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 rulers of Baghdad harness homing pigeons as postmen.

Togrul Beg enters Baghdad and is granted by the caliph the title of sultan, which becomes hereditary in his Seljuk dynasty

Greek texts, translated by Arabic scholars in Baghdad, gradually make their way through the Muslim world to Christian Europe

When Hulagu and his Mongol army reach Baghdad, in 1258, it is said that 800,000 of the inhabitants are killed - and the caliph is kicked to death

Mameluke power ends with their suppression in Baghdad, following a massacre in Cairo twenty years earlier

British archaeologist Henry Layard, in his first month of digging in Iraq, discovers the Assyrian city of Nimrud

Hormuzd Rassam discovers the magnficent lion-hunt reliefs in the palace of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh

A British force seizes the Turkish port of Basra, to safeguard the supply of Persian oil

A British and Indian force is defeated by the Turks at Ctesiphon, on the bank of the Tigris

Britain and France sign the secret Sykes-Picot Agreement, dividing up spheres of influence in the Middle East

The British garrison at Kut, on the Tigris, surrenders to the Turks after a five-month siege

The British commander Stanley Maude captures Baghdad from the Turks

League of Nations mandates give Britain responsibility for Iraq, Transjordan and Palestine

Faisal, having lost Syria, is given the throne in the British mandated territory of Iraq

British archaeologist Leonard Woolley discovers the treasures of the royal cemetery at Ur

The king of Iraq, Faisal II, is murdered in Baghdad in a coup led by Abdul Karim Qassim

Nationalist Kurds in the north of Iraq launch a guerrilla war against the new government in Baghdad

A military coup in Iraq brings to power a government composed mainly of Ba'thists

Saddam Hussein begins a reign of terror in Iraq, reading out at a meeting the names of fellow Ba'athists who are to be taken out and shot