9th century

(8th century – 9th century – 10th century – other centuries)

Events

• Beowulf might have been written down in this century, though it could also have been in the 8th century
• Reign of Charlemagne, and concurrent (and controversially labeled) Carolingian Renaissance in western Europe
• Viking attacks on Europe begin
• Oseberg ship burial
• The Magyars arrive in what is now Hungary, forcing the Serbs and Bulgars south of the Danube.
• The Tukolor settle in the Senegal river valley.
• Muslim traders settle in the north-west and south-east of Madagascar.
• around 813-around 915 – period of serious Arab naval raids on shores of Tyrrhenian and Adriatic seas
• 800–909 – rule of Aghlabids as independent dynasty in North Africa
• 850–875 – The first Norse settlers arrive on Iceland.
• 863–879 – period of schism between eastern and western churches
• Late 9th century: Bulgaria stretches from the mouth of the Danube to Epirus and Bosnia.

Significant people

• Alfred the Great
• Arnulf of Carinthia
• Charlemagne
• Louis the Pious
• Adi Sankara
• Anup von Kelkar

Inventions, discoveries, introductions

• Vulgar Latin begins to devolve into various Romance languages
• First image of a rotary grindstone in a European source – illustration shows crank, first known use of a crank in the West (Utrecht Psalter, A.D. 843)
• Invention of gunpowder by Chinese Taoist Alchemists

Decades and years