Timeline in History
In this writing, I have tried to provide a Timeline in History from the times of Adam to the times of Jesus Christ.
(dating here is from After Advent of Adam on Earth i.e. AA that comes to 5400 BC as commonly calculated)
(00) Advent of Adam to Earth
EGYPT:
(2300) Upper and Lower Egypt unite to form a single unified kingdom.
(2750) Djoser becomes pharaoh. His adviser Imhotep designs the first step pyramid at Saqqara as a "staircase to heaven."
(2825) The pharaoh Khufu builds the Great Pyramid at Giza. Two of his successors, the pharaohs Khafre and Menkaure, build pyramids next to it. The Sphinx is also built in the same complex at Giza.
(3200) Several rival dynasties fight to rule Egypt. Trade, arts, and crafts decline.
(3360) Beginning of the Middle Kingdom period. Nobles from Thebes reunite a divided Egypt. The capital moves from Memphis to Thebes.
(3750) The Hyksos, chariot-riding peoples from the Middle East, take control of Egypt. Their rule lasts for about 100 years. They are sometimes known as the "shepherd kings."
(3850) Beginning of the New Kingdom period.
(3983 - 4021) Pharaoh Amenhotep III makes his capital of Thebes a magnificent city and begins the Temple of Luxor.
(4021) Akhenaton becomes pharaoh. He moves the capital from Thebes to a site on the Nile River. His wife Nefertiti rules with him.
(4064) Tutankhamen becomes pharaoh. He restores worship of the traditional names that Akhenaton had banished. He reigns only a short time and leaves no successors.
(4096-4163) Ramses ll rules as Pharoah. This is the one that is referred to in the Holy Quran who opposed Moses when Moses gave the Message of Allah.
(4875) Egypt is conquered by the Persians. The country remains under Persian rule until 404 BC (4996 AA).
(5068) Alexander the Great conquers Egypt. He adopts many Egyptian customs and restores ancient temples.
(5096) After Alexander's death, Egypt is seized by his general Ptolemy. He founds a dynasty that lasts until 30 BC (5370) when the last Ptolemaic ruler, Cleopatra, commits suicide.
MESOPOTAMIA:
(1900 - 2300) The first city-states evolve during the Uruk period.
(2400) People in Mesopotamia invent writing on clay tablets.
(2700) A flood devastates Mesopotamia. It seems to be the flood in the times of Nooh that drowned the people who did not accept him.
(3060 - 3085) King Sargon of Akkad reigns over the Akkadian Empire, which he has established.
(3200) The Akkadian Empire collapses.
(3288 - 3305) King Ur-Nammu builds up the empire of Ur. This seems to be the King who challenged Ibrahim and was taken aback by his boldness and wisdom.
(3400) Ur falls to the Amorites, a Semitic people from the Mesopotamian region.
(3608 - 3650) The Amorite king Hammurabi reigns over Babylon and Mesopotamia.
(3643) Hammurabi conquers the kingdom of Mari.
(3805) The Hittites, a people from Central Turkey, conquer Babylon.
(3940) The Hittite king Tudhaliyas I begins a series of conquests that establishes the Hittite Empire.
(4020 - 4054) The Hittite Empire is at its height during the reign of King Suppiluliumas.
(4109) The Hittites and Egyptians fight the battle of Kadesh. The two empires sign a peace treaty.
(4175) The Assyrians capture Babylon.
(4200) The Hittite Empire comes to an end during a period of great upheaval and population movements.
(4245) Fall of the Kassite dynasties.
(4489) King Adad-Nirari begins the revival of Assyrian power.
(4654 - 4673) Tiglath-pileser III is king of the Assyrians. He expands the Assyrian Empire to the Mediterranean.
(4679 - 4695) Sargon II, the Assyrian king, makes conquests in Turkey and rebuilds the capital at Khorsabad.
(4779) The Babylonians, the Medes of northern Iran, and other allies attack the Assyrian Empire.
(4795 - 4838) Nebuchadnezzar II rules the Neo-Babylonian Empire.
(4861) The Persians invade Babylonia and defeat Nabonidus, the last Neo-Babylonian king.
PERSIA:
(4851) Cyrus the Great, ruler of the province of Anshan and most probably the person named as Zul-Qarnain in the Holy Book Quran, defeats his rivals the Medes and founds the Achaemenid Empire of Persia.
(4861) Cyrus conquers the Babylonian Empire.
(4871) Cyrus dies and is succeeded by his son, Cambyses.
(4875) Cambyses conquers Egypt, but his death, from suicide or accidental wounding during an epileptic fit, provokes a revolt in which Darius is prominent.
(4879) Although not a direct descendant of Cyrus, Darius claims to be in the Achaemenid line of succession, and begins his reign.
(4887) Under Darius, the Persians cross the Danube River and enter European Scythia (now Romania).
(4901) Greek subjects in Cyprus and colonies along the Aegean coast revolt against Persian rule and burn Sardis, in Turkey. In 4906, Darius suppresses their rebellion.
(4910) The Greeks defeat the invading Persians at the battle of Marathon. Darius makes new invasion plans but dies at Persepolis in 4914 at 64.
(4920) Seated upon a high throne, Xerxes of Persia watches the Greek navy defeat his fleet at the battle of Salamis. Xerxes has his admiral put to death.
(4921) Soon after Greece’s victory at the battle of Plataea, an embittered Xerxes retires to Persepolis.
(5066) Alexander of Macedon, later known as Alexander the Great, invades Persia.
(5069) At the battle of Gaugamela (in Iraq), Alexander absorbs the Persian Empire into his own. After defeat at Issus, Darius III, the last Achaemenid king, flees, leaving his family as prisoners of war.
(5095) After Alexander’s death, his general Seleucus proclaims himself ruler of Persia and founds the Seleucid dynasty.
(5153) Arsaces seizes power in Parthia and the province separates from the Seleucid Empire.
(5312) The fierce Parthians now rule Persia. Mithridates VI, king of Pontus - an area of the Crimea and southern Russia - begins a struggle against Rome that lasts 25 years.
GREECE:
(4624) The first Olympic Games are held at Olympia, in southern Greece.
(4650) The Greeks begin to establish colonies throughout the Mediterranean. They found colonies on the island of Sicily and in southern Italy.
(4806) The Athenian lawgiver Solon lays the foundations of democracy (government by the people). He introduces new laws, including the right of appeal.
(4893) Democracy is established as the form of government in Athens.
(4900) The Persian king Darius launches an attack against the Greek mainland.
(4910) At the battle of Marathon, Athens defeats an invading Persian army. The volunteer foot soldiers of the army are called hoplites because of the hoplon (round shield) they carry.
(4920) At the battle of Thermopylae, Persian forces wipe out the army of the Greek city-state of Sparta. At Salamis, later in the year, an alliance of Greek city-states defeats the Persians at sea. The victorious Greek fleet consists of more than 200 triremes (oar-powered warships).
(4921) The Greek alliance of city-states defeats the Persians decisively at the battle of Plataea, finally ending the threat of Persian invasion of the Greek mainland.
(4938 - 4971) Athens flourishes under the rule of the Athenian general and statesman Pericles. He orders the rebuilding of the Acropolis in Athens after its destruction during the Persian wars.
(4969 - 4996) The powerful city-states of Athens and Sparta go to war for control of the Greek world. Known as the Peloponnesian War, this bitter struggle, which lasts 27 years, ends in victory for Sparta.
(5062) At the battle of Chaeronea, Philip of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great and ruler of the most powerful Greek state, conquers the whole of Greece. Philip's victory ends the age of independent Greek city-states.
GREEK PHILOSOPHY:
(4850) Pythagoras, the Greek philosopher and mathematician, establishes the relationship between the sides of any right-angled triangle.
(4855) The Greek philosopher Anaximenes from Miletus, in Asia Minor (now Turkey), tries to work out the origin and structure of the universe. He decides that air is the most important substance.
(4875 - 4944) The Greek tragic dramatist Aeschylus uses Greek legends for the plots of his plays. His most famous plays, called the Oresteia, follow the fortunes of a royal family during the Trojan War.
(4900 - 4972) The Greek astronomer Anaxagoras realizes that the moon’s light is reflected from the sun. Anaxagoras teaches the Athenian general Pericles and the dramatist Euripides.
(4904 - 4994) The Greek tragic dramatist Sophocles writes more than 100 plays during his lifetime. His most famous play is the tragedy Oedipus Rex, the story of a king who unwittingly kills his father and marries his mother.
(4910 - 4970) The Greek sculptor Phidias creates statues for the Parthenon and the acropolis in Athens. He also designs a giant statue of Zeus, one the names they worshipped, at Olympia, in southern Greece.
(4916 - 4994) The Greek tragic dramatist Euripides writes plays using plots taken from Greek mythology. His most famous play is Medea, the story of an enchantress who murders her children.
(4930 - 5001) The Greek philosopher Socrates, called the father of philosophy, teaches in Athens. The Athenian authorities dislike his ideas and condemn him to death. He commits suicide by drinking poison.
(4950 - 5015) The comic plays of the Greek dramatist Aristophanes satirize (make fun of) topical subjects. His play The Clouds, for example, satirizes Athenian philosophers.
(4973-5053) The Greek philosopher Plato establishes the first university, the Academy, in Athens, where young men can study philosophy. His Dialogues record his teacher Socrates’ discussions with the Athenian citizens. He publishes The Republic, in which he sets out his ideas on how the ideal state should be run.
(5016-5068) The Greek philosopher Aristotle becomes tutor to Alexander of Macedon, later known as the military leader Alexander the Great. Aristotle sets up the Lyceum, a school in Athens. He writes Politics, in which he discusses six ways to administer a state. He also devises a “Ladder of Nature,” which classifies living things according to the complexity of their structure.
(5065 - 5120) In Alexandria, a city founded by the Greeks in Egypt, the physician Herophilus dissects bodies to find out about human anatomy and the nervous system.
(5070 - 5125) The Greek mathematician Euclid develops elementary geometry.
(5090 - 5170) The Greek astronomer Aristarchus suggests that the sun, rather than the Earth, is the center of the universe.
(5113 - 5188) Archimedes of Syracuse, a Greek city on the island of Sicily, discovers that a body displaces fluid equivalent to its volume. He gives his name to the device called the Archimedes’ Screw, a machine for raising water. Roman soldiers kill Archimedes during the siege of Syracuse.
(5200) Ctesibius of Alexandria invents water clocks and a force pump.
(5256 - 5273) The Greek astronomer Hipparchus compiles a list of stars, and calculates the timing of solar eclipses.
JERUSALEM:
(4400) David (Salam on him), succeeds Saul as king of the Israelites. He begins his 40-year rule by conquering the walled city of Jerusalem. He moves the Ark of the Covenant, a sacred chest, to Jerusalem making it the capital of his new united kingdom.
(4443) Solomon (Salam on him), David's son, completes the Temple of Jerusalem, which will house the Ark of the Covenant. It is built on a hill north of the city, on land that marks the spot where a plague has been halted.
(4472) Solomon dies. The disaffected tribes in the north of the country form their own country, calling it Israel, and leave the southern part, Judah, for Solomon's son, Rehoboam, to rule.
(4679) The Assyrians capture Samaria, the capital of northern Israel, following their sustained campaign of expansion. Judah, under King Ahaz, submits to Assyria shortly afterward.
(4773) Ashurbanipal, the Assyrian king, dies, signaling the end of the Assyrian domination of Israel.
(4814) Jerusalem is destroyed by the Babylonian monarch Nebuchadnezzar II. The Temple of Jerusalem is burned and many of the people are dispersed or deported.
CHINA:
(3634 - 4278) The Shang dynasty of kings rules northern China. The Shang state is centered on a king who, through his ancestors, is believed to be the single link to the deity they believed.
(4278 - 4629) The Chou dynasty establishes its power. Craftspeople continue the Shang building style and bronzeworking tradition.
(4629 - 5179) Unified until 771 BC(4629), China now begins to break up into smaller states during what is called the Warring States period. Most of the states come under the rule of Chou emperors. By 300 BC(5100), seven large states are formed.
(4796) The philosopher Lao-Tzu (the founder of Taoism) is born.
(4849) The philosopher Confucius is born.
(5154) Thirteen-year-old Cheng becomes king of Ch’in, one of China’s strongest provinces.
(5179) With an army of more than 1 million men, Cheng conquers the seven major provinces of mainland China. He takes the name Ch’in Shih Huang Ti, meaning “First Ch’in Sovereign Emperor”. He reunites the whole of China under his rule and becomes the first emperor of all China.
(5186) Ch’in Shih Huang Ti links stretches of the Great Wall built before his rule.
(5187) To stop writers criticizing his harsh rule, Ch’in Shih Huang Ti orders the burning of books that are not about farming, science, or religion.
(5190) Ch’in Shih Huang Ti dies. Civil war breaks out after his death.
(5198) The first emperor of the Han dynasty, Liu Pang, takes power. The Han emperors make their capital at Chang’an (now Sian), in central China. The dynasty becomes known as the Western Han.
(5276) An imperial university is founded at the Han imperial city of Luoyang, in eastern China, to train students in the teachings of Confucius.
ROME:
(4600) The Etruscans emerge as a civilization in western central Italy.
(4650) According to legend, the city of Rome is founded by twin brothers, Romulus and Remus, who were reared by a she-wolf.
(4891) A tyrannical king, Tarquinius Superbus, is expelled from Rome, which becomes a republic (a state ruled by its citizens).
(5125) Rome controls most of Italy and begins to expand throughout the Mediterranean.
(5136) The First Punic War begins. The Romans go to war against Carthage, a Phoenician, or Punic, colony in North Africa.
(5159) The First Punic War ends. The island of Sicily, formerly controlled by the Carthaginians, becomes the first Roman province.
(5182) The Second Punic War begins. Hannibal, the Carthaginian general, crosses the Alps with war elephants and begins his invasion of Italy.
(5184) At the battle of Cannae, Hannibal inflicts a severe defeat on the Roman army.
(5198) At the battle of Zama, in northern Africa, Hannibal's forces are defeated by the Roman army commanded by Scipio Africanus. The Carthaginian war elephants stampede, frightened by the sound of the Romans' blaring war trumpets.
(5199) The Second Punic War ends.
(5251-5254) During the Third Punic War, the Romans completely destroy Carthage. Rome now controls Spain and North Africa.
(5329) A revolt of slaves led by the gladiator Spartacus is cruelly put down.
(5342) Julius Caesar begins his conquest of Gaul (France).
(5356) Julius Caesar is assassinated in Rome. Civil war breaks out.
(5369) Octavian, Julius Caesar's adopted son, defeats the forces of the Roman general Mark Antony and the Egyptian queen Cleopatra at the naval battle of Actium, in Egypt. Octavian becomes ruler of the Roman world.
(5373) The Roman Senate gives Octavian the title Augustus (the "Magnificent"). As Augustus Caesar, Octavian becomes the first Roman emperor.
(5396) Jesus Christ, salam on him, is born in the Roman province of Judaea.
Compiled by Muhammad Saleem Dada
e-mail: saleemdada@yahoo.com
e-mail: sdada@yahoo.com