Timeline 650-700 (Interference)

651 The Arabs sign a non-aggression pact (“bakt”) with Christian Nubia (kingdom of Mukurra). The last Sassanian emperor of Persia, Yazdagird III, is murdered at Merv; the Arabs subjugate Khorasan conquering Nishapur and defeat on the upper Euphrates Khazars and Alans, called for help by the Byzantines. T’ang Chinese supremacy extends up to the Kirghiz and Khakassian lands on the upper Yenisey. Greater Bulgaria wrests control over Moldavia from the Avars, who are repelled beyond the Carpathian range. The African rebel Gregory passes in Sicily and conquers the island in a short campaign

652 Persia is finally tamed by the Arabs, who also leak into northern Afghanistan where they take the town of Balkh. Despite the Muslim conquest and the spreading of Islam, Zoroastrism will survive stubbornly, though as a minority, throughout the lands between the Caucasus and Central Asia. Khorezm frees itself from Western Gökturk vassalage and strongly opposes Arab encroachments. The Arabs invade Eritrea and spread Islam there. The self-proclaimed Western Roman emperor, Gregory, sets his capital in Syracuse and has the ancient Sicilian town fortified. The new Lombard king Aribert I, Theodolinda’s grandson, formally enforces Catholicism over Arianism. The Slavs of Idalska, now unified under their ban/duke Zveroboj, vainly besiege Rome, then ravage the Lombard duchy of Spoleto before withdrawing south again

653 Arab takeover of Byzantine (western) Armenia, ridden with internal squabbling, of Rhodes and the Dodecanese. Belisarius III, angered by the Western church’s independence and condemnation of Monothelism (he never really renounced it) sends an army to Ravenna; the Byzantines then march on Rome, but the Western emperor Gregory, with a naval expedition, anticipates them entering Rome and carries Pope Martin I and most prelates to safety in Syracuse. The Pope was in danger of being kidnapped by Belisarius III’s men, who thereafter occupy the Urbs Aeterna, where they severely mistreat the remaining Catholic clergy

654 The Anglic kingdom of Bernicia and Deira is renamed Northumbria

654-658 King Oswiu of Northumbria briefly rules Mercia; being Wessex at the same time under Mercian suzerainty, during these four years Oswiu is the de facto ruler of England

655 Basileus Belisarius III is defeated at Phoenix (off the Lycian coast, SW Anatolia) by the Arab fleet

ca. 655 The Christian heresy of Paulicianism (from the name of St. Paul) appears in Anatolia, preached by the Armenian Constantine of Manamali (near Samosata, on the upper Euphrates). Dualist and Manichaean in nature, with a drive for restoration of primitive Christianity, it will gain a wide following between Syria and Armenia; later its Bogomil and Cathar variants will be widely accepted in the Sklaviniai (*OTL Balkans), in France and northern Italy and in Christian North Africa. The Arabs begin constant raids into Byzantine Africa

655-672 The Mayan city-state of Mutul/Tikal is vassal to its rival Calakmul

656 The Anglo-Saxons complete their conquest of the Midlands, then Maurice II’s Welshmen repel them on the Severn river. Caliph Uthman is murdered in Medina at the hands of rebel Egyptian Muslims; he is succeeded by Alì, cousin of the Prophet Muhammad and husband to his daughter Fatima, but soon civil war erupts. Alì overcomes his enemies, led by Aysha, Muhammad’s last wife, at the Battle of the Camel near Basra

657 The Muslim governor of Syria, Mu’awya, of the Arab Umayyad clan, rebels against Alì; a tense struggle for power, not without attempts to broker accords, ensues. Some of Alì’s followers abandon him in favor of di Mu’awya and create the Kharijite sect of Islam (egualitarian and e rigorist, which will gain wide acceptance in Egypt, Lybia and parts of Arabia and Syria). The T’ang Chinese, taking advantage of internecine strife, destroy the Western Gökturk empire; they will occupy for some years Sogdiana (Central Asia), turning it thereafter into an increasingly weak protectorate, while the Western Gökturks will reorganize. A branch of the Eastern Gökturks, the Turgesh/T’u-Ch’ueh, splinters in two groups composed by five tribes each. They migrate from the Orkhon valley in Mongolia respectively to the Volga (the Yellow Turgesh, who merge with the Khazars) and to the Talas river in Central Asia (the Black Turgesh, later known as Oghuz/Ouzoi). The exarch of Ravenna, Olympius, has himself hailed emperor by the Byzantine troops in Rome; he subsequently appoints a Pope of his own, John (V) Venantius, while in Syracuse Vitalian succeeds Pope Martin I. Zveroboj’s Slavic heathen horde again heads north, then trounces and kills Olympius at Praeneste/Palestrina; thereafter the Slavs horribly sack and put to the torch Rome, slaying its inhabitants and carrying away John (V) as a slave

657-658 Byzantine temporary recapture of Melitene (*OTL Malatya) and (western) Armenia; the Arabs quickly regain both. The news from Rome shock the Byzantines and Carthaginians alike

658 Caliph Alì defeats the Kharijites at Nahrawan. Greater Bulgaria divides into two main hordes, the Black Bulgarians west of the Don river, the White Bulgarians east of it. The kingdom of Sarir (Daghestan), a vassal to the Khazars, converts to Zoroastrism. The Byzantines also retake Rhides from Arab hands. Samo’s death is followed by the quick disintegration of his Slavic empire; the Slovenians reestablish their own principality of Koroška/Carantania. The T’ang Chinese vassalize the kingdom of Kucha (eastern Turkestan). Mercia shakes off Bernician/Northumbrian suzerainty, asserting its independence under king Wulfhere, and gains the obedience of Lindsey (Lincolnshire), thus becoming the new power of central England. The Lombards occupy abandoned Rome, reduced to an impressive field of ruins

658-659 Belisarius III kills his brother and co-emperor Theodosius to eliminate a possible rival for the crown for his sons; then, hated by the populace because of this crime, abandons Constantinople to lead a vast campaign against the Slavs in Thrace and Macedonia, vanquishing and deporting thousands of them to Anatolia, and sets his new headquarters in Thessalonica. St. Maximus the Confessor is jailed, tortured, mutilated and exiled to Schemarion (Lazica) for his opposition to Monothelism. Two renewed T’ang Chinese offensives against Koguryo fail

660 After striking an alliance with the southern Korean kingdom of Silla, the T’ang Chinese destroy its neighbour state, Paekche, with a naval expedition. Basileus Belisarius III sails from Thessalonica with a fleet and army and regains control over coastal Dalmatia, where he recruits thousands of Serbs and Croats; with these he crosses the Adriatic Sea and winters in Siponto (northern Puglia). The Khagan of Greater Bulgaria, Kubrat, dies; he is succeeded by his elder son Bat-Boyan, while his second son Kotrag gains independence east of the Don river with his horde. The Arabs take Herat (Afghanistan)

ca. 660 Lazica (NW Georgia) becomes formally independent from Byzantium under king Barnuk I: it nevertheless remains a staunch ally of the Byzantines against the Arabs.

661 A Kharijite assassinates Caliph Alì: Mu’awya, now the new Caliph, transfers the capital from medina to Damascus and founds the Omayyad dynasty. Alì’s remaining followers, instead, create the Islamic Shi’a sect, who supports Muhammad’s direct descendants, opposed to the majoritary “Sunnis” (followers of the Sunnah and the Hadith of the Prophet, the tradition). The Lombard king Aribert I dies at Pavia: a civil war ensues between his sons Gothefrid (supported by the “barbarian” faction) and Bertharid (a “Romanophile”), with the latter fleeing for safety to the Avar Khaganate

661-662 In a fierce series of campaigns Belisarius III mauls and enslaves the heathen Slavs of Idalska in the south of Italy; their ban/duke Zveroboj is impaled after losing the battle of Drevnja Gora/Mt. Terminio (Campania)

662 Grimoald, son of the former Duke of Friul Gisulf II, an Arian from the “barbarian” faction of the Lombards, usurps the throne at Pavia by eliminating his brother-in-law king Gothefrid. The Arabs stage their first pirate raids on Sicily

662-663 The Japanese are newly ousted from Korea after vainly trying to help Paekche against Silla and China

663 Basileus Belisarius III marches on Rome; Grimoald’s Lombards entrench in the ruined city, stubbornly resisting the Byzantine siege and calling for help the new Western Byzantine emperor Maurus Heraclian, Gregory’s eldest son. When Maurus lands in Naples and marches north, Belisarius III raises the siege of Rome. The two Byzantine armies clash at Arpino (Lazio): when Belisarius III seemes to be on the winning side, he falls, pierced by a javelin, and his army surenders. Duke Lupus of Friul sacks Grado and carries the Patriarchal treasury in Aquileia. When king Guaram II dies the kingdom of Iberia/Georgia, vassal to the Arab Caliphate, sinks into a very long era of dynastical struggles

663-664 Duke Lupus of Friul tries to usurp the Lombard throne in Pavia taking advantage of Grimoald being stuck in subduing the rebellious Duchy of Spoleto; the Avars and Slovenians then stage a devastating invasion of Friul to support the fugitive Bertharid in a three-sided civil war. Maurus Heraclian, now the sole ruler of Byzantine West, deports by the thousands the vanquished Slavs of Idalska to Sicily and the exarchate of Carthage as a barrier against the Arabs; Ravenna and the Venetic Duchy confirm instead their loyalty to the new basileus in Constantinople, young Constantine IV

663-668 Greater Bulgaria, already threatened by the Khazars, implodes in a succession war between Kubrat’s sons

664 St. Cadwallader the Blessed of Gwynedd (Wales) dies, the last Celtic king to claim the title of High King of Britain. Chaos in Lombard Italy, with Bertharid controlling Friul and inner Veneto supported by Avars, Slavs and Eastern Byzantines, Grimoald holding central Italy supported by the Western Byzantines and Lupus keeping most of the north with support from the Franks and the Bavarians

665 The Neustrian Franks enter Italy in support of Lupus - who swore loyalty to the Catholic cause to gain their support, then clash with Bertharid’s Avaro-Slavs at the Mincio river: Bertharid is captured and blinded, his allies routed back to Friul. In the meantime Grimoald takes and razes the Eastern Byzantine fortress of Forlimpopoli (Romagna) and occupies Emilia. The Avars newly enforce their rule over the Moravian Slavs, whose power has decayed after Samo’s demise. Tabaristan, a mountainous region south of the Caspian Sea whose inhabitants didn’t convert to Islam, frees itself from Arab yoke under Bau ibn Qabus, founder of the local Bavandid dynasty, and becomes a troublesome Zoroastrian enclave shielded by its mountains

ca. 665 The Khazars become the paramount rulers between the Caspian and the Black Sea and absorb the remains of Greater Bulgaria; they establish a powerful empire whose influence extends from the middle Volga to the Caucasus range. The southern Onoguro-Bulgarians of the Terek river region, pushed west by Khazar power, settle in future Circassia (NW Caucasus) and in Taurida (*OTL Crimea)

666 Grimoald’s army, led by his sons Garibald and Romuald, marches on Luni and Genoa, then suddenly appears in the Frankish rear in Piedmont: Lupus and his son Arnefridus then fall in battle at Pontestura (Montferrat), where the Franks are annihilated; then Grimoald himself ousts the Avars and Slovenians from Friul overcoming them at Opitergium/Oderzo.

667 The Arabs kill the last Sassanian pretender to the throne of Persia, Firuz, and invade Transoxania (Central Asia) beyond the Oxus/Amu Darja river. The Khazars, with Western Gökturk support, defeat on the Volga the Onoguro-Bulgarians ridden by succession struggles. The Arabs conquer the kingdom of Phazania (Fezzan, Lybia)

668 The kingdom of Silla, with T’ang Chinese support, crushes its northern rival Koguryo and unifies Korea under king Munmu. King Oswiu of Northumbria repels an invasion led by the southern Picts, pushed ahead by the DalRiada Scots. The Onoguro-Bulgarians defat the Khazars at the Khalka river, near the Don river’s mouth, nevertheless they must acknowledge Khazar suzerainty

669 Basileus Constantine IV sails to Sicily with the Eastern Byzantine fleet and puts Syracuse under siege; Pope Vitalianus, with a safe-conduct, is allowed to leave the besieged town for Carthage. The Arabs invade inner Ifrigia (Byzantine Africa, *OTL Tunisia) and massacre the local Christians; in the ensuing chaos many deported Idalskan Slavs desert and convert to Islam, other stay loyal. The Lombard king Grimoald destroys the last Eastern Byzantine strongholds on mainland Veneto, Concordia Sagittaria and Eraclea, whose inhabitants take refuge into the lagoons. The Black Bulgarians west of the Dnieper river secede from the remains of Greater Bulgaria under Asparukh, the third son of Kubrat; the tribes dwelling between Don and Dnieper recognize instead Bat-Boyan as their Khan

670 The Arabs found al-Kayrawan as their outpost in Ifrigia (*OTL Tunisia) and subdue Afghanistan (though leaving in place the existing pre-Islamic rulers). The Tibetans vassalize the entire region of eastern Turkestan. Constantine IV takes Syracuse by famine after a one year long siege: the Western Emperor Maurus Heraclian is tortured and slain. Then Constantine heads to Carthage, where Constantianus, Maurus’ son and heir, flees to the Arabs for safety: the Byzantine empire is thus reunified

ca. 670 Bat-Boyan’s Onoguro-Bulgarians are finally subdued by the Khazars.

671 Constantine IV overcomes the Arabs at al-Kayrawan, razing the new city. Upon Grimoald’s death his sons Garibald and Romuald divide the Lombard kingdom among themselves, establishing the kingdoms and dynasties of Lombard Neustria (centered at Pavia) and Austrasia centered at Zividal tal Friul [*OTL Cividale del Friuli]); the former rules northern Italy up to the Adda river, Tuscany and Rome; the latter Veneto, Friul, Trentino, Tyrol, and has a theoretical suzerainty over the Lombard Duchy of Spoleto

672 The Arab fleet retakes Rhodes (where the remains of the Colossus are sold to a cameleer...) and leaks into the sea of Marmara, where they take the strategic Cyzicum peninsula, whence they blockade Costantinoples itself. When news arrive in Carthage, Constantine IV hurries back to Thessalonica, where he eliminates the rebellious Slav chieftain Perbundus (whose warriors vainly siege the city in revenge); thereafter he reaches his capital by land. A new schism arises when Pope Vitalianus dies in Carthage: some of the exiled Roman prelates, fearing both Byzantine power and renewed Muslim aggression, come back in Rome where Adeodatus II is elected Pope with Lombard agreement (while the city itself is left de facto under Papal authority by king Garibald, eager to avoid any problem with the Catholic church), while in Carthage another faction, supported by Constantine IV, elects Donus

672-678 Constantinople successfully resist the Arab naval blockade; the Byzantine fleet exploits a most ingenious weapon, the “Greek Fire”, a forerunner to the flamethrower

672-680 In Visigothic Spain King Wamba persecutes the Jews, accusing them to be in favor of a Berber invasion of Spain

673 After various postponements because of the papal vacancy from Rome, the Synod of Whitby (Northumbria) seals the complete Christianization of the British islands; the Irish church, grown in authority and independence, pays obedience to the Roman Popes

673-676 Childeric II and Chlovis III briefly reunify the Frankish domains under the Austrasian line, then Neustria reasserts independence under Dagobert II

674 The Chalukyas of SW India sack the Pallava capital, Kanchi (near Madras). The Arabs conquer Crete

675 The western Bulgarian horde led by Asparukh arrives on the lower Danube. The Arab general Abu’l Muhajir reinvades Byzantine Ifrigia (*OTL Tunisia), where only Cartage and a handful of coastal fortresses resist the Muslim onslaught; he installs in Sufetula/Sbeitla Constantianus as Amir al-Kafirun (Prince of Infidels), a useful pawn against the Byzantines

675-678 Bernicia/Northumbria momentarily wrest suzarainty over the Anglic kingdom of Lindsey/Lincolnshire from Mercia.