The Templars (40 page)

335
AD
Dedication of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

622
AD
Mohammed, the founder of Islam, flees his opponents in Mecca and establishes himself in Medina; this flight, hegira, marks the beginning of the Muslim calendar.

632
AD
Death of Mohammed, by which time he has conquered all Arabia and brought it under the sway of Islam.

633
AD
Mohammed’s successor the caliph Umar declares a jihad against the Byzantine Empire.

633–37
AD
Arab Muslim armies invade Syria, Iraq and Palestine.

638
AD
Jerusalem is conquered by an Arab army under the caliph Umar.

710
AD
The Arabs invade Spain.

732
AD
Arab army defeated at Poitiers in France by Charles Martel.

750
AD
Umayyad dynasty overthrown by the Abbasid dynasty which transfers the capital of the Arab Empire from Damascus to Baghdad.

938
AD
Jerusalem’s Muslims attack the city’s majority Christian population during Palm Sunday procession and set fire to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

969
AD
Fatimids invade Egypt and found Cairo.

1004
The Fatimid caliph Hakim launches a ferocious persecution of Christians throughout Egypt and Palestine.

1009
A turning point in Western attitudes towards the Muslim East comes when the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is destroyed on the orders of the caliph Hakim.