Timeline 600-650 (Interference)

601 The Byzantine army defeats the Avars at Viminacium (Pannonia) and raids deep into the Tisza river plain

602 The Byzantine army, after receveing orders to camp and winter there, living off the land, revolts under a junior officer, Phocas, marches on Constantinople (herself revolting under the tax burden) where emperor Maurice is slain together with his entire family, save for Belisarius II who goes on ruling from Rome; this marks the end of any Byzantine authority over the Sklavinian (*OTL Balcanic) hinterland. Fragmentation of the Western Gökturk empire, who splits in two parts, wheereas the Khazars gain a wide autonomy. The Persians wrest Tylos/Bahrain and ancient Characene (Kuwait and southernmost Iraq) from the kingdom of Hirah

602-604 Lombards, Slovenians ed Avars follow one another in plundering war-torn Byzantine Histria, where Phocaists and Belisarists vie for power

602-605 The Sui Chinese general Liu Fang reconquers Nam Viet (Vietnam), defeats again and again the Chams and sacks their capital, Indrapura

603 Khusraw II’s Persians after the assassination of Maurice (who was instrumental in enthroning Khusraw) renew war on Byzantium. The Eastern Gökturks distruggono destroy the first Uygur (Tele/Dulo) Khanate in Mongolia. Antipersian rebellion in Central Asia and Afghanistan (areas still colletively known as Tocharistan)

604 Sui Yangdi murders his father Yang Jian and succeeds him on the imperial Chinese throne, moving the capital to Luoyang

605 The Persians oust the Bizantines from (northern) Mesopotamia. The Chinese complete the Great Canal, linking the Huang He and the Yang-tse-Kiang rivers. The Khitans rebel against the Eastern Gökturks

606-647 The Buddhist king Harshavardhana of Kanauj, a scion of the Guptas, reunifies most of northen India, but dies heirless and his work is quickly undone

607 The Persians conquer Cappadocia and its chief city, Caesarea, briefly raiding up to the Bosphorus. (Eastern) Byzantine Phocaist agents murder Belisarius II and his son and heir Maurice in Perugia; Pope Bonifacius III happily acknowledges Phoca’s authority in the West in exchange for a nominal recognition of Papal primacy ovver Constantinople in the Catholic church. Carthage and Byzantine Africa, instead, react to Belisarius II’s assassination by raising the flag of rebellion under the exarch Heraclius Crispus and his son Heraclius the Younger. The Aquileia Patriarchate splits in two over Belisarius II’s violent death: John Abbas, loyal to the memory of the murdered Western emperor, defects to the Lombards reopening the Patriarchal see at Aquileia under the protection of the Lombard (and Arian!) Duke of Friul Gisulf II, while Candianus takes an oath of loyalty to Phocas and keeps his see in Grado (in time, from Grad’s Patriarchate will form the Patriarchate of Venice). King Agilulf of the Lombards takes Bononia/Bologna but fails in his siege of the Byzantine/Venetic strongholds of Padua and Monselice. Pulakesin II of the Vatapi/Badami Chalukyas conquers and annexes the Kadamba kingdom

607-608 The Sui Chinese invasion of Sichuan (Western China) ends in a dismal failure

608 A formal peace treaty is brokered between Byzantium and the Lombards, whose possession of northern Italy (except Maritime Venetia and “Romania” around Ravenna), Tuscany and the Duchy of Spoleto (comprising most of the future Marche and Abruzzo) is recognized

609 The Persians conquer Osrhoene with its capital, Edessa. Heraclius’ revolt extends to Egypt and Palestine, where civil war rages; Phocas sends his troops south, thus weakening the Persian front, but to no avail

610 The Arab cameleer Muhammad, from the paramount Quraysh tribe of Mecca, receives the divine revelation of Islam and becomes the Prophet. The Carthaginian rebel Heraclius the Younger, son of the exarch of Africa Heraclius Crispus, sail to Constantinople with his fleet, is hailed as a savior and liquidates the tyrant Phocas, ascending the Byzantine throne. Gisulf II, Duke of Friul, is trounced and killed at Castra Fluvii Frigidi/Aidussina by Khan Bayan’s Avars, who take and devastate Cividale together with the Slovenians of Carantania; the latter also leak into eastern Tyrol and defeat Lombards and Bavarians at Aguntum/Lienz

610-620 Incessant (and unopposed) Avaro-Slavic raids throughout the Sklaviniai (*OTL Balkans), Greece and Thrace. Quick abandonment of the Latin language in Byzantine army and bureaucracy in favor of Greek.

611 The Persians invade Syria, conquer Antioch and Theodosiopolis (*OTL Erzerum) and subjugate Armenia and Iberia/Georgia. Persian defeat against an Arab tribal army at Dhu Qar (southern Iraq). The Mayan kingdom of B’aakal/Palenque suffers another defeat at the hands of its rival Calakmul.

612-614 The Koreans of Koguryo thrice repulse imperial Chinese armies

612-618 Thessalonica successfully resists repeated Avaro-Slavic sieges

613 The Lombards resume war against Byzantium and invade southern Italy, carefully avoiding well-defended Rome. The Persians complete their conquest of Syria and take Damascus. The Anglo-Saxons destroy the Celtic kingdom of South Rheged (in the area of Liverpool) reaching the Irish Sea, but the Welsh beat them at Chester. Chlotarius II, king of Neustria, reunifies the Frankish kingdom by liquidating his relative Sigebert II, pretender to the thrones of Austrasia and Borgogna

614 Khusraw II’s Persians invade Palestine, take Jerusalem and deport its inhabitants to Mesopotamia, stealing the Christian relic of the True Cross. King Clement of Dumnonia defeats the Saxons at Beandun (Bindon, Devon). The Lombards take Benevento (Campania), where they found another powerful Duchy, and destroy the Abbey of Montecassino. The Irish monk St. Columban founds the monastery of Bobbio in the Trebbia valley (northern Apennines). Avars and Slavs destroy Salona, whose surviving inhabitants build Split/Spalato; inner Dalmatia is Slavicized, almost all of the region falls under Avar sway

615 Renewed Persian invasion of Asia Minor up to the Bosphorus

615-620 The Persians manage to conquer several Aegean islands

615-683 The very long rule of king K’inich Janaab’ Pakal I leads the Mayan city-state of Maya di B’aakal/Palenque to its apogee

617 The Angles of Deira terminate the Celtic kingdom of Elmet. John Abbas, the pro-Lombard Patriarch of Aquileia, moves the Patriarchal See from Aquileia to Cormons (Friul). The Byzantines repel an Avaro-Slavic attack on Costantinople; emperor Heraclius narrowly escapes a treacherous attempted assassination during peace talks

618 After killing despotic and cruel Sui Yangdi, general Li Yuan founds the glorious T’ang dynasty of China ascending the throne as T’ai-tzu and resetting the imperial capital in Chang’an/Xian. Kubrat becomes Khan of the Onoguro-Bulgars

618-624 Li Shi-Min, T’ai-tzu’s third son, crushes the rebels in northern China

619 The Persians conquer Egypt, de facto restoring Darius’ and Xerxes’ ancient Achaemenid Persian Empire. Heraclius, while seriously considering the idea of abandoning the beleaguered Constantinople, threatened by both Avars and Persians, on pressure from Patriarch Sergius decides fro staying in the City of Constantine, provided that the local Church partakes in financing his military campaigns. The Eastern Gökturks revolt against Chinese overlordship and conquer the Tarim basin in eastern Turkestan, but lose control over the Orkhon Uygurs of Mongolia

620 Pulakesin II of the Vatapi/Badami Chalukyas defeats in battle Harrshavardhana of Kanauj, thus stopping cold his ambitions in the Deccan area. The Persians conquers Rhodes. The Lombards oust the Byzantines from northern Puglia defeating them at Fovea/Foggia

ca. 620 The Prophet Muhammad preaches Islam in Mecca and gains a wide number of followers. The Angles conquer the Celtic kingdom of Cynwidion (Midlands), replacing it with a new Germanic state, Mercia. The Anglic kingdom of Bernicia vassalizes its neighbor of the same nation, Lindsey (Lincolnshire). Axum, the capital of Ethiopia, once a simple bishopric, becomes the see of a Metropolite of the Coptic Church

620-633 Brief Anglo-Saxon domination over the Isle of Man.

621 The Lombards take the nothern half of Bruttium/Calabria with Cosenza and Crotone.

622 The Hegira (Hijrah): the Prophet Muhammad flees from Mecca to Medina, where he soon manages to enforce his theocratic leadership. The Byzantine emperor Heraclius expels the Persian from Asia Minor

623 Heraclius’ brilliant campaign in Armenia, Kurdistan and Caucasian Albania/Azerbaigian, who are freed from Persian overlordship; Gandža, important religious center of Zoroastrism, is taken; the Mihranid ruler of Girdyaman, Varaz, accepts Christianity and reigns as Gregory over the whole of Caucasian Albania/Azerbaigian. The Frankish trader Samo creates the first Slavic kingdom in Moravia after successful revolts against the Avars, further supported by Onoguro-Bulgar raids. The southern Slavs raid Crete

624 The Lombards of Benevento wrest all of Lucania/Basilicata and the Cilento (southern Campania) from the Byzantines, who hold their positions in Salerno, Naples, Calabria and the southern two thirds of Puglia (plus the Rome-Ravenna “highway” in central Italy). Muhammad defeats the Meccan forces at Badr. Li Shi-Min of the T’ang dynasty of China eliminates his two elder brothers. The eastern Chalukya kingdom is established when Pulakesin II of Vatapi/Badami takes the city of Vengi (coastal Andhra Pradesh region) and enthrones there his brother Kubja Vishnuvardhana. King Swinthila’s Spanish Visigoths conquer Tingis/Tangier on the North African coast

624-627 Muhammad exiles, exterminates or sells as slaves the hostile Jewish tribes living around Medina

625 Inconclusive battle of Uhud between Muhammad Islamic army and the Meccan heathens. The Persians stage a counterinvasion of Anatolia. The Lombard king, the Catholic Adaloald, son of Agilulfo and Theodolinda, is deposed and replaced by th Duke of Turin Arioald (an Arian) for trying an appeasement with Rome and Byzantium; the Lombard capital is finally set in Pavia. The Byzantines successfully defend their Venetic stronghold at Heraclea by killing there Duke Caco of Friul and his brother Tasso

626 Avar, Slavs and Persians jointly siege Constantinople, but in the end are decisively routed. Turkic-Khazar invasion of Persian Caucasus. Kubrat’s Onoguro-Bulgars again fall under Avar influence and free themselves from Western Gökturk hegemony. Decisive battle of Caer Gloui/Gloucester in England: the Brythons are defeated by the Saxons, who advance to the Irish Sea cutting Wales from Cornwall and ceating in the newly-conquered area the kingdom of Wiccia/Hwicce. Li Shi-Min of the T’angs of China forces his father’s abdication and ascends the throne of the Heaven’s Son as T’ai-tsung

627 Heraclius invades Mesopotamia and finally overcomes the Persians led by general Rhahzadh at Nineveh, while the Khazars take Tbilisi eradicating the Persian presence from Iberia/Georgia. Muhammad breakes the Meccan siege of Medina in the Battle of the Trench (al-Khandaq). Samo’s Slavs heavily defeat the Avars. The Karkota dynasty ascends the throne of Kashmir with Prajhaditya. The kingdom of Chenla (Laos) annexes the quickly decayed Funan empire; the Khmers, now the paramount power in the region, migrate south to Cambodia

627-629 Altzek’s Hunno-Bulgars, bursting out from Taurida (*OTL Crimea) at Byzantine invitation, try to shake the Avar power in Pannonia, but are defeated and take refuge in Bavaria; in the their footsteps the the Croats and the Serbs, in alliance with Byzantium, migrate from the Carpathian and settle between southern Pannonia, Illyria and Dalmatia, wresting those lands from Avar hands, while the Byzantines manage to reassert their authority over the surviving coastal towns of Dalmatia

628 The Treaty of Hudaybiyya establishes a ten-year truce between Muhammad and the Meccans

628-632 After the assassination of Khusraw II civil war erupts in the Sassanian Persian Empire, now reduced to servitude towards an exhausted Byzantium; conflict and anarchy persist till Yazdagird III ascends the throne

629 The Persians abandon Yemen, where Muslim forces quickly prevail

629-632 New short-lived partition of the Frankish kingdom upon Chlotarius II’s death: Charibert II has Neustria, Dagobert I Austrasia and the rest

629-649 Tibet rises to great power in eastern central Asia under king Songtsen Gampo

630 Muhammad reenters Mecca hailed in triumph by the populace; Meccan and Islamic forces, now united, defeat the heathen bedouins of Ta’if in the battle of Hunayn. The Chinese T’ang emperor T’ai-tsung/Li Shi-min destroys the Eastern Gökturks’ empire in Mongolia, forcing them to recognize him as their Khagan instead of the defeated Kat Il-Khan Tugbir; Chebi Khan keeps on resisting in the Altai range, but the Eastern Gökturk empire is de facto overthrown. Kubrat Khan frees the Onoguro-Bulgars from Avar vassalage and creates the Khanate of Greater Bulgaria straddling the areas surrounding the Azov Sea; the new Khanate gains recognition from the Western Gökturks too; indeed one of the two Western Gökturk Khans vying for power, Bagadur Kiliug Sibir/Shibir of the Tele/Dulu (Uygurs), is a maternal uncle of Kubrat. The Lombards raze Capua, thus cutting land contact between Byzantine-held Rome and Naples

630-651 The Sabirs of Caucasia exert their supremacy over the Sarir kingdom in Daghestan, then are subjugated by the Khazars

ca. 630 Altzek’s Bulgars are slaughtered by the Bavarians on pressure from the Frankish king Dagobert; Altzek leads the survivors in Italy, where they settle in the Duchy of Benevento in the Sannio subregion (between Campania and Molise). The weakened Ethiopian Empire, abandons its old capital, Axum, being now centered in the mountain ranges south of the city

630-640 The T’ang Chinese conquer the Tarim basin (eastern Turkestan)

631 The Western Gökturk empire is reunified upon Sibir/Shibir Khan’s murder. The Avars quell the rebellion staged by the Kutrigurs, the western branch of the Hunno-Bulgars. The Persians liquidate the Arab kingdom of Hirah

631-646 The Seyantos, a Tele/Dulo tribe akin to the Uygurs, create an empire between Dzungaria and the Gobi desert in the wake of Eastern Gökturk collapse, but in the end are completely wiped out by an Uygur-Chinese alliance

632 Muhammad dies in Medina, hailed as the Prophet and founder of Islam. His followers, ardent with faith, already have unified Arabia and set off to the conquest and conversion of the known world. The Celts of North Rheged/Cumberland gain a resounding victory over the Anglo-Saxons of Bernicia, whose king Edwin dies in battle. Samo’s Slavs defeat king Dagobert’s Franks at the battle of Wogastisburg (Germany)

632-634 Abu Bakr, Muhammad’s father-in-law and successor (“Caliph” meaning precisely “successor”), crushes the rebellious tribes in the Ridda, or Apostasy Wars

632-639 Dagobert is the last strong Merovingian ruler, reigning over the entire Frankish kingdom

633 Irish monks introduce Christianity in Northumbria. Kubrat Khan is finally able to unify all Honoguro-Bulgars and manages to avoid falling under Western Gökturk patronage. The Muslim Arabs, led by Caliph Abu Bakr, assault the Sassanian Persian empire conquering the former kingdom of Hirah

634 Under their new Caliph Omar the Arabs, galvanized by Islam, undertake the attack on the Byzantine Empire, beating the Byzantines at Ajnadayn (Palestine) and conquering Bosra (Syria)

ca. 635 The Muslim Arabs wrench Bahrain from the Persians

636 The Arabs heavily defeat the Byzantines at the Yarmuk (Jordan) and the Persians at Qadisiyya, where the Persian general Rustam is killed, then subdue ancient Characene (Kuwait and southernmost Iraq). Upon the death of the Lombard king Arioald, Rotharis succeeds him by marrying his widow Gundiperga, the daughter of Agilulf and Theodolinda

637 Arab pirates sack Tana (near future Bombay). The Arabs conquer the Sassanian capital, Ctesiphon, and take Damascus overthrowing the local Monophysite Christian kingdom of Ghassan

638 Jerusalem falls to the Muslim Arabs with Palestine, Lebanon and Edessa. The Lombard king Rotharis (from the “barbarian” faction) destroys the Byzantine/Venetic strongholds of Padua and Monselice. In a new attempt to broker a lasting accord with the Monophysites (who are supporting en masse the invading Muslims) emperor Heraclius and Patriarch Sergius of Constantinople abandon Monoenergism (Christ has two natures, human and divine, but one “energy), rejected by Rome and the Ptriarchate of Jerusalem, and start the Monothelite controversy (Christ has only one will)

638-666 St. Maximus the Confessor (of Carthaginian origin) is the paramount defender of Catholicism anganinst Monothelism, finally enduring martyrdom and exile for his stance

639 New subdivision of the Frankish kingdom upon king Dagobert’s death; the dead sovereign leaves Austrasia to Sigebert III and Neustria to Chlovis II, both weak rulers who’ll foster the ascendance of the powerful Mayors of Palace as the real force beyond the Frankish thrones. Austrasia trades Burgundy to the formerly lesser Neustria; Aquitania follows a rather independent path with a local dynasty of dukes. The Arabs conquer Amida/Diyarbakir and Kurdistan

640 The Arabs, led by ‘Amr, conquer Egypt after defeating the Byzantines at Heliopolis; they also conquer Antioch and attack Armenia taking Dvin, where they set up a local governorship. Morgan Glas stops the Anglo-Saxon onslaught at the battle of Glastenning/Glastonbury/Avalon. The Lombard duke of Benevento Arechis conquers Salerno from the Byzantines. The T’ang Chinese take Turfan (eastern Turkestan) overthowing the Kara-Khodjo kingdom

ca. 640 Caliph Omar enforces the poll-tax (jizya) and land tax (kharadj) on non-Muslims, which will result in mass conversion to Islam in most conquered lands. In the mountains of inner central Lebanon a solid block of Christians, led by the Mardaite warrior elite, resists the Muslim conquest and founds the Marada States, de facto free from Muslim yoke for centuries onwards

641 The Arabs take Alexandria and the last Byzantine stronghold in Palestine, Jaffa; in Alexandria they commit the unspeakable crime of burning the books of the ancient hellenistic Library, likely the greatest in the world. Upon Heraclius’ death in Costantinople, Heracleonas, son of Heraclius and his niece and second wife (!) Martina, and Costantine III, Heracleonas half-brother, expected to reign over the West from Rome, are enthroned according to Heraclius’ last will; but when Constantine quickly dies, Patriarch Pyrrhus and the Senate, following popular hate against Martina, depose and mutilate her and Heracleonas (plus Martina’s other surviving sons). In their place the young Belisarius III (*OTL Constans II), son of Constantine III, is enthroned under the regency of the Senate. During this succession crisis, the Byzantine exarch of Africa Gregory the Patrician rebels, backed by the local fleet, and has himself hailed as Western Roman emperor; most Aegean Sea islands, controlled by his fleet, side with him

642 The Arabs beat the Persians at Jalula and finally trounce them at Nehavend, near Hamadan, securing their hold on western Persia. The Pallava king of southern Deccan Narasimhavarman defeats and kills the Chalukya ruler Pulakesin II and destroys his capital, Vatapi/Badami (Karnataka, SW India). The Slavic Narentan tribe, pushed ahead by the onrushing Serbs, with Byzantine help stages an all-out invasion of southern Italy through the Adriatic Sea: the Lombards of Benevento, caught by surprise and ridden with internal conflicts, are overwhelmed at Ausculum/Ascoli Satriano, Benevento is taken and razed by the Slavic horde, who soon proves to be completely out of Byzantine control and goes rampant throughout the south of Italy. Surviving Lombard forces withdraw north to the Spoleto Duchy. Khazars and Arabs begin to clash in the Caucasus region

643 The Arabs conquer Barce, Cyrenaica. The Slavic horde in southern Italy narrowly fails the siege of Naples, frantically held by the staggered Byzantines, then heads north in the Apennines

644 Caliph Omar is murdered; his appointed successor Uthman will arrange the final layout of the Quran, the holy text of Islam. The Narentan Slavic horde is stopped by an unholy Byzantine-Lombard alliance in the battle of the Marmore Waterfalls (Umbria); but neither the Lombards nor the Byzantines can chase the surviving Slavs from the inner south of Italy, where the tribal Slavic duchy of Idalska is established with its capital in Avlengrad/Avellino

644-646 The Korean kingdom of Koguryo stages a brilliant defence against two subsequent Chinese invasions

645 The Arabs conquer Tbilisi and install there an emirate: the Christian kingdom of Iberia/Georgia survives as a vassal state. The Arabs also take Tripoli (Lybia) and the island of Djirva (*OTL Djerba). The Nakatomis/Fujiwaras replace the Sogas as the paramount Japanese clan. The Vijaya (Buddhist) kingdom of Khotan (eastern Turkestan) frees itself from T’ang Chinese yoke under Futushin/Fudu Xiong/Vijaya Sangrama

645-647 The Byzantines retake Alexandria, but their desperate attempt to reeconquer Egyppt is frustrated at the battle of Naqyus by general ‘Amr, the Muslim conqueror of the county; then Alexandria itself falls again to the Arabs 646 The Uygurs, dwelling in the Orkhon region of Mongolia, after destroying the Seyanto power become vassal to the T’ang Chinese empire. The Arabs conquer the Byzantine fortress of Melitene (*OTL Malatya) on the upper Euphrates

647 The Arabs unleash their first raids into Anatolia; they also conquer Cyprus and the Fars/Persis (southern Persia). Harshavardhana of Kanauj is newly repulsed by the Chalukyas in the Malwa, then dies heirless and his empire splinters into local kingdoms. He was the last great Budddhist ruler of India: Buddhism itself begins to quickly disappear from northern India, save for the Bengal area. The Slavs of Idalska (southern Italy) take and raze Naples; the surviving Byzantine forces in the region are besieged in Salerno and the Amalfi peninsula. The loyalist Byzantine fleet clears the Aegean from Gregory’s supporters. Following the Byzantine-Lombard thaw after the Slavic aggression in Italy, the archbishop of Milan John Bonus reinstates the Ambrosian see in its due town after 73 years of exile.

648 T’ai-tsung/Li Shi-min, the T’ang ruler of China, defeats and vassalizes the Tibetans. The young basileus (Byzantine emperor) Belisarius III renounces Monothelism as a gesture of good will towards the Papacy. The Arabs sack and destroy Salamis, the ancient capital of Cyprus

649 The Arabs attack Byzantine Africa (Ifrigia/Punia) but the self-proclaimed emperor Gregory abandons his capital at Sufetula/Sbeitla e locks himself in Carthage, whence he sharply repels the invaaders. The Lateran Council, held in a beleaguered Rome under the threat of Idalskan Slavic raids, condemns as heresies both Monothelism and Monoergism

649-653 Temporary Byzantine recapture of Cyprus

650 The Salasthambhas replace the extinct Varman dynasty on the throne of Kamrupa/Assam (NE India). The Qarluq/Kipchak, a collateral Uygur group, under the pressure of the T’ang Chinese and their Uygur vassal migrate to the upper Irtyš river region

ca. 650 The Theme State structure is finally established within the Byzantine empire: each theme is a civilian and military province, inhabited by peasant-soldiers and ruled by a strategos (generalissimo). The Slavic wave of colonization in the Sklaviniai (*OTL Balkans) stops, the area having beeen almost completely Slavicized; only the Vlachs, dispersed in semi-nomadic groups in the area, Greek and Dalmatian coastal strongholds and the solid block of Illyrians in Albania resist the barbarians. The Serbians eenforce theire rule between Macedonia and Bosnia under their “ban” (leader, prince) Svevlad. In southern Italy/Idalska, the local Slavs go rampant with piracy in both the Adriatic and Tyrrhenian Sea, sacking and pillaging from Greece to Sardinia and distant Africa. The White Croats’ kingdom arises straddling the Tatra Mountains, Silesia and Bohemia. The Khazars free themselves from Western Gökturk tutelage. The Zenete (Berber) tribe of the Jarawas, paramount in the Aurés region of Numidia, converts en masse to Judaism under its chieftain Tifanes. The city and empire of Teotihuacàn in Mexico are destroyed; local ascendancy now passes over to Cholula (near Puebla). The Srivijaya kingdom enforces its power as master of the Malacca and Sunda Straits; it also conquers the kingdom of Taruma on western Java. The Arabs start spreading Islam along the eastern coast of Africa. Budddhism spreads into the Chenla kingdom (Laos and Cambodia). The Arabs vassalize the Georgian kingdom of Khakheti. An independent Turkic-Sogdian kingdom arises in the Usrushana (the region north of Samarcanda, centered around Chach/Tashkent)