Political Events

A new Anglo-French war begins and the French take English lands between the Loire and the Garonne.

China's 13th Song (Sung) dynasty emperor Ning Zong (Ning Tsung) dies at his native Hangchow at age 56 (approximate) after a 30-year reign in which culture has flourished but inflation has increased. The Juchen have taken more Chinese territory to the north during his long reign.

Religion

The True Pure Land sect (Jodo Shinshu) is founded by the theologian Shinran Shonin, 51, as an offshoot of his master's Pure Land sect. The Jodo Shu will be Japan's most popular religious sect, rivaled only by the Zen.

Franciscan monks arrive in England (see 1209).

Education

Naples University has its beginnings in a school founded by the Holy Roman Emperor Friedrich II, who speaks six languages fluently, writes poetry in Italian, and fills his court with a worldly assortment of astrologers, mathematicians, musicians, painters, philosophers, physicians, and poets.

Literature

Geographical Dictionary is completed by the Greek Muslim geographer Yaqut ibn Abdullah (Abdullah ur-Ruml), 45, who was captured as a child in Asia Minor, sold as a slave at Baghdad to a merchant who had him educated, and later sent as the merchant's agent to the Persian Gulf and to Syria. Freed in 1199, Abdullah became a scribe and bookseller, traveled in 1213 to Syria, Egypt, Iraq, and Khurasan (northeastern Persia), spent 2 years working at libraries in Central Asia, but returned to Mosul and Aleppo to escape Genghis Khan's Mongol invaders.

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