1169
Saladin named vizier of Egypt
After his uncle Shirkuh died two months into the office, the thirty-year-old Kurdish officer was chosen vizier by the last Fatimid caliph - on the theory that he would be a pliant young man. Within two years he was dismantling the Shia caliphate and running Egypt for his own sultan.
Strongbow invited to Ireland
Richard de Clare, known by his nickname Strongbow, landed in Ireland under contract to restore Diarmait of Leinster and was promised the king's daughter Aoife and the succession. His forces, better armored than anything Ireland had seen, crushed local armies. The marriage of Strongbow and Aoife at Waterford is often taken as the symbolic beginning of the Anglo-Norman conquest that would reshape Irish society for centuries.
Kanem Empire formally adopts Islam
Mai Dunama I of the Saifawa dynasty formalized Islam as the state religion of the Kanem Empire, establishing diplomatic ties with the Almohad Caliphate across the Sahara and sending young scholars to study Islamic jurisprudence in Cairo and Kairouan. The royal conversion cemented Kanem's position astride the lucrative trans-Saharan trade routes and drew North African merchants ever deeper into the kingdoms of the Sahel.
Tamil temple at Rameshwaram expanded
In the far southern tip of India, the Pandya kings expanded the great Ramanathaswamy temple on Rameshwaram island. Its corridors - eventually the longest temple corridors in the world - were extended through generations of dynastic patronage. The temple's location on the narrow strait between India and Sri Lanka made it one of the most important pilgrimage sites in the Hindu world, drawing devotees from across the subcontinent.