1157
Almohad Caliphate conquers Tunis
Abd al-Mu'min's Almohad armies swept eastward across the Maghreb and captured Tunis from its enfeebled Zirid rulers, completing a decade-long campaign that unified all of North Africa under a single Berber caliphate for the first time since the earliest Fatimids. From the Atlantic coast of Morocco to the Gulf of Sirte in Libya, one puritanical Almohad theology now governed every mosque.
Ghurid raids intensify in northern India
Ala al-Din Husayn, the Ghurid sultan known to his victims as Jahansuz - the World-Burner - descended from his Afghan mountain fastness and sacked the great city of Ghazni, torching the tombs of the Ghaznavid kings in revenge for his brother's murder. The devastation announced the Ghurids as a force that would soon sweep across the Gangetic plain and remake the entire subcontinent.
Kingdom of Leon and Castile divided
Alfonso VII of Leon and Castile died crossing the Sierra Morena and split his realm between his sons, creating separate kingdoms of Leon and Castile that would feud across the Christian north for most of the next century, helping slow the Reconquista's southward drive. The division also created a diplomatic opening for Portugal and Aragon, whose kings exploited the Leonese-Castilian rivalry to expand their own frontiers.
Raymond Berenguer IV annexes Murcia
The Count of Barcelona, now dominant in Catalan Aragon, extended his raiding deep into Almohad al-Andalus. His power-base helped consolidate the crown of Aragon as one of the main Christian Iberian states alongside Castile, Leon, Portugal, and Navarre. Raymond Berenguer's union of Barcelona and Aragon created a Mediterranean-facing polity that would eventually expand to include the Balearics, Valencia, Sicily, and Sardinia.