The Quran gives no date
The fire from Yemen
The last of the ten great signs: a fire from Yemen, from the depths of Aden, drives people to the place where they will be gathered.
Source: Hadith
The fire from Yemen, Date unknown
Every moment in the timeline
Borders come from Cliopatria, the open map of the Seshat Global History Databank (CC BY 4.0), and are approximate. Dates before 1000 BCE are estimates, and for the earliest prophets the Quran gives the order of events but not their years. Sources: the Quran, Sahih al-Bukhari and Muslim, the Seerah of Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Kathir's al-Bidaya wan-Nihaya, and standard histories. See also the villains of Islamic history, from Iblis to the Dajjal, and the library of people, nations, empires and places.
1. The beginningAdam to Nuh · dates unknown
- A khalifah on earth
- Adam, the first human
- The first salam
- Iblis refuses to bow
- Hawwa, from one soul
- Sent down to earth
- Am I not your Lord?
- Habil and Qabil
- Shith, the heir of Adam
- Adam's death
- Prophet Idris
- The first idols
- Nuh builds the ark
- Two wives who betrayed
- The Flood
- He is not of your family
- A new beginning
- People reach Australia
- Painted caves
- People reach the Americas
- Göbekli Tepe
- Farming begins
- When Arabia was green
- Maize in Mexico
- Rice and millet in China
- Eridu, the first city
2. Early nationsc. 3500 to 1600 BCE
- Writing begins
- Egypt becomes one kingdom
- Caral, oldest city of the Americas
- The Great Pyramid
- Cities of the Indus
- Stonehenge
- The first empire
- A monument on every height
- Hud and the people of Ad
- Empires fall in a great drought
- The horse is tamed
- Hud and the believers saved
- The ziggurat of Ur
- The nine plotters
- Salih and the she-camel
- The Epic of Gilgamesh
- Yu the Great and the Xia
- The Companions of al-Rass
- Hammurabi's law
- Shang China
3. Ibrahim and his familyc. 2000 to 1700 BCE
- The star, the moon, the sun
- Ibrahim pleads with his father
- Ur falls
- Ibrahim breaks the idols
- Ibrahim faces the king
- Harran, city of the moon
- Ibrahim migrates
- Ibrahim and Sarah in Egypt
- The four birds
- The angel guests
- Lut leaves by night
- The towns of Lut
- Hajar, Ismail and Zamzam
- Seven runs between Safa and Marwa
- Makkah's first people
- Change your threshold
- The sacrifice
- Raising the Kaaba
- Ishaq and Yaqub
- Palaces of Crete
- The Indus cities empty
- Ibrahim's prayer for Makkah
- Ibrahim is buried at Hebron
- Eleven stars, the sun and the moon
- Yusuf in the well
- Yusuf chooses prison
- Yusuf in prison
- The king's dream
- The king's cup
- The family reunited
- Canaanites in the Nile Delta
- The patience of Ayyub
4. Musa and the Children of Israelc. 1350 to 540 BCE
- Shuayb and the traders
- Akhenaten's sun-disc
- Musa in the river
- Ramesses II
- Musa flees to Madyan
- The fire at Tuwa
- Musa before Pharaoh
- The believer of Pharaoh's family
- The first peace treaty
- Haman's tower
- Asiya's prayer
- The sea parts
- The Tawrat and the calf
- The Samiri's calf
- Twelve springs
- The cow
- Qarun
- Musa and al-Khidr
- Forty years in the desert
- The death of Musa
- 'Israel' in stone
- Into the holy land
- The Olmec
- The Vedas
- The Bronze Age collapse
- The camel carries Arabia
- The alphabet
- The Mandate of Heaven
- The Ark comes back
- Dawud and Jalut
- The Sabbath-breakers
- King Dawud
- Zoroaster
- Luqman's advice to his son
- The field and the sheep
- Sulayman's kingdom
- The valley of the ants
- Harut and Marut in Babylon
- The Queen of Sheba
- The staff and the termite
- Ilyas against Baal
- Yunus and the whale
- Rome is founded
- The dam of Saba
- Homer
- The Black Pharaohs
- Assyria exiles Israel
- Nineveh falls
- The first coins
- Exile to Babylon
- A hundred years asleep
5. Empires and Isa539 BCE to 600 CE
- Cyrus frees the captives
- Dhul-Qarnayn's wall
- Darius builds Persepolis
- The temple rebuilt
- Buddha and Confucius
- Socrates, Plato, Aristotle
- Alexander conquers Persia
- Petra and the Nabataeans
- Ashoka's edicts
- The Tawrat in Greek
- Qin unifies China
- The Great Wall
- The Maccabees
- The Silk Road opens
- Caesar's calendar
- Rome becomes an empire
- Maryam in the temple
- Herod's temple
- Yahya is born
- The angels speak to Maryam
- The birth of Isa
- The killing of Yahya
- The miracles of Isa
- The disciples answer
- The table from heaven
- Isa raised up
- The man who came running
- The temple destroyed
- The Gospels are written
- Jewish tribes in Yathrib
- The owners of the garden
- Sasanian Persia
- The People of the Cave
- The Classic Maya
- Idols come to Makkah
- An emperor captured
- The Ghana empire
- The Council of Nicaea
- The Namara inscription
- Constantinople
- Christian Abyssinia
- One lawful faith
- Tubba of Himyar
- Qusayy gathers Quraysh
- Western Rome falls
- Indian numerals
- Winter and summer caravans
- The People of the Ditch
- Hagia Sophia
- Zamzam found again
- The plague of Justinian
- The dam of Saba breaks
- The Year of the Elephant
6. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ570 to 632 CE
- Birth of the Prophet ﷺ
- Halimah and the opening of the chest
- An orphan at six
- The monk Bahira
- The Sacrilegious War
- Gregory the Great
- The Pact of the Virtuous
- Marriage to Khadijah
- The last war of the old empires
- The Black Stone
- Harsha's India
- The first revelation
- Waraqa's word
- Arise and warn
- The call from Safa
- Rome is defeated
- Bilal: One, One
- Refuge in Abyssinia
- Sumayyah, the first martyr
- Pakal of Palenque
- Hamzah and Umar
- The boycott
- The Tang dynasty
- The Year of Sorrow
- The day at Taif
- The jinn listen
- The Night Journey
- The pledges of Aqabah
- The Hijrah
- A new community
- The Charter of Madinah
- The qiblah changes
- The Battle of Badr
- Banu Qaynuqa
- The Battle of Uhud
- The well of Ma'unah
- The Banu Nadir
- Dhat al-Riqa'
- The Trench
- Banu al-Mustaliq
- The slander against Aisha
- Treaty of Hudaybiyyah
- The pledge under the tree
- Letters to the kings
- Khaybar
- Rome wins again
- Heraclius questions Abu Sufyan
- The fulfilled umrah
- The Battle of Mu'tah
- The return to Makkah
- The Battle of Hunayn
- The march to Tabuk
- Prayer for the Najashi
- The Year of Delegations
- The Hajj of Abu Bakr
- The Farewell Hajj
- Ibrahim and the eclipse
- The Prophet ﷺ passes away
- The last verses
7. The first caliphates632 to 750 CE
- Abu Bakr, first caliph
- The Ridda wars
- Musaylimah at Yamamah
- The Quran is collected
- Khalid in Iraq
- Umar ibn al-Khattab
- Damascus opens its gates
- Basra and Kufa
- The Battle of Yarmuk
- The Battle of Qadisiyyah
- Umar enters Jerusalem
- The plague of Amwas
- Egypt and Fustat
- The end of Sasanian Persia
- Amr in Alexandria
- Umar is martyred
- Japan's Taika reform
- Umm Haram at sea
- Uthman's Quran
- An embassy to China
- The Battle of the Masts
- Ali and the civil war
- Uthman is martyred
- The Battle of the Camel
- Siffin
- The Khawarij at Nahrawan
- Ali is martyred
- The Umayyads
- The Year of Unity
- Kairouan and the Atlantic
- First siege of Constantinople
- Karbala
- Srivijaya rules the straits
- The Dome of the Rock
- Coins of the Quran
- The Umayyad Mosque
- Tariq crosses to Spain
- Islam reaches the Indus
- Bukhara and Samarkand
- The great siege of Constantinople
- Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz
- Write down the hadith
- Covadonga
- The Battle of Tours
- The Abbasid revolution
8. Baghdad and the golden age751 to 1258 CE
- Paper from China
- Al-Mansur secures the Abbasids
- Cordoba
- Baghdad is founded
- The four imams
- Harun al-Rashid
- Baghdad's paper mill
- Charlemagne and Harun
- The road of Zubaydah
- The book of al-jabr
- Muslims land in Sicily
- The House of Wisdom
- The Mihna
- Samarra
- Sahih al-Bukhari
- Fatima al-Fihri's mosque
- The Zanj revolt
- The Mosque of Ibn Tulun
- The Fatimids
- Al-Tabari
- The Caliphate of Cordoba
- The Black Stone is stolen
- The Buyids take Baghdad
- Song China
- Al-Azhar
- Mahmud of Ghazna
- The Book of Optics
- Ibn Sina and Ibn al-Haytham
- Al-Biruni's India
- The Great Schism
- The Seljuk Turks
- The Normans take Sicily
- The Nizamiyya colleges
- Manzikert
- Ghana and the Almoravids
- Kanem accepts Islam
- Toledo falls
- Sagrajas
- The Crusaders take Jerusalem
- The Swahili coast
- Al-Ghazali
- Angkor Wat
- Nur al-Din
- Al-Idrisi's map
- Salah al-Din at Hattin
- Jerusalem is Muslim again
- Salah al-Din and Richard
- Ibn Rushd
- Genghis Khan
- The Delhi Sultanate
- Al-Andalus starts to fall
- Magna Carta
- The massacre at Otrar
- The Mongols reach Islam
- Sundiata founds Mali
- Mansurah and the Mamluks
- Baghdad falls
9. Ottomans, Safavids and Mughals1260 to 1798 CE
- Ain Jalut
- A caliph in Cairo
- Rumi
- Osman's dream
- A Mongol khan becomes Muslim
- Islam in Sumatra
- Osman's state
- Islam on the Volga
- Mansa Musa's Hajj
- Ibn Battuta sets out
- Bursa, the first capital
- Kilwa and the Swahili coast
- The Black Death
- Mamluk Cairo
- Timur's Samarkand
- Ibn Khaldun
- Timur
- Zheng He's fleets
- Ulugh Beg's observatory
- Constantinople falls
- The printing press
- Granada surrenders
- The Jews expelled from Spain
- Columbus reaches the Americas
- Europe reaches India
- The Safavids
- Portugal takes Malacca
- The Piri Reis map
- Chaldiran
- The Reformation
- Ottomans take Egypt and the Hijaz
- Suleiman the Lawgiver
- The fall of Tenochtitlan
- The Mughal Empire
- Suleiman at Vienna
- The Inca empire falls
- Kazan falls to Russia
- The first coffee houses
- Akbar
- Sinan's Suleymaniye
- Lepanto
- The fall of Songhai
- Isfahan, half the world
- Aceh, the Porch of Makkah
- The Moriscos expelled
- The Qing take China
- The Taj Mahal
- Aurangzeb
- The Hajj caravan
- The second siege of Vienna
- The first Ottoman press
- Muslims in chains
- The Quran in Persian for India
- The first Saudi state
- Plassey
- The French Revolution
- Napoleon in Egypt
10. Colonial age to today1804 CE to now
- The Sokoto Caliphate
- Muhammad Ali's Egypt
- Greek independence
- France invades Algeria
- Omar ibn Said writes his life
- Emir Abd al-Qadir
- Imam Shamil
- The Tanzimat
- The last Mughal
- Deoband
- Russia takes Central Asia
- The Suez Canal
- The Aceh War
- Aligarh
- The Firmest Handhold
- The Mahdi of Sudan
- The Hejaz Railway
- The First World War
- Sykes-Picot
- Balfour and Jerusalem
- The caliphate is abolished
- The Grand Mosque of Paris
- The Muslim Brotherhood
- Saudi Arabia
- Oil in Arabia
- Indonesia
- Partition and Pakistan
- The Nakba
- Widening the Haram
- The year of independence
- The recorded Quran
- Algeria free
- Malcolm X at Hajj
- The Six-Day War
- The OIC
- The Iranian revolution
- Hajj by air
- Printing the Quran
- Central Asia independent
- Srebrenica
- 9/11 and the wars
- The Arab Spring
- The Rohingya
- Two billion Muslims
11. Signs of the HourStill to come
- When is the Hour?
- Barefoot shepherds build towers
- The fire in the Hijaz
- Knowledge lifted, killing spreads
- Liars claiming prophethood
- A mountain of gold in the Euphrates
- The Mahdi
- The Dajjal
- Isa descends in Damascus
- The Dajjal falls at Ludd
- Yajuj and Majuj
- The years of Isa
- Three landslides
- The smoke
- The sun rises in the west
- The Beast of the earth
- The fire from Yemen
- The last of the believers
- The trumpet