12th Century Timeline: Events, People and History

Events in the 12th Century 5

300 BC – 1279 Chola dynasty (South India) A great maritime and temple-building power The Cholas of the Tamil south were one of the longest-ruling dynasties in history, rising from the Sangam age to a medieval maritime empire that projected naval power across the Bay of Bengal to Southeast Asia. They built magnificent temples such as the Brihadeeswarar at Thanjavur and patronised bronze sculpture and Tamil literature.
651 – 1501 Islamic Persia — caliphates, Seljuks and Mongols Centuries of Islamic rule and a Persian cultural flowering After the conquest, Persia was ruled successively by the Arab caliphates, Persian and Turkic dynasties, the Seljuk Turks, and — devastatingly — the Mongols under Genghis Khan and Hulagu in the 13th century. Yet this era produced a brilliant Persian cultural renaissance: the poetry of Ferdowsi, Rumi, Hafez and Omar Khayyam, and advances in science and mathematics.
794 – 1185 Heian period The golden age of classical Japanese culture When Emperor Kanmu moved the capital to Heian-kyo (Kyoto), he began nearly four centuries of peace and refinement remembered as the classical age of Japanese civilisation. The Fujiwara regents dominated the court, and aristocratic culture flowered — producing Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji, often called the world's first novel.
907 – 1279 Five Dynasties & Song Dynasty Gunpowder, printing, compass — China leads the world in technology The Song dynasty oversaw an economic and technological revolution. Gunpowder weapons, movable type printing (Bi Sheng, 1040), and the magnetic compass were all developed or perfected during this period. China's population reached 100 million. Despite never matching the Tang's military power and eventually losing northern China to the Jurchen Jin dynasty, the Song's commercial economy and urban culture were the most sophisticated in the world.
1185 – 1333 Kamakura period Rise of the samurai and the first shogunate Minamoto no Yoritomo established Japan's first shogunate at Kamakura, beginning nearly seven centuries of military rule under the samurai class while emperors reigned but no longer governed. The period saw the spread of Zen Buddhism and, famously, the repulse of two Mongol invasions aided by the "kamikaze" divine winds.