70 – Destruction of the Second Temple by Roman Emperor Titus.
132-135 – Bar Kokhba revolt suppressed. Jews barred from Jerusalem and Emperor Hadrian builds new pagan city of Aelia Capitolina on its ruins.
330-640 – Palestine under Byzantine rule: Jerusalem and Palestine increasingly Christianized.
638 – Arabs under the Caliph ‘Umar capture Palestine from Byzantines.
661-750 – Umayyad caliphs rule Palestine from Damascus. Dynasty descended from Umayya of Meccan tribe of Quraysh. Construction of Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem by Caliph ‘Abd al-Malik (685-705). Construction of al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem by Caliph al-Walid I (705-715).
750-1258 – ‘Abbasid caliphs rule Palestine from Iraq. Dynasty, founded by Abu al-‘ Abbas al-Saffah, who is descended from’ Abbas, uncle of the Prophet.
969 – Fatimid dynasty, claiming descent from the Prophet’s daughter Fatima and her cousin ‘Ali, rule Palestine from Egypt. They proclaim themselves caliphs in rivalry to the’ Abbasids.
1071 – Saljuqs, originally from Isfahan, capture Jerusalem and parts of Palestine, which remains officially within the ‘Abbasid Empire.
1099-1187 – Crusaders establish the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem.
1187 – Kurdish general Saladin, son of Ayyub, the sultan of Mosul, defeats Crusaders at Hittin in northern Palestine and recaptures Jerusalem. The Ayyubid dynasty rules Palestine from Cairo.
1260 – Mamluks succeed Ayyubids, ruling Palestine from Cairo; defeat Mongols at Battle of ‘Ayn Jalut near Nazareth.
1291 – Mamluks capture final Crusader strongholds of Acre and Caesarea.
1516-1917 – Palestine incorporated into the Ottoman Empire with its capital in Istanbul.
1832-1840 – Muhammad ‘Ali Pasha of Egypt occupies Palestine. Ottomans subsequently reassert their rule.
1876-1877 – Palestinian deputies from Jerusalem attend the first Ottoman Parliament in Istanbul, elected under a new Ottoman Constitution.
1878 – The first modern Zionist agricultural settlement of Petach Tiqwa established (click here to learn more about Zionist and its impact on the Palestinian people).
1882-1903 – First wave of 25,000 Zionist immigrants enters Palestine, coming mainly from eastern Europe.
1882 – Baron Edmond de Rothschild of Paris starts financial backing for Jewish settlement in Palestine.
1887-1888 – Palestine divided by Ottomans into the districts (sanjaks) of Jerusalem, Nablus, and Acre. The first was attached directly to Istanbul, the others to the wilayet of Beirut.
1896 – Theodor Herzl, an Austro-Hungarian Jewish journalist and writer, publishes Der Judenstaat, advocating establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine or elsewhere.
1896 – Jewish Colonization Association, founded in 1891 in London by German Baron Maurice de Hirsch, starts aiding Zionist settlements in Palestine.
1897 – First Zionist Congress in Switzerland issues the Basle Program calling for the establishment of a “home for the Jewish people in Palestine.” It also establishes the World Zionist Organization (WZO) to work to that end.