8Th Century

Events

• The Iberian peninsula is conquered by Arab and Berber Muslims, thus ending the Visigothic rule, and starting almost eight centuries of Muslim presence there.
• Sometime this century, Beowulf is probably composed.
• Borobodur, the famous Indonesian Buddhist structure, begins construction, probably as a non-Buddhist shrine.
• Buddhist Jataka stories are translated into Syriac and Arabic as Kalilag and Damnag.
• An account of Buddha's life was translated in to Greek by Saint John of Damascus, and widely circulated to Christians as the story of Barlaam and Josaphat.
• The Nara period begins in Japan.
• The Moravian principality and Nitrian principality arise in central Europe (see Great Moravia)
• Many Volga Bulgarians convert to Islam.
• Kanem-Bornu arises north of Lake Chad.

Significant persons

• Alcuin, English monk, scholar, and teacher
• Charlemagne, king of the Franks from 771 to 814
• Charles Martel
• The Venerable Bede, English scholar
• Pepin the Short
• Harun al-Rashid, fifth Abbasid Caliph
• Li Po, Chinese poet
• Du Fu, Chinese poet

Inventions, discoveries, introductions

• heavy plow in use in the Rhine valley
• horsecollar in use in Northern Europe in 8th or 9th century - perhaps introduced from Asia
• papermaking introduced from China to Arabs
• beginning of the decline of the Classical Maya civilization
• ca. 770: iron horseshoes come into common use

Decades and years

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1893 1897 1885 1881 1962 1597 1690 1764 1760s 1742 1282	1921 1876 1970 1735 1730s 1740s 1790s 1890s 1850s 1688 622	7th century 620s 10th century 9th century 6th century 5th century 3rd century 2nd century 1807 1873 1797	1971 1967 1965 1973 1975 1978 1979 1983 1982 1573 1570s