1250
Mamluks seize power in Cairo
A clique of Turkic slave-soldiers murdered the young Ayyubid sultan Turanshah at a riverside banquet and hoisted one of their own, Aybak, onto the throne. The Mamluks, formerly palace guards, would rule Egypt and Syria as sultans for more than two and a half centuries. Their paradoxical system, in which slaves ruled free men, produced some of the most effective military governance the medieval Islamic world had seen.
Frederick II dies in Apulia
The stupor mundi died unexpectedly at Castel Fiorentino, dressed in Cistercian robes. With him died Hohenstaufen dreams of a united Italo-German empire. The Great Interregnum descended on Germany; the papacy set out to exterminate his line. His death removed the last emperor who genuinely threatened papal supremacy, and the vacuum he left in Italy sparked decades of Guelph-Ghibelline warfare.
Konark Sun Temple begun
King Narasimhadeva I of the Eastern Ganga dynasty ordered a colossal temple to Surya built on the Bay of Bengal as a stone chariot drawn by seven carved horses. The Konark temple would stand for centuries before its great tower collapsed, leaving ruins that still stun visitors. Its erotic sculptures and astronomical alignments made it both a devotional masterpiece and a calendar in stone.
Mayapan rises as Yucatan capital
In the Yucatan after the decline of Chichen Itza, the walled city of Mayapan became the dominant political center of the postclassic Maya. Its concentric limestone streets and scaled-down replicas of older pyramids housed a council of lineages under the Cocom family. The city's architecture consciously imitated the great buildings of Chichen Itza, suggesting that the Cocom rulers claimed legitimacy through visual continuity with the past.
Easter Island moai production peaks
On the remote volcanic island of Rapa Nui, Polynesian carvers in the Rano Raraku quarry produced hundreds of colossal moai statues for clan ahu platforms along the coast. Each figure, up to ten meters tall, was somehow transported miles across the treeless grassland. Recent experiments suggest the statues were rocked forward in an upright position, literally walked to their final resting places by teams of laborers.
Battle of Mansurah traps the Seventh Crusade
Louis IX's vanguard, under his hotheaded brother Robert of Artois, charged into the streets of Mansurah and was annihilated by Mamluk counterattacks. The campaign stalled in the muddy Delta; dysentery and Greek fire finished what Mamluk arrows had begun. Robert of Artois died in the streets, his reckless charge having destroyed the crusade's best troops and its last chance of reaching Cairo.
Louis IX captured at Fariskur
The French king, too sick to sit his horse, was taken prisoner along with most of his army. He ransomed himself for an enormous sum and the return of Damietta. The Mamluks who held him would soon overthrow their Ayyubid masters in the first great Mamluk coup. Louis bore his captivity with a dignity that deepened his reputation for sanctity and earned even his captors' grudging respect.