800’s           Christian empire in Ethiopia continues after the decline of Aksum; Arab and Persian merchants explore East African coast with trading stations at Malindi, Mombasa, Kilwa, and Mogadishu.

    800–1000    Sahadic Lives of Samuel of Qalamun, Fayyum and Pisentius of Qift, near Thebes, (both lived during Arab conquest), seeking to halt Christian assimilation; show survival of Coptic Christian identity.

    813              Theophanes writes Chronicle (covers years 602-813.)

    819–830      James, patriarch of Alexandria.

    859              Shenute I, elected patriarch of Alexandria (859-880) at Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus, Old Cairo.

    863–867      Photian Schism between patriarch Photius of Constantinople and Pope Nicolas I.

    868–905      Tulunid caliphs rule.

    869              Venetian Bernard the Wise reports monastery of St. Mark outside the eastern gate of Alexandria, where Mark’s body formerly reposed, stolen in 828 by Venetians (a bone returned 1968.)

    880–907      Kha’il III, patriarch of Alexandria.

c. 885              Stephen the Theban writes Logos Asketikos (Ascetic Sermon), Entolai and Diataxis;

Arabic texts survive at St. Saba.