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| - 651 The Arabs sign a non-aggression pact (“bakt”) with Christian Nubia (kingdom of Mukurra). The last Sassanian emperor of Persia, Yazdagird III, is murdered at Merv; the Arabs subjugate Khorasan conquering Nishapur and defeat on the upper Euphrates Khazars and Alans, called for help by the Byzantines. T’ang Chinese supremacy extends up to the Kirghiz and Khakassian lands on the upper Yenisey. Greater Bulgaria wrests control over Moldavia from the Avars, who are repelled beyond the Carpathian range. The African rebel Gregory passes in Sicily and conquers the island in a short campaign 652 Persia is finally tamed by the Arabs, who also leak into northern Afghanistan where they take the town of Balkh. Despite the Muslim conquest and the spreading of Islam, Zoroastrism will survive stubbornly, though as a minority, throughout the lands between the Caucasus and Central Asia. Khorezm frees itself from Western Gökturk vassalage and strongly opposes Arab encroachments. The Arabs invade Eritrea and spread Islam there. The self-proclaimed Western Roman emperor, Gregory, sets his capital in Syracuse and has the ancient Sicilian town fortified. The new Lombard king Aribert I, Theodolinda’s grandson, formally enforces Catholicism over Arianism. The Slavs of Idalska, now unified under their ban/duke Zveroboj, vainly besiege Rome, then ravage the Lombard duchy of Spoleto before withdrawing south again 653 Arab takeover of Byzantine (western) Armenia, ridden with internal squabbling, of Rhodes and the Dodecanese. Belisarius III, angered by the Western church’s independence and condemnation of Monothelism (he never really renounced it) sends an army to Ravenna; the Byzantines then march on Rome, but the Western emperor Gregory, with a naval expedition, anticipates them entering Rome and carries Pope Martin I and most prelates to safety in Syracuse. The Pope was in danger of being kidnapped by Belisarius III’s men, who thereafter occupy the Urbs Aeterna, where they severely mistreat the remaining Catholic clergy 654 The Anglic kingdom of Bernicia and Deira is renamed Northumbria 654-658 King Oswiu of Northumbria briefly rules Mercia; being Wessex at the same time under Mercian suzerainty, during these four years Oswiu is the de facto ruler of England 655 Basileus Belisarius III is defeated at Phoenix (off the Lycian coast, SW Anatolia) by the Arab fleet ca. 655 The Christian heresy of Paulicianism (from the name of St. Paul) appears in Anatolia, preached by the Armenian Constantine of Manamali (near Samosata, on the upper Euphrates). Dualist and Manichaean in nature, with a drive for restoration of primitive Christianity, it will gain a wide following between Syria and Armenia; later its Bogomil and Cathar variants will be widely accepted in the Sklaviniai (*OTL Balkans), in France and northern Italy and in Christian North Africa. The Arabs begin constant raids into Byzantine Africa 655-672 The Mayan city-state of Mutul/Tikal is vassal to its rival Calakmul 656 The Anglo-Saxons complete their conquest of the Midlands, then Maurice II’s Welshmen repel them on the Severn river. Caliph Uthman is murdered in Medina at the hands of rebel Egyptian Muslims; he is succeeded by Alì, cousin of the Prophet Muhammad and husband to his daughter Fatima, but soon civil war erupts. Alì overcomes his enemies, led by Aysha, Muhammad’s last wife, at the Battle of the Camel near Basra 657 The Muslim governor of Syria, Mu’awya, of the Arab Umayyad clan, rebels against Alì; a tense struggle for power, not without attempts to broker accords, ensues. Some of Alì’s followers abandon him in favor of di Mu’awya and create the Kharijite sect of Islam (egualitarian and e rigorist, which will gain wide acceptance in Egypt, Libya and parts of Arabia and Syria). The T’ang Chinese, taking advantage of internecine strife, destroy the Western Gökturk empire; they will occupy for some years Sogdiana (Central Asia), turning it thereafter into an increasingly weak protectorate, while the Western Gökturks will reorganize. A branch of the Eastern Gökturks, the Turgesh/T’u-Ch’ueh, splinters in two groups composed by five tribes each. They migrate from the Orkhon valley in Mongolia respectively to the Volga (the Yellow Turgesh, who merge with the Khazars) and to the Talas river in Central Asia (the Black Turgesh, later known as Oghuz/Ouzoi). The exarch of Ravenna, Olympius, has himself hailed emperor by the Byzantine troops in Rome; he subsequently appoints a Pope of his own, John (V) Venantius, while in Syracuse Vitalian succeeds Pope Martin I. Zveroboj’s Slavic heathen horde again heads north, then trounces and kills Olympius at Praeneste/Palestrina; thereafter the Slavs horribly sack and put to the torch Rome, slaying its inhabitants and carrying away John (V) as a slave 657-658 Byzantine temporary recapture of Melitene (*OTL Malatya) and (western) Armenia; the Arabs quickly regain both. The news from Rome shock the Byzantines and Carthaginians alike 658 Caliph Alì defeats the Kharijites at Nahrawan. Greater Bulgaria divides into two main hordes, the Black Bulgarians west of the Don river, the White Bulgarians east of it. The kingdom of Sarir (Daghestan), a vassal to the Khazars, converts to Zoroastrism. The Byzantines also retake Rhides from Arab hands. Samo’s death is followed by the quick disintegration of his Slavic empire; the Slovenians re-establish their own principality of Koroška/Carantania. The T’ang Chinese vassalize the kingdom of Kucha (eastern Turkestan). Mercia shakes off Bernician/Northumbrian suzerainty, asserting its independence under king Wulfhere, and gains the obedience of Lindsey (Lincolnshire), thus becoming the new power of central England. The Lombards occupy abandoned Rome, reduced to an impressive field of ruins 658-659 Belisarius III kills his brother and co-emperor Theodosius to eliminate a possible rival for the crown for his sons; then, hated by the populace because of this crime, abandons Constantinople to lead a vast campaign against the Slavs in Thrace and Macedonia, vanquishing and deporting thousands of them to Anatolia, and sets his new headquarters in Thessalonica. St. Maximus the Confessor is jailed, tortured, mutilated and exiled to Schemarion (Lazica) for his opposition to Monothelism. Two renewed T’ang Chinese offensives against Koguryo fail 660 After striking an alliance with the southern Korean kingdom of Silla, the T’ang Chinese destroy its neighbour state, Paekche, with a naval expedition. Basileus Belisarius III sails from Thessalonica with a fleet and army and regains control over coastal Dalmatia, where he recruits thousands of Serbs and Croats; with these he crosses the Adriatic Sea and winters in Siponto (northern Puglia). The Khagan of Greater Bulgaria, Kubrat, dies; he is succeeded by his elder son Bat-Boyan, while his second son Kotrag gains independence east of the Don river with his horde. The Arabs take Herat (Afghanistan) ca. 660 Lazica (NW Georgia) becomes formally independent from Byzantium under king Barnuk I: it nevertheless remains a staunch ally of the Byzantines against the Arabs.
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