…Luoyang (secondary capital). The scarcity of food…

Emperor Temmu issues a decree in 682 forbidding the Japanese-style cap of ranks and garments, and changing them into Chinese ones.

He also makes a decree forbidding men to wear leggings and women to let down their hair on their backs.

It is from this time that the practice begins of women riding on horseback like men.

He issues an edict prescribing the character of ceremonies and language to be used on ceremonial occasions.

Ceremonial kneeling and crawling are both abolished, and the Tang Court’s ceremonial custom of standing is practiced instead.

A widespread famine in China, due to a culmination of major droughts, floods, locust plagues, and epidemics, breaks out in the dual capital cities of Chang'an (primary capital) and …

A critical time in the history of Visigothic Spain begins toward the end of the seventh century.

A sign of future troubles is the deposition, through deception, of King Wamba, a capable ruler who has tried to reform the military organization.

As agitation continues, his successors make scapegoats of the Jews, compelling them to accept the Christian religion and threatening them with slavery.

Erwig, or Euric, II, who had succeeded Wamba in 680, had begun his reign by enacting twenty-eight anti-Jewish laws, decreeing that all converts must be registered by a parish priest, through whom all travel permits must be obtained.

He had also ruled that all holidays, Christian and Jewish, must be spent in the presence of a priest to ensure piety and to prevent “backsliding”.

The church councils of Toledo have become the main force in the government, and the royal power has been accordingly weakened.

The twelfth Council of Toledo in 681 had burned the Talmud and other Jewish writings.

Erwig presses in 682 for the “utter extirpation of the pest of the Jews” and makes it illegal to practice any Jewish rites.

Conflicts among the Muslim leaders had hindered Muslim territorial expansion, especially after the assassination of the third caliph, 'Uthman ibn 'Affan, in 656.

Only after the Umayyads had consolidated their authority as a caliphal dynasty in the 660s, and had come to view the conquest of the Maghreb in the context of their confrontation with the Empire, had they systematically undertaken this conquest.

Uqba ibn Nafi, a member of the Banu Quraysh, had commanded the Arab army that occupied Tunisia in 670 and, before his recall in 674, had founded the town of Kairouan as the first center of Arab administration in the Maghreb.

Abu al-Muhajir Dinar was originally a slave of Maslama ibn Mukhallad, a member of the Ansar, who had given him his freedom.

Maslama, one of the Prophet Muhammad's companions, had been appointed by the first Umayyad caliph, Muawiyah I, to the position of governor of Egypt and Ifriqiya.

The inclusion of Ifriqiya was nominal, as until then the Arabs had made only temporary raids in that direction without attempting permanent control.

Maslama had in 675 appointed Abu al-Muhajir to the position of amir or general of the Umayyad forces in Ifriqiya, a post already held by Uqba.

Maslama had advised Abu al-Muhajir to relieve Uqba of his position with due deference, but it seems that this did not happen.

Uqba was shackled and thrown into prison, from which he was only released when the Caliph requested to see him.

As Uqba left Ifriqiya for Damascus, he had vowed to treat Abu al-Muhajir as he had been treated.

What Abu al-Muhajir accomplished in the nine or so years of his command are not agreed upon by two different versions of history.

Histories written in the ninth century credit him with advancing no further west than Mila, Algeria, while those written from the eleventh century on have him capturing Tlemcen.

Muawiyah's successor as Caliph, Yazid I, is responsible for restoring Uqba in 681 to his previous position.

Uqba arrives in Ifriqiya in 682, and immediately fulfills his vow: Abu al-Muhajir is shackled and forced to accompany Uqba whenever he goes on expeditions.

Abu al-Muhajir having initiated the conquest of the Maghreb west of Tunisia, the Arabs have had to fight semi-settled Berber communities that have developed some tradition of centralized political authority.

In the course of his campaign, Abu al-Muhajir had prevailed on the Berber “king” Kusaila to become Muslim.

From his base in Tlemcen, Kusaila dominates a confederation of the Awraba tribes living between the western Aurès Mountains and the area of present-day Fès.

Since Kusaila’s profession of Islam implies his recognition of caliphal authority, it has served as a basis for coexistence between him and the Arabs.

However, after Uqba had been reinstated as commander of the Arab army in the Maghreb, he had insisted on imposing direct Arab rule over the whole region.

He leads his troops in 682 across Algeria and …

…northern Morocco, reaching the Atlantic Ocean and penetrating south to …

…the areas of the Sus (Sous) and Drâa rivers in southern Morocco.

The Tang, an imperial dynasty of China, had been founded by the Li family, who had seized power in 618 during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire.

Gaozong, the third emperor of the Tang Dynasty in China, has ruled from 649, although from January 665 much of the governance has been in the hands of his second wife Empress Wu after a series of strokes had left him incapacitated.

During the first part of his reign, Tang territorial gains, which had begun with his father Emperor Taizong, continued, including the conquest of Baekje, Silla, and the Western Göktürks, but throughout the 670s, much of those gains had been lost to Tufan, Silla, Khitan, and Balhae.

Further, territory previously conquered that had belonged to both Eastern and Western Göktürks had been subjected to repeated rebellions.

Due to a culmination of major droughts, floods, locust plagues, and epidemics, a widespread famine breaks out in 682 in the dual Chinese capital cities of Chang'an (primary capital) and Luoyang (secondary capital).

The scarcity of food drives the price of grain to unprecedented heights, ending a once prosperous era under emperors Taizong and Gaozong on a sad note.

Gaozong dies in 683, having brought Japan and Korea into tributary relationship to the Chinese empire.

State power now falls completely into the hands of Empress Wu, who at first reigning in the name of puppet emperors (her son Emperor Zhongzong and then her younger son Emperor Ruizong), will subsequently become the first and only reigning Empress of China.

The repeated confrontations have taken their toll on the dwindling and ever-divided resources of the Exarchate, which, with assistance from its Berber allies of king Kusaila, has reached the peak of resistance.

Its victory over the forces of Uqba Ibn Nafia at the Battle of Biskra causes the Muslim forces to retreat to Egypt, giving the Exarchate what will prove to be a decade's respite.

Uqba ibn Nafi, on his way back to Al-Qayraw'n, is attacked near Biskra (in present-day Algeria), on orders from Kusaila, by Berbers supported by imperial contingents.

Uqba is said to have offered to unchain Abu al-Muhajir so that he might have a better chance to fight, but Abu al-Muhajir said that he would rather die fighting wearing his chains.

Both men are killed in this battle.

Uqba, through his death in this battle and his extended campaign, will become the legendary hero of the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb.

Arab proselytizers for Islam arrive in Morocco in 683, winning additional converts among the indigenous Berbers.