Ibn Khaldun

historian and thinker

1332 – 1406 · 74 years · Tunis · Africa

Author of the Muqaddimah, explaining the rise and fall of states; considered a forerunner of sociology and economics.

Portrait: Reda Kerbush · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Contemporaries around the world

Charles IV — emperor who made Prague an imperial capital and issued the Golden Bull, 16 years older
Edward III — king who began the Hundred Years' War and won at Crécy, 20 years older
Sigismund — emperor of the Council of Constance that ended the Schism and burned Hus, 36 years younger
Richard II — boy king who faced down the Peasants' Revolt and was deposed by his cousin, 35 years younger
Henry V — victor of Agincourt who became heir to the French crown, 54 years younger
Geoffrey Chaucer — poet, author of The Canterbury Tales, 11 years younger

Sergius of Radonezh — saint and abbot, 18 years older
Andrei Rublev — icon painter, 28 years younger
Dmitry Donskoy — Grand Prince of Moscow, 18 years younger
Vasily I — grand prince who annexed Nizhny Novgorod, 39 years younger
Ivan II the Fair — grand prince of Moscow, father of Dmitry Donskoy, 6 years older
Simeon the Proud — grand prince "of all Rus" who died of the plague, 16 years older

Murad I — sultan who took Adrianople and fell at Kosovo, 6 years older
Bayezid I the Thunderbolt — sultan defeated and captured by Timur at Ankara, 28 years younger
Orhan — bey who took Bursa and led the Ottomans into Europe, 51 years older
Hafez — Persian poet, 7 years older
Mehmed I Çelebi — sultan who reunited the realm after Timur, 57 years younger

Timur — emir and conqueror, 4 years younger
Ashikaga Yoshimitsu — shogun who reunited the two imperial courts and built Kinkaku-ji, 26 years younger
Zheng He — admiral and explorer, 39 years younger
Ashikaga Takauji — founder of the Muromachi shogunate who turned on Go-Daigo, 27 years older
Ashikaga Yoshiakira — second Ashikaga shogun, who held Kyoto against the Southern Court, 2 years older
Gajah Mada — prime minister of Majapahit, 42 years older

1337–1453 Hundred Years' War — aged 5, Europe
c. 1337 Sergius of Radonezh founds his monastery — aged 5, Eastern Europe & Russia
1347–1351 Black Death — aged 15, Europe
1368 Founding of the Ming dynasty — aged 36, Asia
1370 Timur makes Samarkand his capital — aged 38, Asia
1377 Jikji, printed with movable metal type — aged 45, Asia
1380 Battle of Kulikovo — aged 48, Eastern Europe & Russia
1385 Union of Krewo — aged 53, Europe
1392 Founding of Joseon — aged 60, Asia
c. 1400 Founding of Malacca — aged 68, Asia
1405–1433 Voyages of Zheng He — aged 73, Asia