Abbas the Great
1571 – 1629 · 58 years · Isfahan · Middle East
Greatest Safavid shah: reformed the army, won back lands from Ottomans and Portuguese and made Isfahan one of the world's finest capitals.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 16th century
Portrait: 1647 artist · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Galileo Galilei — Italian physicist and astronomer, 7 years older
- Miguel de Cervantes — Spanish novelist, 24 years older
- William Shakespeare — English playwright and poet, 7 years older
- René Descartes — French philosopher and mathematician, 25 years younger
- Elizabeth I — Queen of England, 38 years older
- Rembrandt — Dutch painter, 35 years younger
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Ivan the Terrible — first Tsar of Russia, 41 years older
- Michael I — first tsar of the Romanov dynasty, 25 years younger
- False Dmitry I — pretender who claimed to be Tsarevich Dmitry, 10 years younger
- Yermak Timofeyevich — Cossack conqueror of Siberia, 39 years older
- Dmitry Pozharsky — prince and militia leader, 7 years younger
- Vasily Shuisky — boyar tsar of the Time of Troubles who died in Polish captivity, 19 years older
Middle East
- Murad IV — sultan who retook Baghdad and banned tobacco, 41 years younger
- Kösem Sultan — Ottoman queen mother, 18 years younger
- Mehmed III — sultan who executed 19 brothers and won at Keresztes, 5 years older
- Mustafa I — mentally unstable sultan enthroned twice, 29 years younger
- Ahmed I — sultan who built the Blue Mosque, 19 years younger
- Murad III — sultan who won the Caucasus from the Safavids, 25 years older
Africa
- Njinga of Ndongo and Matamba — Queen of Ndongo and Matamba, 12 years younger
- Ahmed Baba — Timbuktu scholar, 15 years older
- Ahmad al-Mansur — Sultan of Morocco, 22 years older
- Fasilides — Emperor of Ethiopia, 32 years younger
Asia
- Tokugawa Ieyasu — first Tokugawa shogun, 28 years older
- Akbar the Great — Mughal emperor, 29 years older
- Nur Jahan — Mughal empress, 6 years younger
- Tokugawa Hidetada — second Tokugawa shogun, who locked in the house's grip on the daimyo, 8 years younger
- Matteo Ricci — Jesuit missionary in China, 19 years older
- Shah Jahan — Mughal emperor, 21 years younger
Americas
- Samuel de Champlain — French explorer, 4 years older
- Inca Garcilaso de la Vega — chronicler, son of a conquistador and an Inca princess, 32 years older
- Pocahontas — Powhatan chief's daughter, 25 years younger
Oceania
- Abel Tasman — Dutch navigator, 32 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- 1571 Battle of Lepanto — aged 0, Europe
- 1572 St Bartholomew's Day Massacre — aged 1, Europe
- 1582 Gregorian calendar — aged 11, Europe
- 1582 Yermak's conquest of Sibir — aged 11, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1588 Defeat of the Spanish Armada — aged 17, Europe
- 1591 Battle of Tondibi and fall of Songhai — aged 20, Africa
- 1592–1598 Imjin War — aged 21, Asia
- 1598–1613 Time of Troubles — aged 27, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1598 Edict of Nantes — aged 27, Europe
- 1600 Battle of Sekigahara — aged 29, Asia
- 1600 Eruption of Huaynaputina — aged 29, Americas
- 1600 East India Company founded — aged 29, Europe
- c. 1605–1694 Quilombo of Palmares — aged 34, Americas
- 1607 Founding of Jamestown — aged 36, Americas
- 1609 Jesuit reductions among the Guaraní — aged 38, Americas
- 1610 Galileo's telescopic discoveries — aged 39, Europe
- 1612 Minin and Pozharsky liberate Moscow — aged 41, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1613 Election of Michael Romanov as Tsar — aged 42, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1618–1648 Thirty Years' War — aged 47, Europe
- 1624–1663 Nzinga becomes Queen of Ndongo — aged 53, Africa