Arabia Over Eight Centuries
Historical timeline
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Nabataean kingdom
Byzantine Empire
Himyarite kingdom
Aksumite Yemen
Aksumite Kingdom
Parthian Empire
Sassanid Empire
Lakhmids
Gassannids
Byzantine restoration after the 628 peace and Persian evacuation in 629. The regional envelope is approximate, not independently dated city captures. Heraclius returns the Cross to Jerusalem most probably in March 630.
Southern Palestine: approximate conquest envelope from 634 CE. Display stages are schematic, not precise annual borders.
Palestine: approximate conquest envelope from 637 CE. Display stages are schematic, not precise annual borders.
Sinai approach: approximate conquest envelope from 639 CE. Display stages are schematic, not precise annual borders.
Eastern delta: approximate conquest envelope from 640 CE. Display stages are schematic, not precise annual borders.
Nile corridor: approximate conquest envelope from 641 CE. Display stages are schematic, not precise annual borders.
Alexandria and western delta: approximate conquest envelope from 642 CE. Display stages are schematic, not precise annual borders.
Requested post-Yarmouk territorial envelope: Arab Conquest from 636 CE. Schematic regional extent, not simultaneous documented surrender of every city.
Eastern Arabia and Oman: requested Arab Conquest coverage from 635 CE. Approximate geographic envelope clipped to the coastline.
Arab Conquest
Umayyad Caliphate: broad regional approximation
Umayyad Caliphate
Abbasid Caliphate: broad regional approximation. Persia/Khurasan falls to the Abbasid revolt first (747–749); the rest follows after the Umayyad field army is destroyed at the Battle of the Great Zab (January 750).
Abbasid Caliphate
MEDITERRANEAN
SEA
RED SEA
PERSIAN GULF
ARABIAN SEA
INDIAN OCEAN
SYRIA
MESOPOTAMIA
PERSIA
EGYPT
ABYSSINIA
SABA
628–632 CE: Jewish exiles from the Levant, displaced by Heraclius's reconquest and persecution of Jews in Palaestina Prima, settle in Yathrib alongside its existing Jewish tribes. Connection to Yathrib specifically is a modern scholarly reconstruction (Sebeos's account directly describes Jewish tribes fortifying at Edessa, not Yathrib).
628 CE: Jewish exiles depart Edessa (per Sebeos) and travel south to Yathrib, joining the migration described in the zone above.
614–617 CE (approx.): Nehemiah ben Hushiel's Jewish governorship, confined to the city of Jerusalem itself — not a wider Judean or Palestinian state. The surrounding region stayed under general Sasanian military control. After his execution in 617, Jews were barred from settling within three miles of the city.
614 CE: Persian-aligned forces move from Al-Hira toward Jerusalem, in step with the wider Sasanian conquest of the Levant.
614 CE: Nehemiah ben Hushiel and Benjamin of Tiberias recruit a Jewish-Arab confederation from Galilee (Tiberias, Nazareth) and march south to join the Sasanian siege of Jerusalem.
525 CE: Aksumite Kingdom crosses the Red Sea and conquers Himyar, deposing Dhu Nuwas and ending independent Himyarite rule.
570 CE: Sasanian expeditionary force under Wahrez sails from the Persian Gulf around the Arabian coast to Hadhramaut, defeating the Aksumite garrison and establishing Sasanian Yemen.
613 CE: Sasanian forces under Shahrbaraz advance from Mesopotamia into Roman Syria, taking Antioch and Damascus.
614 CE: Sasanian advance continues from Palmyra to Bosra as the occupation of Syria consolidates.
619 CE: Sasanian forces under Shahrbaraz push from Palestine into Egypt, taking Pelusium and the Nile Delta.
620 CE: Sasanian forces move up the Nile valley, completing the conquest of Egypt by 621.
Syria: approximate conquest direction, 633–638 CE. Schematic campaign corridor, not an exact marching route; dates are approximate.
Iraq: approximate conquest direction, 633–638 CE. Schematic campaign corridor, not an exact marching route; dates are approximate.
Upper Mesopotamia: approximate conquest direction, 638–641 CE. Schematic campaign corridor, not an exact marching route; dates are approximate.
Egypt: approximate conquest direction, 639–642 CE. Schematic campaign corridor, not an exact marching route; dates are approximate.
Iranian plateau: approximate conquest direction, 642–649 CE. Schematic campaign corridor, not an exact marching route; dates are approximate.
Fars and eastern Iran: approximate conquest direction, 649–653 CE. Schematic campaign corridor, not an exact marching route; dates are approximate.
Abbasid revolution — Khurasan to western Iran, 748 CE. Schematic direction, not an exact marching route.
Abbasid revolution — Western Iran to Kufa, 749 CE. Schematic direction, not an exact marching route.
Abbasid revolution — Northern Iraq and the Greater Zab, 749–750 CE. Schematic direction, not an exact marching route.
Abbasid revolution — After the Zab: advance into Syria, 750 CE. Schematic direction, not an exact marching route.
Abbasid revolution — Pursuit south through Palestine into Egypt, 750 CE. Schematic direction, not an exact marching route.
From Khurasan / Merv
Revolution begins 747 · origin off-map
Babylon, Iraq. Geographic site marker throughout the timeline. Used here as a stand-in for nearby Ctesiphon (Parthian and Sassanid capital); Baghdad, the actual Abbasid capital founded 762 CE, is plotted separately just north of here.
Babylon
Baghdad, founded 762 CE by the Abbasid caliph al-Mansur as the new imperial capital, succeeding Kufa (750–762); ~90 km north of ancient Babylon.
Baghdad
Al-Hira, capital of the Lakhmid kingdom until 602. Its "twin city" Kufa, built partly from Al-Hira's own materials, then served as the first Abbasid capital, 750–762, before the move to Baghdad. Star shown during both spans; reverts to a dot in between and after Baghdad's founding.
Al-Hira
Alexandria
Jerusalem
Jerusalem: permanent settlement marker. Arab surrender commonly dated 637–638 CE; this model retains 637.
Palmyra
Edessa (modern Şanlıurfa). Site of the episode described by the Armenian chronicler Sebeos: twelve representatives of the Jewish tribes fortified themselves here after the Persian withdrawal in 628, refusing entry to Heraclius's forces.
Edessa
Damascus, Syria. Umayyad capital, 661–750 CE.
Damascus
Bosra
Jabiyah, Golan Heights. Capital of the Ghassanid kingdom (not Damascus). Star shown only while the Ghassanid kingdom is displayed.
Jabiyah
Petra, Nabataean kingdom. Star shown only while the Nabataean kingdom is displayed.
Petra
Ayla
Ayla, the historical settlement at modern Aqaba. Renamed Aqaba once the Abbasid Caliphate takes over the territory in 750 CE.
Hegra / al-Ḥijr
Leuke Kome
Yathrib
Mecca
Basra
Gerrha
Maʾin
Zafar, Yemen highlands. Capital of the Himyarite kingdom, c. 110 BCE–525 CE (power increasingly shared with Sana'a from the 4th century). Not Ma'in (an earlier, separate South Arabian kingdom's capital) or Aden (a port city). Star shown only while the Himyarite kingdom is displayed.
Zafar
Sana'a, Yemen highlands. Grew in administrative importance under Himyar from the 4th century; besieged and taken by Sasanian Persia in 570 (see event marker); later capital of Sasanian Yemen.
Sana'a
Axum, Ethiopia. Capital of the Aksumite Kingdom.
Axum
Aden
Dumat al-Jandal; location registered from the supplied reference using its settlement landmarks.
Dumat al-Jandal
656–661 CE: Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan's Syria-based faction (the "Uthmaniyya"), rejecting Ali's caliphate and demanding vengeance for Uthman's murder. Becomes the Umayyad Caliphate after Ali's death in 661.
Mu'awiya's Syria
657–661 CE: Kharijites ("those who leave"), who seceded from Ali's camp after rejecting the arbitration at Siffin. A decentralized insurgency across Iraq, Iran, Oman and Bahrain rather than a true state; crushed at Nahrawan in 658 but persisted afterward. Assassinated Ali in 661.
Kharijites
656 CE: the Basra-based opposition of Aisha, Talha and Zubayr, demanding retribution for Uthman's murder. Defeated by Ali at the Battle of the Camel, 656.
Basra opposition
Superseded by the full 683–684 territory reconstruction in the political-territory layer.
685–692 CE: the Zubayrid Caliphate contracts to its Hejaz core as the Umayyads retake Egypt (685) and Iraq (691). Ends with the Siege of Mecca and Ibn al-Zubayr's death, 692.
Zubayrid Caliphate
685–687 CE: al-Mukhtar al-Thaqafi's Kufa-based Alid revolt, avenging Husayn's death at Karbala; opposed both the Umayyads and the Zubayrids. Crushed by the Zubayrid governor Mus'ab ibn al-Zubayr in 687.
Mukhtar's Kufa
656 CE: Ali defeats the Basra-based army of Aisha, Talha and Zubayr, the opening battle of the First Fitna.
Camel, 656
657 CE: inconclusive battle between Ali and Mu'awiya on the Euphrates; the forced arbitration afterward splintered the Kharijites from Ali's camp.
Siffin, 657
658 CE: Ali crushes the main Kharijite force near Nahrawan, though the movement persists as scattered insurgency.
Nahrawan, 658
680 CE: Husayn ibn Ali, grandson of Muhammad, is killed with his small company near Karbala; opens the Second Fitna and becomes the founding tragedy of Shi'a identity.
Karbala, 680
683 CE: Umayyad forces besiege Ibn al-Zubayr in Mecca; the siege is abandoned after Yazid I's death.
Mecca siege, 683
691 CE: Abd al-Malik's Umayyad forces defeat the Zubayrids, retaking Iraq.
Maskin, 691
692 CE: al-Hajjaj besieges Mecca; Ibn al-Zubayr is killed, ending the Second Fitna and restoring Umayyad unity.
Mecca falls, 692
529 CE: Julianus ben Sabar leads a Samaritan revolt, briefly proclaims himself king and takes Neapolis (Nablus); crushed within months by Byzantine forces and their Ghassanid allies, who restore Byzantine control. One of several 5th-6th century Samaritan revolts (484-573), none of which produced lasting Samaritan territory.
Ben Sabar revolt, 529
530 CE: decisive Byzantine victory under Belisarius over a larger Sasanian army at the frontier fortress of Dara, early in the Iberian War (526-532).
Dara, 530
531 CE: Sasanian victory over Belisarius on the Euphrates near Callinicum; a costly win that did not reverse Byzantine gains from Dara.
Callinicum, 531
540 CE: Khosrow I breaks the "Eternal Peace" and sacks Antioch, deporting much of its population to a new city near Ctesiphon; opens the long Lazic War (541-562).
Antioch sacked, 540
586 CE: Byzantine victory over a Sasanian army near Dara, during the 572-591 Roman-Persian war.
Solachon, 586
570 CE: Sasanian general Wahrez besieges and takes Sana'a, defeating the Aksumite garrison and installing Sayf ibn Dhi Yazan as a Persian client king, ending Aksumite rule in South Arabia (with a brief Aksumite uprising in 575/578 before a second Persian expedition restores control).
Siege of Sana'a, 570
c. 604–611 CE (often cited as ~609). Arab tribal coalition (Banu Bakr and allies) defeats a Sasanian army following Khosrow II's abolition of the Lakhmid kingdom in 602. Traditional Islamic sources date it later (623/624); shown here per modern historical dating.
Dhu Qar, c. 609
30 July 634: first major Rashidun victory over a Byzantine field army in Palaestina Prima, opening the conquest of Syria.
Ajnadayn, 634
634 CE: Damascus falls to Rashidun forces, shortly after Ajnadayn.
Damascus, 634
January 635: Rashidun forces defeat a Byzantine army in the Jordan valley near Pella.
Fahl/Pella, 635
August 636: decisive six-day battle; Khalid ibn al-Walid routs the Byzantine army, ending Byzantine rule in Syria.
Yarmouk, 636
Jerusalem changes hands three times in this period.
Jerusalem