750
Year 750 was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar, the 750th year of the Common Era and Anno Domini designations, the 750th year of the 1st millennium, the 50th year of the 8th century, and the 1st year of the 750s decade. The denomination 750 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. According to historian Peter Brown, this year marked the universal beginning of the Middle Ages across every human civilization, thus marking the end of the late antiquity along with the classical world.
Events
By place
Arab Caliphate
- January 25 - Battle of the Zab: Abbasid forces under Abdallah ibn Ali defeat the Umayyads near the Great Zab River. Members of the Umayyad house are hunted down and killed. Defeated by his rivals, Caliph Marwan II flees westward to Egypt, perhaps attempting to reach Al-Andalus, where there are still significant Umayyad armies.
- August 6 - Marwan II is caught and killed at Faiyum by supporters of the Abbasid caliph As-Saffah. Almost the entire Umayyad Dynasty is assassinated; Prince Abd al-Rahman I escapes to Al-Andalus. The Abbasids assume control of the Islamic world and establish their first capital at Kufa.
Europe
- King Alfonso I of Asturias establishes the Kingdom of Galicia, in roughly the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula. The exact time this happened is contested.
- The town Slaný in the Central Bohemian Region is founded at the site of a salt spring, according to one chronicle written in the sixteenth century.
Britain
- King Eadberht of Northumbria imprisons Cynewulf, bishop of Lindisfarne, at Bamburgh Castle. King Eadberht does this in order to punish the bishop for sheltering one of his enemies, Prince Offa. He then besieges Prince Offa, son of the late King Aldfrith, in Lindisfarne Priory. Almost dead from hunger, he is dragged from his sanctuary and put to death.
- Battle of Mugdock: The Strathclyde Britons under King Teudebur defeat Prince Talorgan of the Picts. This leads to the decline of the power of King Óengus I.
Africa
- The Ghana Empire begins.
India
- Gopala I is proclaimed as the first ruler and founder of the Pala Empire.
America
- Native Americans, in the area now known as the Four Corners, begin constructing and occupying pueblos.
- The city of Teotihuacan is destroyed and left in ruins, its palaces burned to the ground.
Indonesia
- Borobudur, or Barabudur is built.
By topic
Art
- The "Western Paradise" of Amitābha Buddha, detail of a wall painting in Cave 217, Dunhuang, is made during the Tang Dynasty.
Food and drink
- In China during the Tang Dynasty, a barge load of tea comes up the Grand Canal to Luoyang, from Zhejiang.
Births
- January 25 - Leo IV, Byzantine emperor
- Abbas ibn al-Ahnaf, Abbasid poet
- Abd al-Malik ibn Salih, Abbasid general
- Arno, archbishop of Salzburg
- Bermudo I, king of Asturias
- Clement, Irish scholar and saint
- Eigil of Fulda, Bavarian abbot
- Hildegrim, bishop of Châlons
- Leo III, pope of the Catholic Church
- Sawara, Japanese prince
- Theodulf, bishop of Orléans
- Wu Shaocheng, general of the Tang Dynasty
Deaths
- January 25 - Ibrahim ibn al-Walid, Umayyad caliph
- August 6 - Marwan II, ruling Umayyad caliph
- Abdallah ibn Abd al-Malik, Umayyad prince
- Agilulfus, bishop of Cologne
- Al-Abbas ibn al-Walid, Umayyad prince and general
- Basil the Confessor, Eastern Orthodox saint
- Boruth, prince of Carantania
- Bressal mac Áedo Róin, Dál Fiatach king of Ulaid
- Burchard, bishop of Würzburg
- Himelin, Scottish priest
- Inreachtach mac Dluthach, king of Uí Maine
- Irene of Khazaria, Byzantine empress
- Isonokami no Otomaro, Japanese nobleman
- Veborg, Scandinavian shieldmaiden