Ulugh Beg

ruler and astronomer

1394 – 1449 · 55 years · Samarkand · Asia

Timur's grandson who built an observatory in Samarkand and compiled the most accurate star catalogue of his age.

Portrait: Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Contemporaries around the world

Johannes Gutenberg — inventor of the printing press, 6 years younger
Joan of Arc — heroine of the Hundred Years' War, 18 years younger
Charles VII — king under whom the Hundred Years’ War ended, 9 years younger
Sigismund — emperor of the Council of Constance that ended the Schism and burned Hus, 26 years older
Henry V — victor of Agincourt who became heir to the French crown, 8 years older
Louis XI — the "universal spider" who pieced France together, 29 years younger

Andrei Rublev — icon painter, 34 years older
Vasily II the Blind — grand prince blinded in a dynastic civil war, 21 years younger
Vasily I — grand prince who annexed Nizhny Novgorod, 23 years older

Timur — emir and conqueror, 58 years older
Sejong the Great — King of Joseon Korea, 3 years younger
Zheng He — admiral and explorer, 23 years older
Ashikaga Yoshimitsu — shogun who reunited the two imperial courts and built Kinkaku-ji, 36 years older
Ashikaga Yoshimasa — shogun of the Ōnin War and the Silver Pavilion, 42 years younger
Ashikaga Yoshinori — shogun chosen by lot and murdered by his own vassal, born the same year