Battle of Qatwan
Kara Khitai crush the Seljuks, feeding the Prester John myth
The Kara Khitai under Yelü Dashi, who had fled west from northern China, routed the army of the Seljuk sultan Sanjar. Transoxiana came under their rule. Rumours of a distant eastern king defeating the Muslims reached Europe and fed the legend of a Christian ruler, Prester John.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 12th century
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- 1163–1345 Notre-Dame de Paris begun — 22 years later
Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1136 The Novgorod Republic — 5 years earlier
Africa
- 1147 The Almohads take Marrakesh — 6 years later
Alive at the time
- Saladin (aged 4)
- Hildegard of Bingen (aged 43)
- Yuri Dolgoruky (aged 42)
- Andrey Bogolyubsky (aged 30)
- Averroes (Ibn Rushd) (aged 15)
- Henry II (aged 8)
- Anna Komnene (aged 58)
- Li Qingzhao (aged 57)
- Conrad III (aged 48)
- Stephen of Blois (aged 47)