Timeline 650-700 (Interference)

== 651-660 ==
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, Libya 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 re-establish 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.
== 661-670 ==
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, Libya)
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.
== 671-680 ==
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.
676 With the Peace of Spoleto Byzantium and the Neustrian Lombard king Garibald broker a lasting accord on both religious and military matters, taking advantage of the death of the Roman Pope Adeodatus II. The Carthaginian candidate Donus is installed in Rome as the new sole Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, which also reconciles with the Archbishopric of Ravenna, always loyal to Constantinople in previous disputes (notably the Three Chapters, but also Monothelism); Rome is acknowledged as the Pope’s estate, with a joint Byzantine-Lombard garrison “to protect the Holy See”. Ravenna, Romagna and the Pentapolis (northern Marche) are recognized as Byzantine possessions, while Perugia and the Rome-Ravenna corridor pass under the Lombard Duchy of Spoleto, whose independence (and Catholicism) is agreed upon by all parts. Lombard Neustria finally accepts Catholicism, while tolerating Arianism (still paramount in Lombard Austrasia). While Byzantium itself is rejecting Monothelism as a useless tool, the Christians of Lebanon accept the Monothelite doctrine and found the Maronite Church (from the name of St. Maron, a monk living two centuries before), whose Patriarch will be recognized by the Marada State of inner Lebanon as their supreme authority
677 The Byzantines gain a decisive victory over the Arab fleet at Syllaeum (Sea of Marmara). Abu’l Muhajir invades Numidia, takes Costantina and Stifa (*OTL Sétif) and defeats prince Kusayla of Tlemsen (*OTL Tlemcen), who converts to Islam to have his life spared
678 The Ultzindur Onoguro-Bulgarians of Taurida (*OTL Crimea), led by Kuber, the fourth son of Kubrat, migrate to Pannonia accepting vassalage to the Avars; Emnetzur, Kuber’s leads his own group in a peaceful migration to Italy, where they settle in Byzantine Romagna and Pentapolis, intermingling with local Italians. The Arabs, utterly defeated, raise the blockade of Constantinople
679 Dagobert II of (Frankish) Austrasia is killed and the Frankish kingdom is newly unified by Neustria under Theodoric III
679-680 Asparukh’s Bulgarians defeat Constantine IV’s Byzantines, cross the Danube and set their new capital at Pliska (Bulgaria); Byzantium accepts defeat and recognizes the new power, that starts recruiting the Slavic tribes already dwelling in the region
679-681 The Eastern Gökturks free themselves from T’ang Chinese yoke and rebuld their empire
679-682 Mutul/Tikal is temporarily subjugated by Dos Pilas during the incessant warfare between the Mayan city-states
680 Austrasian Lombards and Bavarians decisively stem the Carantanians/Slovenians in the battle of the Drava springs (Tyrol). The Arabs subdue the Christian kingdom of Caucasian Albania/Azerbaigian, where a century-long process of conversion to Islam begins. The Omayyad Caliphate accepts a peace with Byzantium, which regains Crete, Rhodes, Cyprus and most of Anatolia and even a gold tribute from the Arabs. Upon Mu’awya’s death a brief but violent civil war erupts in the Caliphate between the Shi'ites, led by Husayn, a grandson of Prophet Muhammad, and the Sunni Omayyads; Husayn in the end is murdered at Kerbala (Iraq), while Hijaz with the holy cities of Mecca and Medina secede from Caliphal authority under Abu Khubayb Abdallah ibn al-Zubayr, nephew of Khadija, the Prophet’s first wife, and grandson of Abu Bakr, the first Caliph, who gains support in Iraq, Arabia and parts of Syria and Egypt. The Turkic-Uygur confederation of the Qarluqs, dwelling to the east of the Aral lake, overthrows Chinese suzerainty. When the Indochinese kingdom of Dvaravati falls under Srivijayan Sumatran suzerainty, the Mon Buddhist kingdom of Haripunjaya arises in the Chiang Mai region of northern Siam, as an offspring from Dvaravati
ca. 680 The Tutul Xiu tribes begin their migration into Yucatàn.
== 681-690 ==
680-681 The Quinisextum Council, held in Costantinople under the auspices of Constantine IV and recognized by all parts involved (save the eastern Jacobite/Nestorian, Monophysite and Coptic Churches) finally rejects Monothelism and reimposes Nicene Catholicism. When things are settled, Constantine IV has his younger brothers Heraclius and Tiberius mutilated of the nose to nsure they’ll not defy Constantine’s son, Belisarius, for the throne
682 The Arab general Uqba bin Nafe, after refounding al-Kayrawan, reaches the Atlantic Ocean in Mauretania with his Muslim Arabs, sacking and massacring on the way, but on his way back he is surprised by the Judeo-Christian Berber rebellion led by the prince of Tlemsen Kusayla, who renegades his forced conversion to Islam. Kusayla’s rebels push Uqba bin Nafe south in the desert, where the Zenetes kill him at Ghardaya. The Western Gökturks rebuild their empire under Kutlugh Ilteres Khagan and wrest from T’ang China suzerainty over the Uygurs of Mongolia and the Khirghizes/Khakassians
682-690 Byzantine repression of the Paulician movement in Anatolia: its leader Constantine of Manamali is stoned to death, but the very officer who had him martyred, Simeon, converts on the spot becoming the new Paulician leader, until he himself is burned at the stake
683 Caliph Yazid I marches on Mecca against Abdallah ibn al-Zubayr, but dies while besieging the holy city and his army withdraws. A new civil war skahes the Omayyad Caliphate: rival Arab tribes vie for power. Kusayla of Tlemsen invades Ifrigia, razes al-Kayrawan and Sufetula/Sbeitla and personally beheads the Arabs’ puppet, Constantianus
684 The Banu Kalb, supporters of the ruling Omayyad clan, defeat the rebellious Banu Qays at the battle of Marj Rahit. The second Lambakanna dynasty replaces the Moriya rulers in Sri Lanka/Ceylon
684-685 Caliph Marwan I briefly rules for one year, managing to wrest all of Syria and Egypt from Abdallah ibn al-Zubayr’s hands before dying
685 Northumbria vassalizes North Reged/Cumberland, then invades southern Scotland liquidating the Celtic kingdom of Goutodin, but in the end the Northumbrians suffer a disastrous rout at the hands of a Pictish-Brython alliance at Nechtansmere, where their king Ecgfrith is killed in battle; the Anglo-Saxons are thus ousted from the Lowlands. In the south of England the Saxons finally take Avalon/Glastonbury. The kingdom of Man vassalizes the Picts of Galloway. Belisarius IV (*OTL Justinian II), a paranoid sociopath, begins his infamous rule on the Byzantine throne by treacherously massacring thousands of Lebanese Mardaites who didn’t want to be deported to Anatolia and the Peloponnese (like instead Byzantine-Arab accords imposed)
685-687 At Kufa (Iraq) the Shi'ites stage a great revolt under al-Mukhtar and Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya, a natural son of Alì: the rebellion is crushed by Omayyad forces
686-688 The Byzantine general Leontius leads a successful campaign in Armenia and Iberia, up to Caucasian Albania; Belisarius IV leads a successful expedition against the Slavs in the Sklaviniai (*OTL Balkans) and resettles them in the thousands in Anatolia as buffers against further Arab encroachments. In the end a new truce between the Arabs and Byzantium “neutralizes” the island of Cyprus, Armenia and Iberia making them “shared” domains whose revenue goes equally to the Arabs and Byzantium
687 Pepin II of Heristal enforces his rule over local lords as Theodoric III’s mayor of palace. Danish raiders destroy the abbey of Whitby (Northumbria)
688 The Arabs defeat Kusayla of Tlemsen at the Battle of the Shotts and reconquer Ifrigia (save Carthage and other Byzantine coastal fortresses)
688-698 Kharijite revolts shake Caliphal power in Iraq and Persia
690 The Byzantines lose Soldaia/Sudak (Chersonese/Taurida [*OTL Crimea]) at the hands of the Khazars. The Chinese empress mother Wu Zetian takes power on her own setting apart the legitimate T’ang heirs in favor of her relatives (which bore the new dynastic name of Zhou); she will prove capable, but greedy and cruel. Basileus Belisarius IV resume the war with the Arabs over Armenia. Anglo-Saxon Northumbria fosters the creation of the client kingdom of Dunbar, successor to the overthrown Goutodin. The Anglo-Saxon preacher Willibrord begins his evangelization in Frisia and Germany.
== 691-700 ==
691-697 The renewed Byzantine occupation of Lazica (NW Georgia) ends with the Arab conquest.
692 The Arabs reach the Indus river; at Sebastea (*OTL Sivas), Armenia, they gain a brilliant victory over the Byzantines led by general Leontius, thanks to the desertion of the Byzantine Slavic troops, then Belisarius IV (after arresting Leontius for “his” failure) obtains a peace that abolishes Caliphal tribute to Byzantium and leaves to the Arabs the whole of Cyprus, Armenia and Iberia. Caliph Abd al-Malik defeats and kills Abdallah ibn al-Zubayr in the Hijaz, retaking Mecca and Medina; the revolts in Basra and southern Iraq in favor of Abdallah ibn al-Zubayr are crushed with great bloodhsed by the Omayyad Caliphate. The Frankish mayor of palace Pepin of Heristal defeats the king of the Frisians, Radbod I, and forces him to abandon the royal title to assume that of Duke.
693 Basileus Belisarius IV has the Benedictine abbey of Montecassino rebuilt.
694 The T’ang Chinese defeat Tibetans and Eastern Göktürks; they wrest from Tibet suzerainty over eastern Turkestan, where in the Khotan kingdom the Sinicized Wei Ch’ih dynasty replaces the Vijaya (Buddhist) rulers.
695 Destruction of Barce (Cyrenaica) and fierce sack of Djirva (*OTL Djerba) at the hands of Idalskan Slavic pirates in the service of Byzantium; the Arabs react by conquering most of Iberia/Georgia and putting Carthage under siege. In Constantinople the cruel and unpopular basileus Belisarius IV is overthrown by Leontius, the strategos of the Hellas theme, who after his release from the jail was hailed as emperor by the troops; the new basileus mutilates the deposed one cutting his nose and exiles him at Cherson/Sebastopol in the Taurida (*OTL Crimea). King Jasaw Chan K'awiil I of Mutul/Tikal heavily defeats his rivals of Calakmul, turning them from overlords into vassals.
696 The Khitans, rebelling against Chinese overlordship, found an own independent State in northern Manchuria.
697 The Arabs take and raze Carthage; this most grave news shakes the Byzantine empire. Final unification of the Pictish kingdom, Alba, in the northernmost region of Britain. King Mercury of Mukurra reunifies the whole of Christian Nubia.
698 Basileus Leontius I retakes Carthage and successfully resists the Arab counter-siege; then Kusayla’s Numidians attack from the interior and annihilate the Arab army, freeing Ifrigia (*OTL Tunisia) from the Muslim yoke. Ifrigia reverts to Byzantine possession, while Kusayla is granted the second and third names of Constantine and Sarakenoktonos (the Arab-slayer) and the title of Exarch of the Moors as a permanent ally of the empire. The Synod of Pavia finally condemns the Three Chapters once and for all; Patriarch Peter of Aquileia abjures his Tricapitoline stance, so the long schism comes to an end. King Gisulf I of Lombard Austrasia (mainland Veneto and the central-eastern Ladinian lands) officially renounces Arianism and converts to catholicism and brokers an accord by which the nearby Patriarchates of Aquileia and Grado recognize each other and divide their spheres of influence – Aquileia up to Austria and the central Alps, Grado on the Venetic lagoons, Byzantine Histria and Dalmatia. The Black (or eastern) Turgesh/T’u-Chueh, now completely free from Chinese overlordship, establish their Khanate in the Talas-Balkhash area of eastern Kazakhstan. With the support of the Korean-Tungusic Mohe tribe, Tae Ko/Da Zuruong, former general of the Koguryo army, founds in southern Manchuria the kingdom of Bohai/Parhae, a vassal to T’ang China.
7th century In eastern Africa the encounter of Islam brought by Arab and Persian merchants and the local tribal cultures fosters the birth of the Swahili culture.
ca. 700 Irish monks discover the Faer Oer archipelago. The Basques enforce their independence from both Franks and Visigoths; Frankish Aquitaine too gains de facto independence under Duke Eude. The Pallava ruler of SE Deccan, Srimaravarman, converts to Saivism (a branch of Hinduism worshiping Shiva as the supreme God) and has 8,000 Jains impaled in a single day in Madura. The Khmer kingdom of Chenla dominates over the middle and lower Mekong valley (SE Asia). After Kusayla-Constantine’s death the Kahina, a Jewish prophetess of the Jarawa tribe who already distinguished herself against the Arabs, is hailed as the Queen of North African Berbers; she will lead their successful resistance against the Spanish Visigoths, founding the Judeo-Christian Kahinid Exarchate. The Bulgarians of the Sklaviniai (*OTL Balkans) wrench from the Byzantines the strategic fortress of Durostorum/Drystra/Silistra on the lower Danube; The Bulgarians north of the Danube retain the name of Onogurs, while those south undertake a slow path to Slavicization. Daura, the most ancient city-State of Hausaland (*OTL southern Niger and northern Nigeria), is founded. In the Mississippi plains the Hopewell culture is replaced by the Mississippian or proto-Mandan culture. Tuhun/Tarhun establishes an independent Turkic kingdom in Samarkand. The Norwegian kingdom of Vestfold absorbs its neighbour Solor.