Directory

648 CE

Tang general Ashina She'er re-establishes Tang control of Karasahr, and leads a military campaign against the Tarim Basin kingdom of Kucha in Xinjiang, a vassal of the Western Turkic Khaganate. King Sigebert III of Austrasia is advised by Remaclus to establish a double-monastery, at Stavelot and Malmedy. As a missionary bishop, he founds an abbey on the River Amblève (modern Belgium). The Book of Jin is compiled in China during the Tang dynasty. Its chief editor is the chancellor Fang Xuanling, who dies in this year as well.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • Dos Pilas breaks away from Tikal and becomes a vassal state of Calakmul.source
  • King Cenwalh of Wessex returns from a 3-year exile in East Anglia, to reclaim his kingdom. He gives 3,000 hides of land around Ashdown to his nephew Cuthred, possibly sub-king of Berkshire (England).source

Conflict & Security

  • Tang general Ashina She'er re-establishes Tang control of Karasahr, and leads a military campaign against the Tarim Basin kingdom of Kucha in Xinjiang, a vassal of the Western Turkic Khaganate.source
  • In an early skirmish in the run up to the Second Tikal–Calakmul War, Bʼalaj Chan Kʼawiil scores a military victory, apparently over his half-brother, who had galled him by using the same royal emblem (or emblem glyph) as he did.source

Religion & Belief

  • Cenwahl invites bishop Birinus to establish under his direction the Old Minster in Winchester. Together they have a small stone church built.source
  • King Sigebert III of Austrasia is advised by Remaclus to establish a double-monastery, at Stavelot and Malmedy. As a missionary bishop, he founds an abbey on the River Amblève (modern Belgium).source
  • Emperor Constans II issues an imperial edict forbidding Monothelitism to be discussed, to quiet the intense controversy caused by the Monothelete doctrine. This edict, distributed by patriarch Paul II in Constans' name, is known as the Typos.source
  • Pope Theodore I excommunicates Paul II of Constantinople.source

Births

  • Kōbun, emperor of Japan (d. 672)source
  • Tōchi, Japanese princess (d. 678)source
  • Radbod, king of Frisia (d. 719)source

Deaths

  • John III of the Sedre, Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch.source
  • Ma Zhou, chancellor of the Tang dynasty (b. 601)source
  • Xiao, empress of the Sui dynastysource
  • The Book of Jin is compiled in China during the Tang dynasty. Its chief editor is the chancellor Fang Xuanling, who dies in this year as well.source
  • Fang Xuanling, chancellor of the Tang dynasty (b. 579)source