742

By place

Europe

• King Liutprand of the Lombards meets Pope Zachary at Terni, who appeals to the king's religious faith. Liutprand is a pious Catholic and signs a 20-year peace treaty, restoring the cities of the Duchy of Rome which he has captured. The independent Lombard duchies of Spoleto and Benevento absorb into the Lombard Kingdom.
• Arab-Byzantine Wars: Arab forces under Sulayman ibn Hisham invade Anatolia, reaching as far as Herakleia, and return with much wealth & livestock.
• Umayyad conquest of Hispania: Arab forces under Abd al-Malik ibn Katan al-Fihri, governor of Al-Andalus, suppress the Berber rebellion in the region of Mértola.
• Teodato Ipato succeeds his father Orso Ipato, as the fourth doge of Venice. He moves the capital from Heraclea to Malamocco.

  Africa

• The Great Berber Revolt: Muslim forces under Handhala ibn Safwan al-Kalbi, governor of Egypt, break out of besieged Kairouan. He scatters the Berbers, and in the following months he reconquers all lands lost during the Revolt in Morocco and South of it.

  Asia

• Emperor Xuan Zong begins to favor Taoism over Buddhism, adopting the new reign title Tianbao, to indicate his divine mandate. The total number of enlisted troops in the Tang armies has risen to about half a million, due to Xuan Zongs's earlier military reforms.
• For the municipal census of the Chinese capital city Chang'an and its metropolitan area of Jingzhou, the New Book of Tang records that in this year there are 362,921 registered families with 1,960,188 persons.
• Li Bai, Chinese poet, is summoned by Xuan Zong to attend the imperial court. He and his friend Du Fu become the two most prominent figures in the flourishing of Chinese poetry, during the mid-Tang Dynasty.

  By topic

Religion

• After a 40-year vacancy, Stephen IV becomes Orthodox patriarch of Antioch, at the suggestion of caliph Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik.
• Chrodegang, chancellor of Charles Martel, is appointed bishop of Metz and embarks on a reorganisation of the Frankish church.
• Sturm, disciple of Boniface, establishes the Benedictine Abbey of Fulda in Germany.
• The Holy Face of Lucca is transferred to Lucca from Luni.