Public Figures & Cultural Luminaries

Edward of Woodstock (The Black Prince)

Edward of Woodstock, Prince of Wales

Kingdom of England

1330 – 1376 (45 years old)

Prince of Wales and England's greatest chivalric warrior of the Hundred Years' War who won the Battle of Poitiers and captured King John II of France.

Canterbury, United Kingdom

5 Full Record →

Literature & Poetry

9

🕯️ 930

Giovanni Boccaccio

Italy

16 June 1313 – 21 December 1375 (62 years old)

Pioneering Florentine Renaissance humanist and author of The Decameron, who captured the tragedy of the 1348 Black Death and forged European storytelling prose through one hundred lively, witty tales of human wit, eros, and resilience.

Certaldo (Tuscany), Italy

9 Full Record →

Literature & Poetry

Francesco Petrarca

Republic of Florence

1304 – 1374 (69 years old)

Italian scholar and poet recognized as the 'Father of Humanism', whose Canzoniere established the Petrarchan sonnet and sparked the European Renaissance.

Arquà Petrarca, Italy

3 Full Record →

Ismail ibn Umar Ibn Kathir

ابن كثير

🌐 Mamluk Sultanate

c. 1301 – 1373 (72 years old)

Illustrious Syrian scholar, historian, and student of Ibn Taymiyyah whose 'Tafsir Ibn Kathir' and historical chronicle 'Al-Bidayah wa al-Nihayah' are among the most studied in Islam.

Damascus, Syria

3 Full Record →

Literature & Poetry

5

Monarchs, Kings & Royalty

Shi Nai'an

施耐庵

Yuan Dynasty China

c. 1296 – c. 1372 (76 years old)

Chinese writer traditionally credited with composing Water Margin (Outlaws of the Marsh), the celebrated epic novel of righteous banditry and martial brotherhood.

Xinghua, China

5 Full Record →

Casimir III the Great (Kazimierz Wielki)

Casimir III the Great (Kazimierz Wielki)

Kazimierz III Wielki

Kingdom of Poland

1310 – 1370 (60 years old)

Last Piast King of Poland who doubled the country's size, founded Jagiellonian University, and protected Jewish refugees across Europe.

Kraków, Poland

3 Full Record →

Monarchs, Kings & Royalty

Heinrich Seuse

🌐 Holy Roman Empire

1295 – 1366 (70 years old)

Rhineland Dominican mystic and poet of Eternal Wisdom whose 'Little Book of Eternal Wisdom' was the most widely read devotional manual in Europe before the Imitation of Christ.

Ulm, Germany

3 Full Record →

2

Military Leaders & Strategists

Gajah Mada

Majapahit Empire

c. 1290 CE – c. 1364 CE (74 years old)

Legendary prime minister (Mahapatih) of the Majapahit Empire who took the famous Sumpah Palapa (Palapa Oath) in 1336, vowing to taste no earthly pleasures until unifying the Nusantara archipelago.

Probolinggo (East Java), Indonesia

2 Full Record →

Orhan

أورخان غازي (Orhan Gazi)

Ottoman Beylik

c. 1281 CE – 1362 (81 years old)

Second ruler of the Ottoman dynasty who captured Bursa, Nicaea, and Nicomedia, established the first Ottoman standing army (Janissaries), and crossed into Europe at Gallipoli in 1354.

Tophane Park (Bursa), Turkey

3 Full Record →

Johannes Tauler

Holy Roman Empire

c. 1300 – 1361 (61 years old)

Rhineland mystic, Dominican friar, and supreme preacher of the 'Friends of God' whose vernacular sermons inspired Martin Luther and guided souls during the Black Death.

Strasbourg, France

3 Full Record →

Military Leaders & Strategists

Gregory Palamas

Γρηγόριος Παλαμᾶς

Byzantine Empire

0296 – 1359 (1063 years old)

Archbishop of Thessaloniki and foremost theologian of Hesychasm who articulated the distinction between God's unknowable divine essence and uncreated divine energies.

Thessaloniki, Greece

3 Full Record →

Geoffroi de Charny (Bearer of the Oriflamme)

Geoffroi de Charny (Bearer of the Oriflamme)

Geoffroi de Charny

Kingdom of France

1 – 1356 (52 years old)

French knight, military theorist, and bearer of the sacred royal Oriflamme banner who authored the Book of Chivalry and died shielding King John II at Poitiers.

Poitiers, France

3 Full Record →

Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya

6

Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya

ابن قيم الجوزية

🌐 Mamluk Sultanate

1292 – 1350 (58 years old)

Prominent Hanbali theologian, jurist, and spiritual psychologist whose masterworks 'Madarij al-Salikin' and 'Zad al-Ma'ad' beautifully united legal rigor with profound heart-centered devotion.

Damascus, Syria

6 Full Record →

Philosophy & Thought

2

Sant Namdev

संत नामदेव

Yadava Dynasty

1270 – 1350 (79 years old)

14th-century tailor-saint who pioneered the Varkari tradition of Maharashtra and traveled across Northern India to Punjab, whose sixty-one devotional hymns were enshrined in the Sikh sacred scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib.

Pandharpur (Maharashtra), India

2 Full Record →

Monarchs, Kings & Royalty

Namdev

नामदेव

Yadava Dynasty

1270 – 1350 (79 years old)

Pioneering Varkari Bhakti poet who journeyed across India with Dnyaneshwar, composed verses included in the Sikh Guru Granth Sahib, and preached universal brotherhood.

Pandharpur, India

3 Full Record →

Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Othman

أبو الحسن علي بن عثمان المريني

🌐 Marinid Sultanate

1297 – 1348 (51 years old)

Most formidable Marinid Sultan of Morocco, known as the 'Black Sultan', who unified Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia under his scepter, constructed the royal necropolis of Chellah, and transcribed the Quran in his own calligraphy.

Rabat, Morocco

3 Full Record →

5