World map in 1100

Border history

The interactive map lets you inspect named territories in 1100 and compare them to earlier or later snapshots on the timeline.

Biographical context

Meet figures alive in, or close to, 1100 and move from political geography to the people connected to the period.

Era-based reading

The related chronicles below provide long-form reading tied closely to the medieval period.

1096 – 1291

The Crusades

Christian Crusader states vs Muslim dynasties

Two centuries of religious warfare for control of the Holy Land — nine major crusades that transformed trade, culture, and the balance of power between Christendom and Islam.

Key battles and events: Siege of Jerusalem (1099); Hattin (1187)

629 AD – 1180

Byzantine–Arab Wars

Byzantine Empire vs Umayyad Caliphate, Abbasid Caliphate

Centuries of warfare between Byzantium and successive Arab caliphates. The Arabs besieged Constantinople twice (674–678, 717–718) but failed both times, with Greek fire proving decisive. The frontier stabilized along the Taurus Mountains for centuries.

Key battles and events: Battle of Yarmouk (636); First Arab Siege of Constantinople (674–678)

1100 – 1629

Great Zimbabwe & Mutapa Wars

Great Zimbabwe / Mutapa Empire vs Rival Shona kingdoms, Portuguese colonists

Rise and fall of the Great Zimbabwe civilization and its successor the Mutapa Empire, which controlled gold trade in southeastern Africa before Portuguese interference.

Key battles and events: Establishment of Great Zimbabwe (c. 1100); Portuguese Battle of Dambarare (1629)

1055 – 1223

Kipchak–Cuman Wars with Kievan Rus

Cuman–Kipchak confederation vs Kievan Rus principalities (Svyatoslav II, Vladimir Monomakh, Mstislav the Bold)

For over 150 years the Cuman–Kipchaks raided and occasionally allied with the Rus principalities on the Pontic–Caspian steppe, inflicting major defeats at Alta (1068) but suffering Vladimir Monomakh's counter-offensives, before combined Cuman–Rus forces were annihilated by the Mongols at the Kalka in 1223.

Key battles and events: Battle of the Alta River (1068); Battle of the Stugna River (1093)

1044 – 1287

Pagan Empire Wars

Pagan Kingdom of Burma vs Mon kingdoms, Arakanese, Mongol Yuan dynasty

Burma's first unified kingdom conquered the Mon and Arakanese peoples, building thousands of temples at Bagan before the Mongol invasion shattered the empire.

Key battles and events: Conquest of Thaton (1057); Battle of Ngasaunggyan (1277)

1038 – 1227

Song-Western Xia Wars

Song Dynasty vs Western Xia (Tangut Empire)

The Tangut Western Xia state fought the Song Dynasty for nearly two centuries over control of the Silk Road corridor in northwest China before being annihilated by the Mongols.

Key battles and events: Battle of Haoshuichuan (1038); Battle of Sanchuankou (1040)

982 AD – 1471

Champa–Đại Việt Wars

Đại Việt (Vietnam) vs Kingdom of Champa

Centuries of warfare between Vietnamese and Cham kingdoms as Đại Việt expanded southward, culminating in the destruction of the Cham capital and the effective end of Champa as a major power.

Key battles and events: Lê Hoàn's invasion of Champa (982); Cham sack of Thăng Long (1371)

907 AD – 1125

Khitan Liao Wars

Khitan Liao Dynasty vs Song China, Balhae, Jurchen Jin

The Khitan built a powerful dual-administration empire controlling northern China and the steppe, forcing the Song dynasty to pay annual tribute before being overthrown by the Jurchen.

Key battles and events: Conquest of Balhae (926); Treaty of Shanyuan (1005)

Khorasan / Seljuk Empire

Al-Ghazali

1058 – 1111

Critique of Aristotelian philosophy, synthesis of Sufism with orthodox Islam, Revival of the Religious Sciences

Rhineland

Hildegard of Bingen

1098 – 1179

Mystic, composer, physician, theologian, and Doctor of the Church — the most extraordinary woman of the Middle Ages

Normandy & England

William the Conqueror

c. 1028 – 1087

Conquering England at the Battle of Hastings, ordering the Domesday Book, and transforming English society, language, and law

Al-Andalus / Almohad Empire

Ibn Rushd

1126 – 1198

Aristotle commentaries, Incoherence of the Incoherence, reconciliation of reason and revelation in Islamic thought

Fujian and Jiangxi, Southern Song dynasty China

Zhu Xi

1130 – 1200

Neo-Confucian synthesis, the Four Books, White Deer Grotto Academy, the doctrine of li and qi

Mongolia / Central Asia

Genghis Khan

c. 1162 – 1227

Unifier of Mongolia, founder of the largest contiguous empire in history

Built 1100 · Africa

Gedi Ruins

Mysterious Swahili stone town on the Kenyan coast, abandoned in the 17th century with a palace, mosque, and houses lost in coastal forest

Built 1100 · Africa

Great Zimbabwe

Medieval stone ruins, capital of the Kingdom of Zimbabwe

Built 1100 · Europe

Grossmünster

Romanesque church in Zurich where Huldrych Zwingli launched the Swiss Reformation in 1519

Built 1100 · Asia

Hormuz

Island kingdom controlling Persian Gulf trade routes

Built 1100 · Africa

Timbuktu

Major intellectual and trade center on trans-Saharan routes

Built 1051 · Europe

Kyiv Pechersk Lavra

Caves Monastery of Kyiv, the most important Orthodox Christian monastery in Ukraine and a foundational site of Eastern Slavic Christianity

Khorasan / Seljuk Empire · Philosopher

Al-Ghazali

The Proof of Islam

The scholar who silenced the philosophers, survived a spiritual collapse, and wrote the most influential Islamic text after the Quran — told in his own words.

Rhineland · Thinker

Hildegard of Bingen

The Sibyl of the Rhine

The Benedictine abbess who received visions from the age of three, composed the largest surviving body of medieval music, wrote encyclopedias of medicine and natural science, preached across Germany in her sixties, and corresponded with popes, emperors, and saints — told in her own words.

Normandy & England · Conqueror

William the Conqueror

The Bastard Who Took a Kingdom

The illegitimate son of a Norman duke who survived childhood assassination attempts, crossed the Channel with six hundred ships, and won England in a single day of battle — then changed its language, law, and landscape forever.

Al-Andalus / Almohad Empire · Philosopher

Ibn Rushd

The Commentator

The Córdoban jurist and physician who wrote more commentaries on Aristotle than any scholar in history — and whose work was so indispensable to medieval Europe that they called him simply The Commentator, as though no other existed.