Merv, Sultan Sanjar's capital
A Karakum oasis may be the largest city on Earth
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Under the Seljuk sultan Sanjar, Merv, with its libraries and observatory, may briefly have been the largest city in the world. In 1153 Sanjar himself was captured by Oghuz nomads, and in 1221 the Mongols destroyed the city, which never recovered.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 12th century
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- 1163–1345 Notre-Dame de Paris begun — 13 years later
Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1136 The Novgorod Republic — 14 years earlier
Africa
- 1147 The Almohads take Marrakesh — 3 years earlier
Alive at the time
- Saladin (aged 13)
- Hildegard of Bingen (aged 52)
- Yuri Dolgoruky (aged 51)
- Andrey Bogolyubsky (aged 39)
- Averroes (Ibn Rushd) (aged 24)
- Zhu Xi (aged 20)
- Henry II (aged 17)
- Minamoto no Yoritomo (aged 3)
- Anna Komnene (aged 67)
- Li Qingzhao (aged 66)