghlabid flourishing.
691 CE
West AsiaArchitecture
A major Umayyad building in Jerusalem
The Met dates completion of the Dome of the Rock to 691 under Abd al-Malik.
8th century CE
IberiaCities
Cordoba grows into a major city
UNESCO describes extensive building in Cordoba after the eighth-century conquest.
750 CE
West AsiaPolitical change
The Abbasid political center shifts east
The Abbasids succeeded the Umayyads in 750, shifting the political center toward Iraq.
762 CE
West AsiaCities
Baghdad becomes a new capital
The Met identifies 762 as the foundation of Baghdad as the new Abbasid capital.
9th century CE
North AfricaCities
The ninth-century beginnings of Fez
UNESCO places the foundation of Fez in the ninth century.
836–892 CE
West AsiaArchitecture
Samarra serves as an Abbasid capital
Samarra replaced Baghdad as capital for a period dated 836–892 by the Met.
10th century CE
Central AsiaArchitecture
A surviving Samanid monument
UNESCO highlights the tenth-century tomb of Ismail Samani among Bukhara’s monuments.
10th century CE
North AfricaCities
The medieval city of Cairo takes shape
UNESCO dates the foundation of Islamic Cairo to the tenth century.
13th–14th centuries CE
IberiaArchitecture
Gardens and residences of Nasrid Granada
UNESCO connects the Generalife and the emirs of Granada with the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
13th–16th centuries CE
East AfricaTrade
Kilwa connects Indian Ocean trade
UNESCO describes Kilwa merchants connecting African goods with Arabian, Persian and Chinese wares.
1228–1233 CE
West AsiaLearning
A college for four legal schools
The Met dates the Mustansiriyya college for four Sunni legal schools to 1228–1233.
1258 CE
West AsiaPolitical change
The sack of Abbasid Baghdad
The Met places the Mongol sack of Baghdad and the end of Abbasid rule there in 1258.
14th century CE
AnatoliaCities
Bursa links city and countryside
UNESCO describes an early Ottoman urban system of markets, schools, baths and public kitchens linked to rural support.
14th–15th centuries CE
Central AsiaLearning
Timurid Samarkand and its observatory
UNESCO highlights Timurid development and monuments including Ulugh-Beg’s observatory.
15th century CE
South AsiaCities
A brick-built mosque city in Bengal
UNESCO dates Khalifatabad’s foundation under Khan Jahan to the fifteenth century.
15th century CE
Southeast AsiaTrade
A sultanate at the trading straits
UNESCO identifies the fifteenth-century Malay sultanate as an early phase of Melaka’s trading history.
15th–16th centuries CE
West AfricaLearning
A West African center of learning
UNESCO describes Timbuktu’s madrasas and its importance as an intellectual center in these centuries.
1453 CE
AnatoliaPolitical change
Constantinople enters Ottoman rule
The Met dates the Ottoman capture of Constantinople to 1453.
16th century CE
AnatoliaArchitecture
A mosque with a social complex
UNESCO describes Sinan’s Selimiye complex, with schools, a market and a library.
Second half of the 16th century CE
South AsiaPolitical change
A short-lived Mughal capital
UNESCO describes Akbar’s planned city and its roughly ten years as a Mughal capital.
Early 17th century CE
West AsiaArchitecture
A Safavid civic square
UNESCO places Shah Abbas I’s Meidan Emam complex in the early seventeenth century.
1631–1648 CE
South AsiaArchitecture
A Mughal marble mausoleum
UNESCO dates construction of the Taj Mahal under Shah Jahan to 1631–1648.
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