By place ====
Abbasid Caliphate ==== • Spring – Forces under the Transoxianian emir
Isma'il ibn Ahmad are victorious at
Balkh (Northern
Afghanistan) over
Amr ibn al-Layth; the latter is captured and sent to Caliph
Al-Mu'tadid in
Baghdad. The
Samanid Dynasty rules over
Khorasan, as well as
Transoxiana. A few months later, the Samanids conquer the
Zaydid emirate of
Tabaristan. This victory marks the beginning of the dispersion of the local
Shi'ites by the new
Sunni power. •
Arab–Byzantine wars: Emperor
Leo VI ("the Wise") begins an offensive against the Abbasid army in
Cilicia,
Upper Mesopotamia and
Armenia. He also continues the war against the Muslims in
Sicily and
southern Italy. • The future founder of the
Fatimid Caliphate,
Abdallah al-Mahdi and his family migrate to
North Africa. They claim to be descendants of
Fatimah, the daughter of the Islamic prophet
Muhammad. • The
Qarmatians of
al-Bahrayn, under
Abu Sa'id al-Jannabi, score a major victory over the Abbasid army led by
al-Abbas ibn Amr al-Ghanawi.
Europe • Spring –
Atenulf I, Lombard prince of
Capua, conquers the
Duchy of Benevento. He deposes Duke
Radelchis II and unites the two southern
Lombard duchies in
Mezzogiorno (Southern Italy). The
Byzantines offer a strategic
alliance to Atenulf who directs a campaign against the
Saracens. They establish themselves on the banks of the
Garigliano River. From here,
Arab warbands launch frequent raids in
Campania. •
February 4 – The 7-year-old
Louis IV ("the Child") is proclaimed king of the
East Frankish Kingdom at an assembly at
Forchheim (
Bavaria). Because of his young age, the reins of government are entirely in the hands of others – the Frankish
nobles and bishops. The most influential of Louis' councillors are
Hatto I, archbishop of
Mainz, and
Solomon III, bishop of
Constance. •
June 8 –
Edward the Elder (son of
Alfred the Great) is crowned king of
England at
Kingston upon Thames. •
June 17 –
Baldwin II, Count of Flanders has
Fulk the Venerable, bishop of Reims, assassinated. •
June 29 – The
Venetians repel the Magyar raiders at
Rialto. • Summer – After the death of his wife
Zoe Zaoutzaina, the Byzantine emperor
Leo VI marries
Eudokia Baïana. •
August –
Abdallah, son of the
Aghlabid emir
Ibrahim II, represses a revolt of his Muslim subjects, and then initiates a campaign against the last Byzantine strongholds in
Sicily. •
October 12 – Following
Magyars raids in
Lombardy, king
Louis III ("the Blind") is called to
Italy by the grandees. He takes
Pavia, forcing king
Berengar I to flee, and replaces him as
King of Italy. • King
Donald II is killed after an 11-year reign. He is succeeded by his cousin
Constantine II as king of
Scotland; he will reign for more than 40 years. •
Docibilis I of Gaeta and his
Saracen mercenaries attack
Capua, in vain. • After the rejection of their alliance proposal by the
Bavarians, the
Hungarians attack this country, occupying
Pannonia and parts of
Ostmark, which become part of the Hungarian state.
Asia •
April 21 – Namwaran and his children, Lady Angkatan and Bukah, are granted
pardon by the
Lakan (ruler) of
Tondo, as represented by
Jayadewa, Lord Minister of
Pila, which released them of all their
debts as inscribed in the
Laguna Copperplate Inscription (
Philippines). •
Maravarman Rajasimha II, king of
Pandya, begins to rule. He is constantly at war with
Chola (his overlord) and becomes the last ruler of the first
Pandyan Empire (
India). •
December 1 – Emperor
Zhao Zong is deposed and forced by a group of
Tang eunuchs led by
Liu Jishu to abdicate the
throne to his son, Crown Prince
Li Yu (until
901).
Mesoamerica • The
Postclassic Period: The
Maya civilization that has flourished for about 650 years in upland areas of what later will be called
Central America comes to an end as a result either of depleted
agricultural resources or
warfare between some 40 rival city-states. The great stone
pyramids,
ball courts and other structures at cities such as
Tikal,
Copán, and
Palenque are abandoned and overgrown with
jungle, as will eventually be the sculpture and relief carvings of the
Maya, who have developed a
calendar based on almost perfect
astronomic measurements. Cities such as
Chichen Itza,
Mayapan and
Uxmal in the highlands of the
Yucatán Peninsula will continue to flourish. • In
Peru the
Lambayeque people establish themselves over areas previously developed by the
Moche (approximate date).
By topic Art • c. 900 –
1230 –
Pueblo Bonito,
Chaco Canyon,
New Mexico, is built by the
Ancestral Pueblo people.
Religion • January – Pope
John IX dies after a two year reign. He is succeeded by
Benedict IV as the 117th
pope of the
Catholic Church.
Commerce • The east coast of
Africa is impacted by
trade and Arab,
Persian and
Indian traders mix with the indigenous
Bantu. Many of the coastal Bantu adopt
Islam, reaching as far south as
Sofala (
Mozambique).
Exploration •
Greenland is discovered by the Norseman
Gunnbjörn Ulfsson, sailing from
Norway to
Iceland: he is blown off course by a
storm and comes in sight of some
islands off the coast (approximate date).
Medicine • The
Persian scientist
Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi distinguishes
smallpox from
measles in the course of his writings. Holding against any sort of orthodoxy, particularly
Aristotle's physics, he maintains the conception of an 'absolute' time, regarded by him as "a never-ending flow". == Births ==