Timeline 700-750 (Interference)

700-701 A new failed anti-Omayyad revolt at Kufa (Iraq).

701 New anti-Caliphal rebellion in Basra led by al-Ash'ath. When hearing news that Leontius wants to eliminate him, the exiled and mutilated Belisarius IV the Rhinotmetus (the slit-nose) escapes from his exile in Cherson/Sebastopol, finding hospitality among the Khazars, who attack and conquer Cherson. The Duke of Turin Regimpert and his son Aribert rebel against king Anfus of Lombard Neustria. The Franks, supporting the rebels, invade northern Italy and win the battle of Novara, after which Aribert II is enthroned in Pavia (his father died in the battle); king Anfus flees to Lombard Austrasia, where his cousin Gisulf I reigns.

702 The Spoletan Lombards occupy Tuscany, enlarging their domains to most of central Italy.

705 Belisarius IV, escaped from Khazaria when his brother-in-law, Khan Busir Glavan, tried to hand him over to Byzantine agents to appease Leontius, finds new friends in the Bulgarians; but when they try to help him reenter Constantinople, Leontius quickly reacts, crushing them at Adrianople and killing Belisarius on the spot.

706 The Khmer kingdom of Chenla splits into a northern (between Laos and Siam) and southern (Cambodia and Mekong delta) half.

707 Basileus Leontius leads a naval expedition to Africa: Tripoli is sacked, in the island of Djirva (*OTL Djerba), an obnoxious nest of Arab piracy, all Muslims are slain and replaced by Idalskan Slavs, Cibyrrheotes (a people from SW Anatolia) and Mardaites (Lebanese Christians), who also are sent to repopulate devastated Ifrigia (*OTL Tunisia).

708 The Byzantine attempt to chase the Bulgarians beyond the Danube is frustrated by their defeat at Ankialos. Leontius rebuilds Carthage.

709 The Arabs conquer Bokhara and Samarkand in Central Asia and invade Anatolia, defeating the Byzantines at Tiana; in Ifrigia, instead, they are trounced by Leontius at Matmata. After long pressure by Leontius, Pope Constantine bestows on the Archbishopric of Carthage the title of Primate of Africa. In Visigothic Spain King Witiza is slain whn he tries to pass the crown to his son; the (mostly) elective character of the Visigothic Crown of Spain is confirmed.

710 The Arabs destroy the Ethiopian port of Adulis/Zula: the decaying Axumite empire, ridden with internecine strife, cannot counter Muslim encroachments along the coast. Nara is set as the new capital of Japan. King Gerontius of Dumnonia/Devon defeats the Wessex Saxons at Exeter. The legitimate T’ang dynasty is restored in China with Ruizong/Li Dan. Khapgham, Khagan of the Eastern Gökturks, subdues Kirghizes and Qarluqs, then invades Transoxiana (Central Asia) establishing contact with the Omayyad Arabs.

ca. 710 The Norwegian kingdom of Vestfold vassalizes Vendeyssel (the northern “tip” of Jutland)

710-711 Sergius, Leontius’ eldest son, hurries back in Constantinople to fight back the Arab invasion of Anatolia, but after early successes his forces are routed at Samosata; on the way back to the capital a high officer, Smaragdus, rebels and kills Sergius, entering Constaninople as the new emperor

710-718 Great rebellion staged by Uygurs, Qarluqs and Western Gökturks from Mongolia to Turkestan, crushed in the end by the Eastern Gökturks

711 Leontius dies in Syracuse (he will be later sanctified by both the Catholic and the Orthodox churches); his younger son assumes the imperial Roman crown of the West (Ifrigia, southern Italy, Ravenna) as Tiberius III with Papal approval (in Constantinople Smaragdus supports again Monothelism as the state doctrine). The Visigothic kingdom of Spain experiences a severe war of succession, won by Roderic/Rodrigo I thanks to the support of Mauretanian mercenaries. Supported by the Picts of Alba, the Celts of Dunbar overthrow Northumbrian overlordship in the battle of Manaw. The Arabs take Khiva in Central Asia, Vannadopolis/Kars in Armenia, Amorion and Angora in Anatolia, but fail in the siege of Nicaea. The Itzàs migrate into Yucatàn, founding Chichén Itzà

712 The Arabs subdue Khorezm and Transoxiana in Central Asia, tame the rebellious Samarkandans and raid distant Kashgar (eastern Turkestan); they also cross the Indus and overrun Punjab and Sind. Tiberius III reorganizes his southern Italian possessions in the Exarchate of Salerno, and raises the Venetic duchy to an Exarchate, centered in Metamaucus/Malamocco, with domain over Histria; Paulucius Anaphestus, ruling there since 697 as Duke, is the new Exarch. Helped by Tiberius III’s fleet, the North African Berbers of the Kahina retake Septem/Sefta/Ceuta from the Spanish Visigoths, ousting them from Africa. Anfus, the legitimate king of the Neustrian Lombards, reenters Lombardy with a Bavarian army, then defeats and kills Ariberto II on the Adda river, restoring the Gariboldingians on the throne of Pavia. Khan Tervel’s Bulgarians take advantage of Byzantine weakness to devastate Thrace. The Khazars give back Cherson/Sebastopol to the (Eastern) Byzantines in exchange for money and an alliance. The Arab fleet conquers Rhodes and Smyrna

712-717 The Western Gökturks temporarily subdue the Turgesh/T’u-Ch’ueh, who free themselves with Eastern Gökturk help

713 Tiberius III’s fleet gains the obedience of the Dalmatian towns; the Arab armies raid deep into Anatolia, reaching even Chalcedon (on the Asian side of the Bosphorus)

714 Tiberius III’s fleet sails towards Constantinople to reunify the empire, but the Eastern Byzantines prevail at Naxos; Philippicus Bardanes, the Armenian commander of the winner fleet, is hailed emperor by his seamen and heads back to Constantinople, which he puts under siege. The T’ang Chinese defeat the Western Gökturks at lake Issik-Kul and at Byshbalyk (Kirghizistan). The Arab wrest Derbent (Daghestan) from the Khazars and destroy the Zoroastrian kingdom of Sarir in the nearby Caucasian mountains

715 Philippicus Bardanes, with help from the Green “deme” (one of the factions of the hippodrome hooligans, the other major one being the Blues), enters Constantinople where he blinds and sends to a monastery Smaragdus; being himself too a fellow Monothelite, the religious policy remains the same. The Chinese score new impressive victories in eastern Turkestan and Central Asia against both Gökturkic confederations, the Tibetans and even the Arabs

716 The Arabs conquer Pergamum in Asia Minor and dominate over most of Anatolia; Byzantium pays tribute to the Bulgarian khan Tervel

716-719 Duke Radbod I leads a last, fierce heathen reaction in Frisia before dying

716-754 St. Boniface (the Anglo-Saxon Winfrid) evangelizes Germany

717 Strategos Leo the Isaurian, after successfully defending Nicaea from the Arabs, is hailed as basileus by his troops and marches on Constantinople, where an angry mob lynches Philippicus Bardanes

717-718 Constantinople is besieged by land and sea by the Arabs, led by Maslama, but resists succesfully: during the winter the Bulgarians, honoring the pacts, attack the Arabs under the walls of the city, slaying them in the thousands, while the Byzantine fleet proves agains invincible with its Greek Fire; the Arab defeat is made a disaster by the Byzantine theme armies attacking the Omayyad rearguards in Anatolia

717-719 After a last attempted breakaway of Austrasia with Chlotarius IV, the Frankish kingdom is eventually reunified under Chilperic III, but real power is held by the former Austrasian Mayor of Palace, Charles Martel (the Hammer), who defeated and replaced Chilperic’s Mayor of Palace Raginfrid

719 This year witnesses the first mention of the concept of “feudal homage” in Europe

719-720 Failed anti-Omayyad revolt led by Yazid ibn al-Muhallab in southern Iraq and Basra

720 The king of Lombard Austrasia, Romuald II, leads a successful expedition against Carantania/Koroška. The Turgesh/T’u-Chueh defeat the Chinese, preserving their freedom. The Byzantines free Smyrna and Rhodes from the Arabs

ca. 720 The Welsh kingdom of Dyfed/Pembrokeshire suffers a brief period of overlordship by its neighbour, Ceredigion/Cardigan, in turn a vassal of Gwynedd.

720-721 The Neustrian Lombards conquer Valtellina from the Romancians, who are bound to pay tribute; in response Charles Martel invades Piedmont and enforces Frankish suzerainty over Lombard Neustria, imposing the restitution of Valtellina to Romancia and the cession of Susa to the Franks. King Anfus of the Neustrian Lombards retires to a monastery on the lake of Como, his second son Grimoald II is enthroned as a Frankish vassal

721-740 The long Aquitanian Wars waged by Charles Martel subdue the Basques north of the Pyrenees and impose Aquitaine a reluctant obedience. Leo III the Isaurian struggles to expel the Arabs from Anatolia

722 The Arabs invade Daghestan ousting the Khazars

724-743 Arab raids devastate Gujarat and Broach (NW India)

ca. 725 Omayyad forces crush the Hindu uprising of Sindh, which ends up annexed

726 The Eastern Byzantine basileus Leo III the Isaurian issues decrees against the worship of sacred images, thus starting the iconoclastic controversy

727 The Western Byzantine emperor Tiberius III denounces iconoclasm and has this doctrine formally condemned by a synod held in Carthage; this opens a state of undeclared war between the two halves of the Byzantine empire. Abortive anti-Iconoclastic rebellion by one Cosmas in Thessalia and the Cyclades, promptly quelled by Leo III’s forces

728 An Arab invasion overthrows the Sabir khanate of Caucasia, formerly a vassal to Khazaria. The Eastern Byzantine fleet occupies Gallipoli and Otranto (Puglia), blockading the Adriatic Sea, then enforces obedience upon Dalmatia; Tiberius III visits Rome (causing some concern among the Spoletan Lombards) and is formally crowned by Pope Gregory II as Roman Emperor of the West

729 The Eastern Byzantines assault Ravenna but in the end are defeated, also thanks to Venetic support by the exarch Ursus Hypatus; having the Exarch of Ravenna Maurusian died in battle, Tiberius III unifies both the Venetic lagoons and Ravenna in a single Exarchate of Adria, de facto an independent ally of the Western Byzantine empire centered at Syracuse. Taking advantage of the Eastern Byzantine defeat, Dalmatia rebels and reverts to Syracusan rule

729-730 The Lezghians and Avars of Caucasus free themselves from Muslim domination with help from the Khazars and found in the Daghestan region the Khanate of Avaristan (a successor to defunct Sabir Caucasia). Tiberius III ousts Leo III’s forces from Puglia

730 The Arabs suffer a devastating defeat against the Khazars and Avaristanis in the battle of Ardabil (southern Azerbaigian). Basileus Leo III formally confirms it bend towards iconoclasm with new laws against icon-worship

ca. 730 The Thai prince P'i-Lo-Ko unifies large swathes of SW China (Yunnan) and northern Indochina, establishing there the kingdom of Nanzhao. The Omayyad Caliphal forces eventually break and scatter the Nezaks, White Hun/Hephtalite clans who had been domineering and raiding for over a century between Afghanistan and Punjab.

731 The Omayyad Caliphal army stops and kills the Khazar Khagan Barjik at the battle of Mosul in northern Iraq. The Tomar Rajput ruler Anangpal I founds Lal Kot/Dhillika over the site of modern Delhi

732 When Grimoald II of Lombard Neustria dies leaving a 13 year old heir, Cleph, King Gisulf II of Lombard Austrasia invades the kingdom, but Charles Martel trounces and kills him at the battle of Sesto San Giovanni between Milan and Monza. The Celtic kingdom of Dumnonia/Devon is vassalized by Anglo-Saxon Wessex; Cornwall keeps its independence establishing an own separate kingdom. The Tartars make their fist appearance when migrating from the Kerulen river valley to the Amur taiga. The Hinduist kingdom of Mataram arises in central Java. A renewed Arab invasion of Ifrigia (*OTL Tunisia) is thwarted by Western Byzantine general Prodromos and allied Kahinid forces in the battle of Saltus Byzacensis

733-734 Leo III’s forces suddenly assault Syracuse with a fleet and a siege army, but the Sicilian stronghold resists and the Western Byzantine fleet led by Leontius II, son and co-emperor of Tiberius III, crushes the invaders off Capo Passero, forcing the surrender of the invaders. The Constantinopolitan general Artavasdes is captured, tortured and killed. Meantime Thrasamund, Duke of Spoleto, invades southern Italy

733-737 Repeated invasions by the Slovenians of Carantania/Koroška desolate Friul: Lombard Austrasia barely survives thanks to the regent Wimpold, who defends Zividal (*OTL Cividale) from two Slavic sieges

733-746 The Western Chalukya ruler Vikramaditya II thrice takes the Pallavan capital, Kanchi, sealing the enemy’s decline

734 The Franks subdue and vassalize Frisia forcibly introducing Christianity into the country

735 The Patriarchate of Aquileia moves its see from Cormons to the safer Zividal (*OTL Cividale, Friuli). The Arabs invade Alania (NW Caucasus), defended by her king Itaz. Tiberius III’s Western Byzantine army clashes with the Spoletan Lombards at lake Matese (Campania), where Thrasamund is killed, then the emperor forces the Spoletans to cede northern Lazio to the Papacy

737 The Arabs advance through Avaristan/Daghestan up to the Volga mouths, overthrow Khazaria in the battle of Itil (the Khazar capital, near later Astrakhan) and force conversion to Islam upon the Khazars. The Onogurs of Taurida (*OTL Crimea) are thus freed from subservience to Khazaria

737-738 An attempted Visigothic invasion of Mauretania from Spain led by King Theodoric III ends in an epic disaster in the Ruel (*OTL Rif) mountains

737-743 The Mayor of Palace Charles Martel and his son Pepin the Short directly rule the Frankish kingdom after Theodoric IV’s death, afterwards Pepin and his brother Carloman choose Childeric III, a distant cousin of the dead Merovingian king, as puppet king

738 The Mayan king of Xukpi/Copàn 18 Rabbit is defeated and killed by his rival Cauac Sky of Quiriguà (Guatemala)

738-741 Wimpold usurps the Lombard Austrasian throne slaying the young legitimate heir Ansoald, then is overthrown and killed by Ansoald’s cousin Lupus

739 Sevar, the last khan of the Danubian Bulgarians from the Dulo clan, dies; he is succeeded by Kormisosh, of the Ukil clan

740 Leo III the Isaurian gains a most great victory over the Arabs at Akroinon, Anatolia. Zayd ibn Alì, grandson of Husayn and pretender to the title of Imam of the Shiites (at first against Muhammad al-Bakir, recognized by most Shiites as the legitimate Imam, then against Ja’far as-Sadiq), revolts at Kufa (Iraq) but is killed by Omayyad forces; his followers establish the Zaydi sect of Shi’a, which will prove paramount especially in Yemen and Oman. The Khazars rebel against Caliphal overlordship under Bulan Sabriel and rebuild their Khanate; the Arabs are chased beyond the Caucasus, having been ousted from Avaristan/Daghestan too. Having briefly experienced the forced imposition of Sunni Islam, and not wanting to depend in religious matters neither from Damascus nor from Constantinople, the Khazar court begins to seriously consider conversion to Judaism. Kutlug Bilgekul Khan founds the second Uygur khanate in Mongolia.

740-742 A Kharijite rising shakes Lybia and Egypt and is only hardly repressed by the Caliphate

741 The Qarluq tribal compact, together with the Uygurs, overthrows Eastern Gökturk ascendancy. In Constantinople Leo II dies, succeeded by his son Constantine V, an ardent supporter of Iconoclasm

742 Tiberius III dies in Syracuse; his son Leontius II has to deal with the abortive usurpation led by drungarios (admiral) Mastanarius in Ifrigia (*OTL Tunisia). The Spoletan Lombards overrun the Pentapolis (northern Marche), wresting it from the Exarchate of Adria

743 Caliph Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik dies after twenty years of strong rule: the Omayyad Caliphate plunges into civil war

744 The Uygurs destroy once and for all the Eastern Gökturk empire and impose their supremacy from the Asman Tau (*OTL Tien Shan) range to the Amur river, whilst the T’ang Chinese again vassalize the Turgesh/T’u-chueh khanate. In southern Mauretania/Mauria (*OTL Morocco), between the Atlas range and the ocean the Berghawata tribal confederation arises

744-756 Constantine V wages victoroius campaigns against the Caliphate up to northern Syria, Cyprus and Armenia. The Celtic kingdom of Strathclyde successfully resists the double pressure of the Picts (fresh vanquishers of the DalRiada Scots) from the north and the Northumbrian Anglo-Saxons from the south

745 A joint Franco-Bavarian-Austrasian Lombard expedition subdues the Slovenians of Koroška/Carantania and introduces Christianity among them. The Uygur extinguish the Western Gökturk empire too

746 The Tibetans again invade Eastern Turkestan and destroy the town of Lijien/Alexandria, where in 40 BC a small Roman military colony had been established (the legionaries, in Crassus’ army, were captured by the Parthians at Carrhae and sent in Central Asia, where they deserted to the local Xiongnu/Huns and eventually were taken by the Han Chinese)

747 The decisive Abbasid revolution against the Omayyads starts in Khorasan when Ibrahim ibn Muhammad, from a collateral branch of the Hashemite clan, rises in revolt; upon his death in battle his brother Abu Al-Abbas as-Saffah (the Bloody) takes the leadership among the rebels, who gain wide support in Persia and Iraq. The T’ang general Gao Xianzhi invades Tibet. The Uygurs defeat the Tartars along the Selenga river (Mongolia). Carloman retires to monastic life, leaving his brother Pepin the Short as the only Mayor of Palace and de facto ruler of all Franks

750 The Abbasids decisively defeat the Omayyad Caliph Marwan II at the Great Zab river in northern Iraq, forcing him to flee to Egypt, then they conquers Damascus and exterminate most of the Omayyad clan; the Abbasid (or Second) Caliphate is thus established. Abu al-Abbas al-Saffah takes the Caliphal title for himself, despite hopes by the Shiites, strong Abbasid supporters during the revolution, for an appointment of their Imam (spiritual leader) Ja’afar Sadiq. Though being Arab, the new Caliph crushes former absolute Arab predominance in favor of Persians and other non-Arab Muslims and moves the capital from Damascus to Kufa in southern Iraq. A Chinese invasion of Nanzhao/Yunnan ends in defeat. Gao Xianzhi leads a T’ang Chinese army through Pamir up to the upper Hindukush, threatening the newborn Abbasid Caliphate’s positions in both Central Asia and Afghanistan

ca. 750 During their enterprising voyages in search of uninhabited lands for hermitage, Irish monks reach Hesperia (*OTL America) and notice Iceland: the fact, largely ignored at the time and only proved by archaelogical evidence centuries later, will be hazily recorded in the Navigatio Sancti Brendani. The Maoris (Polynesians) colonize New Zealand/Aotearoa. Nagabhata I defeats the Muslim invaders in NW India, thus imposing the Gurjara dynasty of the Pratiharas of Ujjain as the ruling power in that region. Foundation of the Buddhist Pala kingdom in Bengal. The Serbian principality of Raška (later Kosovo) is founded by the great zupan (grand prince) Viseslav Vlastimirović. The Zapotec civilization of Monte Albàn (Oaxaca, Mexico) reaches its apogee.