7th century

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Global territorial situation in the 7th century

The 7th century began on January 1, 601 and ended on December 31, 700 . The world population in this century is estimated at 200 to 300 million people. In Europe, the Germanic-Romanic empires of the Franks, Visigoths and Lombards , which emerged from the migration of peoples , were consolidated . The establishment of Islam was followed by Islamic expansion , which resulted in a significant change in the relations of rule in the Middle East and the Mediterranean region. If the Greco-Roman culture united the states around the Mediterranean in the previous centuries, the Islamic expansion ended this unity. From the 7th century onwards, the Mediterranean separated the Christian north from the Islamic south rather than uniting the states on its shores.

The Indian subcontinent was shared by several principalities that competed with one another, but also influenced one another culturally. China grew in size, power, and influence under the Tang Dynasty . His culture had a formative influence on the other states of East Asia.

Europe

Political developments

The Franconian Empire under the Merovingians

In relation to the history of Europe, this century is assigned to the end of late antiquity or the beginning of the early Middle Ages (approx. 500-1050 depending on the region). At the beginning of the century, the Merovingian King Chlothar II succeeded in reuniting the Frankish empire that had been divided by the Merovingian fratricidal war . As a price for the agreement, the king granted the nobility in the Edictum Chlotharii that all local officials (counts) were only elected from the landed nobility of the respective region. To the top of part of countries Austrasia and Neustria one was home Meier asked. After the death of his son, King Dagobert I , in 639, the empire was administratively divided, with Australia and Neustria each being ruled by their own king. Due to internal battles and numerous reigns of minor kings, the Merovingian kingship increasingly lost its importance. This strengthened the position of the Germanic ethnic groups of the Thuringians and Alemanni living east of the Rhine. Although these were still part of the Franconian Empire, under the leadership of the dukes they achieved a high degree of autonomy. In addition, the house flocks in the parts of the empire of Australia and Neustria, whose office became hereditary in the course of the century, gained de facto rule over their part of the empire. At the end of the century, the Pippinids , the later Carolingians , were able to unite the caretaker's office of both kingdoms and begin their ascent. In the following century they unified the Franconian Empire and enlarged it to become the dominant power in Western and Central Europe.

After the Toledan Visigoth Empire conquered the last Eastern Roman territories on the coasts at the beginning of the century, it ruled the entire Iberian Peninsula. In the course of the century, power struggles for the royal office burdened the country and led to an increase in the power of the nobility. From the year 633, the Visigoth king was elected by nobles. The change of the Visigoths from the Arian to the Catholic creed of the Ibero-Roman population, initiated by King Rekkared I in 587 , was followed in the 7th century by the unification of the law for both population groups. This eliminated the dividing differences between the two population groups and an internal unity was created in this regard.

The kingdom of the Lombards on the Italian peninsula was ruled by kings who changed hands in quick succession. However, this did not prevent the Lombards from continuing their campaign of conquest at the expense of the Eastern Roman Empire . By the middle of the century, they ruled large parts of mainland Italy. However, some port cities on the Adriatic, a strip of land in central Italy at the height of Rome and large parts of southern Italy remained Eastern Roman. The Eastern Roman port cities, Venice and Ancona on the Italian Adriatic coast enabled the economically important trade with the core areas of the Eastern Roman Empire. In the Longobard Empire, too, the immigrant Germans began to be catholized in the 7th century. However, it was not until the beginning of the 8th century that the majority of the Roman population adopted the creed.

After the Eastern Roman Empire successfully defended its territory in the Balkans against the cavalry people of the Avars and the Slavs with the Balkan campaigns of Maurikios in the previous century , it withdrew its troops from the Balkans at the beginning of the century to use them in the fight against the Sassanids . This created the opportunity for the Avars residing in Pannonia to expand their power at the expense of the Eastern Roman Empire. Their siege of Constantinople , carried out together with the Sassanids in 626, failed. In the first half of the century , groups of Slavs immigrated to the Balkans in large numbers. In the second half of the century, the Slavic princes in the Balkans were able to gain increasing autonomy within the Avar sphere of influence. Samo also led the Slavs to autonomy in the north of the Avar Empire and founded the first Slavic Empire in East Central Europe .

The Khazars , a Turkic people , enlarged and strengthened their empire, founded north of the Caucasus Mountains , and began to establish themselves as a regional power. After decades of conflict, they were able to conquer and destroy the Greater Bulgarian Empire north of the Black Sea in the second half of the century . Some Bulgarians living there then united with Slavic groups living in the neighborhood and moved to the Balkans, where they founded the first Bulgarian empire around 680 .

Society, Economy and Law

The life of the people in the 7th century was highly dependent on nature, for example on the length of the days and the food supply. In previous centuries, famine and epidemics caused by storms, such as the Justinian plague , as well as armed conflicts led to a population decline that reached its lowest point in the middle of the 7th century. Child mortality was high and life expectancy after surviving childhood was 44 to 47 years. The people lived mainly on cereal products, as well as dairy products and vegetables.

The society was strongly influenced by agriculture. The vast majority of the people lived in small rural villages. In western and southern Europe in particular, however, there were also cities that were mostly based on Roman foundations, but their population and importance were considerably lower than before the Great Migration . If the downsizing of cities had not already taken place in previous centuries, then, as in some cities in the Mediterranean, it began in this century at the latest.

The society of the Germanic-Romanic ruled empires was a class society , which was divided into nobles, free and unfree, with regional differences in the design of the classes. The respective status was hereditary, but social advancement or descent was possible and, in contrast to the High Middle Ages, much more common. At the head of the nobles stood the king, who was dependent on the nobility's acceptance. Therefore he had to take this into account when exercising power; if he was weak, the nobles actually took over the reign. The unfree were dependent on a master who had to grant them protection, but who could rule over them in almost all areas of life. In contrast to the slaves of antiquity, the unfree were not seen as a legal thing, so that the master had to preserve the life and the physical integrity of the unfree.

Wealth was essentially based on land ownership. Most of the land belonged to large landowners, such as kings, nobles, bishops or monasteries. They farmed some of this themselves with the help of their unfree people, and they leased other parts to free farmers. Long-distance trade, for which the rivers were an important means of transport, had declined sharply since late antiquity. In the 7th century the Mediterranean trade reached a low point, while the trade of the Franconian Empire was oriented more and more to the north.

In the kingdoms of the Franks, Visigoths and Lombards, the immigrant Germans, who made up an estimated 2 to 5% of the population, and the population of Roman origin were each subject to their own law. In the Visigoth Empire, King Rekkeswinth introduced a uniform law for both population groups in 654. The other two empires followed suit in the century that followed. If a written fixation of the rights of the Germanic immigrants in the Visigoth and Franconian empires with the Codex Euricianus and the Lex Salica had already taken place in the previous centuries, this happened in the Lombards in this century through the Edictum Rothari . The rights of some Germanic ethnic groups belonging to the Franconian Empire and living east of the Rhine were also laid down in writing in this century.

Religion and culture

The dominant religion of the continental Germanic empires of the Franks, Visigoths and Longobards was Christianity. The conversion of the Germanic-Romanic ruling class of the Franks in the previous century, which was initially often only formal, was followed by Christian instruction and substantive conversion, which continued in this century. In addition to the official church, the monasteries also played an important role here.

As national churches, the Christian churches were fully integrated into the rule and social system of the respective empires. They performed both spiritual and worldly duties. They were subordinate to the respective king in a manorial and economic as well as in some cases also spiritually. Monasteries were predominantly founded by kings or nobles who, even after the founding, used them for their economic, lordly or spiritual interests. Many of the women's convents founded by numerous aristocratic women served them as a pension. The numerous founding of new monasteries, in the Franconian Empire their number has more than doubled in this century, were countered by frequent complaints in this century about the abandonment of monastic life from the monastic ideal .

Iroschottische monks moved from Christian Ireland and Scotland mainly to England and the Frankish Empire in order to convert the population to the Christian faith or to deepen it with it. To this end, they founded numerous monasteries. During the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons, differences arose with the Roman missionaries who evangelized England from the south on behalf of the Pope. These were settled in the Synod of Whitby in favor of the Roman missionaries. As early as the end of the 7th century, Anglo-Saxon clergy began missionary work in continental Europe. The Anglo-Saxon mission, which reached its zenith in the 8th century, contributed significantly to the spread of Christianity in Europe alongside the Irish-Scottish mission.

Few people, almost exclusively clerics and members of the upper class, were able to communicate in writing, although the spread of literacy continued to decline towards the end of the century. In the 7th century the written language developed from Latin more and more to a Romance language. Parchment was used more and more often as writing material, especially in the Franconian Empire, instead of papyrus .

Mediterranean and Middle East

Late antiquity also ended in the Mediterranean region and the Middle East by the middle of the century at the latest .

Eastern Roman / Byzantine Empire

The Eastern Roman Empire , which had been weakened by internal unrest, suffered greater territorial losses than in Europe due to the conquest of the Persian Sassanid Empire , which was ruled by Chosrau II, beginning in 603 . The conquest of Syria, Palestine and finally Egypt (619) was a particularly serious economic loss for the Eastern Roman Empire. The emperor Herakleios , who had ruled since 610, managed to recapture the lost territories from the Persians through a seven-year war for which he mobilized all the resources of his empire. After the peace agreement between the warring parties (629), the war left both empires weakened. The following Islamic expansion led from 634 to a now definitive loss of the recaptured territories. With the loss of territory in Italy and the Balkans, by the end of the century the empire shrank to a third of the territory it ruled at the beginning of the century.

The Eastern Roman Empire changed so fundamentally from the 7th century that in the following period it is called the Byzantine Empire by today's historians . The change was brought about by the loss of two-thirds of the national territory, the loss of significant economic resources - especially through the loss of Egypt - and the defensive battles against its external enemies. It was characterized by the development from a culturally and religiously heterogeneous society, with many urban centers, to a society shaped by the Greek Orthodox creed and Greek culture. A process began that gave increasing importance to military aspects in society and the state. New military districts led by military governors, the themed districts emerged. Associated with this was the change of the army from a tax-financed professional army into a regionally organized army paid for by land ownership. While the thematic areas were still locally limited in this century, they spread over the entire empire in the following centuries, displacing civil administration.

Islamic expansion and the caliphate

The Islamic Expansion:
  • Spread under the Prophet Mohammed, 622–632
  • Spread among the four “rightly guided caliphs”, 632–661
  • Spread among the Umayyads, 661–750

    • From the beginning of the century, Mohammed solicited followers on the Arabian Peninsula and founded one of the world's religions , Islam . He united the different tribes and groups of the Arabian Peninsula in a superordinate community, the Umma . The caliphs were elected as his successors . The first four caliphs came from close relatives of Mohammed and are also called "rightly guided caliphs". For some Muslims only ʿAlī ibn Abī Tālib , the fourth “rightly guided caliph” and son-in-law of Muhammad, and his descendants had a legitimate claim to the office of caliph. The different views on the legality of the succession of Muhammad still divide the Muslims into those who only recognize Ali and his descendants, the Shiites , and those who recognize all "rightly guided caliphs", the Sunnis .

    In the mid-630s the military expansion of the caliphate began, also known as Islamic expansion . The Arabs conquered large areas of the Eastern Roman Empire, such as Syria, Palestine and Egypt. In addition to the forcible storming of the cities, negotiating a surrender was a method of conquest. In 642 the Arabs won a decisive victory over the Sassanid Empire. Nevertheless, the subsequent conquests of the east of the empire dragged on for a few years. To secure their conquests, the Arabs stationed troops in the existing cities or established military camps, which over time gave rise to cities such as the Iraqi Basra . The campaigns of conquest under the first caliphs were controlled essentially autonomously by local leaders who operated in parallel.

    In the middle of the century there were clashes between the Arab-Muslim supporters and opponents of the fourth caliph ʿAlī ibn Abī Tālib . As a result, two Muslim armies fought against each other for the first time. After Ali's death in 661, his opponent Muʿāwiya I prevailed as caliph. This differed from its predecessors because it did not come from the family circle of Mohammed, nor had it earned any merit from his support. Rather, he descended from the Meccan power elites who initially fought the Muslim prophet. Since Muʿāwiya was previously governor of the province of Syria, where he had his power base, he moved the capital from Arab Mecca to Syrian Damascus. By having his son declared as his successor as caliph, he founded the Umayyad dynasty. Since several Arab groups disagreed with this, a civil war broke out in 680, which was only ended by the subsequent Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik in 691. Even under the caliphs of the Umayyad dynasty, the caliphate was further expanded through conquest, so that by the end of the century it encompassed an area from North Africa to Central Asia.

    While the conquerors took over political and military power in the conquered areas, they left the civil and financial administration in place. This meant that there were only a few uniform structures in the caliphate kingdom of the 7th century. It was not until the end of the century that Greek and Persian were replaced by Arabic as the official language under Abd al-Malik . The introduction of the dinar as the currency of the caliphate demonstrated Arab rule, but did not result in a uniform system of coins.

    Dome of the Rock

    The caliphs installed governors who ruled the provinces relatively autonomously. The caliphs also occupied other highest political and military offices with their Arab confidants, while high positions in the administration were also held by non-Arab Muslims and local followers of other religions. Large areas of what is now Iraq and the Byzantine and Sassanid crown estates went to the Muslim community and the caliphs, respectively. Instead of pay, the fighters received a share of the rest of the booty and some fighters also received financial benefits. The receipt of these benefits, however , required entry into a register, the Dīwān , which was only granted to deserving Muslim fighters. The donations were made through cash payments, which were also financed from taxpayers' money. These were mainly raised by the non-Muslims, who had to pay a special poll tax ( jizya ) and a property tax.

    The Muslim conquerors did not force the population of the conquered areas to convert to Islam. The followers of the book religions , but also the Zoroastrians , were able to live their faith largely unmolested, but the practice of the faith was subject to restrictions that became more restrictive over time. Since the new rulers were indifferent to the denomination of the other religions, some denominations, such as the Nestorians in Iraq, were able to develop more freely than under the old rule. After the conquest, numerous people converted to Islam. A large group of converts were prisoners of war who were released after converting to Islam. Under the direction of the first caliphs, the text of the Koran was fixed and the beginnings of Islamic law, Sharia , established. In the last decade, important Islamic structures, such as the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, were built under the Caliph Abd al-Malik .

    Along with the expansion, Arab merchants established trade routes in all directions. In particular, Arab trade along the Silk Road with China and India as well as along the East African coast and between the areas north and south of the Sahara began to establish itself.

    Africa

    In the middle of the century the Christian Nubian states were able to successfully repel the attempts at conquest made by the Arabs from Egypt, which they had previously conquered. Then those states concluded a peace treaty with the Arab governor in Egypt, which secured Christian rule in Nubia for the centuries that followed. In the second half of the century, two of the three Nubian states, Nobatia and Makuria , united into a single kingdom.

    Even if the Christian Aksumite Empire , located on the Horn of Africa , initially maintained good contacts with Islam, the Islamic expansion had immediate effects on it. His political and commercial contacts with the Eastern Roman Empire broke off with the Arab conquests of Eastern Roman territories in the eastern Mediterranean. In the course of these difficulties, the empire intensified its relations with the Nubian states.

    Asia

    Indian subcontinent

    The kingdom of Harshavardhana at the time of its greatest expansion

    The Indian subcontinent was divided into several domains. In the first half of the century, Harshavardhana was able to gradually unite northern India, which had been split up into principalities, under his rule, starting from his capital, Kannauj, on the Middle Ganges . However, its expansion to the south was stopped by the southwest Indian Chalukya Empire in 630. The empire of Harshas collapsed after his death in 647.

    In the clashes with their south-east Indian neighboring kingdom Pallava , the Chalukya kings were able to bring up tactical, but not sustainable victories. Nevertheless, in the course of the dispute there was a cultural exchange between the realms. During its campaigns to Sri Lanka , the Pallava Empire deployed naval forces in concentrated form for the first time in Indian history and thus created a basis on which the successor state to the Chola could build its naval rule from the 10th to the 12th centuries.

    The rulers of larger Indian empires, such as Harsha, used the aid of allied rulers and subjugated regional princes to exercise their rule over large parts of their territory.

    Agriculture was the most important element of the Indian economy. In this century, as in the previous and following centuries, the expansion of agricultural areas continued. In South India in particular, complex irrigation systems have been used, expanded and improved.

    In India, Hinduism , Buddhism and Jainism were common side by side. With the death of Harshavardhana in 647, a promoter of Buddhism, he increasingly lost followers both among the elites and the people. Hinduism gained increasing importance and promotion at the expense of the other two religions. Buddhist monasteries, which still owned large amounts of land, lost political influence in favor of the Brahmins . The 7th century was a high point in the construction of Hindu cave temples .

    Central Asia

    In Central Asia, the western Kök-Turk were the most important regional power until the middle of the century. By 630 they were able to extend their dominion from the Caspian Sea to the Tarim Basin and from the Kazakh steppe to the northern Hindu Kush. The nomadic Turk profited from the taxes of the agricultural population who lived in areas such as Sogdia and the oases of the Tarim Basin. Furthermore, the nomads achieved economic prosperity from the control of parts of the Silk Road . They drew additional benefit from working with Sogdian merchants, who carried out a significant part of the trade on the Silk Road. In the Eastern Roman-Sassanid Wars, they support Eastern Current by attacking the Sassanid Empire from the east. With the advance of the Arabs in the west and the defeat against China in 657 in the east, the western Turks increasingly lost their influence. The eastern Turk had been subdued by the Chinese in 630 and served them as mercenaries. In the course of China's growing political problems at the end of the century, they broke away from Chinese dependency and established the "second Turkish empire".

    China

    China under the Tang Dynasty around 700 AD

    Political development

    In China, the Sui dynasty was replaced by the Tang dynasty in 618 . The last Sui emperor pursued the project, begun in the previous century, of uniting China, which had been divided for centuries, under centralized rule. Several major projects, such as the expansion of the Imperial Canal and the fortification of the northern border, as well as numerous campaigns, especially the defeat against the North Korean Goguryeo, tied up many resources, shattered state finances and claimed great sacrifices among the population. This, like the attempts of the emperor to disempower the old nobility, led to numerous revolts in the country. Against the background of these problems, General Li Yuan was able to gain power and establish the Tang Dynasty as Emperor Tang Gaozu . In the following years, this restored internal stability. With the subjugation of the eastern Kök-Turk, who had previously undertaken numerous raids in China, the Tang were able to avert the threat from the north in 630. In the following years the Tang expanded the empire, especially along the Silk Road to Central Asia, defeating the western Kök-Turk. The competing expansion efforts of the Chinese and Tibetan empires led to numerous military conflicts in this century.

    Through intrigues and potions of power, Wu Zetian rose in the second half of the century from an imperial concubine to the de facto ruler (from 660) and finally to Empress Wu Zhao (690). She was the only woman who ever officially ruled China as Empress. Under their leadership, China was able to repel most of its neighbors' attacks on the border areas.

    Culture and relations with other states

    Through victories over the Eastern Turks and the Western Turks, the Chinese domain was extended along the Silk Road and secured with garrisons. This brought the trade on the Silk Road to a new boom. Goods and ideas increasingly came to China from the Mediterranean, the Middle East, India and Central Asia. The openness of Chinese politics also applied to its East Asian neighbors. There was increased economic and cultural exchange with the Korean states and Japan. Chinese culture became a model for influential groups in these countries. The Chinese capital Chang'an , which was on the Silk Road, is now widely regarded as the largest and culturally most important city in the world at that time. People from many regions of the world lived in it. The existence of small minorities of Jews, Christians and Muslims who were able to practice their beliefs relatively freely is considered a sign of the openness of the Tang emperors. The emperors tried to instrumentalize Daoism and Buddhism for their political purposes. In doing so, they intervened in a promoting, but also regulating, faith content and organization. While the first Tang rulers mainly promoted Daoism, Empress Wu Zhao favored Buddhism, especially the Chan School. In addition to these religions, Confucianism also influenced the state order.

    With the stability, the openness to the outside world and the growing economic prosperity, poetry, inventiveness and discovery and other cultural activities flourished. The establishment of several state universities, which also served to train civil servants, promoted the spread of knowledge. In the encyclopedia Yiwen leiju one tried to collect the acquired knowledge and to write it down in an orderly manner. The Buddhist Chinese pilgrim monk Xuanzang traveled to Central Asia and India via the Silk Road. In addition to numerous religious writings that promoted the spread of Buddhism in China, he brought travelogues that are still considered an important source for life in India at that time.

    Society, Economy and Law

    Based on the results of the censuses conducted at the time, China's population is estimated to be around 50 million this century. The population was concentrated along the fertile banks of the Yellow River , with some living in cities far larger than those of Europe. In the course of the 7th century a significant economic boom began. This was due to several factors. The Imperial Canal connected the Yangtze River with the Yellow River and thus the southern Chinese economic area with the northern Chinese. This made it possible to import more agricultural products from the fertile south, which increased the availability of food in the north. The administration and the tax system were also reformed. The previously scarce circulation of copper coins was accelerated and innovations in the area of ​​credit instruments occurred. A land reform divided the land into standardized parcels, which were allocated to farmers, officials and the nobility. Porcelain was produced commercially in large quantities.

    The Tang emperors took over the centralized state system that the Sui had established. The rule was exercised through a hierarchical system of officials who were subordinate to the emperor. In contrast to the Sui, the Tang rulers paid greater tribute to the traditional rights of the aristocratic class when exercising power and filling posts. Applicants were able to qualify for a civil service post both through a recommendation and a passed civil service examination, with the positions in the regional prefectures in particular being filled primarily through recommendations. It depended on the politics of the respective emperor whether a higher civil servant position was filled on the basis of a recommendation or a passed examination. Most of the sons of the elites took part in the examinations for higher positions, so that regardless of the choice of access, the high posts were filled by the elite.

    The already existing written laws were systematized and reformed in the 7th century. The code of law introduced by the Tang, which sought equality before the law, was the basis of criminal law in the centuries that followed and was later adopted in Japan.

    East and Southeast Asia

    In the highlands of Tibet , Songtsen Gampo founded the Kingdom of Tibet by subjugating the principalities there one after another. As part of a policy of expansion, Tibet fought under his successors in the second half of the century wars with China over control of the Tarim Basin , in which parts of the Silk Road run. In the 670s, Tibet succeeded in bringing large parts of the basin under its control. In the 690s, China was able to recapture these areas. In the 7th century Buddhism was able to establish itself in Tibet for the first time, while in the following century it was able to spread across the board.

    In the north of the Korean peninsula was the Goguryeo empire , which China sought to conquer from the beginning of the century. The empires of Silla and Baekje in the south of the Korean peninsula were allied with China and Goguryeo, respectively. In 660, China helped the Silla Kingdom to conquer its rival Baekje. Eight years later, Silla and China succeeded in defeating the Goguryeo empire. The Chinese then tried to colonize the territories of the two defeated empires. Thereupon Silla turned against his former ally China and expelled him from the Korean peninsula. The area of ​​Baekje and large parts of the former Goguryeo now became part of the Silla Empire. In this a king ruled over a class society, which was divided into "bone classes". The parentage determined the class. From the middle of the century, the kings pushed back the influence of the upper classes in their favor.

    In Japan, in which the 7th century is assigned to the Asuka period , far-reaching reforms were carried out by the imperial court. The so-called 17-article constitution was a text on the ethical exercise of rule, which was shaped by the state religion, Buddhism, and Confucian influences. The Taika reforms of 646 established the Japanese central state, which was strongly based on the Chinese state model. The land formally became the property of the emperor, who however left it to the control of the noble families who previously owned it. In the 7th century a court hierarchy was established. Furthermore, the Japanese rulers first referred to themselves as emperors, from the 670s with the title Tennō .

    While the trade routes between India and China crossed the Malay Peninsula by land before the 7th century, merchants used the sea route consistently from the 7th century onwards, driving around the Malay Peninsula through the Strait of Malacca . The kingdom of Srivijaya , which was founded on the Southeast Asian island of Sumatra , expanded through conquests to large parts of the south of the island by the end of the century. This created the basis for using the shift in trade to the Strait of Malacca and in the centuries that followed to become the most important thalassocracy in Southeast Asia.

    The increased active acquisition of Indian knowledge, culture and religion by the ruling elites of Southeast Asia can be documented for the period from the 7th century onwards. So the kingdom of Srivijaya was shaped by Buddhism.

    America

    The Maya kingdom was in full bloom in Central America . On the west coast of South America, Tiahuanaco was developed into the central city of a pre-Inca culture. To the north of this the Wari culture established itself . The Moche culture, native to the north of the Wari culture , experienced its decline, probably due to climatic influences.

    Events

    Europe

    Mediterranean and Middle East

    Asia

    • 604 : The Japanese Prince Regent Shōtoku Taishi issued the 17-article constitution (憲法 十七 条 Kenpō-jūshichi-jō).
    • 618 : Li Yuan overthrew the last Chinese Sui emperor and founded the Tang Dynasty as Emperor Tang Gaozu
    • 630 : Chinese troops defeat the eastern Kök-Turk in a battle and take their Khan prisoner. The associated incorporation of the eastern Kök-Turk into the Chinese Empire contributed to its stabilization.
    • 646 : The Taika reforms were enacted, which reorganized administration, tax law and land ownership.
    • 690 : Wu Zetian becomes China's only empress.

    Personalities

    Inventions and discoveries

    • Arabs boiled oil and lye together for the first time and thus created the soap in the form we know today.
    • Development of the windmill in Persia.
    • The Greek fire was developed in the Byzantine Empire and successfully used to repel the siege of Constantinople (674–678) . The ignited incendiary agent is difficult to extinguish and was therefore a powerful weapon. It was mostly fired with flamethrowers .
    • The Masoretes (Jewish scribes) developed a vowel puncturing system to record the correct pronunciation of Hebrew .
    • Introduction of the Islamic calendar .

    literature

    Web links

    Commons : 7th century  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

    Individual evidence

    1. ↑ United States Census Bureau : Estimates of the Historical World Population (English) -
    2. ^ Alfred Schlicht: The Arabs and Europe . Kohlhammer Verlag, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-17-019906-4 , pp. 27 .
    3. ^ Goetz: Europe in the early Middle Ages 500-1050 . 2003, p. 45 .
    4. ^ Goetz: Europe in the early Middle Ages 500-1050 . 2003, p. 161-165 .
    5. ^ Goetz: Europe in the early Middle Ages 500-1050 . 2003, p. 47 .
    6. ^ Goetz: Europe in the early Middle Ages 500-1050 . 2003, p. 233-235 .
    7. ↑ Ingrid Heidrich: Introduction to the History of the Middle Ages - 7th Century ( Memento from October 19, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
    8. ^ Federal Agency for Civic Education : Small Islam Lexicon, keyword Shiites
    9. ↑ Halm: The Arabs . 2010, p. 28 .
    10. ↑ Krämer: History of Islam . 2005, p. 31 .
    11. ↑ Halm: The Arabs . 2010, p. 31 .
    12. ↑ Warriors: History of Asia: An Introduction . 2003, p. 123 .
    13. ↑ Krämer: History of Islam . 2005, p. 42 .
    14. ↑ Krämer: History of Islam . 2005, p. 62 .
    15. ↑ Denise Badini, Andrea Reikat: A continent in transition - Africa from the 7th to the 16th century . Federal Agency for Civic Education, Bonn 2005, p. 2 ( Website-BpB ).
    16. ^ Arnold: South Asia . 2012, p. 152 .
    17. ↑ Warriors: History of Asia: An Introduction . 2003, p. 161 .
    18. ^ Arnold: South Asia . 2012, p. 157 .
    19. ↑ Jürgen Paul: Central Asia (=  New Fischer World History . Volume 10 ). S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2012, ISBN 978-3-10-010840-1 , p. 78 .
    20. ↑ Warriors: History of Asia: An Introduction . 2003, p. 259 .
    21. ^ Vogelsang: History of China . 2013, p. 255-257 .
    22. ↑ Helwig Schmidt-Glintzer: The old China - From the beginnings to the 19th century . 4th edition. Verlag CH Beck, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-406-45115-2 , p. 85 .
    23. ↑ Mark Edward Lewis: China's Cosmopolitan Empire: The Tang Dynasty . Harvard University Press, Cambridge (USA) 2009, ISBN 978-0-674-03306-1 , pp. 5 .
    24. ↑ Warriors: History of Asia: An Introduction . 2003, p. 31 .
    25. ↑ Warriors: History of Asia: An Introduction . 2003, p. 47, 55 .
    26. ^ Vogelsang: History of China . 2013, p. 252, 311 .
    27. ^ Marion Eggert , Jörg Plassen: Small history of Korea . Verlag CH Beck, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-406-52841-4 , p. 32-35 .
    28. ↑ Warriors: History of Asia: An Introduction . 2003, p. 53 .
    29. ↑ Warriors: History of Asia: An Introduction . 2003, p. 90 f .