istoryworld
Events relating to religion
The Abbasids massacre the Umayyads in Damascus and establish a new caliphate
Muscat and Oman establish a tradition of spiritual rule by elected imams
Pope Stephen II anoints Pepin III and his two sons (one of them Charlemagne) in the abbey church of St Denis
Abd-ar-Rahman, escaping from the massacre of his family in Syria, establishes a new Umayyad dynasty at Cordoba
The empress of Japan, in a remarkable start to the story of printing, commissions a million copies of a Buddhist charm
Islam reaches Shanga, off the east coast of Africa, with the building of a tiny wooden mosque
Alcuin leaves the palace school at Aachen to become abbot of the monastery of Tours
The Ismailis become a separate Shi'a sect when they dispute the succession after the death of the sixth imam
Batán Grande, in northern Peru, becomes a great pilgrimage centre in the Sican culture
Nestorian beliefs become the orthodoxy of the Christian community in Persia, spreading from there to India and China
The Jews prosper in the Muslim and Carolingian empires, forming strong communities in Spain and in Germany
In St Peter's in Rome, on Christmas Day, pope Leo III crowns Charlemagne emperor - supposedly to Charlemagne's surprise
Pope Leo III consecrates Charlemagne's new palace chapel in Aachen, modelled on San Vitale in Ravenna
The discovery of the supposed remains of the apostle St James makes Santiago de Compostela a new centre of European pilgrimage
The Arabs get a foothold in Sicily and begin a slow process, not complete till AD 965, of squeezing the Byzantines out of the island
The Venetians, acquiring from Alexandria some bones believed to be those of St Mark, build St Mark's to house the valuable relic
The iconoclastic controversy ends when Theodora, widow of the emperor Theophilus, officially sanctions the veneration of icons
On the orders of the T'ang emperor, 4000 Buddhist monasteries are destroyed in China and 250,000 monks and nuns are forced into secular life
The missionary brothers Cyril and Methodius arrive in Moravia, where they introduce the Greek Orthodox faith in a special Slavonic liturgy
The Bulgarian king Boris I is baptized in the Greek Orthodox faith, bringing his people within the Byzantine fold
Cyril and Methodius translate the Gospels and parts of the Old Testament into Slavonic for the Moravians.
Zoroastrians migrate from Muslim Persia to India, where they become known as Parsees
Monastic reform, begun at Cluny, is so successful that more than 1000 Benedictine houses eventually follow the Cluniac example
Wenceslas, a prince of the Premsylid family, is murdered on his way into church - and becomes Bohemia's patron saint
Saadiah Gaon writes a seminal work of Jewish philosophy in his Book of Beliefs and Opinions
