INTRODUCTION 

 

Bismillāhir Rahmānir Rahīm, As-salāmu ʿAlaykum wa rahmatullāhi wa barakātuh. Peace be upon you brothers and sisters. 

 

Welcome back to our channel! In one of our previous lessons, we overviewed the difference between the Islamic and Gregorian calendar.  

 

The Islamic calendar began when the Prophet Muhammad (s) migrated to Medina from Mecca. This happened in the year 622. This means that there is a discrepancy of 620 years between the Islamic and Gregorian calendars. But this has changed over the years. 

 

But here’s a little trick, whenever you see an Islamic date, try adding around 6 centuries or so and you will get a rough idea as to when this happened in the Gregorian calendar. So for example, we know that our 12th Imam was born in the year 255 after Hjirah. If you want to know when this happened just add those numbers you will get something around the middle-end of the 800s in the Gregorian calendar. That’s pretty close as precise calculations show us that our 12th Imam was born in the year 869 in the Gregorian Calendar.  

 

In this lesson, we will quickly look into some of the key moments in the Islamic time line from the perspective of the Gregorian years. The Gregorian calendar is also known as the Common Era and is abbreviated with the letters CE. 

 

BODY OF TEXT 

 

570 CE Birth of the Prophet Muhammad (s) 

 

610 CE The Prophet (s) receives revelation from Allah through the medium of the Angel Gabriel (as).  

 

610-22 CE The Messenger of Allah (s) preaches to the Meccans. 

 

622 CE The Hijira begins – The Prophet Muhammad (s) and his companions flee to Medina. The Islamic calendar begins. 

 

632 The Prophet Muhammad (s) passes away. Imam Ali (as) becomes the first Imam after his death. 

 

656 Uthman is murdered; Imam Ali (as) becomes the 4th Caliph. 

 

661 Imam Ali (as) is murdered and Mu'awiya usurps the caliphate from Imam al-Hasan (as). The Umayyad Caliphate beings and ends in 750. 

 

680 Tragedy of Karbala and the death of Imam al-Husayn (as) 

 

732 The Muslim empire reaches its furthest extent. Battle of Tours prevents further advance northwards. 

 

940 The 12th Imam, Imam Muhammad al-Mahdi (aj) goes into the greater occultation. 

 

Late 900s West Africa begins to convert to Islam 

 

1099 Christian Crusaders take Jerusalem. 

 

1100-1200s Sufi orders (turuq) are founded. 

 

1171 Fatimid power ends in Egypt with the conquests of Saladin. 

 

1174 Saladin declares himself sultan of Egypt and Syria. 

 

1193 Death of Saladin; most of Crusader states have returned to Islam. 

 

1200s The Assassins are eliminated by the Mongols.  

 

1221 The Mongols enter Persia. 

 

1241 Mongols take the Punjab. 

 

1258 Mongols capture Baghdad; city is sacked and caliph is killed. This spells the end of the Abbasid Caliphate. 

 

1281-1324 Reign of Uthman (also pronounced Osman). He founds the Ottoman Empire. Muslim merchants and missionary Sufis settle in South East Asia. 

 

1366 Capital of Ottoman Empire moved from Bursa to Adrianople. 

 

late 1300s Ottomans take control of the Balkans. 

 

1400s Islam reaches the Philippines. No Muslim army ever made its way beyond India. All converts from Indonesia to the Philippines are done through missionaries. 

 

1453 Mehmet Fatih (rules 1451-81) conquers Constantinople. The two halves of the Ottoman Empire are united and the sultan becomes the Byzantine emperor. 

 

1501 Shah Ismail Safavi takes over Persia and establishes it as a 12ver Shia empire. 

 

1700s Muhammad Abd al-Wahhab rejects Sufism and most of the historical tradition of Islam as found in Sunnism and Shi’ism. He founds the ideology which brings about the birth of the Saudi Arabian kingdom. 

 

1738 Mughal empire, the Muslim empire of India, is invaded by the Afghans. 

 

1908-18 Last decade of Ottoman rule. Rise of nationalistic "Young Turks." The Ottoman empire is later ended.  

 

Until Next Time, Thank you for watching.