1131
Song court develops forensic investigation methods
Magistrates in the Southern Song judiciary continued to refine practical techniques for examining suspicious deaths - testing for poison with silver needles heated over flame, mapping wound patterns on body diagrams, and distinguishing death by drowning from strangulation by examining the lungs. These methods, later codified in the landmark text Washing Away of Wrongs, constituted the world's first systematic approach to forensic science.
Death of Baldwin II of Jerusalem
The second king of the Crusader state, who had spent long stretches of his reign as a prisoner of the Turks, died after commending his daughter Melisende, her husband Fulk, and their infant son Baldwin to his barons as co-rulers. The arrangement immediately began to fray. Baldwin II had spent two decades defending a kingdom perennially short of knights, and his death exposed the dynastic tensions his personal authority had kept in check.
Almohad defeat at al-Buhaira
Ibn Tumart's first major engagement with Almoravid forces was a bloody rout outside Marrakech. The Mahdi himself survived but died of grief and wounds shortly afterward. His lieutenant Abd al-Mumin would prove a more capable general and take over the movement. Abd al-Mumin concealed his leader's death for years, issuing orders in the Mahdi's name while methodically building the tribal coalition that would eventually overwhelm the Almoravids.
Fall of the Western Chalukyas begins
The death of Vikramaditya VI of the Western Chalukyas triggered the slow breakup of his Deccan empire. His successors faced revolts from vassals including the Hoysalas, Yadavas, and Kakatiyas, who would over the next century establish their own dynasties. The fragmentation of Chalukya power reshaped southern India's political geography, replacing a single imperial overlord with a constellation of competing kingdoms whose rivalries defined the region for generations.
Eruption of Mount Etna devastates eastern Sicily
Etna's southeastern flank split open in a violent eruption that sent rivers of lava streaming toward the Sicilian coastal plain and showered ash across the Ionian Sea as far as the Greek islands. The city of Catania, still painfully rebuilding from its last destruction, suffered once more as crops were buried and harbor waters choked with pumice. Norman lords recorded the disaster as God's judgment on the island.