THE WORLD ATLAS

Chapter · Early Middle Ages

The Caliphate Expands

The world in 700

In 700 CE the map of western Eurasia has been transformed by the rise of Islam. Within seventy years of the Prophet Muhammad's death, Arab armies have destroyed the Sasanian Empire and taken Syria, Egypt and North Africa from the Byzantines.

The Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik rules from Damascus, has built the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, and has made Arabic the language of government; his armies have just captured Carthage and will soon cross into Spain and Central Asia. The Byzantine Empire, reduced to Anatolia, the Balkan coasts and southern Italy, has survived an Arab siege of Constantinople. In China the remarkable Wu Zetian, the only woman to rule China as emperor in her own name, governs at the height of Tang power, while a new Tibetan Empire contests Central Asia. In Europe, Frankish mayors of the palace hold the real power, and in the Americas the Maya city of Tikal has just defeated its great rival Calakmul.

Open the map in 700

The great powers

Region by region

Southern Africa

Bantu-speaking farmers occupy most of eastern and southern Africa, with growing cattle-based chiefdoms in the Limpopo and Zambezi regions. Khoisan foragers and herders hold the Kalahari and the Cape. Madagascar is being settled by Austronesian and African peoples.

Northern Africa

Umayyad armies have conquered Egypt and Libya and captured Carthage in 698, though Berber resistance led by the queen Dihya (al-Kahina) is only now being crushed. The Christian kingdom of Makuria, which defeated Arab invaders and agreed the Baqt treaty in 652, rules Nubia alongside Alodia, while Axum is declining in the Ethiopian highlands. Ghana is the great gold-trading kingdom of West Africa.

Europe

The Frankish kingdom is nominally ruled by Merovingian kings such as Childebert III, but real power lies with Pepin of Herstal, mayor of the palace. The Visigothic kingdom of Spain, under Egica and his son Wittiza, will fall to Arab and Berber invaders in 711. The Lombards rule much of Italy, the Bulgars, now led by Tervel (r. c. 700–721), hold the state south of the Danube founded by his father Asparukh in 681, the Khazars dominate the Pontic steppe, and Anglo-Saxon kingdoms such as Mercia and Northumbria flourish in England.

Middle East & South Asia

The Umayyad Caliphate under Abd al-Malik (r. 685–705) rules Arabia, the Levant, Iraq and Iran from Damascus, with the governor al-Hajjaj controlling the east. The Byzantine Empire holds Anatolia. In India, the Chalukyas of Badami under Vijayaditya rule the Deccan, the Pallavas under Narasimhavarman II build temples at Kanchipuram and Mamallapuram, and Raja Dahir rules Sind, which the Arabs will conquer in 711–712.

Northern & Central Asia

The Second Turkic Khaganate, revived in 682, dominates Mongolia under Qapaghan Khagan, while the Türgesh lead the western Turks. Arab armies in Khorasan are preparing to invade Transoxiana, which they will conquer under Qutayba ibn Muslim from 705. The Khazars rule the lower Volga steppe, and Siberia is home to hunting and herding peoples.

East Asia

Wu Zetian (r. 690–705) rules China as emperor of her own Zhou dynasty, interrupting the Tang, from Luoyang; Chinese power reaches deep into Central Asia. The Tibetan Empire under Tridu Songtsen contests the Tarim Basin with China. Silla has unified most of Korea (668–676), while in the north Dae Joyeong has just founded Balhae (698), and Japan, under Emperor Monmu, is about to issue the Taiho Code (701) creating a Chinese-style state.

Southeast Asia

Srivijaya, based at Palembang in Sumatra, is emerging as the master of the Strait of Malacca trade after its expansion in the 680s. Chenla rules the Khmer lands but is splitting into rival halves, while Dvaravati, the Pyu city-states and Champa rule their regions, and northern Vietnam is the Tang Protectorate of Annam.

Northern North America

Dorset Paleo-Inuit hunters live across the eastern Arctic, and Birnirk whaling cultures, ancestors of the Thule, live along the Bering Strait. Subarctic hunting peoples occupy the boreal forest, and Pacific Northwest peoples live in wealthy cedar-plank villages.

Southern North America

In 695 Tikal, under Jasaw Chan K'awiil I, defeated Calakmul, and Maya cities such as Palenque, Copán and Tikal are at their artistic height. Teotihuacan is largely abandoned, and new centres such as Xochicalco and Cacaxtla are rising in central Mexico. Hohokam canal builders and Ancestral Puebloan farmers live in the Southwest, and Late Woodland peoples farm the east.

Northern South America

The Wari Empire rules much of highland and coastal Peru from its capital near Ayacucho, connected by roads and administrative centres. Tiwanaku dominates the Lake Titicaca basin, and the Moche have broken into smaller states. Peoples of the Amazon live in large villages, some surrounded by earthworks.

Southern Cone

The Southern Cone is home to hunter-gatherers on the pampas and in Patagonia, and canoe peoples in the far south. Farming villages in northwest Argentina and oasis towns in northern Chile are linked by llama caravans to Tiwanaku.

Australasia & Oceania

Aboriginal Australians live across the continent in diverse societies. New Guinea farming peoples trade along the coasts, and Polynesians in Tonga and Samoa are on the eve of voyages that will settle eastern Polynesia.

Events

  1. Muhammad's migration to Medina (the Hijra)
  2. Last Sasanian king dies; Persia falls to the Arabs
  3. Umayyad Caliphate founded
  4. Arabs begin a long siege of Constantinople (674–678)
  5. Wu Zetian proclaims herself emperor
  6. Dome of the Rock completed in Jerusalem
  7. Arabs capture Carthage; Balhae founded in Manchuria
  8. Arab and Berber armies invade Spain

Moments of this period

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