Mesopotamia
Civilizations

The first explicit recording was Sumerian cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphs. Sumerian refers to the Sumer civilization of the lower Tigris-Euphrates River area of Mesopotamia in far western Asia and Egyptian was from the population centers along the Nile River of Northeastern Africa. But there were other significant developments across history on each inhabited continent. The following gives a very broad overview of major milestones by continent. Note: locations are designated by modern names.

Sumer was in the Mesopotamian region of far western Asia and became an extensive city where by 2600 BC the earliest known literature texts were recorded. Mid-2100 BC, Abraham is born in Mesopotamia and moves with his clan into Canaan shortly after 2100 BC. He will become the progenitor of most of the ethnic groups of the Near East.

By 1850 BC, the first evidence of an alphabetic writing is present in the Sinai Peninsula and appears to be a derivative of the Phoenician script. In Babylon the Epic of Gilgamesh is compiled as a complete text by 1800 BC with the Code of Hammurabi organized and transmitted in writing c. 1780 BC. Before 1000 BC, the actual Phoenician alphabet is in use and will remain a common language of the Mediterranean for 1,000 years. By 800 BC, the Phoenicians (homeland at east end of Mediterranean) have founded Carthage in North Africa which is due south of what will become Italy.

In Mesopotamia, a succession of empires comes: Assyrians under Tiglath-Pileser III 745 BC, Medians to the north in 728 BC and then alliances of Babylonians, Medes and Scythians joining to end Assyria with the destruction of Nineveh 612 BC.

Circa 167 BC the Jewish Maccabean leadership lead a revolt against the Greek Seleucid government which dominated this eastern Mediterranean region since the time of Alexander the Great. The Jewish rule of the western Middle East ends with the Roman seige of Jerusalem under Pompey the Great in 63 BC.

AD or CE (common era)

In 6 AD, the Roman province of Judaea is formed of Judea, Idumea (old Edom, south of Dead Sea), Samaria and Galilee. Rome’s governmental seat relocated from Jerusalem to Caesarea Maritima. Emperor Caligula ordered a statue of himself as divine erected in the Jewish Second Temple in Jerusalem (37 CE). A brief respite under Agrippa I was followed by conflicts leading to the First Jewish-Roman War (66 CE) and Vespasian’s destruction of the Temple and razing of Jerusalem by the legions under his son Titus in 70 AD. Judaea is renamed by the Romans as Syria Palaestina in 136 AD.

The dominate Roman Empire splits into Eastern and Western Empires under Diocletian in 284 with him ruling the Eastern Roman Empire and Augustus (Maximian) reigning the Western Roman Empire. It was under the Diocletianic Persecution of the early 300s that the fiercest persecution of Christianity occurred but shortly after, in 324 under Constantine, Christianity became the empire’s sanctioned religion. In 330 Constantinople becomes the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire.

By 533 the Eastern Roman Empire has become the Byzantine Empire and retaken much of North Africa and defeated Italy but is unable to maintain control in Europe.

Circa 570 Muhammad is born. During his lifetime he will compile the Quran which is the basis of Islamic theology. [Note: Islam is the monotheistic religion recorded in the Quran and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims. Moslem is the archaic spelling and less-preferred pronunciation of Muslim.]

Following death of Muhammad in 632, Abu Bakr unites Muslim world as First Caliph of the Caliphate. Caliph is title of the supreme religious-political leader following in the stead of Muhammad. Six years later in 638, Jerusalem is captured by Arab forces beginning their control over Palestine until the Crusades challenge for domination. Within the next five years, these Muslim forces conquer Persia to the north and Alexandria in Egypt to the south. By 674, Muslim forces are in battle against Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire to the far north where battles will take place for the next 50 years.

In 698 the Arab Muslim forces seize Carthage (North Africa) ending the Byzantine Empire’s domination of Africa. The Abbasid Caliphate arises in 750 and will dominate the Middle East until subdued by the Ottoman Empire in the 1500s. AL-Khwarizmi formulated ‘Algebrae’ in Baghdad (Iraq) with a system for balancing linear and quadratic equations which became the groundwork for much of mathematics and astronomy. He also worked extensively in geography some while working at the House of Wisdom in the capital of the Caliphate.

The earliest medical textbook, in five volumes, is compiled by Avicenna, a Persian Muslim, in 1025 and is the standard text into the 1700s.

The height of the Ottoman Empire is reached under Suleiman the Magnificent 1520-1566.

The First Saudi State in 1803 begins to unify the Arabian Peninsula under Sunni Islam leadership with the intent of restoring pure monotheistic Islamic worship apart from the Turk or Persian influences. Capture of the centers at Mecca and Medina came that year.

The Russo-Persian War lasts from 1804-1813 between Imperial Russia and the Persian Empire erupts when Persian Khan endeavors to consolidate his northern kingdom (modern Republic of Georgia) which had been annexed by Russian Tsar a few years earlier from the Persian claims against the Ottoman Empire. Russia was weakened in their pursuits as they were already engaged in wars with Ottomans, Britain, Sweden and France several of whom assisted the Persians. With the Persians initially having at least a four-to-one advantage in force size but lacking the skills and strategies of the Russians, conflict sways until Russia makes peace with Ottomans and moves those troops against Persians. Even when Napoleon seiged Moscow, the Russian forces were effective until the British forced the Treaty of Gulistan which delineated territories of each party in this region. For a time.

The Persian Empire regains territory lost to Russian in 1813 during advances 1826-1828.

Later, in Persia (1871-1872) famine brings the death of two million.

The Hamidian Massacres (1894-1897) were the result of Sultan Abdul Hamid II as the ruler of the Ottoman Empire trying to postpone the decline of his empire. His efforts to force Islam as the state ideology throughout the Empire resulted in the desolation of hundreds of thousands of Armenians and Assyrians with tens of thousands dying.