As a means of recording the passage of
time, the '11th century' was that
century which lasted from
1001 to
1100.
In the history of
European culture, this period is considered the early part of the
High Middle Ages. There was a sudden decline of
Byzantine power and rise of
Norman domination over much of Europe, along with the prominent role in Europe of notably influential
popes. In what is now northern
Italy, a growth of population in urban centers gave rise to early organized capitalism and more sophisticated, commercialized culture by the late 11th century.
In
Song China and the
Islamic world, this century marked the high point for both classical
Chinese civilization, science, and technology and medieval
Islamic science,
technology, and
literature.
Rivaling political factions at the
Song Dynasty court created strife amongst the leading statesmen and ministers of the empire. There was also a population explosion, doubling to the size of 100 million, and an
economic revolution in China that spurred manufacture and production rates which rivaled even
Great Britain's
coal and
iron output in the early
Industrial Revolution. For
Chola-era
India and
Fatimid-era
Egypt, they had reached their zenith in military might and international influence. In The Cholas' rival of the
Western Chalukya Empire also rose to power by the end of the century. In this century the Turkish
Seljuk dynasty comes to power in the Middle East over the now fragmented
Abbasid realm, while the
first of the
Crusades were waged towards the close of the century. In
Japan the
Fujiwara clan continued to dominate the affairs of state. In the Americas the
Toltec civilization flourished in
central America, along with the
Huari Culture of
South America. In
Russia, there was the
golden age for the principality of
Kievan Rus. In
Korea the
Goryeo Kingdom flourished and faced external threats from the
Liao Dynasty (
Manchuria). In
Vietnam the
Lý Dynasty began, while in
Myanmar the
Pagan Kingdom reached its height of political and military power.
Overview
In European history, the 11th century is regarded as the beginning of the
High Middle Ages and is therefore sometimes termed the
Early Middle Ages, though this term has another common meaning synonymous with
Dark Ages. The century began while the ''
translatio imperii'' of
962 was still somewhat novel and ended in the midst of the
Investiture Controversy. It saw the final Christianisation of
Scandinavia and the emergence of the
Peace and Truce of God movements, the
Gregorian Reforms, and the
Crusades which revitalised a church and a papacy which survived tarnished by the tumultuous tenth century. In
1054, the
Great Schism rent the church in two, however.
In Germany, it was marked by the ascendancy of the
Holy Roman Emperors, who hit their high watermark under the
Salians.
In Italy, it opened with the integration of the kingdom into the empire and the royal palace at
Pavia was sacked in
1024. By the end of the century,
Lombard and
Byzantine rule in the
Mezzogiorno had been usurped by the
Normans and the power of the territorial magnates was being replaced by that of the citizens of the cities in the north.
In Britain, it saw the transformation of
Scotland into a single, more unified and centralised kingdom and the
Norman conquest of England in
1066. The social transformations wrought in these lands brought them into the fuller orbit of European feudal politics.
In France, it saw the nadir of the monarchy and the zenith of the great magnates, especially the dukes of Aquitaine and Normandy, who could thus foster such distinctive contributions of their lands as the pious warrior who conquered Britain, Italy, and the East and the impious peacelover, the
troubadour, who crafted out of the European vernacular its first great literary themes. There were also the first figures of the intellectual movement known as
Scholasticism.
In Spain, the century opened with the successes of the last
caliphs of Córdoba and ended in the successes of the
Almoravids. In between was a period of Christian unification under
Navarrese hegemony and success in the
Reconquista against the
taifa kingdoms which replaced the fallen caliphate.
In China, there was a triangular affair of continued war and peace settlements between the
Song Dynasty Chinese, the
Tanguts of the
Western Xia in the northwest, and the
Khitans of the
Liao Dynasty in the northeast. Meanwhile, opposing
political factions evolved at the Song imperial court of
Kaifeng. The political reformers at court, called the New Policies Group (新法, Xin Fa), were led by
Emperor Shenzong of Song and the
Chancellors
Fan Zhongyan and
Wang Anshi, while the political conservatives were led by Chancellor
Sima Guang and Empress Dowager Gao, regent of the young
Emperor Zhezong of Song. Heated political debate and sectarian intrigue followed, while political enemies were often dismissed from the capital to govern frontier regions in the deep south where
malaria was known to be very fatal to northern Chinese people (see
History of the Song Dynasty). This period also represents a high point in classical Chinese science and technology, with figures such as
Su Song and
Shen Kuo, as well as the age where the matured form of the
Chinese pagoda was accomplished in
Chinese architecture.
In India, the
Chola Dynasty reached its height of naval power under leaders such as
Rajaraja Chola I and
Rajendra Chola I, dominating southern India (
Tamil Nadu),
Sri Lanka, and regions of
South East Asia. They also sent raids into what is now modern-day
Thailand.
In Japan, the
Fujiwara clan dominated central politics by acting as imperial regents, controlling the actions of the
Emperor of Japan, who acted merely as a '
puppet monarch' during the
Heian period.
In the Middle East, the
Fatimid Empire reached its zenith only to face steep decline, much like the Byzantine Empire in the first half of the century. The
Seljuks came to prominence while the
Abbasid caliphs held traditional titles without real, tangible authority in state affairs.
In Korea, the rulers of the
Goryeo Kingdom were able to concentrate more central authority into their own hands than in that of the nobles, and were able to fend off two
Khitan invasions with their armies.
Events
★ c.
1000, the ''
Al-Tasrif'' is written by the physician and scientist
Abu al-Qasim
★
1001 ± 40 years,
Baitoushan volcano on what would be the Chinese-Korean border, erupts with a force of 6.5, the fourth largest
Holocene blast.
★
1001,
Mahmud of Ghazni,
Muslim leader of
Ghazni, begins a series of raids into Northern
India; he finishes in
1027 with the destruction of
Somnath.
★ c.
1001,
Vikings, led by
Leif Eriksson, establish small settlements in and around
Vinland in
North America
★
1003,
Robert II of France invades the
Duchy of Burgundy, then ruled by
Otto-William, Duke of Burgundy; the initial invasion is unsuccessful, but Robert II eventually gained the acceptance of the Church in 1016 and annexed Burgundy into his realm.
★
1005, the
Treaty of Shanyuan was signed between the
Chinese Song Dynasty and the
Khitan Liao Dynasty.
★
1008, the
Fatimid Egyptian sea captian Domiyat travels to the
Buddhist pilgrimage site in
Shandong, China, to seek out the Chinese
Emperor Zhenzong of Song with gifts from his ruling
Imam Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, successfully reopening
diplomatic relations between Egypt and China that had been lost since the collapse of the
Tang Dynasty.
★
1009,
Lý Thái Tổ overthrew the
Anterior Lê Dynasty of Vietnam, establishing the
Lý Dynasty.
★
1009–
1010, the Lombard known as
Melus of Bari led an insurrection against the Byzantine
Catepan of Italy,
John Curcuas, as the latter was killed in battle and replaced by
Basil Mesardonites, who brought Byzantine reinforcements.
★
1010, with the aid of scholars such as Song Zhun, Lu Duosun compiles a massive work of
cartography in 1566 chapters, including the mapped
topography of each provincial region in China down to the minute level of small towns and villages; this was an imperial compendium first issued by
Emperor Taizu of Song in 971 AD.
★
1010–
1011, the
Second Goryeo-Khitan War; the
Korean king was forced to flee the capital temporarily, but unable to establish a foothold and fearing a counterattack, the
Khitan forces withdrew.
★
1011-
1021,
Ibn al-Haytham (Alhacen), a famous
Iraqi
scientist working in
Egypt,
feigned madness in fear of angering the Egyptian
caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, and was kept under
house arrest from 1011 to 1021. During this time, he wrote his influential ''
Book of Optics''.
★
1014, the
Byzantine armies of
Basil II are victorious over
Samuil of Bulgaria in the
Battle of Kleidion.
Defeat of the Bulgarians by the Byzantines depicted in the ''
Madrid Skylitzes''.
★
1018, the
First Bulgarian Empire is conquered by the Byzantine Empire
★
1018, the Byzantine armies of
Basil Boioannes are victorious at the
Battle of Cannae against the
Lombards under
Melus of Bari.
★
1018, the
Third Goryeo-Khitan War; the
Korean General
Gang Gam-chan inflicted heavy losses to
Khitan forces at the
Battle of Kwiju. The Khitan withdrew and both sides signed a peace treaty.
★
1021, the ruling
Fatimid Caliph
Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah disappears suddenly, possibly assassinated by his own sister
Sitt al-Mulk, which leads to the open persecution of the
Druze by
Ismaili Shia; the Druze proclaimed that Al-Hakim went into hiding (ghayba), whereupon he would return as the
Mahdi savior.
★
1025, the
Chola Dynasty of India uses its naval powers to conquer the South East Asian kingdom of
Srivijaya, turning it into a
vassal.
★
1025, ruler
Rajendra Chola I moves the capital city of the empire from
Thanjavur to
Gangaikonda Cholapuram
★
1028, the King of
Srivijaya appeals to the
Song Dynasty Chinese, sending a diplomatic mission to their capital at
Kaifeng.
★
1035,
Canute the Great dies, and his kingdom of present-day Norway, England, and Denmark was split amongst three rivals to his throne.
★
1035,
William Iron Arm ventures to the
Mezzogiorno
★
1037,
Ferdinand I of León conquered the
Kingdom of Galicia.
★
1040,
Duncan I of Scotland slain in battle.
Macbeth succeeds him.
★
1041,
Samuel Aba became King of Hungary.
★
1042, the Normans establish
Melfi as the capital of southern Italy.
★
1042,
Bhoja, the Indian ruler, philosopher, and polymath of
Malwa, completes the reconstruction of the temple of
Somnath after its destruction by
Mahmud of Ghazni.
★
1041–
1048, Chinese artisan
Bi Sheng invents ceramic
movable type printing
★
1043, the
Byzantine Empire and
Kievan Rus engage in a
naval confrontation, although a later treaty is signed between two parties that included the marriage alliance of
Vsevolod I of Kiev to a princess daughter of
Constantine IX Monomachos.
★
1044, the Chinese ''
Wujing Zongyao'' (武经总要), written by Zeng Gongliang and Yang Weide, is the first book to describe
gunpowder formulas; it also described their use in warfare, such as
blackpowder-impregnated
fuses for
flamethrowers. It also described an early form of the
compass, a thermoremanence compass.
★
1044,
Henry III of the
Holy Roman Empire defeats the
Kingdom of Hungary in the
Battle of Ménfő;
Peter Urseolo captured
Samuel Aba after the battle, executing him, and restoring his claim to the throne; the Kingdom of Hungary then briefly becomes a vassal to the Holy Roman Empire.
★
1052, date of the earliest known copy of Persian scientist
Ibn Sina's (
Avicenna) ''
The Canon of Medicine'', which advised surgeons to remove
cancerous tissue in its early stage, recorded the use of 760 different
pharmaceutical drugs, diagnosed various
psychological disorders, etc.
★
1052,
Fujiwara no Yorimichi converts the rural villa at
Byōdō-in into a famous Japanese
Buddhist temple.
★
1053, the Norman commander
Humphrey of Hauteville is victorious in the
Battle of Civitate against the
Lombards and the
papal coalition led by
Rudolf of Benevento;
Pope Leo IX himself is captured by the Normans.
★
1054, the
Great Schism, in which the Western (
Roman Catholic) and
Eastern Orthodox churches separated from each other. Similar schisms in the past had been later repaired, but this one continues after nearly 1000 years.
★
1054, a large
supernova is observed by astronomers, the remnants of which would form the
Crab Nebula.
★
1055, the Seljuk Turks capture
Baghdad, taking the
Buyid Emir Al-Malik al-Rahim prisoner.
★
1056,
Ferdinand I of León,
King of Castile and
King of León, is crowned
Imperator totius Hispaniae (Emperor of All
Hispania).
★
1057,
Anawrahta, ruler of the
Pagan Kingdom, defeated the
Mon city of
Thaton, thus unifying all of
Myanmar.
★
1061–
1091,
Norman conquest of
Sicily in the
Mediterranean Sea
★
1065, independence of the Kingdom of
Galicia and
Portugal under the rule of Garcia
★
1066,
Edward the Confessor dies;
Harold Godwinson is killed in the
Battle of Hastings, while the Norman conqueror is crowned
William I of England.
★
1066, the
Jewish vizier Joseph ibn Naghrela and many others are killed in the
1066 Granada massacre.
★
1068–
1073, the reign of Japanese
Emperor Go-Sanjō brings about a brief period where central power is taken out of the hands of the
Fujiwara clan.
★
1068, beginning in this year,
Virarajendra Chola sends military raids into Malaysia and Indonesia.
★
1069–
1076, with the support of
Emperor Shenzong of Song, Chancellor
Wang Anshi of the Chinese
Song Dynasty introduces the 'New Policies', including the
Baojia system of societal organization and militias, low-cost loans for farmers, taxes instead of
corvée labor, government monopolies on
tea,
salt, and
wine, reforming the
land survey system, and eliminating the poetry requirement in the
imperial examination system to gain bureaucrats of a more practical bent.
★
1070, the death of
Athirajendra Chola and the ascension of
Kulothunga Chola I marks the transition between the
Medieval Cholas and the
Chalukya Cholas.
★
1071, Defeat of the
Byzantine Empire at the
Battle of Manzikert by the Seljuk army of
Alp Arslan, ending 3 centuries of a Byzantine military and economic
Golden Age.
★
1073, the Seljuk Turks capture
Ankara from the Byzantines.
★
1075,
Henry IV suppresses the rebellion of
Saxony in the
First Battle of Langensalza.
★
1075, the
Investiture Controversy is sparked when
Pope Gregory VII asserted in the ''
Dictatus papae'' extended rights granted to the pope (disturbing the balance of power) and new interpretation of God's role in founding the Church itself.
★
1075–
1076, a civil war in the
Western Chalukya Empire of India; the Western Chalukya monarch
Somesvara II plans to defeat his own ambitious brother
Vikramaditya VI by allying with a traditional enemy,
Kulothunga Chola I of the
Chola Empire; Somesvara's forces suffered heavy defeat, and was eventually captured and imprisoned by Vikramaditya, who proclaimed himself king.
★
1076, the
Ghana Empire is attacked by the
Almoravids, who sack the capital of
Koumbi Saleh, ending the rule of king
Tunka Manin
★
1076, the Chinese
Song Dynasty places strict government monopolies over the production and distribution of
sulfur and
saltpetre, in order to curb the possibility of merchants selling
gunpowder formula components to enemies such as the
Tanguts and
Khitans.
★
1076, the Song Chinese allied with southern Vietnamese
Champa and Cambodian
Chenla to conquer the
Lý Dynasty, which was an unsuccessful campaign.
★
1077, the
Walk to Canossa by
Henry IV of the
Holy Roman Empire.
★
1078,
Oleg I of Chernigov is defeated in battle by his brother
Vsevolod I of Kiev; Oleg escaped to
Tmutarakan, but was imprisoned by the
Khazars, sent to
Constantinople as a prisoner, and then exiled to
Rhodes.
★
1078, the revolt of
Nikephoros III against Byzantine ruler
Michael VII
★
1079,
Malik Shah I reforms the
Iranian Calendar
★
1080–
1081, the Chinese statesman and scientist
Shen Kuo is put in command of the campaign against the
Western Xia, and although he successfully halts their invasion route to Yanzhou (modern
Yan'an), another officer disobeys imperial orders and the campaign is ultimately a failure because of it.
★
1084, the enormous Chinese historical work of the ''
Zizhi Tongjian'' is compiled by scholars under Chancellor
Sima Guang, completed in 294 volumes and included 3 million written
Chinese characters
★
1085,
Alfonso VI of Castile captures the
Moorish Muslim city of
Toledo, Spain.
★
1085, the
Katedralskolan, Lund school of Sweden is established by
Canute IV of Denmark
★
1086, compilation of the
Domesday Book by order of
William I of England; it was similar to a modern day government
census, as it was used by William to thoroughly document all the landholdings within the kingdom that could be properly
taxed.
★
1086, the
Battle of az-Zallaqah between the Almoravids and Castilians
★
1087, a new office at the Chinese international
seaport of
Quanzhou is established to handle and regulate taxes and tariffs on all mercantile transactions of foreign goods coming from Africa, Arabia, India, Sri Lanka, Persia, and South East Asia.
★
1087, the Italian cities of
Genoa and
Pisa engage in the African
Mahdia campaign
★
1088, Chinese statesman, astronomer, and engineer
Su Song completed the pilot model for his
astronomical clock tower in
Kaifeng; the renowned polymath Chinese scientist
Shen Kuo made the world's first reference to the
magnetic compass in his book ''
Dream Pool Essays'', along with many scientific discoveries.
★
1088, The
University of Bologna is established.
★
1088,
Rebellion of 1088 against
William II of England lead by
Odo of Bayeux.
★
1091, the
Byzantine Empire under
Alexios I Komnenos and his
Cuman allies defeat
Pechenegs at the
Battle of Levounion
★
1093,
Vikramaditya VI, ruler of the
Western Chalukya Empire, defeats the army of
Kulothunga Chola I in the Battle of Vengi.
★
1093, when the Chinese Empress Dowager Gao dies, the conservative faction that had followed
Sima Guang is ousted from court, the liberal reforms of
Wang Anshi reinstated, and
Emperor Zhezong of Song halted all negotiations with the
Tanguts of the
Western Xia, resuming in armed conflict with them.
★
1093, the
Kypchaks defeat princes of
Kievan Rus at the
Battle of the Stugna River
★
1094,
El Cid, the great Spanish hero, conquers the
Muslim city of
Valencia
★
1094, a succession crisis following the reign of the
Fatimid Caliph
Ma'ad al-Mustansir Billah sparks a rebellion which leads to the split of
Ismaili Shia into the new
Nizari religious branch.
★ ca.
1095–
1099, earliest extant manuscript of the ''
Song of Roland''
★
1096, the
Knights Templar are formed during the early
First Crusade in order to protect European Christian
pilgrims traveling to
Jerusalem.
★
1096,
University of Oxford in
England holds its first lectures
★
1097, the
Siege of Nicaea during the
First Crusade
★
1098, the
Siege of Antioch during the
First Crusade
★
1098,
Pope Urban II makes an appearance at the
Siege of Capua
★
1099, the
Siege of Jerusalem by European Crusaders.
★
1099, after the
Kingdom of Jerusalem was established, the
Al-Aqsa Mosque was made into the residential palace for the
kings of Jerusalem.
★
1099, after building considerable strength,
David IV of Georgia discontinues tribute payments to the Seljuk Turks.
★ King
Anawrahta of
Myanmar made a pilgrimage to
Ceylon, returning to convert his country to
Theravada Buddhism.
★ The
Tuareg migrate to the
Aïr region.
★
Kanem-Bornu expands southward into modern
Nigeria.
★ The first of seven
Hausa city-states are founded in
Nigeria.
★ The
Hodh region of
Mauritania becomes desert.
Significant people
★
Abū ‘Alī al-Haṣan ibn al-Haytham (Alhacen), Iraqi scientist, father of
optics, pioneer of the
scientific method, considered the "first
scientist"
★
Abū ‘Alī al-Husayn ibn Sīnā (Avicenna), Persian physician, philosopher, and scientist
★
Abu al-Qasim (Abulcasis), Andalusian-Arab physician, father of modern
surgery
★
Abu Nasr Mansur, Iraqi mathematician
★
Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī, Persian scientist and polymath, father of
geodesy, considered the "first
anthropologist"
★
Empress Agnes, regent of the Holy Roman Empire
★
Anawrahta, ruler of the Pagan Kingdom
★
Anselm of Laon, French theologian
★
Al-Ghazali, celebrated Muslim scholar
★
Al-Muqtadi, Abbasid Caliph
★
Al-Qadir, Abbasid Caliph
★
Al-Qa'im, Abbasid Caliph
★
Alexius I Comnenus, Byzantine Emperor
★
Alfonso VI of Castile, ruler of Leon and Castile
★
Alp Arslan, Seljuk ruler
★
Archbishop Anno II of Cologne
★
Saint Anselm, reputed founder of
scholasticism and creator of the
ontological argument
★
Atisha, influential Buddhist teacher to Tibet
★
Basil II, Byzantine Emperor
★
Berengar of Tours, French theologian
★
Bhoja, a
philosopher king and
polymath of
Malwa in India
★
Bilhana, a
Kashmiri language poet from India
★
Bohemond I of Antioch, Crusader commander from
Calabria
★
Cai Xiang, Chinese poet, scholar, calligrapher, engineer, and official
★
Canute the Great, ruler of England, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden
★
Conrad II, of the Holy Roman Empire
★
Constantine IX Monomachos, Byzantine Emperor
★
Cheng Yi, Chinese philosopher
★
El Cid (Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar),
Castilian nobleman
★
Deokjong of Goryeo, king of Korea
★
Ethelred the Unready, king of England
★
Fan Zhongyan, Song Chinese chancellor
★
Ferdinand I of León,
Emperor of All Hispania
★
Fujiwara Michinaga, powerful regent of Japan
★
Gang Gam-chan, Korean general
★
Gilbert de la Porrée, French
scholastic logician and theologian
★
Emperor Go-Sanjō of Japan
★
Godfrey of Bouillon, Duke of Lower Lorraine and a Crusader
★
Pope Saint Gregory VII (Hildebrand)
★
Guido of Arezzo, Italian music theorist
★
Guo Xi, a literati Chinese landscape painter
★
Gytha of Wessex, wife of Vladimir II Monomakh
★
Hamid al-Din al-Kirmani, a Persian missionary
da'i to the Fatimid Caliphate
★
Harold Godwinson, King of England
★
Henry I of France, king
★
Emperor Henry III, of the Holy Roman Empire
★
Emperor Henry IV, of the Holy Roman Empire
★
Hisham II, Caliph of Cordoba
★
Hisham III, Caliph of Cordoba
★
Hugh of St Victor, philosopher from
Saxony
★
Hugh of Vermandois,
Count of Vermandois, Crusader
★
Hyeonjong of Goryeo, king of Korea
★
Isaac ibn Ghiyyat, Jewish
rabbi from Spain
★
Ísleifur Gissurarson, first Bishop of Iceland
★
Jayasimha II, ruler of the Western Chalukya Empire
★
Jeongjong II of Goryeo, king of Korea
★
Jōchō, famous Japanese sculptor
★
John Skylitzes, Byzantine historian
★
Joseph ibn Naghrela, Jewish vizier of
Andalusia
★
Omar Khayyám, Persian poet, mathematician, philosopher and astronomer
★
Lanfranc, archbishop of Canterbury
★
Leif Eriksson, first European explorer to land in
North America
★
Pope Leo IX
★
Li Qingzhao, Chinese female poet
★
Ma'ad al-Mustansir Billah, Fatimid Caliph
★
Macbeth, ruler of Scotland
★
Malik Shah I, Seljuk ruler
★
Mansur ibn Nasir, ruler of the
Hammadid in Algeria
★
Matilda of Tuscany, militant Italian noblewoman
★
Mei Yaochen, Chinese poet and official
★
Melus of Bari, Lombard nobleman
★
Mi Fu, Chinese painter, poet, and calligrapher
★
Michael I Cerularius, the
Patriarch of Constantinople
The ''Atlantes'' – columns in the form of
Toltec warriors in
Tula.
★
Minamoto no Yorimitsu, a governor and commander loyal to the Fujiwara clan
★
Minamoto no Yorinobu, a
samurai of the
Minamoto clan
★
Mokjong of Goryeo, king of Korea
★
Moses ibn Ezra, Jewish philosopher, poet, and linguist from Spain
★
Muhammad Ibn Abbad Al Mutamid, last
Abbadid ruler
★
Munjong of Goryeo, king of Korea
★
Murasaki Shikibu, female Japanese writer
★
Nasir Khusraw, Persian poet, theologian, philosopher, and traveler
★
Ouyang Xiu, Chinese statesman, historian, essayist, and poet
★
Peter Abelard, French philosopher and logician
★
Peter the Hermit, Crusader
★
Peter Urseolo, king of Hungary
★
Rajaraja Chola I, ruler of
Tamil Nadu (southern India) and Sri Lanka
★
Rajendra Chola I, ruler of
Tamil Nadu (southern India) and Sri Lanka
★
Rajadhiraja Chola, ruler of the Cholas
★
Rajendra Chola II, ruler of the Cholas
★
Ramanuja, Chola Indian theologian, philosopher, and spiritual leader
★
Raymond IV of Toulouse,
Duke of Narbonne and a Crusader
★
Emperor Renzong of Song, ruler of China
★
Saint Robert, founder of the
Cistercians
★
Richard II, Duke of Normandy
★
Robert II, Count of Flanders, Crusader
★
Robert II of France, king
★
Robert Guiscard, Norman conqueror of Southern Italy and Sicily
★
Samuel Aba, king of Hungary
★
Sancho III, king of Navarre
★
Sei Shōnagon, female Japanese writer
★
Seonjong of Goryeo, king of Korea
★
Shen Kuo, Chinese geologist, astronomer, encyclopedist, zoologist, botanist, hydraulic engineer, cartographer, general, diplomat, statesman, etc.
★
Emperor Shenzong of Song, ruler of China
★
Emperor Shirakawa of Japan
★
Samuel ibn Naghrela, Jewish scholar
★
Sigrid the Haughty, wife of Sweyn I of Denmark
★
Sima Guang, Song Chinese chancellor
★
Somesvara I, ruler of the Western Chalukya Empire
★
Somesvara II, ruler of the Western Chalukya Empire
★
Solomon ibn Gabirol, Jewish philosopher and poet from Spanish
Al-Andalus
★
Stephen I, king of Hungary
★
Su Shi, famous Chinese poet, calligrapher, painter, travel writer, pharmacologist, and statesman
★
Su Song, Chinese astronomer, horologist, mechanical engineer, zoologist, botanist, mineralogist, diplomat, cartographer, etc.
★
Sukjong of Goryeo, king of Korea
★
Suleiman II, Caliph of Cordoba,
★
Sweyn I of Denmark, king of Denmark, Norway, and England
★
Tāriqu l-Ḥakīm bi Amr al-Lāh, Sixth
Fātimid Caliph
★
Tunka Manin ruler of the
Ghana Empire
★
Pope Urban II
★
Vikramaditya VI, ruler of the Western Chalukya Empire
★
Virarajendra Chola, ruler of the Cholas
★
Vladimir I of Kiev, ruler of Kievan Rus
★
Vladimir II Monomakh, ruler of Kievan Rus
★
Vsevolod I of Kiev, ruler of Kievan Rus
★
Wang Anshi, Song Chinese chancellor
★
Wei Pu, Chinese astronomer
★
Wen Tong, Chinese painter
★
William the Conqueror, ruler of Normandy and England
★
William Iron Arm, prominent member of the Norman
Hauteville family
★
Yaroslav I the Wise, ruler of Kievan Rus
★
Emperor Yingzong of Song, ruler of China
★
Yusuf ibn Tashfin, Berber
Almoravid ruler
★
Yusuf Balasaghuni, an
Uyghur Turkish scribe
★
Emperor Zhezong of Song, ruler of China
★
Emperor Zhenzong of Song, ruler of China
★
Empress Zoe, Byzantine Empress
Architecture
Marble pillar from Western India, 11th century.
★ The
St Albans Cathedral of Norman-era England is completed in
1089 AD.
★ The
Al-Hakim Mosque of Fatimid Egypt is completed in
1013 AD.
★ The
Iron Pagoda of
Kaifeng, China is built in
1049 AD.
★ The
Phoenix Hall of
Byōdō-in, Japan, is completed in
1053 AD.
★ The
Brihadeeswarar Temple of India is completed in
1010 AD during the reign of
Rajaraja Chola I.
★ The Kedareshwara Temple of
Balligavi, India, is built in
1060 by the Western Chalukyas.
★ Construction work begins in
1059 AD on the
Parma Cathedral of Italy.
★ The
Martin-du-Canigou monastery is built by
1009 AD, in present day southern France.
★ The
Saint Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod is completed in
1052, the oldest existent church in Russia.
★ The Byzantine Greek
Hosios Loukas monastery sees the completion of the ''Katholikon'' (earliest extant
domed-
octagon church) from
1011-
1012 AD.
★ The
Lingxiao Pagoda of
Zhengding,
Hebei province, China, is built in
1045 AD.
★ The
Yingxian Pagoda of
Shanxi province, China, is completed under the
Liao Dynasty in
1056 AD.
★ The Chinese official
Cai Xiang oversaw the construction of the
Wanan Bridge in
Fujian, and may have been the leading member of an engineering school due to many other bridges of similar construction built in Fujian.
★ The
Imam Ali Mosque in Iraq is rebuilt by
Malik Shah I in
1086 after it was destroyed by fire.
★ The
Ananda Temple of the Myanmar ruler King
Kyanzittha is completed in
1091.
★ The
Văn Miếu, or Temple of Literature, in Vietnam is established in
1070.
★ Construction of
Richmond Castle in England begins in
1071.
★ The tallest
pagoda tower in China's pre-modern history, the
Liaodi Pagoda, is completed in
1055, standing at a height of 84 m (275 ft).
Inventions, discoveries, introductions
_001.jpg)
''A Scholar in a Meadow'', Chinese
Song Dynasty, 11th century.
Science and technology
★ c.
1000 -
Abulcasis of
al-Andalus, the father of modern
surgery, publishes his influential 30-volume medical encyclopedia, the ''Kitab
al-Tasrif'', which remains a standard textbook in the
Islamic world and
medieval Europe for centuries.
★ c.
1000 -
Ibn Yunus of
Egypt publishes his astronomical treatise ''Al-Zij al-Hakimi al-Kabir'', and invents the
pendulum.
★ c.
1000 - Persian Muslim physicist and mathematician,
Abu Sahl al-Quhi (Kuhi), discovers that the
heaviness of bodies vary with their distance from the
center of the Earth, and solves
equations higher than the
second degree.
★ c.
1000 - Persian Muslim astronomer and mathematician,
Abu-Mahmud al-Khujandi, invents the
sextant and first states a special case of
Fermat's last theorem.
★ c.
1000 -
Law of sines is discovered by
Muslim mathematicians, but it is uncertain who discovers it first between
Abu-Mahmud al-Khujandi,
Abu Nasr Mansur, and
Abu al-Wafa.
★ The demands of the Chinese
iron industry for
charcoal led to huge amounts of
deforestation, which was curbed when the Chinese discovered how to use
bituminous coal in smelting
cast iron and
steel, thus sparing thousands of acres of prime timberland.
★
1000-
1037 -
Avicenna of
Persia, the father of the concept of
momentum, publishes ''
The Book of Healing'', a scientific
encyclopedia that discusses many different topics.
★
1000-
1048 -
Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī of Persia, who is considered the father of
geodesy and the "first
anthropologist", writes more than a hundred books on many different topics. He theorizes that
India was once covered by the
Indian Ocean; he also observes in his astronomy book ''Kitab al-qanun al-Mas’udi'' (
1031) that the planets revolves in
elliptical orbits rather than circular orbits as theorized by the ancient Greeks, and rejects theories which cannot be verified through
experimentation.
★
1013 - One of the ''
Four Great Books of Song'', the ''
Prime Tortoise of the Record Bureau'' compiled by
1013 AD was the largest of the Song Chinese
encyclopedias. Divided into 1000 volumes, it consisted of 9.4 million written
Chinese characters.
★
1020 -
Avicenna of Persia, the father of modern
medicine, publishes his influential treatise, ''
The Canon of Medicine''. It introduces
experimentation and
quantification into the study of
physiology, first describes
contagious diseases, and maintains that medicine should be known through either
experimentation or
reasoning. It remains the most influential
medical text in both Islamic and Christian lands for over six centuries.
★
1021 -
Ibn al-Haytham (Alhacen) of
Basra,
Iraq, who is considered the father of
optics, the pioneer of the
scientific method, and the "first
scientist", writes his influential ''
Book of Optics'' from
1011 to
1021 (while he was under
house arrest in
Egypt), which drastically transforms the understanding of
light,
optics,
vision,
psychology, and
science in general. He is also credited with the discovery of the
camera obscura and
pinhole camera. His book was later translated from
Arabic into
Latin.
★
1024 - The world's first
paper-printed money can be traced back to the year 1024, in
Sichuan province of
Song Dynasty China. The Chinese government would step in and overtake this trend, issuing the central government's official banknote in the 1120s.
★ The
tittle was created.
★
Troubadours appear in what is now southern
France.
★
1031-
1095 - Chinese scientist
Shen Kuo creates a theory for land formation, or
geomorphology, theorized that
climate change occurred over time, discovers the concept of
true north, improves the design of the astronomical sighting tube to view the
polestar indefinitely, hypothesizes the
retrogradation theory of
planetary motion, and by observing
lunar eclipse and
solar eclipse he hypothesized that the
sun and
moon were
spherical. He also experimented with
camera obscura just decades after Ibn al-Haitham, although Shen was the first to treat it with
quantitative attributes.
★
1041-
1048 -
Bi Sheng of
Song Dynasty China invents
movable type printing using individual ceramic characters
★ The Chinese engineer Yan Su recreates the mechanical
compass-vehicle of the
South Pointing Chariot, first invented by
Ma Jun in the 3rd century.
★
1070 - The Chinese
mechanical engineer and
astronomer Su Song incorporates an
escapement mechanism and the world's first known
chain drive to operate the
armillary sphere of his astronomical
clock tower. With a team of scholars, Su Song also published the ''Ben Cao Tu Jing'' in 1070, a treatise on
pharmacology,
botany,
zoology,
metallurgy, and
mineralogy.
★ In Europe, the introduction of the horizontal
loom operated by foot-treadles makes
weaving faster and more efficient.
★ First known use of the
drydock in China.
★
1090 - Chinese author Qin Guan wrote the ''Can Shu'' (Book of
Sericulture) in 1090 AD, which described a
silk-reeling machine that employed the first known use of a
mechanical belt drive.
Literature and Trade
★ The works of
Aristotle and early
Muslim scientists are translated into
Latin from
Arabic.
★
1021 -
Murasaki Shikibu writes her
Japanese novel, ''
The Tale of Genji'', which is regarded as the first
novel.
★
1054 - The Russian
legal code of the
Russkaya Pravda is created during the reign of
Yaroslav I the Wise.
★ The earlier 10th century invention of the
pound lock in China allows large ships to travel along canals without laborious hauling, thus allowing smooth travel of government ships holding cargo of up to 700 ''tan'' (49½
tons) and large privately owned-ships holding cargo of up to 1600 ''tan'' (113
tons).
★ The roots of European
Scholasticism are found in this period, as the renewed spark of interest in literature and
Classicism in Europe would bring about the
Renaissance. In the 11th century, there were early Scholastic figures such as
Anselm of Canterbury,
Peter Abelard,
Solomon ibn Gabirol,
Peter Lombard, and
Gilbert de la Porrée.
★ The Chinese establish fortified maritime trading bases in the
Philippines.
Decades and Years
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