100 Mecca and the Ka'ba
Mecca develops into a place of pilgrimage, with a famous collection of idols in the Ka'ba

613 Muhammad preaches message of Allah
Muhammad begins preaching in Mecca the message of Allah, dictated to him by the archangel Gabriel

622 Muhammad moves from Mecca to Medina
Muhammad departs from Mecca and settles in Medina, in the event known as the Hegira

622 First Muslim year
The year of the Hegira (Muhammad's move from Mecca to Medina) becomes Anno Hegirae or AH1, the first year in Muslim chronology

630 Mecca accepts Islam
Mecca becomes the holy city of Islam and soon all Arabia accepts the new religion

632 Muhammad is succeeded by Abu Bakr
The death of Muhammad at Medina is followed by the election of the first caliph, Abu Bakr, a father-in-law of the prophet

634 Omar elected second caliph
Omar, another father-in-law of Muhammad, is elected as the second Muslim caliph (the word means 'sucessor to the Messenger of God')

634 Muslims move north from Arabia
Within two years of the death of Muhammad, the Arabs surge north into the Syrian desert

638 Muslims capture Jerusalem
The Arab capture of Jerusalem brings Palestine and Syria under Muslim control

642 Muslims capture Alexandria
The unopposed capture of Alexandria by the Arabs completes the Muslim conquest of Egypt

643 Coptic Christians isolated
The Coptic Christians of Egypt become isolated after the Muslim conquest

644 Othman elected third caliph
After the assassination of Omar, Othman is elected as the third Muslim caliph

650 The Qur'an takes its final form
Under the caliph Othman, the revelations made to Muhammad are collected in their definitive form as the Qur'an

650 Jews and Christians favoured in Qur'an
Jews and Christians, sharing with Muslims the status of 'people of the book', are promised religious tolerance in the Qur'an

656 Ali defeats Aisha
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

661 Umayyad dynasty
Ali is assassinated and Mu'awiya becomes the fifth Muslim caliph, establishing the Umayyad dynasty

661 Shi'a party splits Islam
The emergence of the Shi'a party creates a major schism within Islam

670 Muslim garrison at Kairouan
The Arabs establish a garrison town at Kairouan, as a base for the conquest of northwest Africa

670 Arabs rule from Damascus
With the entire middle east under their control, the Arabs make Damascus the capital of the Umayyad caliphate

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

691 Dome of the Rock
The Dome of the Rock is completed as a Muslim shrine on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem

700 Non-Arabs may be Muslims
Shortage of manpower in the Muslim armies causes a change of policy, with non-Arabs now allowed to convert to Islam

711 Muslims cross into Spain
Muslim Arabs cross from north Africa into Spain and drive the Visigoths from Toledo

712 Muslims win foothold in India
Muslims, arriving from Persia through Baluchistan, occupy the region of Sind in western India

732 Charles Martel stops Muslim advance
The Muslim advance into France is halted when Charles Martel defeats the Arabs between Poitiers and Tours

750 Sufis within Islam
Sufism develops as a mystical strain within Islam

750 Umayyads massacred by Abbasids
The Abbasids massacre the Umayyads in Damascus and establish a new caliphate

751 Imams to rule Oman
Muscat and Oman establish a tradition of spiritual rule by elected imams

756 Umayyad dynasty in Cordoba
Abd-ar-Rahman, escaping from the massacre of his family in Syria, establishes a new Umayyad dynasty at Cordoba

780 Islam in east Africa
Islam reaches Shanga, off the east coast of Africa, with the building of a tiny wooden mosque

800 Ismailis disagree on seventh imam
The Ismailis become a separate Shi'a sect when they dispute the succession after the death of the sixth imam

827 Muslims in Sicily
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

1000 Islam reaches Niger
A Muslim dynasty is established at Gao, on the Niger

1025 Muslims destroy temple at Somnath
Mahmud of Ghazni marches an army across an Indian desert to destroy a great temple at Somnath, killing - it is said - some 50,000 Hindus

1050 Islam reaches Lake Chad
Islam reaches Kanem-Bornu, a joint kingdom encompassing the eastern and western shores of Lake Chad

1050 Islam reaches Kilwa
A Muslim dynasty is established at Kilwa, on the east African coast

1085 Toledo captured by Christians
Toledo is captured from the Muslims by Alfonso VI of Castile, who continues the city's traditions of religious tolerance

1099 Crusaders capture Jerusalem
Crusaders capture the holy city of Jerusalem and massacre the Muslim and Jewish inhabitants

1171 Saladin rules in Egypt
Saladin deposes the Fatimid caliph and brings Egypt back to orthodoxy, acknowledging the rule of the Sunni caliph in Baghdad

1191 Richard I takes Acre
The Muslim garrison of Acre surrenders to Richard I, who orders the massacre of 2700 of its members

1228 Frederick II bargains for Jerusalem
Frederick II, leader of the sixth crusade, briefly recovers Jerusalem for the Christians by negotiating with the Muslims

1315 Islam replaces Christianity in Sudan
Islam replaces Christianity as the religion of the kings of Dongola, in present-day Sudan

1445 Muslim dynasty in Malay archipelago
A Muslim ruler is established in Malacca, forming the first of many Muslim dynasties in the Malay archipelago

1492 Muslim Istanbul welcomes Jews
Bayazid II, the Turkish sultan, makes a special point of welcoming in Istanbul the Jews expelled from Spain

1525 Muslims in Spain forced to convert
Muslims throughout Spain are ordered to convert to Christianity or to leave the kingdom

1530 Muslim holy war against Ethiopia
Ahmad ibn Ibrahim leads Muslim Somalis in a holy war against Christian Ethiopia, destroying churches and shrines

1744 Wahhabi link with Saudis
The Muslim reformer Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab makes an alliance with Muhammad ibn Saud, of significance to the later Saudi dynasty

1818 First Aga Khan
A leader of the Ismaili sect is granted, by the shah of Persia, the hereditary title of Aga Khan

1906 Muslim League established in India
The All-India Muslim League is set up at a meeting of the Muhammadan Educational Conference in Dhaka

1916 June 5 Hussein launches Arab revolt
Sharif Hussein, the emir of Mecca, proclaims himself the leader of the Muslim world, thus launching an Arab revolt against the Ottoman empire

1928 Muslim Brotherhood founded in Egypt
Hassan al-Banna, a schoolteacher in Ismailia, founds the Muslim Brotherhood – to campaign for a society based on the Qu'ran with the sharia as its legal system

1929 Jews massacred in Hebron
Arabs in the Palestinian town of Hebron turn on their Jewish neighbours and murder sixty-seven

1930 Nation of Islam
Wallace D. Fard founds the Nation of Islam as a black separatist movement in the USA

1931 Hindu-Muslim tensions in Kashmir
Sectarian hostilities increase in Kashmir, with the Muslim majority resenting the favours shown by the British to the Sikh and Hindu elite

1934 Elijah Muhammad leads Black Muslims
Elijah Muhammad takes control of the Nation of Islam, or Black Muslims, and leads the movement for more than 40 years

1934 Jinnah heads Muslim League
Mohammed Ali Jinnah becomes president of the Muslim League in India

1940 Jinnah demands regional independence
Mohammed Ali Jinnah puts forward the concept of independent Muslim states within India

1947 Partition of India
In granting independence to India, Britain partitions the subcontinent along sectarian lines into Pakistan and the republic of India

1947 Muslim defiance of Kashmir ruler
Muslims proclaim an independent state in west Kashmir, defying the wishes of the maharaja

1948 Terrorism in Egypt
The Muslim Brotherhood carries out acts of terrorism against the Egyptian authorities and British troops

1953 Malcolm X acquires his name
Black American Malcolm Little, who has joined the Nation of Islam while in prison, adopts the surname X to symbolize his rejection of his slave name

1954 Muslim attempt on Nasser's life
Nasser escapes an assassination attempt by the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood

1956 Civil war in Sudan
Civil war breaks out in Sudan between the Muslim north and the Christian south

1962 Khomeini launches campaign against Shah
Ruhollah Khomeini, a leading ayatollah in Qom, denounces the Shah of Iran and declares a fatwa against his regime

1963 Khomeini arrested
Ayatollah Khomeini is arrested in Qom, and imprisoned for eight months in Tehran, after instigating riots against the Shah

1965 Malcolm X assassinated
Black activist and convert to Islam Malcolm X is assassinated when giving a speech in the Audubon Ballroom in New York

1978 Muslim demonstrations in Iran
Demonstrations take place throughout Iran, demanding Islamic rule under the leadership of Ayatollah Khomeini

1979 Shah flees from Iran
An Islamic revolution forces the Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, to flee from Iran

1979 Khomeini returns to Iran
Ayatollah Khomeini receives a rapturous welcome on his return to Iran to head the Islamic Revolutionary Committee

1979 Jihad against communists in Afghanistan
Communist measures in Afghanistan provoke a Muslim jihad and the murder of more than 100 Russians in Herat

1979 US embassy seized in Tehran
Supporters of Ayatollah Khomeini seize the US embassy in Tehran, taking hostage 66 US citizens

1981 Sadat killed by Muslim terrorists
Muslim terrorists assassinate Anwar el-Sadat, in response to his peace agreement with Israel

1982 Massacres at Sabra and Shatila
Christian militiamen massacre Palestinian refugees in the Sabra and Chatila camps in Lebanon

1982 Hezbollah active in Lebanon
Hezbollah emerges in Lebanon as an Iranian-sponsored resistance movement against the Israeli occupation of the southern part of the country

1983 Sharia in Sudan provokes civil war
Government imposition of Islamic law (sharia) triggers renewed civil war in Sudan between the Muslim north and Christian south

1987 Intifada
An Intifada begins against Israeli occupation of Palestinian land

1987 Hamas founded to resist Israel
Hamas (acronym in Arabic for 'Movement for Islamic Resistance') is founded in the occupied territories to lead armed resistance against Israel

1988 Fatwa against Rushdie
Ayatollah Khomeini declares a fatwa against Salman Rushdie for his Satanic Verses

1988 Al-Qaeda
Osama bin Laden's involvement in the fight against Soviet forces in Afghanistan leads to his development of al-Qaeda

1991 Army robs Algerian Muslims of victory
A new party, the Islamic Salvation Front, seems certain to win the Algerian election – until the army intervenes

1992 Civil war in Algeria
Algeria is plunged into a brutal civil war between a military junta and Muslim terrorists

1992 Mujaheddin proclaim Islamic state
The mujaheddin, after removing from power the Soviet-backed president Najibullah, proclaim an Islamic state

1994 Taliban formed in Kandahar
Mullah Mohammed Omar, in Kandahar, forms a group devoted to fundamentalist Islam and calls it Taliban (meaning students of the Qur'an)

1995 Million Man March
Louis Farrakhan's Nation of Islam organizes a Million Man March into Washington

1997 Taliban massacre Shia Muslims
Thousands of Shia Muslims are massacred by the Taliban in Mazar-e-Sharif, in a brief spell before they are driven from the city

1999 Amnesty for Algerian terrorists
An amnesty is declared for some 8000 Muslim terrorists held in Algeria's gaols

1999 Russians back in Chechnya
The Russian army returns to Chechnya after Islamic militants commit acts of terrorism

2005 Cartoons of Muhammad
Controversial cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad are published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten

2015 September 24 Hajj stampede kills thousands
A stampede during the Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca kills at least 2,200 people and injures more than 900 others, with more than 650 missing