The Samiri's calf, c. 1248 BCE

Chapter 4 · Musa and the Children of Israel15 / 52

ProphetsSinai desertabout 3,300 years ago

Approximate date

The Samiri's calf

While Musa is away, the Samiri shapes the people's gold into a lowing calf. Harun warns them. Musa returns, burns the calf and scatters it in the sea.

The SamiriHarunMusa

And he extracted for them [the statue of] a calf which had a lowing sound, and they said, "This is your god and the god of Moses, but he forgot."

Quran 20:88

Source: Quran ·

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

2. Early nationsc. 3500 to 1600 BCE

3. Ibrahim and his familyc. 2000 to 1700 BCE

4. Musa and the Children of Israelc. 1350 to 540 BCE

5. Empires and Isa539 BCE to 600 CE

6. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ570 to 632 CE

7. The first caliphates632 to 750 CE

8. Baghdad and the golden age751 to 1258 CE

9. Ottomans, Safavids and Mughals1260 to 1798 CE

10. Colonial age to today1804 CE to now

11. Signs of the HourStill to come