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1138 CE

This year falls in the High and Late Middle Ages (c. 1000–1500 CE). Trade grows across Eurasia, and in the thirteenth century the Mongols build the largest connected land empire in history. The Black Death kills a large share of the people of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa from the 1340s, and the era closes with the fall of Constantinople in 1453 and the first European voyages to the Americas.

Dated to 1138 CE

Philosopher · High and Late Middle Ages · SpainMaimonides1138–1204Jewish philosopher, rabbi, and physician born at Cordoba who fled persecution and settled at Fustat in Egypt, where he served Saladin's court. His Guide for the Perplexed joins Aristotle to the Torah. He lived 1138 to 1204.

Within fifteen years

Country · PortugalPortugal1139–Portugal is a country on the Iberian Peninsula, facing the Atlantic. It became a kingdom in 1139 and built the first global seaborne empire in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. It has been a republic since 1910.

Ruler · High and Late Middle Ages · EgyptSaladinc. 1137–1193Sultan of Egypt and Syria from 1174 to 1193, born Yusuf ibn Ayyub about 1137, founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. He destroyed the crusader army at Hattin in 1187 and retook Jerusalem, ending nearly ninety years of crusader rule there. His chivalry toward his enemies made him famous in Europe as well as in Islam.

Philosopher · High and Late Middle Ages · ChinaZhu Xi1130–1200Chinese thinker who completed the Neo Confucian synthesis, giving Confucianism a metaphysics of principle and material force. His commentaries on the Four Books became the basis of the civil examinations for centuries. He lived 1130 to 1200.

Philosopher · High and Late Middle Ages · SpainAverroes1126–1198Cordoban philosopher, judge, and physician whose line by line commentaries on Aristotle earned him the Latin name the Commentator. He argued that philosophy and revelation agree. He lived 1126 to 1198 and ended his life in disfavor.