630 (629).  Mecca surrenders to Mahomet; he invades Palestine.

631.  After many revolutions in Persia, Cesra is made king.

Dagobert I reunites the Frankish empire.

632.  Death of Mahomet; his successor, Abu-Bekr, sends an army into Syria.  See “THE SARACEN CONQUEST OF SYRIA,” iv, 247.

Oswald builds the first minster of stone at York.

634.  Death of Abu-Bekr; accession of Omar as head of the Saracens.

635.  Defeat of the Welsh by the English at Heavenfield.

636.  The Roman army is overcome by the Saracens.  See “THE SARACEN CONQUEST OF SYRIA,” iv, 247.

637.  Emesa, Balbec, and Jerusalem taken by the Saracens.

638.  Heraclius, unable to resist the Mahometans, retires to Constantinople, where he publishes his Ecthesis.

Death of Dagobert; his two sons succeed, Clovis to Neustria and Burgundy, Sigebert to Austrasia.

640.  Capture of Caesarea.  Invasion of Egypt by Amru, the general of Omar.  See “SARACENS CONQUER EGYPT,” iv, 278.

641.  Death of Heraclius, Emperor of the East; three rival emperors succeed; accession of Constans II.

The Sassanian kingdom ends.

642.  Victory at Nehavend by the Saracens; this places Persia in their power.

Istria and Dalmatia invaded by the Slavonians.

643.  Rotharis publishes the Lombard code of laws.

644.  Assassination of Omar; Othman succeeds.  See “SARACENS CONQUER EGYPT,” iv, 278.

646.  Alexandria recaptured by the Greeks and again lost.

647.  Abdallah advances, at the head of the Saracens, from Egypt to Roman Africa.

648.  Constans II issues his Type, or model of faith.

649.  Constans II orders the new exarch Olympius to enforce the adoption of his Type by the Western Church; it is rejected by the First Lateran Council.

650.  The Moslems conquer Merv, Balkh, and Herat.[80]

Many orthodox churches are plundered by Constans II.

651.  Death of Yezdejerd and end of the Persian kingdom.

652.  Conversion of the East Saxons in England.

653.  Pope Martin I is seized and banished by Constans II.

654.  Martin, in Constantinople, is stripped of his pontifical robes and imprisoned; after long hesitation Eugenius is elected pope in his stead.

656.  Assassination of Caliph Othman; Ali succeeds; Moawiyah revolts against him; he is supported by Ayesha the widow of Mahomet, Amru, Telhar, and Zobeir.  These dissensions suspend the conquests of the Saracens.  Ali is victorious on “the Day of the Camel”; Telhar and Zobeir are slain; Ayesha is made prisoner and sent to Medina.

657.  Kufa is made the seat of government by Caliph Ali.

658.  Constans takes the field against the Slavonians and repulses them.

Amru is sent by Moawiyah into Egypt and expels Ali’s partisans.  The two caliphs publicly pray for each other while waging fierce war.