Periodization of Islamicate history

Key dates in medieval Arab-Islamic history and their relation to Islamicate music:

• c. 570 Birth of the Prophet Muhammad in Mecca
• c. 610 Qur'anic revelations begin.
• 622 Hijra. Prophet transfers to Madina (start of Hijri calendar). First Muslim community.
• 632 Death of the Prophet. al-Khulafa' al-Rashidun ("Rightly-guided caliphs") rule from Madina. Conquest of Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Iran, Afghanistan. Rise of musical patronage and the "Old Arabian" school, with the rise of "al-ghina' al-mutqan", featuring Persian and Byzantine influences. Double influence of Islam: (a) catalyzing musical fusions and infusing musical capital; (b) criticizing the life of pleasure with which music is associated. Rise of the mukhannathun.
• 661 Mu'awiyah establishes the Umayyad Caliphate and transfers the imperial capital to Damascus.
• 711 Muslim conquest of most of Spain from 711 by Berbers led by Tariq ibn Ziyad, who landed at Gibraltar (~ "jabal Tariq"). Musical patronage continues.
• 750 Abbasid dynasty, based at Baghdad. "Golden age of Arabic literature" as well as music; Caliph Harun al-Rashid (d. 809) supported arts & culture; Bayt al-Hikma translation movement (c 830) under his son Caliph Ma'mun, d. 833). Influence from Hellenic and Near Eastern cultures. Musical treatises flourish alongside high musical culture, featuring famed musicians of 9th century: Ibrahim al-Mawsili, Ishaq al-Mawsili (traditionalists), Ibrahim al-Mahdi (modernist, in caliphal family). Conflict between "traditionalists" and "modernists", the latter featuring more elaborate melodies and Persian influence.
• 756 ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn Mu‘awiya escapes Abbasids to al-Andalus establishing the Andalusian Umayyad Marwanid dynasty of Cordoba (756-912). Ziryab, student of Ishaq al-Mawsili, conflicts with his teacher and moves to Cordoba, revolutionizing Andalusian music. Development of muwashshah and zajal forms. View the short documentary film An Art of Living (on Ziryab in Cordoba).
• 912 Abd al-Rahman III, takes power in al-Andalus, establishing competing caliphate of Cordoba in 929. Here the Golden age of Andalusia flourishes. Baghdad declines. Era of Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani, author of the monumental 20-volume+ Kitab al-Aghani
• 969 From Tunis, the Berber Fatimids conquer Egypt and establish Cairo as the center of yet another Caliphate.
• late 9th - 11th centuries: Fragmentation of power, decline of Arabic-speaking and rise of non-Arabic-speaking dynasties: Persian, Turkic and Berber speaking groups.
• 11th c: First Crusades.
• 12th - 15th centuries: With accelerating "reconquista", transfer of Andalusian music to North Africa.
• 13th century: rise of ruling Mamluke dynasties (military slave class) in Egypt and Levant
• 1258. Mongols under Hulagu (grandson of Genghis Khan) destroy Baghdad terminating Abbasid power there; transfer of Abbasid caliphs to Cairo (until Ottoman conquest), which now becomes central to the Arabic-speaking world.
• 1492. Fall of Granada (last Muslim city of Andalusia).

• c. 1500: rise of Ottoman, Safavid, Mughal empires (Ottomans actually originate early, in 1299)

Islamic history Flash timeline

Another timeline