Golden age of Kilwa and the Swahili coast
Gold and ivory tie East Africa to Arabia, India and China
The Muslim trading towns of the East African coast, among them Kilwa, Mombasa, Malindi and Zanzibar, shipped Zimbabwean gold and ivory to Arabia, India and China. Kilwa minted its own coins and built stone mosques and palaces such as Husuni Kubwa.
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Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- c. 1300 Onset of the Little Ice Age — same year
- 1309–1377 Avignon Papacy — 9 years later
- 1315–1317 Great Famine — 15 years later
Asia
- 1281 Kamikaze, the divine wind — 19 years earlier
- 1293 Founding of Majapahit — 7 years earlier
Americas
- c. 1325 Founding of Tenochtitlan — 25 years later
Oceania
- c. 1280 Polynesians settle New Zealand — 20 years earlier
Alive at the time
- Marco Polo (aged 46)
- Dante Alighieri (aged 35)
- Edward I Longshanks (aged 61)
- Osman I (aged 42)
- Philip IV the Fair (aged 32)
- Mansa Musa (aged 20)
- Orhan (aged 19)
- Emperor Go-Daigo (aged 12)
- Ivan Kalita (aged 12)
- Albert I (aged 45)