Arab conquest of Egypt
Fustat seeds Cairo as the Nile valley feeds the caliphate
The general Amr ibn al-As took the Byzantine fortress of Babylon and founded the camp of Fustat beside it, the future core of Cairo; Alexandria surrendered in 642. Egypt became the granary of the Caliphate and gradually adopted Arabic and Islam.
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Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Middle East
- 622 Hijra: Muhammad's migration to Medina — 19 years earlier
- 636 Battle of the Yarmuk — 5 years earlier
Asia
- 618 Founding of the Tang dynasty — 23 years earlier
- 628 Brahmagupta and the rules of zero — 13 years earlier
- 629–645 Xuanzang's journey to the West — 12 years earlier
Alive at the time
- Ali ibn Abi Talib (aged 41)
- Pakal the Great (aged 38)
- Wu Zetian (aged 17)
- Emperor Taizong of Tang (aged 43)
- Xuanzang (aged 39)