istoryworld
Events relating to asia
The use of zero, essential in practical mathematics, is now familiar in India and is adopted in Baghdad
Scholars in Baghdad begin translating Greek and Syriac texts into Arabic
The Ismailis become a separate Shi'a sect when they dispute the succession after the death of the sixth imam
Nestorian beliefs become the orthodoxy of the Christian community in Persia, spreading from there to India and China
The luxury of Baghdad, under the caliph Harun al-Rashid, is evident in the Thousand and One Nights
The ancient site of the city of Babylon is gradually abandoned and becomes covered in silt from the Euphrates, until archaelogical excavation begins in the 19th century
Chia Tan produces an ambitious map for the emperor, some 30 by 33 feet in size, showing the entire T'ang empire
The iconoclastic controversy ends when Theodora, widow of the emperor Theophilus, officially sanctions the veneration of icons
On the orders of the T'ang emperor, 4000 Buddhist monasteries are destroyed in China and 250,000 monks and nuns are forced into secular life
The caliphs in Baghdad begin to employ Turkish slaves, or Mamelukes, in their armies
The eastern part of the Persian empire comes under the control of the Saffarid dynasty
The world's first known printed book, a Diamond Sutra, is commissioned by a Buddhist monk in honour of his parents
The Diamand Sutra has as a frontispiece a printed woodcut depicting an enthroned Buddha
The Fujiwara family creates for itself a new hereditary office, that of imperial chancellor, through which it effectively rules Japan
With the end of inconoclasm, the screen between the nave and the altar sanctuary becomes covered in icons in Orthodox churches
A Tamil kingdom, established by the Cholas, controls the whole of south India and will last for two centuries
Zoroastrians migrate from Muslim Persia to India, where they become known as Parsees
The Samanids, replacing the Saffarids, transform their capital at Bukhara into a centre of Persian culture
Playing cards are in use in T'ang dynasty China.
The leader of a peasant uprising captures and kills the Chinese emperor, bringing to an end the T'ang dynasty
Paper money is developed in China, becoming later one of the aspects of Chinese life which most impresses Marco Polo
The Jewish calendar, deriving originally from the example of Babylon, is given its lasting form
Saadiah Gaon writes a seminal work of Jewish philosophy in his Book of Beliefs and Opinions
Wank Kon changes the name of his kingdom to Koryo, meaning 'high and beautiful', thus providing the rest of the world with the name Korea
A Chinese engineer, Chiao Wei-yo, is credited with devising the principle of the two-level pound lock for canals
