| 1914-
1918
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World War I |
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| 1916-
1921 |
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The Arab Revolt. Discrimination, famine and epidemics plague the Arab population in the Ottoman Empire. The Arabs form an alliance with the British and revolt against the Turks. |
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| 1917 |
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Britain publishes the Balfour Declaration. The British support Zionist claims for a Jewish state in Palestine. |
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| 1919 |
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Kemal Ataturk leads the Turkish War of Independence against Western occupying forces. He establishes an independent and sovereign Turkey. |
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| 1920 |
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The Sykes-Picot Agreement. Britain and France secretly negotiate the partition of the Middle East. The British Mandate of Palestine includes the Balfour Declaration, despite previous assurances to the Arabs for an independent state. |
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| 1921 |
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Britain places Abdullah ibn Husayn, the son of the sharif of Mecca, as the king of Transjordan. His brother, Faysal, is made the king of Iraq.
Reza Khan leads a coup against the Qajar dynasty in Iran.
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| 1923 |
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Ataturk is elected president of Turkey. He institutes modernizing reforms and begins the secularization of Turkey.
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| 1923-
1930 |
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The Wafd Party, a political party aiming to end foreign dominance and create economic and social reforms, wins three major elections in Egypt. However, the British or the king force the party's resignation each time and they are unable to govern. |
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| 1913 |
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The Moorish Science Temple of America is organized by Nobel Drew Ali in Newark, N.J. Ali preaches black nationalism and uses Islam as unifier of African Americans, although the religion was created with beliefs drawn from other major religions. |
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| 1928 |
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The Muslim Brotherhood is founded by Hasan al-Banna in Egypt. The group is opposed to secular policies and believes that Muslim nations should govern according to the principles of the Qur'an. |
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| 1932 |
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Abdul Aziz al-Saud founds the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. |
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| 1939-
1945
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World War II. Iran is occupied by British and Russian forces. Reza Shah Pahlavi is forced to abdicate in favor of his son, Muhammad.
|
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| 1940 |
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Leader of the Muslim League, Muhammad Ali Jinnah urges a separate state for the Muslim minority in India. |
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| 1945 |
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The Arab League, a council made up of Arab states, is formed. |
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| 1948 |
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The British withdraw from Palestine. The Jews are given fifty-five percent of historical Palestine via the United Nations partition. The State of Israel is created.
Al-Nakba ("The Disaster"). The mass exodus of 750,000 Palestinians forced to leave their homes due to Jewish raids and siege of their ancestral lands. The refugees are denied the right of return to their homeland.
|
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| 1949 |
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Considered a threat to the Egyptian government, Hassan al-Banna is assassinated. |
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| 1951 |
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Libya gains independence from Italy. |
|
| 1951-
1953 |
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The National Front Party nationalizes oil in Iran. They appoint Muhammad Musaddiq as the prime minister of Iran. The CIA and the local opposition form a coup against Musaddiq and reinstate the shah as ruler of Iran.
|
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| 1952 |
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Jamal Abd al-Nasser leads a military coup and deposes King Faruk in Egypt. |
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| 1954 |
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Al-Nasser enforces the brutal repression of the Muslim Brotherhood. |
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| 1954-
1962 |
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Najeeb Halaby is appointed the head of the Federal Aviation Administration by President John F. Kennedy. |
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| 1962 |
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The National Liberation Front leads the war for independence in Algeria. France withdraws from Algeria. |
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| 1956 |
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Tunisia and Morocco gain independence from France.
Al-Nasser nationalizes the Suez Canal.
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| 1957 |
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The secret state intelligence of Iran, SAVAK, is formed with the help of the CIA and the Israeli MOSSAD. One of its main operations is to prevent the nationalization of Iran's oil. |
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| 1958 |
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General Muhammad Ayub Khan becomes president of Pakistan. His secularist government begins land reforms and economic developments. |
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| 1961 |
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The modernizing reforms of the White Revolution are introduced in Iran by Shah Muhammad Reza Pahlavi. Bureaucratic control extends into villages and discontent with the shah rises among Iranians. |
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| 1963 |
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The Shi'i cleric, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, condemns and defies the shah in Iran. Khomeini is exiled, although his supporters grow in number in Iran. |
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| 1967 |
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The Six-Day War. Border incidents compel Israel to attack its Arab neighbors. |
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| 1968 |
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The expansion of the Grand Mosque of Mecca is completed. Approximately 275,000 pilgrims can be accommodated within the Mosque grounds. |
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| 1969 |
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Colonel Qaddafi leads a coup and overthrows King Idris of Libya. Qaddafi is appointed chairman of Libya's new government, the Revolutionary Command Council. |
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| 1970 |
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Anwar al-Sadat succeeds al-Nasser as president of Egypt. |
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| 1973 |
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King Zahir Shar is ousted in a coup backed by the Soviet Union. |
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| 1977 |
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Zia al-Haq leads coup in Pakistan against Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Butto. |
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| 1978 |
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The Camp David Accords. Anwar al-Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin sign peace treaty. |
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| 1978-
1979 |
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The Iranian Revolution. The Shah flees. Khomeini returns from exile, becomes the Supreme Spiritual Leader of Iran and declares it an Islamic republic. |
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| 1980-
1988 |
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Iran-Iraq War. Iraq invades Iran with implicit U.S. support in aims of gaining territory and dominance in the Persian Gulf. |
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| 1982 |
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Israel launches an attack on Lebanon to destroy bases of the Palestinian Liberation Organization.
The Sabra and Shatila Massacre. Israeli forces occupying the area outside Beirut allow Lebanese Christian Phalangists to enter the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps. The Phalangists kill an estimated 1,000 to 3,000 Palestinian civilians.
|
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| 1987 |
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The First Intifadah. The largely unarmed Palestinian uprising against Israeli oppression and occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. |
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| 1989 |
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The Soviet Union withdraws from Afghanistan. |
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| 1990-
1991
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Saddam Hussein invades Kuwait. The U.S. and its allies attack Iraq. |
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| 1992 |
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Hindu nationalists destroy the 16th century Mosque of Babur in Ayodhya. Riots break out between Hindus and Muslims in India. |
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| 1992 -
1995 |
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War in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Bosnian and Kosovor Muslims are "ethnically cleansed" by Serbian and Croatian nationalists. |
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| 1994 |
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The Taliban, a group of fighters formed during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, seize Kandahar. |
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| 1997 |
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The Iranians elect moderate Hojjat ol-Islam Khatami as their next president. |
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| 1999 |
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General Pervez Musharraf leads a coup against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan. |
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| 2001 |
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The Second Intifadah is sparked after Ariel Sharon visits the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, the third most sacred site in Islam.
|
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| 2003 |
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The U.S. leads the invasion of Iraq and ousts President Saddam Hussein. Iraq is occupied by coalition forces. |
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| 2003-
2004 |
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Libya announces its intent to cease missile programs. The U.S. renews diplomatic relations with Libya. |
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| 2005 |
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The Noble Peace Prize is split equally between the International Atomic Energy Agency and its director general, Mohamed El Baradei, for their diplomatic efforts to prevent the use of atomic weapons for non-peaceful purposes. |
