Timeline – Early History: Common Era

Posted on April 6, 2022 by admin

66-70Romans suppress a major  Jewish revolt and the Temple is destroyed. The conquering Roman general, Vespasian, became emperor.
132-135The Bar Kokba revolt. Jews barred from entering Jerusalem. The Romans name the province Syria Palaestina. Jews move North into Galilee, being banned from Jerusalem
312 Edict of Milan. Constantine begins the process of Christianising the Roman Empire.
ca. 325Empress Helena starts pilgrimages to Palestine. Major building projects – churches in Jerusalem, Bethlehem and elsewhere,
ca. 570The Prophet Muhammad is born in Mecca, establishes the Islamic faith, unites the Arabian Peninsula, and dies in 632. Arabic rule and faith spread rapidly throughout Syria Palaestina, Persia, and Egypt.
637  Jerusalem conquered by caliph Umar 1
711 Muslims take control in Spain. The Umayyad Caliphate peaks around 1000CE. Regarded as the Golden Age of Jewish Culture in Spain.
1099The first Crusaders capture Jerusalem and establish Christian rule over Palestine. Massacres perpetrated by some Crusaders. This is also the beginning of Jews being expelled from many countries in Western Europe.
1187Saladin, Sultan of Egypt, conquers Jerusalem and invites the Jews to return. Except for a fifteen-year interval Muslims control Palestine until the end of World War I.
1264 In Poland the Prince of Cracow grants the General Charter of Jewish liberties which mandated unpre­ced­ent­ed rights and privileges to Jewish citizens.
1290Jews expelled from England not Scotland
1492Remaining Jews and Muslims expelled from Spain by Christians in the Spanish Inquisition.
1516The Ottoman Turks take  Syria, Palestine, and then Egypt.
1656

Start of the readmission of Jews to Britain. under Cromwell. Christian Zionist biblical interpretation originated in Puritan circles.


By the mid 1600s, some three-quarters of all the world’s Jews lived on Polish territory, their forebears having enjoyed 700 years of relative peace and security in the heart of Catholic Europe.

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