Resource

Islamic History Timeline: Key Events from 570 CE to the Present

A source-aware Islamic history timeline covering the prophetic period, major caliphates, regional Muslim powers and modern institutions, with CE/AH dates and clear labels for traditional and academic evidence.

Data updated July 12, 2026 at 05:16 AMIslamic historytimelineHijracaliphateshistorical sources

Islamic History Timeline: Key Events from 570 CE to the Present

Coverage

c. 570 CE to the present

Milestones

26 selected anchors

Method

Chronology plus source type

Last reviewed

11 July 2026

Islamic history is not the story of one people, one region or one uninterrupted state. This timeline is an orientation layer: it begins with the conventional chronology of Prophet Muhammad's lifetime, follows major caliphal and regional transitions, and ends with selected modern institutional milestones. It is designed to help readers place an event before opening a deeper article.

Dates are shown in CE and, where useful, AH. A label such as conventional, traditional report, contemporary text or modern institutional record tells you what kind of evidence supports a row. Approximate dates are not silently converted into exact anniversaries. Political dynasties are included as historical contexts, not as a definition of Islam or of all Muslim experience.

The selection deliberately branches beyond Arabia. Cordoba, Cairo, Baghdad, Istanbul, Iran and South Asia appear because Muslim societies developed through multiple centers. The modern rows are likewise selective: they mark transitions that help readers navigate later research, not a ranking of the most important experiences of every Muslim community. Use the linked event guides for claim-level citations and the Islamic world map for geographic orientation.

How to read this timeline

Use the date as an orientation point, then read the evidence label. Quranic references, later Muslim narrative traditions, material or documentary evidence and modern academic syntheses answer different questions. No single row substitutes for source review.

CE dates make cross-regional chronology easier to compare.
AH dates follow a lunar era whose epoch is the Hijra year.
Approximate means the proposed year or range is not exact.
Traditional report identifies details preserved in later Muslim narrative sources.
Institutional record identifies a modern body's own dated record.
Regional branches prevent one dynasty from standing in for all Muslim societies.

What is intentionally not flattened

Sunni, Shia and other Muslim traditions, Arab and non-Arab societies, empires, local communities, intellectual networks and modern nation-states overlap but are not interchangeable. The tables give navigation anchors, not a claim that all Muslims shared one political history at every date.

Religious history is wider than dynastic succession.
The fall of one capital did not end Islamic learning or Muslim political life.
Al-Andalus, West Africa, East Africa, Central Asia, South Asia and Southeast Asia require their own regional timelines.
Modern Muslim communities include both Muslim-majority states and large minorities around the world.

Source ladder

Start with what a source can establish. A Quran verse can establish its own wording and religious framing. Sira, hadith and chronicles preserve indispensable Muslim historical memory but survive through later compilation. Archaeology, documents and manuscripts add other evidence. Modern historians compare those layers rather than merging them without attribution.

Prophetic period and first succession, c. 570-661 CE

Early dates combine conventional chronology, Quranic references and later Muslim biographical traditions.

Date	Event	Why it matters	Evidence label
c. 570 CE	Conventional birth period of Muhammad	Orientation point for the prophetic biography; the exact modern date remains debated.	Later biographical chronology; approximate
c. 610 CE	Beginning of Quranic revelation in Muslim tradition	Marks the conventional beginning of Muhammad's prophetic mission in Makkah.	Quran plus later biographical tradition
622 CE / 1 AH	Hijra from Makkah to Yathrib	Turning point in community formation and the epoch used for Hijri year numbering.	Early Islamic chronology; later route narratives
624 CE / 2 AH	Battle of Badr	Early Muslim victory with major political and religious importance.	Quranic references plus later narrative tradition
625 CE / 3 AH	Battle of Uhud	A reversal for the Madinan Muslims and a major subject of Quranic reflection.	Quranic allusion plus later narrative tradition
627 CE / 5 AH	Battle of the Trench	A siege crisis around Madinah remembered as a failure of the confederate force.	Quranic allusion plus later narrative tradition
628 CE / 6 AH	Treaty of Hudaybiyyah	Pilgrimage was deferred and a settlement changed the Mecca-Medina political setting.	Quran 48 plus hadith and sira reports
630 CE / 8 AH	Muslim entry into Makkah	Quraysh rule gave way and the Kaaba became the central sanctuary of the expanding Muslim polity.	Early Muslim narrative chronology

Caliphates and regional Muslim powers, 661-1526 CE

Political periodization is a navigation aid and does not represent every Muslim society.

Date	Event	Why it matters	Evidence label
632 CE / 11 AH	Death of Muhammad; Rashidun succession begins	Opened the first caliphal succession and a rapid period of political expansion.	Early chronicle and biographical tradition
661 CE / 41 AH	Umayyad caliphate begins	Damascus-centered rule followed the first civil war and shaped early imperial institutions.	Chronicles, documents and material evidence
750 CE / 132 AH	Abbasid revolution	The Abbasids replaced Umayyad rule in most eastern territories and later centered power in Baghdad.	Chronicles, documents and material evidence
756 CE	Umayyad emirate established in Cordoba	An independent Umayyad polity developed in al-Andalus; a caliphate was proclaimed in 929.	Historical and material record
969 CE	Fatimid conquest of Egypt and foundation of Cairo era	A major Ismaili Shia caliphate established a new capital and intellectual center.	Chronicles, documents and material evidence
1099 CE	Crusader capture of Jerusalem	A major rupture in eastern Mediterranean history followed by long periods of warfare and exchange.	Latin, Arabic and material records
1187 CE	Saladin retakes Jerusalem	Ayyubid victory reshaped control of Jerusalem while Crusader states continued elsewhere.	Multiple contemporary and later chronicles
1258 CE	Mongol sack of Baghdad	Ended Abbasid rule in Baghdad; Muslim political and intellectual life continued across other centers.	Multiple chronicle traditions and material record
1299 CE, conventional	Conventional founding date of the Ottoman polity	A frontier principality developed into a long-lived empire; the exact foundation framing is historiographical.	Later Ottoman tradition and modern scholarship
1453 CE	Ottoman conquest of Constantinople	Mehmed II made the city an imperial capital and transformed eastern Mediterranean power.	Ottoman, Byzantine, Latin and material records
1492 CE	Nasrid Granada falls	Ended the last Muslim-ruled polity in Iberia and preceded coercive pressure on Muslim communities.	Iberian documentary and narrative record
1501 CE	Safavid state established in Iran	Safavid rule made Twelver Shiism central to Iranian state formation.	Persian chronicles, documents and material evidence
1517 CE	Ottoman conquest of Mamluk Egypt	Ottoman rule incorporated Egypt, Syria and the Hijaz into a new imperial framework.	Ottoman, Mamluk and material records
1526 CE	Mughal empire founded in North India	Babur's victory at Panipat opened a major South Asian imperial period.	Memoirs, chronicles, documents and material record

Selected modern transitions, 1798-present

Modern rows are selected institutional and state transitions, not a complete political history.

Date	Event	Why it matters	Evidence label
1798 CE	French invasion of Egypt	A major episode in European imperial intervention and modern Middle Eastern political change.	French, Ottoman, Egyptian and material records
1924 CE	Abolition of the Ottoman caliphate	The Turkish Grand National Assembly abolished the institution after the Ottoman sultanate's end.	Modern state and parliamentary record
1947 CE	Partition of British India and creation of Pakistan	Created a new Muslim-majority state amid mass displacement and violence across South Asia.	Modern governmental, archival and oral records
1969 CE	Organisation of Islamic Cooperation established	A Rabat summit created a modern intergovernmental organization of Muslim-majority states.	OIC institutional record

FAQ

Is 570 CE the exact birth year of Prophet Muhammad?

It is the conventional approximate date. Early Arabic chronological traditions do not produce one independently certain modern calendar day, so the timeline marks it as circa 570.

Did the Hijri calendar begin on the exact day of the Hijra?

Hijri year numbering uses the lunar year containing the 622 migration as its epoch. That is different from claiming that 1 Muharram was the travel departure day.

Is Islamic history the same as the history of caliphates?

No. Caliphates are important political institutions, but Islamic history also includes theology, law, science, art, trade, migration, local communities and societies outside caliphal rule.

Why do some event dates differ by one day or one year?

Lunar-calendar reconstruction, manuscript variants, inclusive counting and conversion methods can differ. Responsible pages name the method and avoid false precision.

Does 1258 mark the end of the Abbasids everywhere?

It marks the Mongol sack of Baghdad and the end of Abbasid rule there. A ceremonial Abbasid line later continued in Mamluk Cairo until the Ottoman conquest in 1517.

How should this timeline be used for school or research?

Use it to choose a period and vocabulary, then open the linked academic, museum, primary-text and institutional sources. Cite the underlying source, not only this orientation page.

Sources

Cambridge University Press: The Rise of Islam, 600-705
Early Islamic chronology and the Hijra as a historical turning point.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art: The Birth of Islam
Early community, expansion and cultural formation.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Art of the Islamic World chronology
Chronology of major empires and dynasties across Islamic regions.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art: The Nature of Islamic Art
Periodization from Umayyad and Abbasid formations to Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal regional powers.
University College London: Chronology of Islamic Egypt
Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid, Fatimid, Ayyubid, Mamluk and Ottoman chronology in Egypt.
UNESCO World Heritage Centre: Historic Centre of Cordoba
Cordoba's emirate and caliphate context and its place in western Islamic history.
Organisation of Islamic Cooperation: History
Official record of the OIC's establishment in Rabat on 25 September 1969.
Oxford Academic: Muhammad, A Very Short Introduction
A balanced introduction to Muslim narrative and modern historical approaches to Muhammad's life.
Cambridge Core: The Constitution of Medina
Post-Hijra community formation and early documentary tradition.
Cambridge University Press: The Cambridge Companion to Muhammad excerpt
Broad chronology for Badr, Hudaybiyyah and the conquest of Makkah.