Places & history
The world around the words.
Find a story through its setting, or follow people, communities and texts through time.
Settings named in the texts and places associated with their stories. A location does not establish that a narrated event happened there.
All selected historical events
- c. 1500–900 BCE · Vedic hymns take shape
- Late 13th century BCE · Israel appears in an Egyptian inscription
- c. 900–300 BCE · Upanishadic teachers explore self and reality
- 587/586 BCE · Jerusalem falls to Babylon
- c. 6th–4th centuries BCE · Gautama Buddha teaches a path of liberation
- c. 515 BCE · The Second Temple is rebuilt
- c. 5th century BCE · Mahapajapati and the early nuns’ community
- c. 500 BCE–200 CE · The Ramayana grows through retelling
- c. 480–380 BCE · Tradition remembers a first communal recitation
- 458 or 398 BCE (disputed) · Ezra’s return is placed in the Persian period
- c. 5th–3rd centuries BCE · Sayings attributed to Laozi take shape
- c. late 4th century BCE · Zhuangzi opens new philosophical possibilities
- 3rd century BCE · Jewish scholars translate the Torah into Greek
- c. 3rd century BCE–68 CE · The Qumran scrolls preserve varied Jewish writings
- c. 261–232 BCE · Ashoka becomes a major Buddhist patron
- c. 3rd–1st centuries BCE · Sanchi develops as a Buddhist sacred center
- c. 3rd century BCE · Sanghamitta is remembered in Sri Lankan Buddhism
- c. 200 BCE–100 CE · The Bhagavad Gita enters the epic tradition
- 164 BCE · Judah Maccabee rededicates the Temple
- c. 1st century BCE · Theravada tradition records the canon in writing
- c. 30 CE · Jesus teaches and is crucified
- c. 49–50 CE · Paul argues for the inclusion of non-Jews
- 70 CE · Roman forces destroy the Second Temple
- c. 70 CE · The Gospel of Mark takes written form
- 142 CE · traditional date · The Celestial Masters remember a founding revelation
- c. 150–250 CE · Nagarjuna develops Madhyamaka philosophy
- c. 200 CE · Judah ha-Nasi’s circle compiles the Mishnah
- 226–249 CE · Wang Bi interprets the Daodejing
- 283–343 CE · Ge Hong brings cultivation and learning together
- 4th century CE · Aksum’s ruler adopts Christianity
- 312–313 CE · Constantine’s victory changes Christianity’s position
- 325 CE · The Council of Nicaea formulates a creed
- 364–370 CE · Shangqing revelation creates a new teaching circle
- 367 CE · Athanasius lists twenty-seven New Testament books
- 382 CE onward · Jerome begins a major Latin biblical project
- c. 396 CE · Augustine becomes bishop of Hippo
- 397–402 CE · Lingbao develops a communal ritual tradition
- c. 5th century CE · Nalanda grows into a monastic learning center
- 401 CE · Kumarajiva begins a major translation era
- 471 CE · Lu Xiujing organizes a scriptural catalogue
- c. 500–700 CE · Tamil poet-saints reshape devotional life
- c. 500 CE · The Babylonian Talmud takes shape
- c. 610 CE (traditional chronology) · Muhammad’s first revelation in Islamic tradition
- 622 CE · The Hijra establishes a community in Medina
- 629–645 CE · Xuanzang travels to India and returns with texts
- 632 CE · Muhammad’s death raises the question of succession
- c. 650 CE · A standard Qur’anic text is associated with Uthman
- 680 CE · Husayn is killed at Karbala
- 691/692 CE · The Dome of the Rock displays Qur’anic inscriptions
- c. 8th century CE · Shankara develops Advaita interpretation
- c. 8th–9th centuries CE · Borobudur gives Buddhist teaching architectural form
- c. 775–779 CE · Samye establishes a Tibetan monastic center
- 810–870 CE · Al-Bukhari collects reports about Muhammad
- 839–923 CE (al-Tabari’s lifetime) · Al-Tabari develops a vast Qur’an commentary
- 868 CE · A dated Diamond Sutra demonstrates Buddhist printing
- 882–942 CE · Saadya joins Jewish learning with Arabic philosophy
- 970–972 CE · Al-Azhar is founded in Fatimid Cairo
- c. 11th–12th centuries CE · Ramanuja links devotion and Vedanta
- 1009–1010 CE · Brihadisvara is consecrated at Thanjavur
- 1054 CE · Excommunications deepen the East–West estrangement
- 1095 CE · Al-Ghazali leaves his Baghdad teaching post
- early 12th century CE · Angkor Wat expresses Khmer royal devotion
- 1138–1204 CE · Maimonides reshapes Jewish law and philosophy
- 1167–1168 CE · Wang Chongyang gathers a Quanzhen community
- 1179 CE · Sun Bu’er teaches in Luoyang
- 1207–1273 CE · Rumi gives poetic form to Sufi teaching
- 1209 CE · Francis seeks recognition for his community
- 1221 CE · Qiu Chuji journeys toward the Mongol court
- 1237–1248 CE · Korea carves an extensive Buddhist canon
- 1324 CE · Mansa Musa travels from Mali to Mecca
- Late 14th century CE · Complete English Bibles circulate in manuscript
- early 15th century CE · Ming patronage transforms Wudang’s sacred landscape
- 15th–16th centuries CE · Timbuktu flourishes as a center of Islamic learning
- 1445 CE · The Ming Daoist Canon is printed
- 1486–1533 CE · Chaitanya inspires a Krishna devotional community
- 1492 CE · The 1492 expulsion reaches Girona’s Jewish community
- 1517 CE · Luther’s theses ignite a wider reform dispute
- 1545–1563 CE · The Council of Trent defines Catholic reforms
- 1574 CE · Tulsidas begins the Ramcharitmanas
- 1611 CE · The King James Bible appears in English
- c. 1730s–1740s CE · Shah Wali Allah renews study of hadith
- 1740s–1760 CE · The Baal Shem Tov gathers a Hasidic circle
- 1816 CE · Rammohun Roy publishes Upanishadic translations
- 1818 CE · Hamburg’s Reform congregation begins services
- 1828 CE · The Brahmo Samaj movement begins
- 1849–1905 CE · Muhammad Abduh advocates Islamic reform
- 1875 CE · Dayananda establishes the Arya Samaj
- 1891 CE · Dharmapala launches the Maha Bodhi Society
- 1893 CE · Vivekananda speaks in Chicago
- 1906 CE onward · William Seymour leads the Azusa Street revival
- 1924 CE · A Cairo Qur’an edition becomes influential
- 1933–1945 CE · The Holocaust devastates Jewish life in Europe
- 1956 CE · Ambedkar embraces Buddhism at Nagpur
- 1957 CE · A national Daoist association is established
- 1962–1965 CE · The Second Vatican Council reorients Catholic life
- 1966 CE · ISKCON is founded in New York
- 1973 CE · Mawangdui yields early silk copies of the Laozi
- 1977 CE · Queens consecrates its Ganesha temple
- 1979 CE · Revolution establishes Iran’s Islamic Republic
- 1993 CE · Guodian bamboo slips illuminate early Laozi traditions