9th century

The 9th century was the century from 801 to 900.

Millennium:	1st millennium
Centuries:	8th century · 9th century · 10th century
Decades:	800s 810s 820s 830s 840s 850s 860s 870s 880s 890s
Categories:	Births – Deaths Establishments – Disestablishments

Events

Eastern Hemisphere at the beginning of the 9th century.

Eastern Hemisphere at the end of the 9th century.

• An unknown event causes the decline of the Maya Classical Era.
• Beowulf might have been written down in this century. It could also have been in the 8th century.
• Reign of Charlemagne, and the Carolingian Renaissance in Western Europe.
• Large-scale Viking attacks on Europe begin.
• Oseberg ship burial.
• The Magyars begin their conquest of Pannonia.
• The Tukolor settle in the Senegal river valley.
• Muslim traders settle in the northwest and southeast of Madagascar.
• 800: Charlemagne is crowned emperor of Rome by Pope Leo III.
• 800: Arab fleet sails up the Tiber.
• 800 – 909: Rule of Aghlabids as an independent Muslim dynasty in North Africa, with their capital at Tunis.
• 802: Jayavarman II of the Khmer people in Cambodia founds the Khmer empire and make the Angkorian dynasty.
• 803: Construction on the Leshan Giant Buddha in Tang Dynasty China is complete, after 90 years of rock-carving on a massive cliff-side.
• 805 - 820: Tang Dynasty was under the rule of Emperor Xianzong of Tang.
• 809 – 815: War between the Byzantine empire and Bulgaria.
• 811: Battle of Pliska fought between a Byzantine force led by emperor Nicephorus I and a Bulgarian army commanded by Khan Krum. Byzantines are defeated in a series of engagements, ending with the death of Nicephorus I.
• 813: In Battle of Versinikia the Byzantines are heavily defeated by the Bulgarians.
• 813: China was reunited.
• c. 813 – c. 915: Period of serious Arab naval raids on shores of Tyrrhenian and Adriatic seas.
• 814: Charlemagne dies at Aachen.
• 815: The 30-year Treaty of 815 between Bulgaria and the Byzantine Empire end the battles between the two countries.
• 824: Han Yu died.
• 827 – 902: Aghlabid dynasty colonises emirates in Sicily and then raids Southern Italy.
• 830: House of Wisdom, a library and translation institute, made by al-Ma'mun, Abbasid caliph, in Baghdad to transfer the knowledge of Greeks, Persians, Indians, etc. to Muslim world. Also The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing which is one of the book of algebra is written by Al-Khwarizmi who worked there.
• 835: Ganlu Incident.
• 840: Death of Louis the Pious.
• 841: Dublin is founded on the east coast of Ireland by the Vikings.
• 843: The three sons of Louis the Pious reach an agreement known as the Treaty of Verdun. They split the Carolingian empire into three divisions; East Francia was given to Louis the German, West Francia to Charles the Bald and Middle Francia to Lothair I.
• 845: Buddhism is banned in China.
• 846 - 859: Emperor Xuānzong of Tang ruled. He was considered the last capable emperor of Tang Dynasty.
• 848 – 852: The west bank of the Tiber is added into the city of Rome. A defensive wall, commissioned by Pope Leo IV, is built around what came to be called the Leonine City.
• 850 – 875: The first Norse settlers arrive on Iceland.
• 851: The Arab merchant Suleiman al-Tajir visits the Chinese seaport at Guangzhou in southern China. He sees the making of porcelain, the Islamic mosque built at Guangzhou, the granary system of the city, and how its municipal administration worked.
• 859: Muslims make the University of Al Karaouine as a madrasa in Fez, Morocco.
• 862: The beginning of the Rurik Dynasty in Russia
• 863: The Chinese author Duan Chengshi describes the slave trade, ivory trade, and ambergris trade of Somalia in East Africa.
• 862: The Bagratuni Dynasty of Medieval Armenia begins with Ashot I
• 863 – 879: Period of split between eastern and western churches.
• 864: Christianization of Bulgaria under Boris I
• 867: Onward Revival of the Byzantine Empire under the Macedonian dynasty.
• 868: Ahmad ibn Tulun breaks away from the Abbasid Caliphate and establishes the independent Tulunid dynasty.
• 869: An earthquake and tsunami struck Japan's Sanriku coast, killing 1,000 people.
• 870: Prague Castle founded.
• 871 – 899: Reign of Alfred the Great.
• 875 – 884: Huang Chao leads an unsuccessful rebellion against the Tang Dynasty in China.
• 878: Battle of Ethandun ends in the victory of Alfred the Great over the Danish warlord Guthrum.
• 885: Arrival of the disciples of SS. Cyril and Methodius, Clement of Ohrid and Naum of Preslav in Bulgaria. Development of the Cyrillic Alphabet.
• 893: Council of Preslav - Vladimir-Rasate is dethroned and succeeded as Prince of Bulgaria by Simeon I. The capital is moved from Pliska to Preslav. The Byzantine clergy is made to leave and replaced by Bulgarian. Old Church Slavonic becomes the official language of the country.
• 895/896: The year of the Magyars arrival in Pannonia. This year is widely accepted as the beginning of the Hungarian "Landtaking"
• Late 9th century: Bulgaria goes from the mouth of the Danube to Epirus and Bosnia.
• In Italy, some cities became free republics: for instance Forlì, in 889.
• The Christian Nubian kingdom reaches its peak of prosperity and military power.
• Harald Fairhair wins the battle of Hafrsfjord. Norway was made into one kingdom.
• Chess reaches Japan.
• The Medieval Warm Period begins.
• The Coptic period, at its most broad definition, ends.
• Page from Koran (Surah II:286 and title Surah III) in kufic script, from Syria, is made. It is now kept at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.
• Late 9th century – Pallava dynasty ends in Southern India.
• Late 9th century - Womb World mandala, To-ji, Kyoto, is made. Heian period.
• 9th – 10th century – Bowl with kufic border, from Samarkand, Uzbekistan, is made. It is now kept at Musée du Louvre, Paris.
• Laguna Copperplate Inscription, Kavi script, inscribed in Luzon, Philippines, dated Saka year 822 (900)

Significant people

Charlemagne (left) and Pippin the Hunchback. 10th-century copy of a lost original from about 830.

Saint Clement of Ohrid

• Adi Sankara
• Al-Jahiz
• Alfred the Great
• Arnulf of Carinthia
• Árpád, Grand Prince of the Magyars
• Basil I the Macedonian (Βασίλειος Α') (811–886), ruled (867)–(886)
• Boris I of Bulgaria
• Empress Irene of Athens
• Charlemagne
• Clement of Ohrid
• Han Yu
• Harald I of Norway
• Huang Chao
• Harun al-Rashid
• Krum, Khan of Bulgaria
• Kenneth I of Scotland
• Li Deyu
• Louis the Pious
• Naum of Preslav
• Niu Sengru
• Pope Johanna
• Rurik
• Simeon I of Bulgaria
• Saints Cyril and Methodius
• Taizu of Later Liang
• Wang Kon
• Wang Xianzhi
• Emperor Xianzong of Tang
• Emperor Xuānzong of Tang

Inventions, discoveries, introductions

• First image of a rotary grindstone in a European source. Drawing shows crank, first known use of a crank in the West (Utrecht Psalter, 843)
• First known printed book, the Diamond Sutra, printed in China using woodblock printing in 868 AD.
• Invention of gunpowder by Chinese Taoist Alchemists.
• Vulgar Latin begins to develop into various Romance languages.
• Two syllabaries or kana are made from simplified Chinese characters in Japan.

Decades and years

Note: years before or after the 9th century are in italics.

790s	790	791	792	793	794	795	796	797	798	799
800s	800	801	802	803	804	805	806	807	808	809
810s	810	811	812	813	814	815	816	817	818	819
820s	820	821	822	823	824	825	826	827	828	829
830s	830	831	832	833	834	835	836	837	838	839
840s	840	841	842	843	844	845	846	847	848	849
850s	850	851	852	853	854	855	856	857	858	859
860s	860	861	862	863	864	865	866	867	868	869
870s	870	871	872	873	874	875	876	877	878	879
880s	880	881	882	883	884	885	886	887	888	889
890s	890	891	892	893	894	895	896	897	898	899
900s	900	901	902	903	904	905	906	907	908	909

Related pages

• Heian period

9th Century Media

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  Viking Longship, used by the Norse Raiders during the Viking Age.

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  Borobudur was likely founded around 800. This corresponds to the period between 760 and 830, the peak of the Sailendra dynasty in central Java, when it was under the influence of the Srivijayan Empire. The construction has been estimated to have taken 75 years and been completed during the reign of Samaratungga in 825.

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  Coin issued during al-Mutawakkil's reign in the mid-9th century

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  Alfred the Great led Wessex at its height in the 9th century

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  To-ji in Kyoto, completed in the late 9th century