Huichang persecution of Buddhism
A Tang emperor shuts down 4,600 monasteries
In 845 the Tang emperor Wuzong, a devotee of Daoism, ordered the Buddhist establishment shut down: some 4,600 monasteries and 40,000 shrines were destroyed and more than 260,000 monks and nuns returned to lay life. Other 'foreign' faiths, Manichaeism and Nestorianism, suffered too.
Wikipedia (English) · 9th century
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- 843 Treaty of Verdun — 2 years earlier
- 865 Great Heathen Army — 20 years later
Eastern Europe & Russia
- c. 862 Calling of the Varangians — 17 years later
Africa
- 859 Fatima al-Fihri founds al-Qarawiyyin — 14 years later
Alive at the time
- Al-Khwarizmi (aged 65)
- Charles the Bald (aged 22)
- Rurik (aged 15)
- Oleg the Wise (aged 0)
- Al-Kindi (aged 44)