570 A.D. The Prophet Mohammed is born in Mecca. During the first 40 years of his life he marries a rich widow. They have a daughter, Fatima, who marries the warrior Ali.

610 Mohammed receives his first revelation from the angel Gabriel and begins his prophetic mission to create a new religion.

630 Mohammed captures Mecca.

622 The Hijra - or migration - takes place with Mohammed fleeing Mecca with his followers and moving north to Medina, where an Islamic community is established and the Muslim lunar calendar is created. Six years later, the Treaty of Hudaybiyya gives Muslims the right to make the pilgrimage to Mecca.

632 After completing his final pilgrimage, the Prophet Mohammed dies. His revelations are written down and become the Quran.

634-644 Omar - the second caliph, or successor to the prophet, of the four Patriarchal Caliphs of Islam - heads the Muslim community during the Golden Age of Islamic religion. Many Muslim religious and political institutions rise to be models for future generations and organization is introduced to Arabian society.

638 Jerusalem comes under Muslim rule.

680 A Shi'ite revolt within Islam is brutally suppressed at the Battle of Kabala. Shi'ites, typically a faction of Islam oppressed by the majority Sunnis, view this event as the most important in their history and it makes martyrdom a large part of their religion.

691 Adb al-Malik builds the Dome of the Rock on Temple Mount in the eastern side of Old Jerusalem. The Dome - the third most holy place in Islam - is where Mohammed is said to have ascended to heaven.

700 - 1000 Islamic rule and influence spread to parts of Spain, China and Africa.

Oct. 10, 732 A French army defeats a larger, more powerful Muslim army from Spain in the Battle of Tours in France. This shifts the tide of the Islamic invasion of western Europe and the destruction of Christianity.

1095 At the Council of Clermont, Pope Urban II launches the First Crusade in reaction to the destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Four years later, Crusaders take Jerusalem and the Christian kingdom of Jerusalem is established.

1143 The Quran is translated into Latin for the first time.

1187 Crusaders are defeated at the Battle of the Horn of Hattin and Jerusalem returns to Islamic rule. Thirteen years later, Islam spreads to southeast Asia as well.

1281 Ottoman rule begins in Bithynia under Osman I. The Ottoman Empire grows and becomes the dominant power in the Islamic world.

1453 Mehmet the Conqueror of the Ottoman Empire captures Constantinople and puts an end to the Byzantine empire. The Ottomans conquer much of eastern Europe and nearly the whole of the Arab world in the next 200 years.

1481 The Spanish Inquisition in Spain begins and within 11 years Ferdinand and Isabella conquer Granada, ending nearly 800 years of Muslim rule in Spain.

1530 Islam spreads to Java, the Moluccas and Borneo. The Muslim kingdom of Aceh in Sumatra begins.

1730-1740 A campaign of converting Muslims to orthodox Christianity - started under Peter the Great - reaches its climax. Mosques and Quranic schools in Central Asia are destroyed.

1898 Al-Manar is published in Cairo, as a journal of reforming Muslim opinion.

Early 20th Century In Southeast Asia, several Islamic groups emerge to safeguard the political rights of Muslims. For example, the Muslim League in India, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and the Arab League are all founded in an attempt to protect Muslim political belief and expression.

1924 Following Turkey's defeat in World War I, Kamal Ataturk - the country's new ruler - abolishes the Ottoman Empire after six centuries of power.

1947 The Muslim state of Pakistan is formed after the partition of British India. Violence mars independence as war breaks out between India and Pakistan. Two years later, the British Palestine mandate ends and the United Nations sanctions partition of the region and establishment of a Jewish state, Israel, and a Palestinian state. War breaks out and Israel occupies the Palestinian territory.

1979 A Muslim resistance movement, the mujahedeen, is organized and thousands of Afghanis flee to Pakistan.

1987 The Intifada movement, an Arabic term meaning uprising, begins among Palestinians against Israel's military rule of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.