Middle East: every state, empire and people from 3200 BCE to today
The Middle East section of the timeline follows 263 states, empires, colonies and peoples from 3200 BCE to today, in 6 areas: Anatolia, Caucasus, Levant, Mesopotamia, Arabia and Iran. Among the most significant are Byzantine Empire, Ottoman Empire, Abbasid Caliphate, Parthian Empire, Sasanian Empire and Neo-Assyrian Empire.
Open Middle East on the interactive timeline
Anatolia
- Early Bronze Age Anatolian towns
- Troy
- Hattians
- Luwians
- Assyrian trading colonies (Kanesh)
- Hittite Old Kingdom
- Arzawa
- Kizzuwatna
- Hittite Empire (New Kingdom)
- Syro-Hittite states
- Greek cities of Asia Minor
- Phrygia
- Cimmerians
- Lydia
- Achaemenid Anatolia
- Hecatomnid Caria
- Kingdom of Cappadocia
- Kingdom of Bithynia
- Kingdom of Pergamon
- Kingdom of Pontus
- Galatia
- Lycian League
- Commagene
- Roman Anatolia
- Byzantine Empire
- Marwanids
- Oghuz Turkmen nomads
- Danishmendids
- Sultanate of Rum
- Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia
- Empire of Nicaea
- Empire of Trebizond
- Karamanids
- Ottoman Empire
- Republic of Turkey
Caucasus
- Maykop culture
- Kura-Araxes culture
- Trialeti culture
- Colchian culture
- Hayasa-Azzi
- Nairi tribes
- Urartu
- Colchis
- Orontid Armenia
- Kingdom of Iberia (Kartli)
- Artaxiad Armenia
- Caucasian Albania
- Arsacid Armenia
- Lazica (Egrisi)
- Persian Armenia (Marzpanate)
- Principality of Iberia
- Khazar Khaganate
- Arminiya (Arab Armenia)
- Emirate of Tbilisi
- Kingdom of Abkhazia
- Tao-Klarjeti
- Shirvanshahs
- Bagratid Armenia
- Alania
- Kingdom of Vaspurakan
- Shaddadids
- Kingdom of Georgia
- Kingdom of Imereti
- Kingdom of Kakheti
- Kingdom of Kartli
- Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti
- Russian Caucasus
- Caucasian Imamate
- Democratic Republic of Georgia
- First Republic of Armenia
- Azerbaijan Democratic Republic
- Soviet Transcaucasia
- Georgia
- Armenia
- Azerbaijan
- Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (Artsakh)
Levant
- Canaanites
- Ebla
- Byblos
- Amorites
- Qatna
- Yamhad
- Ugarit
- Egyptian Canaan
- Phoenician city-states
- Israelite tribes
- Philistines
- Aramean kingdoms
- Tyre
- Moab
- Edom
- Aram-Damascus
- Kingdom of Israel
- Kingdom of Judah
- Achaemenid Transeuphratia
- Seleucid Empire
- Ptolemaic Coele-Syria
- Nabataean Kingdom
- Hasmonean kingdom
- Roman Syria and Judaea
- Palmyra
- Herodian Judea
- Ghassanids
- Byzantine Syria and Palestine
- Umayyad Caliphate
- Hamdanids
- Fatimid Syria and Palestine
- County of Edessa
- Principality of Antioch
- Kingdom of Jerusalem
- County of Tripoli
- Burids
- Zengids
- Ayyubid Sultanate
- Mamluk Sultanate (Syria)
- Ottoman Syria and Palestine
- Emirate of Mount Lebanon
- Arab Kingdom of Syria
- French Mandate for Syria and Lebanon
- Mandatory Palestine
- Emirate of Transjordan
- Lebanon
- Syria
- Jordan
- Israel
- United Arab Republic
- State of Palestine
Mesopotamia
- Uruk period
- Sumerians
- Jemdet Nasr period
- Kish
- Uruk
- Mari
- Ur (First Dynasty)
- Umma
- Lagash
- Hurrians
- Akkadian Empire
- Gutian dynasty
- Third Dynasty of Ur
- Eshnunna
- Larsa
- Old Assyrian city-state
- Isin
- Old Babylonian Empire
- Sealand dynasty
- Kassite Babylonia
- Mitanni
- Middle Assyrian Empire
- Babylonia (Isin II and later dynasties)
- Aramaic-speaking Mesopotamians
- Neo-Assyrian Empire
- Chaldeans
- Neo-Babylonian Empire
- Empire of Alexander the Great
- Characene
- Osroene
- Hatra
- Lakhmids
- Kurdish tribes and emirates
- Abbasid Caliphate
- Uqaylids
- Artuqids
- Jalayirids
- Kara Koyunlu
- Aq Qoyunlu
- Ottoman Iraq
- Mamluk dynasty of Iraq
- British Mandate of Mesopotamia
- Kingdom of Iraq
- Republic of Iraq
- Kurdistan Region
- Islamic State
Arabia
- Arabian pastoral nomads
- South Semitic peoples of Yemen
- Hafit culture
- Dilmun
- Umm an-Nar culture
- Wadi Suq culture
- Kingdom of Saba
- Arab Bedouin tribes
- Kingdom of Ma'in
- Kingdom of Qataban
- Kingdom of Hadramawt
- Qedarites
- Gerrha
- Dedan and Lihyan
- Himyarite Kingdom
- Kingdom of Kinda
- Aksumite Yemen (Abraha)
- Sasanian Yemen
- Muhammad's state at Medina
- Rashidun Caliphate
- Ibadi Imamate of Oman
- Zaydi Imamate of Yemen
- Qarmatians of Bahrain
- Sharifate of Mecca
- Sulayhids
- Nabhani dynasty
- Rasulids
- Tahirids of Yemen
- Portuguese Muscat and Gulf forts
- Ottoman Hejaz and Yemen
- Ya'aruba dynasty
- Emirate of Diriyah
- Omani Empire (Al Bu Said)
- Sheikhdom of Kuwait
- Bahrain under the Al Khalifa
- Trucial States
- Emirate of Nejd
- Emirate of Jabal Shammar
- British Aden
- Sultanate of Muscat and Oman
- Sheikhdom of Qatar
- Emirate and Sultanate of Nejd
- Kingdom of Hejaz
- Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen
- Saudi Arabia
- Kuwait
- Yemen Arab Republic
- People's Democratic Republic of Yemen
- Oman
- Bahrain
- Qatar
- United Arab Emirates
- Republic of Yemen
Iran
- Proto-Elamite period
- Helmand culture (Shahr-i Sokhta)
- Zagros highland peoples
- Jiroft culture
- Old Elamite period
- Middle Elamite period
- Iranian-speaking pastoralists
- Neo-Elamite period
- Mannaea
- Median kingdom
- Achaemenid Empire
- Atropatene
- Kingdom of Persis
- Parthian Empire
- Elymais
- Sasanian Empire
- Bavandids
- Tahirids
- Saffarids
- Ziyarids
- Buyids
- Great Seljuk Empire
- Khwarazmian Empire
- Nizari Ismaili state
- Kingdom of Hormuz
- Ilkhanate
- Muzaffarids
- Sarbadars
- Chobanids
- Timurid Empire
- Safavid Empire
- Hotak rule in Iran
- Afsharid dynasty
- Zand dynasty
- Qajar dynasty
- Pahlavi Iran
- Islamic Republic of Iran
Key events
- Writing invented at Uruk. Temple scribes at Uruk press accounting signs into clay tablets. Over the following centuries this proto-cuneiform grows into a full writing system used for 3,000 years.
- Sargon founds the Akkadian Empire. Sargon defeats Lugalzagesi of Umma and unites the Sumerian cities with the north, creating the first known multi-ethnic empire.
- Elamites sack Ur. An Elamite army destroys Ur and carries off its last king, Ibbi-Sin, ending the Third Dynasty of Ur. The Lament for Ur mourns the city's fall.
- Code of Hammurabi. Hammurabi of Babylon has 282 laws carved on a basalt stele, from trade and family disputes to the principle of an eye for an eye.
- Hittites sack Babylon. Mursili I marches 2,000 km down the Euphrates and sacks Babylon, ending Hammurabi's dynasty and opening the way for the Kassites.
- Battle of Kadesh. Ramesses II and the Hittite king Muwatalli II fight one of the largest chariot battles in history in Syria. Both claim victory, and a peace treaty follows in 1259 BCE.
- Late Bronze Age collapse. Within a few decades Hattusa is abandoned, Ugarit is burned and Sea Peoples raid the coasts. The palace states of the eastern Mediterranean collapse.
- Phoenician alphabet. Phoenician scribes use a 22-letter alphabet of consonants. Carried by traders, it becomes the ancestor of the Greek, Latin, Hebrew and Arabic scripts.
- Battle of Qarqar. A coalition including Ahab of Israel and Hadadezer of Damascus checks Shalmaneser III. His inscription names Gindibu the Arab with 1,000 camels, the first record of Arabs.
- Assyria conquers Samaria. Assyria takes Samaria after a three-year siege, ends the Kingdom of Israel and deports its people, the origin of the legend of the ten lost tribes.
- Fall of Nineveh. Babylonians and Medes storm and burn the Assyrian capital. Within three years the Neo-Assyrian Empire is gone.
- Destruction of Jerusalem. Nebuchadnezzar II destroys Jerusalem and Solomon's Temple and deports the Judean elite to Babylon. The exile reshapes Jewish religion and scripture.
- Cyrus takes Babylon. Cyrus the Great enters Babylon without a fight and allows deported peoples, including the Judeans, to go home. Persia now rules from the Aegean to Central Asia.
- Battle of Gaugamela. Alexander defeats Darius III near Erbil. Babylon, Susa and Persepolis fall within months, and the Achaemenid Empire is finished.
- Battle of Carrhae. Parthian horse archers destroy the army of Marcus Licinius Crassus in Upper Mesopotamia, fixing the Euphrates as the frontier between Rome and Iran.
- Crucifixion of Jesus. Jesus of Nazareth is executed in Jerusalem under the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate, around 30 to 33 CE. His followers spread a new religion across the empire.
- Romans destroy the Second Temple. Titus captures Jerusalem and burns the Temple, ending the Jewish revolt. Judaism reorganises around rabbis and synagogues.
- Armenia adopts Christianity. King Tiridates III, converted by Gregory the Illuminator, makes Armenia the first state to adopt Christianity as its official religion.
- The Hijra. Muhammad and his followers leave Mecca for Medina, founding the first Muslim community. The year becomes the start of the Islamic calendar.
- Battles of Yarmouk and Qadisiyyah. Arab armies crush the Byzantines at the Yarmouk River and then the Sasanians at Qadisiyyah, opening Syria and Iraq to Islamic rule.
- Battle of Karbala. Umayyad troops kill Husayn, grandson of Muhammad, and his small band at Karbala. His death becomes the central event of Shia Islam.
- Founding of Baghdad. Caliph al-Mansur builds his round city on the Tigris. Within a century Baghdad is one of the largest cities in the world and home to the House of Wisdom.
- Battle of Manzikert. Seljuk sultan Alp Arslan defeats and captures Emperor Romanos IV. Turkmen tribes pour into Anatolia, which slowly becomes Turkish.
- Crusaders take Jerusalem. The First Crusade storms Jerusalem and massacres much of its population, founding the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem.
- Battle of Hattin. Saladin destroys the Crusader field army near Tiberias and retakes Jerusalem three months later.
- Mongols sack Baghdad. Hulagu's army storms Baghdad, kills the caliph al-Musta'sim and many thousands of residents, ending the Abbasid caliphate in Iraq.
- Battle of Ain Jalut. The Mamluks of Egypt defeat a Mongol army in Galilee, the first major Mongol defeat, and keep the Mongols out of Syria and Egypt.
- Battle of Chaldiran. Ottoman cannon and muskets defeat the Safavid cavalry of Ismail I. The frontier between Sunni Ottoman lands and Shia Iran takes shape.
- Oil struck at Masjed Soleyman. William Knox D'Arcy's drillers find oil in southwest Iran, the first big strike in the Middle East. The Anglo-Persian Oil Company, later BP, is founded in 1909.
- Armenian genocide. The Ottoman government deports and massacres its Armenian population. Between 600,000 and 1.5 million Armenians die.
- Arab Revolt and Sykes-Picot. Sharif Hussein of Mecca rises against the Ottomans, while Britain and France secretly agree to divide the Arab provinces between them.
- Treaty of Lausanne. The Allies recognise the Republic of Turkey within its present borders, and a population exchange uproots over a million Greeks and Turks.
- Founding of Israel and the Nakba. Israel declares independence as Britain leaves Palestine. Arab states invade, and about 700,000 Palestinians flee or are expelled from their homes.
- Iranian Revolution. Mass protests drive out the shah and Ayatollah Khomeini founds an Islamic Republic. Students seize the US embassy in Tehran that November.
- Gulf War. A US-led coalition expels Iraqi forces from Kuwait after a six-week air campaign and a 100-hour ground war.
- US-led invasion of Iraq. American and British forces overthrow Saddam Hussein in three weeks. Occupation, insurgency and sectarian war follow.
- Arab Spring reaches Syria. Protests against Bashar al-Assad are met with gunfire and turn into a civil war that kills over 500,000 people and displaces half the population.
- Fall of the Assad regime. A rebel offensive led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham takes Aleppo and then Damascus in December, ending 53 years of Assad family rule.