1171
Saladin abolishes the Fatimid caliphate
When the ailing Shia caliph al-Adid of Cairo died, Saladin suppressed the dynasty that had ruled Egypt for over two centuries and ordered Friday prayers said in the name of the Sunni Abbasid caliph in Baghdad. The political revolution met almost no resistance in the streets. The ease of the transition revealed how deeply the Fatimid regime had lost popular support, its esoteric Ismaili theology having failed to take root among Egypt's largely Sunni population.
Henry II lands in Ireland
With an army and a papal bull in his baggage, Henry II brought Strongbow and the independent Gaelic kings to heel as Lord of Ireland. He gave the Normans licenses to hold the lands they had already seized and took tribute from the Irish kings. The beginning of eight centuries of English rule.
Yesugei poisoned; Temujin's childhood ends
Returning from betrothing his nine-year-old son Temujin to a neighboring tribe, the Mongol clan-head Yesugei accepted a meal from Tatar travelers and was poisoned. His family, cast out by their own kinsmen, spent years on the edge of starvation. The boy learned that nothing was owed. The hardship forged the future Genghis Khan's conviction that loyalty must be earned rather than inherited, a principle that would reshape his approach to tribal politics.
Saladin founds Sunni madrasas in Cairo
After suppressing the Fatimid caliphate, the new master of Egypt founded a cluster of Sunni law schools in Cairo to re-educate the population away from Shia Ismailism. Within a generation Cairo would be transformed into a bastion of Sunni orthodoxy. Saladin endowed madrasas for all four Sunni legal schools, ensuring that Cairo's scholars could serve as judges and administrators across his growing empire.