Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi
1506 – 1543 · 37 years · Harar · Africa
General of the Adal Sultanate who conquered most of Ethiopia before falling in battle against an Ethiopian–Portuguese army.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 16th century
Portrait: Somali government · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Nicolaus Copernicus — astronomer, 33 years older
- Michelangelo — sculptor, painter and architect, 31 years older
- Martin Luther — church reformer, 23 years older
- Leonardo da Vinci — painter, scientist and inventor, 54 years older
- Elizabeth I — Queen of England, 27 years younger
- Henry VIII — king of six wives who broke with Rome and created the Church of England, 15 years older
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Ivan the Terrible — first Tsar of Russia, 24 years younger
- Vasily III — grand prince who completed the unification of the Russian lands, 27 years older
- Yermak Timofeyevich — Cossack conqueror of Siberia, 26 years younger
Middle East
- Suleiman the Magnificent — Ottoman sultan, 12 years older
- Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana) — wife of Sultan Suleiman I, 1 year older
- Selim II — sultan who took Cyprus and lost at Lepanto, 18 years younger
- Selim I the Grim — sultan who took Cairo and Mecca, 36 years older
- Taqi ad-Din Muhammad ibn Ma'ruf — Ottoman astronomer and engineer, 20 years younger
Africa
- Askia Muhammad I — Emperor of Songhai, 63 years older
Asia
- Guru Nanak — founder of Sikhism, 37 years older
- Babur — founder of the Mughal Empire, 23 years older
- Vasco da Gama — navigator, 37 years older
- Mirabai — mystic poet, 8 years older
- Ashikaga Yoshiharu — shogun forever fleeing his own capital, 5 years younger
- Li Shizhen — Chinese physician and pharmacologist, 12 years younger
Americas
- Bartolomé de las Casas — friar and defender of Native Americans, 22 years older
- Hernán Cortés — conquistador, 21 years older
- Atahualpa — last Inca emperor, 4 years older
- Ferdinand Magellan — navigator, 26 years older
- Moctezuma II — Aztec emperor, 40 years older
- Huayna Capac — Sapa Inca, 42 years older
The world in their lifetime
- 1508–1512 Sistine Chapel ceiling — aged 2, Europe
- 1511 Portuguese capture of Malacca — aged 5, Asia
- 1517 Luther's Ninety-five Theses — aged 11, Europe
- 1519–1522 Magellan's circumnavigation — aged 13, Americas
- 1520–1566 Reign of Suleiman the Magnificent — aged 14, Middle East
- 1521 Fall of Tenochtitlan — aged 15, Americas
- 1526 First Battle of Panipat — aged 20, Asia
- 1526 Battle of Mohács — aged 20, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1529–1543 Ahmad Gragn invades Ethiopia — aged 23, Africa
- 1532 Capture of Atahualpa at Cajamarca — aged 26, Americas
- 1534 Henry VIII breaks with Rome — aged 28, Europe
- 1542 Orellana sails down the Amazon — aged 36, Americas
- 1543 Copernicus publishes heliocentrism — aged 37, Europe