The Persians - Timelines

  • Origins
  • Achaemenids
  • Greeks
  • Parthians
  • Sasanians
  • Arabs to present

  • Outline - earliest times to 558 BC

  • From Cyrus to Darius III 558 - 330 BC

  • Alexander to Demetrius II 330 - 125 BC

  • Arsaces I to Artabanus IV c247 BC to 225 AD
  • Ardashir I to Yazdegird III 224 AD - 651 AD

  • 642 AD to present

From the Arab conquest to the present day

 

 

661-750 Ummayyad Caliphate
750-1258 Abbasid Caliphate. Capital moves from Damascus to Baghdad. Persian influence grows. al-Tabari 838-923; Ibn Sina (Avicenna) 980-1037
751 Battle of Talas. Abbasids defeat Tang dynasty on borders of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, halting Chinese westward expansion, easing spread of Islamic influence into central Asia. Papermaking technology reached Baghdad by AD 794.
928-1043 Ziyarid dynasty (Tabarestan) - Dailamite
934-1055 Buyid dynasty (Mesopotamia) - Shi'a. Capital Shiraz
821 - 873 Taherid dynasty (Khorasan) - Iranian
867 - 1002 Saffarid dynasty (Sistan) - Iranian
875-999 Samanid dynasty (Transoxiana) - Iranian: claim descent from Bahram Chubin. Firdowsi begins the Shahnameh.
963-1186 Ghaznavid empire - Turkic
1038 - 1220 Seljuk empire - Turkic. Omar Khayyam 1048-1124; Rumi b. 1207; Sa'di b c.1213. Capitals at Merv, Nishapur and Isfahan.
1071 Battle of Manzikert. Seljuk Turks crush Byzantine forces of Romanus IV
1096 First Crusade begins
1099 Fall of Jerusalem to Crusaders
1204 Second Crusade. Sack of Constantinople.
1220 - 1340 The Mongols. Capitals at Marageh, Sultanieh and Tabriz
1258 Mongols desvastate Baghdad
1262 - 1335 Ilkhanate - Mongol. Hafez b c.1315
1314 - 1393 Muzzaffirid dynasty (Central Iran) - Mongol
1345 Black Death begins to spread across Asia and Europe
1375 - 1501 Struggles between Aq Qoyonlu and Qara Qoyonlu (White Sheep and Black Sheep Turkoman)
1370 - 1500 Timurid dynasty - Turkic (until c1415 in western Iran) Ibn Khaldun d 1406. Capitals at Samarkand and Herat.
1501 - 1736 Safavid dynasty - Turkic Shi'a. Capitals at Tabriz, Qazvin and Isfahan.
1736 - 1750 Afsharid dynasty - Afghan Sunni. Capital at Mashhad
1750 - 1794 Zand family - reintroduce Shi'ism. Capital at Shiraz.
1757 - 1925 Qajar dynasty - Turkoman Shi'a. Capital at Tehran.
1901 Mozaffar al-Din signs agreement with Knox D'arcy giving rights to exploit oil reserves in Persia. Origin of multi-billion dollar industry, and Iranian mistrust of the west.
1908 Burmah Oil Company strike oil.
1926 - 1979 Pahlavi dynasty
1979 - Islamic Republic
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