Zera Yacob
1599 – 1692 · 93 years · Emfraz (Gondar) · Africa
Ethiopian thinker whose treatise Hatata ("Inquiry") urged testing every religious teaching by reason and asserted the equality of all people, women included. Some scholars dispute his authorship.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 17th century
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Rembrandt — Dutch painter, 7 years younger
- Louis XIV — King of France, the Sun King, 39 years younger
- René Descartes — French philosopher and mathematician, 3 years older
- Isaac Newton — English physicist and mathematician, 44 years younger
- Galileo Galilei — Italian physicist and astronomer, 35 years older
- Miguel de Cervantes — Spanish novelist, 52 years older
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Peter the Great — first Emperor of Russia, 73 years younger
- Alexis the Most Quiet — tsar of the 1649 Law Code and the church schism, 30 years younger
- Michael I — first tsar of the Romanov dynasty, 3 years older
- Vitus Bering — Danish explorer in Russian service, 82 years younger
- Bohdan Khmelnytsky — Hetman of the Zaporozhian Host, 4 years older
- Dmitry Pozharsky — prince and militia leader, 21 years older
Middle East
- Abbas the Great — Safavid Shah of Iran, 28 years older
- Murad IV — sultan who retook Baghdad and banned tobacco, 13 years younger
- Ahmed III — sultan of the 'Tulip Era', 74 years younger
- Evliya Çelebi — Ottoman traveller, 12 years younger
- Kösem Sultan — Ottoman queen mother, 10 years older
- Mehmed IV the Hunter — sultan of the Köprülü era and the siege of Vienna, 43 years younger
Africa
- Njinga of Ndongo and Matamba — Queen of Ndongo and Matamba, 16 years older
- Fasilides — Emperor of Ethiopia, 4 years younger
- Moulay Ismail — Sultan of Morocco, 46 years younger
- Osei Tutu I — founder of the Ashanti Empire, 61 years younger
- Ahmed Baba — Timbuktu scholar, 43 years older
Asia
- Kangxi Emperor — Qing emperor of China, 55 years younger
- Tokugawa Ieyasu — first Tokugawa shogun, 56 years older
- Aurangzeb — Mughal emperor, 19 years younger
- Shah Jahan — Mughal emperor, 7 years older
- Shivaji — founder of the Maratha state, 31 years younger
- Matsuo Bashō — Japanese poet, 45 years younger
Americas
- Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz — Mexican poet and nun, 49 years younger
- Samuel de Champlain — French explorer, 32 years older
- Pocahontas — Powhatan chief's daughter, 3 years older
- Inca Garcilaso de la Vega — chronicler, son of a conquistador and an Inca princess, 60 years older
Oceania
- Abel Tasman — Dutch navigator, 4 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- 1600 Battle of Sekigahara — aged 1, Asia
- 1600 Eruption of Huaynaputina — aged 1, Americas
- 1600 East India Company founded — aged 1, Europe
- c. 1605–1694 Quilombo of Palmares — aged 6, Americas
- 1607 Founding of Jamestown — aged 8, Americas
- 1609 Jesuit reductions among the Guaraní — aged 10, Americas
- 1610 Galileo's telescopic discoveries — aged 11, Europe
- 1612 Minin and Pozharsky liberate Moscow — aged 13, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1613 Election of Michael Romanov as Tsar — aged 14, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1618–1648 Thirty Years' War — aged 19, Europe
- 1624–1663 Nzinga becomes Queen of Ndongo — aged 25, Africa
- 1632–1653 Building of the Taj Mahal — aged 33, Asia
- 1644 Fall of the Ming, rise of the Qing — aged 45, Asia
- 1648 Peace of Westphalia — aged 49, Europe
- 1649 Execution of Charles I of England — aged 50, Europe
- 1654 Pereiaslav Agreement — aged 55, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1662 Last sighting of the dodo — aged 63, Africa
- 1676 Leeuwenhoek sees microbes — aged 77, Europe
- 1682 Accession of Peter the Great — aged 83, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1683 Battle of Vienna — aged 84, Europe
- 1687 Newton's Principia — aged 88, Europe
- 1688–1689 Glorious Revolution — aged 89, Europe