| c. 570 CE | Birth of Muhammad. |
| c. 610 CE | Muhammad receives first vision in a cave near Mecca. |
| c. 610-22 CE | Muhammad preaches in Mecca. |
| 622 CE | Hijira - Muhammad and followers flee to Medina.
Islamic calendar (AH, Anno Hegirae) begins. |
| 624 CE | Muslims successfully attack Meccan caravans at Badr. |
| 625 | Muslims are defeated by Meccans at Uhud. |
| 630 | Muslims capture Mecca. Ka'ba is cleansed, pilgrimage rites are Islamicized, tribes of Arabia vow allegiance to Muhammad |
| 632 | Death of Muhammad. Abu Bakr chosen as caliph. |
| 632-33 | Wars of ridda (apostasy) restore allegiance to Islam |
| 633 | Muslim conquests (Futuhat) begin. |
| 633-42 | Muslim armies take the Fertile Crescent (Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Mesopotamia), North African coast, parts of Persian and Byzantine Empires |
| c. 650 | Caliph Uthman has the Qur'an written down. |
| 656 | Uthman is murdered; Ali becomes fourth caliph. |
| 657 | Battle of Siffin. Mu'awiya, governor of Syria, claims the caliphate. |
| 659 | Arbitration at Adruh is opposed by Ali's supporters. |
| 661 | Ali is murdered; Mu'awiya becomes caliph. Beginning of Umayyad Caliphate (661-750). |
| 680 | Death of Husayn marks beginning of the Shi'at Ali ("party of Ali") or Shi'a sect. |
| 685-705 | Reign of Abd al-Malik. Centralization of administration - Arabic becomes official written language (instead of Greek and Persian) and Arab coinage is established. |
| late 600s | Ruling classes in East and West Africa convert to Islam. |
| 700-800s | Groups of ascetics and mystics begin to form |
| 710 | Arab armies enter Spain from North Africa. |
| 732 | Muslim empire reaches its furthes extent. Battle of Tours prevents further advance northwards. |
| 747 | Revolt defeats the Umayyads. |
| 750 | Abu l'Abbas becomes caliph in Iraq |
| 754 | Baghdad (Madinat al-Salam, "city of peace") becomes the new capital of the Abbasid empire. |
| 755 | Abd ar-Rahman founds an Umayyad Dynasty in Cordoba, Spain. |
| 765 | Division within Shi'ites - majority are the modern Imamiyya (Twelvers) who co-exist with Abbasid caliphs; minority are more extreme Isma'iliyaa (Seveners). |
| 786-809 | Reign of Harun ar-Rashid, best known through the stories of The Thousand and One Nights. |
| 800s | Written collections of Hadith (sayings of the Prophet) are compiled. Sicily comes under Muslim rule. |
| 813-33 | Reign of Ma'mun. Theological controversy over whether the Qur'an is created or uncreated and eternal. Center for translation of texts from Greek to Arabic founded in Baghdad. |
| 869-883 | Uprisings of black slaves (Zanj) are eventually defeated. |
| 908 | First Fatimid caliph in Tunisia. |
| 928 | Umayyad Abd ar-Rahman III declares himself caliph in Cordoba. |
| 940 | Muhammad al-Mahdi, the twelfth imam, disappears. Twelvers still await the future return of the "Hidden Imam." |
| 945 | The Buyids (Persian) invade Baghdad and take power from caliph. |
| 969 | Fatimids gain power in Egypt and attack Palestine, Syria, and Arabia. Cairo (Al-Qahira, "the victorious city") is founded. |
| 980-1037 | Life of Avicenna, Iranian physician and Aristotelian philosopher. |
| 996-1021 | Reign of Fatimid al-Hakim. Hamza ibn Ali forms basis of esoteric Druze religion. |
| late 900s | West Africa begins to convert to Islam |
| 1030 | Umayyad caliphate in Cordoba defeated by the Christian Reconquista. |
| 1055 | Seljuk Turks take Baghdad; Abbasids now only nominal rulers. |
| 1000s | Reconquista takes more of Spain, Sicily falls to the Normans, Crusader kingdoms are briefly established in Palestine and Syria. |
| 1071 | Seljuk Turks defeat Byzantines at Battle of Manzikert. |
| 1090 | Hasan-i Sabbah takes Alamut in the Persian mountains, the Assassin sect forms around him. |
| 1099 | Christian Crusaders take Jerusalem. |
| 1100-1200s | Sufi orders (turuq) are founded. |
| 1126-98 | Life of Averroës, Muslim philosopher from Cordoba who sought to integrate Islam with Greek thought. |
| 1171 | Fatimid power ends in Egypt with the conquests of Saladin. |
| 1174 | Saladin declares himself sultan of Egypt and Syria. |
| 1193 | Death of Saladin; most of Crusader states have returned to Islam. |
| 1200s | Assassins wipes out by the Mongols. Indian rulers in Delhi take title of Sultan. Spanish mystic Muhyi al-Din ibn al-Arabi (1165-1240) flourishes. |
| 1221 | Genghis Khan and the Mongols enter Persia. |
| 1241 | Mongols take the Punjab. |
| 1258 | Mongols capture Baghdad; city is sacked and caliph is killed. End of Abbasid caliphate. |
| 1281-1324 | Reign of Uthman (Osman), who founds the Ottoman Empire. Muslim merchants and missionary Sufis settle in SE Asia. |
| mid-1300s | Ottomans capture Bursa and Iznik and move into Europe. |
| 1366 | Capital of Ottoman Empire moved from Bursa to Adrianople. |
| late 1300s | Ottomans take control of the Balkans. |
| 1400s | Islam reaches the Philippines. |
| 1453 | Mehmet Fatih (rules 1451-81) conquers Constantinople. The two halves of the Ottoman Empire are united and the sultan becomes Byzantine emperor. |
| 1492 | Castile and Aragon capture Granada. All Muslims (and Jews) expelled from Spain. |
| 1501 | Isma'il (1487-1524) claims to be the Hidden Imam and is proclaimed Shah (king) of Persia. Twelver Shi'ism becomes official religion of Persia. |
| 1516 | Ottomans conquer Syria and Egypt. |
| 1517 | Ottomans control Mecca and Medina. |
| 1520-66 | Reign of Suleyman the Magnificent; Ottoman Empire reaches its zenith. Hungary and coastlands of Algeria and Tunisia come under Ottoman rule. |
| 1526 | Babur (Mongolian) seizes the Delhi sultanate and takes control of northern India. |
| 1556 | Akbar founds the Mughal dynasty in northern India. |
| 1600-1700s | Venetians, Habsburgs, and Russians divide European Ottoman lands between them. |
| 1625 | Java comes under rule of Muslim kingdom of Mataram. |
| 1699 | Treaty of Karlowitz confirms first substantial losses of Ottoman Empire in Europe. |
| 1700s | Muhammad Abd al-Wahhab rejects Sufism and all innovation (bid'a). Founds what becomes the Saudi Arabian kingdom. Hindus regain power from Mughals in northern India. |
| 1738 | Mughal empire invaded by the Afghans. |
| 1779 | Afghans ousted by Qajar dynasty, which rules Persia until 1925. |
| 1798 | Napoleon's expedition to Egypt. |
| 1805 | Muhammad Ali becomes governor of Egypt, which becomes independent of the Ottomans, gains control of western Arabia and extends into the Sudan. |
| 1807-76 | Tanzimat period. Ottoman Empire undergoes extensive program of modernization in government, law, and medicine. |
| 1830 | Greece regains independence from Ottomans. |
| 1850s | Non-Muslim Ottoman citizens granted equality with Muslims. |
| 1858 | Last Mughal in India is deposed and India comes under British rule. |
| 1876-1908 | Reign of Abd al-Hamid II; autocratic and religiously conservative period in Ottoman rule. |
| 1878 | Congress of Berlin recognizes independence of Balkan states previously under Muslim rule. |
| 1882-1952 | Egypt occupied by the British. |
| 1908-18 | Last decade of Ottoman rule. Rise of nationalistic "Young Turks." More liberal policies develop. |
| 1912 | Founding of Islamic Union (Sareket Islam), a modernizing movement in SE Asia. |
| 1918 | Fall of Ottoman Empire. League of Nations grants Britain mandatory status over Palestine and Iraq, and France over Lebanon and Syria. |
| 1923 | Republic of Turkey established. Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) is first president. |
| 1927 | Tablighi Jamaat reform movement founded in India. |
| 1928 | Ikhwan al-Muslimun (Muslim Brothers) founded in Egypt. |
| 1941 | Jamaat-i Islami reform movement founded in Lahore, India. |
| 1945 | Indonesia becomes independent republic. |
| 1945-60s | Islam spreads to the West with mass migrations from Asia, Africa, and India. |
| 1947 | Pakistan founded as an Islamic nation. Islam becomes a minority religion in India. |
| 1957 | Independent Malayan state established with Islam as the official religion but guaranteed tolerance. |
| 1960s | Familes from SE Asia and North Africa emigrate to Europe and the Americas. |
| 1979 | Shah of Iran is overthrown by Ayatullah Ruhullah Khumayni, who establishes strict fundamentalist rule of Shi'a principles. |
| late 1990s | Taliban come to power in Afghanistan. |
| 2001 | Muslim extremists attack the United States. |
| 2003 | Saddam Hussein ousted by Western forces. |
