Al-Idrisi's Tabula Rogeriana
The 12th century's best world map — with south at the top
The Arab geographer al-Idrisi spent some 15 years gathering information at the court of Roger II, the Norman king of Sicily, finishing an atlas of 70 maps a few weeks before the king died in 1154. North is at the bottom, south at the top.
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Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1136 The Novgorod Republic — 18 years earlier
Africa
- 1147 The Almohads take Marrakesh — 7 years earlier
Alive at the time
- Saladin (aged 17)
- Hildegard of Bingen (aged 56)
- Yuri Dolgoruky (aged 55)
- Andrey Bogolyubsky (aged 43)
- Averroes (Ibn Rushd) (aged 28)
- Henry II (aged 21)
- Minamoto no Yoritomo (aged 7)
- Vsevolod the Big Nest (aged 0)
- Li Qingzhao (aged 70)
- Stephen of Blois (aged 60)