The two hostile Muslim Arab parties had…

Emperor Constans in 658 successfully attacks the Slavs of Sclavinia, as the Balkans region is now called, resettling captives in Asia Minor.

Slavic settlement in the Eastern Alps region is proven by the collapse of local dioceses in the late sixth century, a change in population and material culture, and most importantly, in the establishment of a Slavic language group in the area.

The territory settled by Slavs, however, was also inhabited by the remains of the indigenous Romanized population, which preserved Christianity.

Slavs in both the Eastern Alps and the Pannonian region were originally subject to Avar rulers (kagans).

After Avar rule weakened around 610, a relatively independent March of the Slavs (marca Vinedorum), governed by a duke, emerged in southern Carinthia in the early seventh century.

Historical sources mention Valuk as the duke of Slavs (Wallux dux Winedorum).

Slavs of the Eastern Alps probably joined Samo's Tribal Union, a Slavic tribal alliance governed by the Frankish merchant Samo in 623.

The year 626 brought an end to Avar dominance over Slavs, as Avars were defeated at Constantinople.

In 658, Samo dies and his Tribal Union disintegrates.

A smaller part of the original March of the Slavs, centered north of modern Klagenfurt, preserves independence and comes to be known as Carantania.

The Kharijites, repudiating not only the existing caliphal candidates but also all Muslims who do not accept their views, engage in campaigns of harassment and terror.

In the Battle of Nahrawan (July 658) Ibn Wahb and most of his followers are killed by 'Ali, but the Kharijite movement persists in a series of uprisings that will plague both 'Ali and Mu'awiyah.

(The spiritual heirs of the Kharijites will come to recognize any pious Muslim as leader.)

Japanese envoys are sent on a mission to the Tang empire and gain an audience with the Emperor.

However, as the Tang Government determines that in the next year they will take administrative measures in regard to Japan, the envoys are detained.

Constans is able to secure a nonaggression treaty with Muawiyah, the governor of Syria, in 659, as the murder of the caliph 'Uthman ibn 'Affan in June 656 had touched off a civil war among the Arabs that prevented them from attacking Constantinople.

Bede lists Oswiu as the seventh and last king to hold imperium (or bretwalda in the language of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle) over the other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.

Overlordship is a common relationship between kingdoms at this time, often taking the form of a lesser king under the domination of a stronger one.

Oswiu had gone further than this, however, and had installed his own governors in Mercia after the deaths of Penda and Peada.

This attempt to establish close control of Mercia fails in 658 when three Mercian leaders, Immin, Eafa and Eadbert, rebel against the Northumbrians.

Bede reports that they had kept Wulfhere in hiding, and when the revolt succeeded Wulfhere became king.

It has been suggested that the Mercian revolt succeeded because Oswiu may have been occupied with fighting in Pictland, in northern Britain.

His nephew the Pictish king Talorgan, son of Eanfrith, had died in 657.

Another segment of 'Ali's party meanwhile intensifies their loyalty to him as a just and heroic leader who was one of Muhammad's dearest intimates and the father of his only male descendants.

In January 659, the arbitrators meet at Adhruh, formally depose both Ali and Muawiyah, then discuss the candidacy of 'Abd Allah ibn 'Umar and Muawiyah for the caliphate; no decision is reached.

The Korean kingdoms of Baekje and Goguryeo combine forces in 660 to war against their longtime rival in the south, the kingdom of Silla.

China’s Tang emperor Gaozong, as desirous as was his father of conquering the Korean peninsula, responds to the Sillans’ appeal for help, dispatching Chinese forces.

Empress Saimei of Japan makes an order to dispatch a force to the Korean Peninsula to save Baekje, but it is apparently not carried out or given too late.

A Chinese army advances through Manchuria into Goguryeo, as a Chinese naval force attacks coastal Baekje.

Baekje is overthrown by the alliance of the Tang and Silla, led by General Su Dingfang, General Kim Yu-shin and Kim Beopmin.

The Japanese envoys detained in Chang’an are paroled following the overthrow of Baekje by the Tang Dynasty.

Emperor Gaozong of Tang suffers a stroke; his wife Wu Zetian starts to rule.

Constans had grown increasingly fearful that his younger brother, Theodosius, could oust him from the throne; he had therefore obliged Theodosius to take holy orders and later had him killed in 660.

Constans' sons Constantine, Heraclius, and Tiberius have been associated on the throne since the 650s.

However, having attracted the hatred of citizens of Constantinople, Constans decides to leave the capital and to move to Syracuse in Sicily.