Nebuchadnezzar comes to the throne of Babylon, beginning a prosperous reign of more than forty years

The Jews, taken into captivity in Babylon, form the first community of the Diaspora

Nebuchadnezzar builds the hanging gardens of Babylon, supposedly to comfort a homesick wife

The synagogue, as a simple place of Jewish worship, develops during the Babylonian captivity

The optimistic concept of the Messiah is part of the Jewish response to captivity in Babylon

A Persian army captures Babylon and brings it into the empire of Cyrus the Great

Alexander, still only 33, dies in Babylon following a banquet

Seleucia is founded as a new capital on the Tigris, eclipsing Babylon and recycling much of the older city as building material

Zhang Qian reaches Bactria and is the first to bring news of western Asia back to China

The Parthians develop the site of Ctesiphon, on the east bank of the Tigris opposite Seleucia

Khosrau I builds himself a superb new palace, of which the great vaulted Taq-e Kisra remains today at Ctesiphon

Khosrau I commissions a spectacular Spring Carpet for the floor of his hall of audience in Ctesiphon

The Byzantine emperor Heraclius recovers the True Cross from Ctesiphon

The Arabs defeat a Persian army at Kadisiya and then sack the city of Ctesiphon, effectively bringing to an end the Sassanian dynasty

Othman is assassinated, and Ali wins power as the fourth Muslim caliph - defeating Muhammad's widow Aisha at the 'battle of the camel' near Basra

Husayn, the son of Ali, dies at Karbala in a battle against rival Muslims and becomes the most holy of Shi'ite martyrs

Karaism, relying on scripture rather than rabbinical commentary, develops among the Jewish community in Babylon

The Abbasid caliphs create Baghdad as a new capital city on the Tigris

The use of zero, essential in practical mathematics, is now familiar in India and is adopted in Baghdad

Scholars in Baghdad begin translating Greek and Syriac texts into Arabic

The luxury of Baghdad, under the caliph Harun al-Rashid, is evident in the Thousand and One Nights

The ancient site of the city of Babylon is gradually abandoned and becomes covered in silt from the Euphrates, until archaelogical excavation begins in the 19th century

The caliphs in Baghdad begin to employ Turkish slaves, or Mamelukes, in their armies

The Samanids, replacing the Saffarids, transform their capital at Bukhara into a centre of Persian culture

The rulers of Baghdad harness homing pigeons as postmen.