First letter of the Latin alphabet This article is about the Latin letter. For the similar Greek letter, see Alpha. For the similar Cyrillic letter, see A (Cyrillic). For the indefinite article, see English articles § Indefinite article: a, an. For other uses, see A (disambiguation). For technical reasons, "A#" redirects here. For A-sharp, see A-sharp. AA aUsageWriting systemLatin scriptTypeAlphabeticLanguage of originLatin languageSound values[a][ɑ][ɒ][æ][ə][ɛ][oː][ɔ][e][ʕ][ʌ] [ɐ][eɪ][ɛɪ][æɪ][ɐɪ]In UnicodeU+0041, U+0061Alphabetical position1HistoryDevelopment𓃾Α α𐌀A aTime periodc. 700 BCE – presentDescendantsÆÄÂⱭɅⱯªÅ₳@Ⓐ ⓐ ⒜🅰Sisters𐌰АӘӐא ا ܐࠀ𐎀ℵአءԱ աઅअঅ𝑎OtherAssociated graphsa(x), ae, eau, auWriting directionLeft-to-rightThis article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters. ISO basicLatin alphabet AaBbCcDdEeFfGgHhIiJjKkLlMmNnOoPpQqRrSsTtUuVvWwXxYyZz vte A (minuscule: a) is the first letter and the first vowel letter of the Latin alphabet,[1][2] used in the modern English alphabet, and others worldwide. Its name in English is a (pronounced as in say), plural aes.[nb 1][2] It is similar in shape to the Ancient Greek letter alpha, from which it derives.[3] The uppercase version consists of the two slanting sides of a triangle, crossed in the middle by a horizontal bar. The lowercase version is often written in one of two forms: the double-storey |a| and single-storey |ɑ|. The latter form is commonly used in handwriting and fonts based on it, especially fonts intended to be read by children, and is also found in italic type. In English, the name of the letter is the long A sound, pronounced /ˈeɪ/. Its name in most other languages matches the letter's pronunciation in open syllables. Pronunciation of the name of the letter ⟨a⟩ in European languages. /a/ and /aː/ can differ phonetically between [a], [ä], [æ] and [ɑ] depending on the language. The earliest known ancestor of A is aleph—the first letter of the Phoenician alphabet[4]—where it represented a glottal stop [ʔ], as Phoenician only used consonantal letters. In turn, the ancestor of aleph may have been a pictogram of an ox head in proto-Sinaitic script[5] influenced by Egyptian hieroglyphs, styled as a triangular head with two horns extended. When the ancient Greeks adopted the alphabet, they had no use for a letter representing a glottal stop—so they adapted the sign to represent the vowel /a/, calling the letter by the similar name alpha. In the earliest Greek inscriptions dating to the 8th century BC following the Greek Dark Ages, the letter rests upon its side. However, in the later Greek alphabet it generally resembles the modern capital form—though many local varieties can be distinguished by the shortening of one leg, or by the angle at which the cross line is set.[6] The Etruscans brought the Greek alphabet to the Italian Peninsula, and they left the form of alpha unchanged. When the Romans adopted the Etruscan alphabet to write Latin, the resulting form used in the Latin script would come to be used to write many other languages, including English. Egyptian Proto-Sinaitic Proto-Canaanite Phoenician Western Greek Etruscan Latin Different glyphs of the lowercase letter ⟨a⟩Allographs include a double-storey ⟨a⟩ and single-storey ⟨ɑ⟩. During Roman times, there were many variant forms of the letter A. First was the monumental or lapidary style, which was used when inscribing on stone or other more permanent media. There was also a cursive style used for everyday or utilitarian writing, which was done on more perishable surfaces. Due to the perishable nature of these surfaces, there are not as many examples of this style as there are of the monumental, but there are still many surviving examples of different types of cursive, such as majuscule cursive, minuscule cursive, and semi-cursive minuscule. Variants also existed that were intermediate between the monumental and cursive styles. The known variants include the early semi-uncial (c. 3rd century), the uncial (c. 4th–8th centuries), and the late semi-uncial (c. 6th–8th centuries).[7] Blackletter Uncial Roman Italic Script At the end of the Roman Empire (5th century CE), several variants of the cursive minuscule developed through Western Europe. Among these were the semi-cursive minuscule of Italy, the Merovingian script in France, the Visigothic script in Spain, and the Insular or Anglo-Irish semi-uncial or Anglo-Saxon majuscule of Great Britain. By the ninth century, the Caroline script, which was very similar to the present-day form, was the principal form used in book-making, before the advent of the printing press. This form was derived through a combining of prior forms.[7] Road sign in Ireland showing the "Latin alpha" form of ⟨a⟩ in lower and upper case forms 15th-century Italy saw the formation of the two main variants that are known today. These variants, the Italic and Roman forms, were derived from the Caroline Script version. The Italic form ⟨ɑ⟩, also called script a, is often used in handwriting; it consists of a circle with a vertical stroke on its right. In the hands of medieval Irish and English writers, this form gradually developed from a 5th-century form resembling the Greek letter tau ⟨τ⟩.[4] The Roman form ⟨a⟩ is found in most printed material, and consists of a small loop with an arc over it.[7] Both derive from the majuscule form ⟨A⟩. In Greek handwriting, it was common to join the left leg and horizontal stroke into a single loop, as demonstrated by the uncial version shown. Many fonts then made the right leg vertical. In some of these, the serif that began the right leg stroke developed into an arc, resulting in the printed form, while in others it was dropped, resulting in the modern handwritten form. Graphic designers refer to the Italic and Roman forms as single-decker a and double decker a respectively. Italic type is commonly used to mark emphasis or more generally to distinguish one part of a text from the rest set in Roman type. There are some other cases aside from italic type where script a ⟨ɑ⟩, also called Latin alpha, is used in contrast with Latin ⟨a⟩, such as in the International Phonetic Alphabet. In English, ⟨a⟩ is the indefinite article (with the alternative form an when followed by a vowel). Pronunciation of ⟨a⟩ by language Orthography Phonemes Catalan /a/, /ə/, silent Standard Chinese (Pinyin) /a/ English /æ/, /ɑː/, /ɒ/, /ɔː/, /ɛː/, /eɪ/, /ə/ French /a/, /ɑ/ German /a/, /aː/ Portuguese /a/, /ɐ/ Saanich /e/ Spanish /a/ Turkish /a/ Cross-linguistic variation of ⟨a⟩ pronunciation PhoneOrthography [a] Catalan, Chuvash, Croatian, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Malay, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Stavangersk Norwegian, Swedish, Tagalog, Turkish, Utrecht Dutch [aː] Dutch (doubled), German [a̠] Afrikaans, Bulgarian [a̠ː] New Zealand English, Lithuanian, Limburgish (doubled), Luxembourgish [ä] Catalan, Czech, French, Northern England English, Terengganu Malay, Polish [äː] West Frisian (doubled) [ɑ] Bashkir, Catalan, Spanish, Dutch, Finnish, French, Kaingang, Limburgish, Norwegian, Russian, West Frisian [ɑː] Afrikaans (doubled), Danish, German, Southern England English, Kurdish, Norwegian [ɑ̝] Azerbaijani, Kazakh, Luxembourgish [ɒ] Southern England English, Hungarian, Kedah Malay, Valencian [ɒː] Hungarian [ɒ̜ː] Swedish [ɒ̝ː] Maastrichtian Limburgish, Ulster Irish [æ] Danish, English, Russian, Valencian, Zeta–Raška Serbian [ɐ] Australian English, Bulgarian, Catalan (Barcelonan), Emilian, Galician, Lithuanian, Portuguese, Tagalog, Ukrainian [ɐ̝] Mapudungun [ɛ] New Zealand English, Perak Malay [ɜ] Chemnitz German, Transylvanian Romanian [ʌ] Chemnitz German [ɔː] Southern England English [ə] English, Catalan [e] Saanich [eɪ] English Further information: Pronunciation of English ⟨a⟩ In English language education, the word apple is consistently associated with the letter A.[8] In modern English orthography, the letter ⟨a⟩ represents at least seven different vowel sounds, here represented using the vowels of Received Pronunciation, with effects of ⟨r⟩ ignored and mergers in General American mentioned where relevant: the near-open front unrounded vowel /æ/ as in pad the open back unrounded vowel /ɑː/ as in father—merged with /ɒ/ as /ɑ/ in General American—which is closer to its original Latin and Greek sound[5] the open back rounded vowel /ɒ/ (merged with /ɑː/ as /ɑ/ in General American) in was and what[4] the open-mid back rounded vowel /ɔː/ in water the diphthong /eɪ/ as in ace and major, usually when ⟨a⟩ is followed by one, or occasionally two, consonants and then another vowel letter—this results from Middle English lengthening followed by the Great Vowel Shift a schwa /ə/ in many unstressed syllables, as in about, comma, solar The double ⟨aa⟩ sequence does not occur in native English words, but is found in some words derived from foreign languages such as Aaron and aardvark.[9] However, ⟨a⟩ occurs in many common digraphs, all with their own sound or sounds, particularly ⟨ai⟩, ⟨au⟩, ⟨aw⟩, ⟨ay⟩, ⟨ea⟩ and ⟨oa⟩. ⟨a⟩ is the third-most-commonly used letter in English after ⟨e⟩ and ⟨t⟩, as well as in French; it is the second most common in Spanish, and the most common in Portuguese. ⟨a⟩ represents approximately 8.2% of letters as used in English texts;[10] the figure is around 7.6% in French[11] 11.5% in Spanish,[12] and 14.6% in Portuguese.[13] In most languages that use the Latin alphabet, ⟨a⟩ denotes an open unrounded vowel, such as /a/, /ä/, or /ɑ/. An exception is Saanich, in which ⟨a⟩—and the glyph ⟨Á⟩—stands for a close-mid front unrounded vowel /e/. In the International Phonetic Alphabet, ⟨a⟩ is used for the open front unrounded vowel, ⟨ä⟩ is used for the open central unrounded vowel, and ⟨ɑ⟩ is used for the open back unrounded vowel. In X-SAMPA, ⟨a⟩ is used for the open front unrounded vowel and ⟨A⟩ is used for the open back unrounded vowel. Main article: A (disambiguation) When using base-16 notation, A or a is the conventional numeral corresponding to the number 10. In algebra, the letter a along with various other letters of the alphabet is often used to denote a variable, with various conventional meanings in different areas of mathematics. In 1637, René Descartes "invented the convention of representing unknowns in equations by x, y, and z, and knowns by a, b, and c",[14] and this convention is still often followed, especially in elementary algebra. In geometry, capital Latin letters are used to denote objects including line segments, lines, and rays[7] A capital A is also typically used as one of the letters to represent an angle in a triangle, the lowercase a representing the side opposite angle A.[5] A is often used to denote something or someone of a better or more prestigious quality or status: A−, A or A+, the best grade that can be assigned by teachers for students' schoolwork; "A grade" for clean restaurants; A-list celebrities, A1 at Lloyd's for shipping, etc. Such associations can have a motivating effect, as exposure to the letter A has been found to improve performance, when compared with other letters.[15] A is used to denote size, as in a narrow size shoe,[5] or a small cup size in a brassiere.[16] ⟨Æ æ⟩: a ligature of ⟨AE⟩ originally used in Latin ⟨A⟩ with diacritics: Å å Ǻ ǻ Ḁ ḁ ẚ Ă ă Ặ ặ Ắ ắ Ằ ằ Ẳ ẳ Ẵ ẵ Ȃ ȃ  â Ậ ậ Ấ ấ Ầ ầ Ẫ ẫ Ẩ ẩ Ả ả Ǎ ǎ Ⱥ ⱥ Ȧ ȧ Ǡ ǡ Ạ ạ Ä ä Ǟ ǟ À à Ȁ ȁ Á á Ā ā Ā̀ ā̀ Ã ã Ą ą Ą́ ą́ Ą̃ ą̃ A̲ a̲ ᶏ[17] Phonetic alphabet symbols related to A—the International Phonetic Alphabet only uses lowercase, but uppercase forms are used in some other writing systems: ⟨Ɑ ɑ⟩: Latin alpha, represents an open back unrounded vowel in the IPALatin alpha was also used for the Initial Teaching Alphabet[18] ⟨ᶐ⟩: Latin small alpha with a retroflex hook[17] ⟨Ɐ ɐ⟩: Turned A, represents a near-open central vowel in the IPA ⟨Ʌ ʌ⟩: Turned V, represents an open-mid back unrounded vowel in IPA ⟨Ɒ ɒ⟩: Turned alpha or script A, represents an open back rounded vowel in the IPA ⟨ᶛ⟩: Modifier letter small turned alpha[17] ⟨ᴀ⟩: Small capital A, an obsolete or non-standard symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet used to represent various sounds (mainly open vowels) ⟨ᴬ ᵃ ᵄ⟩: Modifier letters are used in the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet (UPA),[19] sometimes encoded with Unicode subscripts and superscripts ⟨ₐ⟩: Subscript small a is used in Indo-European studies[20] ⟨ꬱ⟩: Small letter a reversed-schwa is used in the Teuthonista phonetic transcription system[21] ⟨Ꞻ ꞻ⟩: Glottal A, used in the transliteration of Ugaritic[22] ⟨ª⟩: ordinal indicator ⟨Å⟩: Ångström sign ⟨∀⟩: turned capital letter A, used in predicate logic to specify universal quantification ("for all") ⟨@⟩: At sign ⟨₳⟩: Argentine austral ⟨Ⓐ⟩: anarchy symbol ⟨𐤀⟩: Phoenician aleph, from which the following symbols originally derive:[23] ⟨Α α⟩: Greek letter alpha, from which the following letters derive:[24] ⟨А а⟩: Cyrillic letter A[25] ⟨Ⲁ ⲁ⟩: Coptic letter alpha[26] ⟨𐌀⟩: Old Italic A, the ancestor of modern Latin A[27][28] ⟨ᚨ⟩: Runic letter ansuz, which probably derives from old Italic A[29] ⟨𐌰⟩: Gothic letter aza ⟨Ա ա⟩: Armenian letter ayb The Latin letters ⟨A⟩ and ⟨a⟩ have Unicode encodings U+0041 A LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A and U+0061 a LATIN SMALL LETTER A. These are the same code points as those used in ASCII and ISO 8859. There are also precomposed character encodings for ⟨A⟩ and ⟨a⟩ with diacritics, for most of those listed above; the remainder are produced using combining diacritics. Variant forms of the letter have unique code points for specialist use: the alphanumeric symbols set in mathematics and science, Latin alpha in linguistics, and halfwidth and fullwidth forms for legacy CJK font compatibility. The Cyrillic and Greek homoglyphs of the Latin ⟨A⟩ have separate encodings U+0410 А CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER A and U+0391 Α GREEK CAPITAL LETTER ALPHA. NATO phonetic Morse code Alfa  ▄ ▄▄▄ ⓘ Signal flag Flag semaphore American manual alphabet (ASL fingerspelling) British manual alphabet (BSL fingerspelling) Braille dots-1 Unified English Braille ↑ Aes is the plural of the name of the letter. The plural of the letter itself is rendered As, A's, as, or a's. ↑ "Latin alphabet". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on 9 March 2021. Retrieved 3 March 2021. 1 2 Simpson & Weiner 1989, p. 1. ↑ McCarter 1974, p. 54. 1 2 3 Hoiberg 2010, p. 1. 1 2 3 4 Hall-Quest 1997, p. 1. ↑ Rabinowitz, Harold; Vogel, Suzanne (2009). The manual of scientific style: a guide for authors, editors, and researchers (1st ed.). Amsterdam Burlington, MA: Elsevier/Academic Press. p. 363. ISBN 978-0-12-373980-3. 1 2 3 4 Diringer 2000, p. 1. ↑ Mankin, Jennifer; Simner, Julia (30 May 2017). "A Is for Apple: the Role of Letter-Word Associations in the Development of Grapheme-Colour Synaesthesia" (PDF). Multisensory Research. 30 (3–5): 409–446. doi:10.1163/22134808-00002554. ISSN 2213-4794. PMID 31287075. Retrieved 16 December 2023. ↑ Gelb & Whiting 1998, p. 45 ↑ "Letter frequency (English)". Archived from the original on 4 March 2021. Retrieved 3 January 2022. ↑ "Corpus de Thomas Tempé" (in French). Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 15 June 2007. ↑ Pratt, Fletcher (1942). Secret and Urgent: The story of codes and ciphers. Garden City, NY: Blue Ribbon. pp. 254–255. OCLC 795065. ↑ "Frequência da ocorrência de letras no Português" (in Portuguese). Archived from the original on 3 August 2009. Retrieved 16 June 2009. ↑ Tom Sorell, Descartes: A Very Short Introduction, (2000). New York: Oxford University Press. p. 19. ↑ Ciani & Sheldon 2010, pp. 99–100. ↑ Luciani, Jené (2009). The Bra Book: The Fashion Formula to Finding the Perfect Bra. Dallas: Benbella. p. 13. ISBN 978-1-933771-94-6. 1 2 3 Constable, Peter (19 April 2004), L2/04-132 Proposal to Add Additional Phonetic Characters to the UCS (PDF), archived (PDF) from the original on 11 October 2017, retrieved 24 March 2018 – via www.unicode.org ↑ Miller, Kirk (13 December 2024). "Unicode request for Initial Teaching Alphabet" (PDF). ↑ Everson, Michael; et al. (20 March 2002), L2/02-141: Uralic Phonetic Alphabet Characters for the UCS (PDF), archived (PDF) from the original on 19 February 2018, retrieved 24 March 2018 – via www.unicode.org ↑ Anderson, Deborah; Everson, Michael (7 June 2004), L2/04-191: Proposal to Encode Six Indo-Europeanist Phonetic Characters in the UCS (PDF), archived (PDF) from the original on 11 October 2017, retrieved 24 March 2018 – via www.unicode.org ↑ Everson, Michael; Dicklberger, Alois; Pentzlin, Karl; Wandl-Vogt, Eveline (2 June 2011), L2/11-202: Revised Proposal to Encode "Teuthonista" Phonetic Characters in the UCS (PDF), archived (PDF) from the original on 11 October 2017, retrieved 24 March 2018 – via www.unicode.org ↑ Suignard, Michel (9 May 2017), L2/17-076R2: Revised Proposal for the Encoding of an Egyptological YOD and Ugaritic Characters (PDF), archived (PDF) from the original on 30 March 2019, retrieved 8 March 2019 – via www.unicode.org ↑ Jensen, Hans (1969). Sign, Symbol, and Script. New York: G. P. Putman's Sons. ↑ "Hebrew Lesson of the Week: The Letter Aleph". 17 February 2013. Archived from the original on 26 May 2018. Retrieved 25 May 2018 – via The Times of Israel. ↑ "Cyrillic Alphabet". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on 26 May 2018. Retrieved 25 May 2018. ↑ Silvestre, M. J. B. (1850). Universal Palaeography. Translated by Madden, Frederic. London: Henry G. Bohn. Retrieved 27 October 2020. ↑ Frothingham, A. L. Jr. (1891). "Italic Studies". Archaeological News. American Journal of Archaeology. 7 (4): 534. JSTOR 496497. Retrieved 27 October 2020. ↑ Steele, Philippa M., ed. (2017). Understanding Relations Between Scripts: The Aegean Writing Systems. Oxford: Oxbow. ISBN 978-1-78570-647-9. Retrieved 27 October 2020. ↑ Fortson, Benjamin W. (2010). Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction (2nd ed.). Wiley. ISBN 978-1-4443-5968-8. Retrieved 27 October 2020. "English Letter Frequency". Math Explorer's Club. Cornell University. 2004. Archived from the original on 22 April 2014. Retrieved 28 May 2014. "Percentages of Letter Frequencies per Thousand Words". Trinity College. 2006. Archived from the original on 25 January 2007. Retrieved 11 May 2015. Ciani, Keith D.; Sheldon, Kennon M. (2010). "A Versus F: The Effects of Implicit Letter Priming on Cognitive Performance". British Journal of Educational Psychology. 80 (1): 99–119. doi:10.1348/000709909X466479. PMID 19622200. Diringer, David (2000). "A". In Bayer, Patricia (ed.). Encyclopedia Americana. Vol. I. Danbury, CT: Grolier. ISBN 978-0-717-20133-4. Gelb, I. J.; Whiting, R. M. (1998). "A". In Ranson, K. Anne (ed.). Academic American Encyclopedia. Vol. I. Danbury, CT: Grolier. ISBN 978-0-7172-2068-7. Hall-Quest, Olga Wilbourne (1997). "A". In Johnston, Bernard (ed.). Collier's Encyclopedia. Vol. I. New York: P. F. Collier. Hoiberg, Dale H., ed. (2010). "A". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1. Chicago. ISBN 978-1-59339-837-8.{{cite encyclopedia}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) McCarter, P. Kyle (1974). "The Early Diffusion of the Alphabet". The Biblical Archaeologist. 37 (3): 54–68. doi:10.2307/3210965. JSTOR 3210965. S2CID 126182369. Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989). "A". Oxford English Dictionary. Vol. I (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-861213-1. Media related to A at Wikimedia Commons The dictionary definition of A at Wiktionary The dictionary definition of a at Wiktionary Listen to this article (14 minutes) This audio file was created from a revision of this article dated 26 June 2023 (2023-06-26), and does not reflect subsequent edits.(Audio help · More spoken articles) History of the Alphabet Archived 10 April 2021 at the Wayback Machine Texts on Wikisource: "A" in A Dictionary of the English Language by Samuel Johnson "A" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. I (9th ed.). 1878. p. 1. "A". The American Cyclopædia. 1879. "A". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. I (11th ed.). 1911. p. 1. "A". The New Student's Reference Work. 1914. "A". Collier's New Encyclopedia. 1921. Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=A&oldid=1371958751"Page 2One hundred years, from 701 to 800 Eastern Hemisphere at the beginning of the 8th century Millennia 1st millennium Centuries 7th century 8th century 9th century Timelines 7th century 8th century 9th century State leaders 7th century 8th century 9th century Decades 700s 710s 720s 730s 740s 750s 760s 770s 780s 790s Categories: Births – Deaths Establishments – Disestablishments vte The 8th century is the period from 701 (represented by the Roman numerals DCCI) through 800 (DCCC) in accordance with the Julian Calendar. In the historiography of Europe the phrase the long 8th century is sometimes used to refer to the period of circa AD 660–820.[1] The coast of North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula quickly came under Islamic Arab domination. The westward expansion of the Umayyad Empire was famously stopped at the siege of Constantinople by the Byzantine Empire and the Battle of Tours by the Franks. The tide of Arab conquest came to an end in the middle of the 8th century.[2] In Europe, late in the century, the Vikings, seafaring peoples from Scandinavia, begin raiding the coasts of Europe and the Mediterranean, and go on to found several important kingdoms. In Asia, the Pala Empire is founded in Bengal. The Tang dynasty reaches its pinnacle under Chinese Emperor Xuanzong. The Nara period begins in Japan. Estimated century in which the poem Beowulf is composed. Classical Maya civilization begins to decline. The Kombumerri burial grounds are founded. The first Serbian state is formed at the beginning of the century. Buddhist Jataka stories are translated into Syriac and Arabic as Kalilag and Damnag. An account of Buddha's life is translated into Greek by Saint John of Damascus, and widely circulated to Christians as the story of Barlaam and Josaphat. Height of the Classic period in pre-Columbian Maya civilization history. Śāntideva, a Buddhist monk at Nalanda Monastery in India, composes the famous Bodhicharyāvatāra, or Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life. The height of the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda in Xi'an, China is extended by 5 stories. 701: The Taihō Code is enacted in late Asuka period Japan. 705: Death of Arab caliph Abd al-Malik, his succession by his nominated heir and elder son al-Walid. 705: Overthrow of Empress Wu Zetian, the reign of China's first and only sole-ruling empress ends. 705: Justinian II is forced to give the title Caesar of Byzantium to the Bulgarian Emperor Tervel. The Byzantine Empire begins to pay annual tributes to Bulgaria. 708–711: The Bulgarians defeat Justinian II at the Battle of Anchialus. An Arab Umayyad army under Muhammad ibn al-Qasim invades Sindh in northern India.[3] 710: Empress Genmei moves the capital to Heijō-kyū (present day Nara), initiating the Nara period of Japan. 711: Palenque is conquered by Toniná. A prisoner from Palenque in Toniná 711: Tariq ibn Ziyad crosses the Straits of Gibraltar.[3] With the creation of Al-Andalus, most of the Iberian Peninsula is conquered by Arab and Berber Muslims, thus ending the Visigothic rule, and beginning almost eight centuries of Muslim rule. 712: Liutprand, King of the Lombards begins his reign (until 744). c. 712: Metropolitan episcopal see is established by the Church of the East in Chinese capital of Chang'an. 712–756: Emperor Xuanzong reigned, the time was considered one of China's high points. 712–776: Caliphate campaigns in India Arab Expansions Halted. 713: Death of Dajian Huineng, sixth and last Patriarch of Chán Buddhism. 713: Treaty of Tudmir, signed between Abd al-'Aziz, the commander of Muslim troops invaiding Spain and Theodemir, the Christian king of a southern region is Spain. 715: Death of al-Walid I and he was succeeded by his brother Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik. 716: Sanjaya ascends the throne to be the first king of the Mataram kingdom.[4] 717: Death of caliph Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik and his succession by his cousin and nominated heir Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz. 717–718: Siege of Constantinople. The Bulgarians and the Byzantines decisively defeat the invading Arabs, thus halting the Arab advance toward Europe. 718: Sri Indravarman King of Srivijaya send a letter to the Caliph Umar bin Abdul Aziz of the Umayyad Caliphate in Damascus, signing early ancient Indonesian official contact with Islamic world in the Middle East.[5] 720: Death of caliph Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz and succession of his cousin Yazid II on 4 February 720. 720: The uprising of the Egyptians against the Umayyad Arab rule in Egypt, which led to the beginning of the Bashmurian revolts that lasted 112 years. 724: Death of caliph Yazid II and he was succeeded by his brother and nominated heir Hisham. 726: Byzantine Emperor Leo III the Isaurian destroys the icon of Christ above the Chalke Gate in the capital city of Constantinople, beginning the first phase of the Byzantine Iconoclasm. 731: Bede completes his Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (Ecclesiastical History of the English People).[6] 732: Battle of Tours. Near Poitiers, France, leader of the Franks Charles Martel and his men defeat a large army of Moors under the governor of Cordoba, Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi, who is killed during the battle. The Battle of Tours halts the advance of Islam into Western Europe and establishes a balance of power between Western Europe, Islam and the Byzantine Empire. 732: The Sanjaya dynasty is founded around this time according to the Canggal inscription.[7] An 8th-century Tang dynasty Chinese clay figurine of a Sogdian man (an Eastern Iranian person) wearing a distinctive cap and face veil, possibly a camel rider or even a Zoroastrian priest engaging in a ritual at a fire temple, since face veils were used to avoid contaminating the holy fire with breath or saliva; Museum of Oriental Art (Turin), Italy.[8] 738: Quiriguá declares independence from Copan 740: Battle of Akroinon. Byzantines win their first large-scale victory in a pitched battle against the Arabs. 742: For the municipal census of the Tang-dynasty Chinese capital city Chang'an and its metropolitan area of Jingzhou Fu (including small towns in the vicinity), the New Book of Tang records that in this year there were 362,921 registered families with 1,960,188 persons. 743: Death of Arab caliph Hisham and succession of his nephew and heir Al-Walid II. 744: Assassination of Al-Walid II, Succession of Yazid III to the Caliphal throne on 17 April 744. 744 Death of Yazid III and his succession by his brother and nominated heir Ibrahim ibn al-Walid. On 4 December Ibrahim was forced to Abdicate in favour Marwan II. 748: The Chinese Buddhist monk Jian Zhen writes in his Yue Jue Shu of the international sea traffic coming to Guangzhou, ships from Borneo, Persia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and others bringing tons of goods. 749: Bashmurian revolts: Ḥawthara ibn Suhayl takes the Coptic patriarch, Michael I, hostage to Rosetta, threatens to have him killed. Egyptian resistance attack Rosetta and sack it, massacring its Arab inhabitants.[9][10] There was an offensive as far as Pelusium against an Umayyad army.[11] 750: The last Umayyad Caliph Marwan II (744–750) is overthrown and executed by the first Abbasid Caliph, Abu al-Abbas al-Saffah. The Caliphate is moved to Baghdad which would later develop into a centre of trade and culture. The Ghana Empire begins in western Africa. mid-8th century - Great Wild Goose Pagoda at Ci'en Temple, Xi'an, Shanxi, is rebuilt. c. mid-8th century - Camel Carrying a Group of Musicians, from a tomb near Xi'an, Shanxi, is made. Tang dynasty. It is now kept at Museum of Chinese History, Beijing. 751: Arabian armies defeat Chinese Tang dynasty troops in the Battle of Talas, in the high Pamirs near Samarkand, and conquer Central Asia completely. 752: The Hindu Mataram kingdom flourishes and declines.[12] (to 1045) 754: Death of Abbasid caliph al-Saffah and ascension of caliph al-Mansur to Arab Caliphate. 755–763: The An Shi Rebellion devastates China during the mid Tang dynasty. 757: King Offa of Mercia becomes dominant ruler in England. 758: Arab and Persian pirates and travelers burn and loot the Chinese city of Guangzhou, while the Tang Dynasty authorities shut the port down for the next five decades. 760: The construction of the famous Indonesian Buddhist structure Borobudur began, probably as a non-Buddhist shrine.[13] 761: Marriage of Abbasid princess Raytah and Muhammad (future al-Mahdi). 767: Bashmurian revolts: Local officials were killed, and the governor Yazīd ibn Ḥātim sent a force against the Egyptian resistance, but it was defeated and forced to retreat to Fustat.[9][14] 768: Pepin dies; Charles becomes king at Noyan and his brother Carloman becomes king at Soissons. 770's–780's: Java launched series of naval raids on ports of Dai Viet, Champa and Cambodia; Sontay in Tonkin (767); Nha Trang (774); captured Indrapura in Cambodia (770); Phan Rang (787). The naval raids was probably launched by Sailendran-Srivijayan Maharaja Dharmasetu or Dharanindra.[15] 772–804: Charlemagne invades what is now northwestern Germany, battling the Saxons for more than thirty years and finally crushing their rebellion, incorporating Saxony into the Frankish Empire and the Christian world. 775: Death of caliph al-Mansur and he was succeeded by al-Mahdi. Abbasid caliph al-Mansur was succeeded by his heir and son Al-Mahdi, on 6th October 775. 778: Kalasan temple constructed, according to the Kalasan inscription. 781: Marriage of Abbasid princess Zubaidah and Harun al-Rashid. The Xi'an Stele is erected in China. 782: Buddhist monk Prajna reaches Chang'an and translates the sutras into Chinese.The Second Council of Nicaea was set up to restore the use and veneration of icons (or holy images), which had previously been suppressed[16] 785: Death of Abbasid caliph al-Mahdi and succession of al-Hadi on 24 July 785. The Tang dynasty begins landing regular maritime missions on the coast of East Africa, cutting out middlemen Arab sea merchants. 785–805: Chinese geographer Jia Dan describes large lighthouse pillars built in the Persian Gulf, which is confirmed a century later by al-Mas'udi and al-Muqaddasi. 787: The Empress Irene of Athens convenes the Seventh Ecumenical Council, ending the first phase of Byzantine Iconoclasm. 786: Death of Abbasid caliph al-Hadi and ascension of caliph Harun al-Rashid. 792: Battle of Marcelae. The Bulgarian victory over the Byzantines marks the end of the half-century political instability in Bulgaria. 792: The Manjusrigrha (Sewu) temple is completed according to Manjusrigrha inscription. 793: The first written account of a Viking raid carried out on the abbey of Lindisfarne in northern England. 793: The Frisian–Frankish wars come to an end with the last uprising of the Frisians. 794: Emperor Kanmu moves the capital to Heian-kyō (present day Kyoto), initiating the Heian period of Japan. 800: An Arab fleet sails up the Tiber. 800–909: Rule of Aghlabids as an autonomous province of Caliphate in North Africa, with their capital at Tunis. 800: Beginning of the ancient West African state of Takrur or Tekrour, which flourished roughly parallel to the Ghana Empire. 800: On Christmas Day, Charlemagne is crowned the first Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III. 800: The agriculturally based Buddhist Sailendra kingdom flourishes and declines.[7] (to 832) 8th century silk fragment, central Asia Heavy plow in use in the Rhine valley. Horse collar in use in Northern Europe in 8th or 9th century — perhaps introduced from Asia. Mid 8th century – papermaking introduced from China to Arabs. Iron horseshoes came into common use around 770. Pattadakal, Chalukya architecture. The Chinese Buddhist monk Yi Xing applies a clockwork escapement mechanism to operate and rotate his astronomical celestial globe. The first European triangular harp designed by the Picts of Scotland. Wikimedia Commons has media related to 8th century. ↑ Kershaw, Jane; Merkel, Stephen W.; D'Imporzano, Paolo; Naismith, Rory (April 2024). "Byzantine plate and Frankish mines: the provenance of silver in north-west European coinage during the Long Eighth Century (c. 660–820)". Antiquity. 98 (398): 502–517. doi:10.15184/aqy.2024.33. hdl:1871.1/0618f675-95a2-4c5d-8de8-5225a46423e0. ISSN 0003-598X. Retrieved 19 May 2024. ↑ Roberts, J., History of the World, Penguin, 1994. 1 2 Roberts, J., History of the World, Penguin, 1994. ↑ Coedès, George (1968). Walter F. Vella (ed.). The Indianized States of Southeast Asia. trans.Susan Brown Cowing. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 978-0-8248-0368-1. ↑ Azra, Azyumardi (2006). Islam in the Indonesian world: an account of institutional formation. Mizan Pustaka. ISBN 979-433-430-8. ↑ Palmer, Alan; Palmer, Veronica (1992). The Chronology of British History. London: Century Ltd. pp. 34–37. ISBN 0-7126-5616-2. 1 2 Miksic (1997) ↑ Lawrence, Lee (3 September 2011). "A Mysterious Stranger in China | Masterpiece by Lee Lawrence". WSJ. Retrieved 16 February 2023. 1 2 Megally 1991. ↑ Gabra 2003, p. 116. ↑ Gabra 2003, p. 115. ↑ Miksic (2003) ↑ Taylor (2003), p. 37. ↑ Brooks 1913, p. 381. ↑ Munoz, Paul Michel (2006). Early Kingdoms of the Indonesian Archipelago and the Malay Peninsula. Singapore: Editions Didier Millet. p. 171. ISBN 981-4155-67-5. ↑ Gibbon, Edward (1995). The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. New York: Random House. p. 1693. Brooks, E. W. (1913). "The Relations Between the Empire and Egypt from a New Arabic Source". Byzantinische Zeitschrift. 22 (2): 381–391. doi:10.1515/byzs.1913.22.2.381. S2CID 191661543. Gabra, Gawdat (2003). "The Revolts of the Bashmuric Copts in the Eighth and Ninth Centuries". In W. Beltz (ed.). Die koptische Kirche in den ersten drei islamischen Jahrhunderten. Institut für Orientalistik, Martin-Luther-Universität. pp. 111–119. Archived from the original on 22 March 2020. Retrieved 22 March 2020. Megally, Mounir (1991). "Bashmuric Revolts". In Aziz Suryal Atiya (ed.). The Coptic Encyclopedia. Vol. 2. New York: Macmillan Publishers. cols. 349b–351b. Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=8th_century&oldid=1369091131"Page 3 The following pages link to 8th century External tools (link count transclusion count sorted list) · See help page for transcluding these entries Showing 50 items. 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