Public Figures & Cultural Luminaries

Trần Hưng Đạo (Grand Prince Hưng Đạo)

Trần Quốc Tuấn / Trần Hưng Đạo

Đại Việt (Vietnam)

1 – 1300 (72 years old)

Supreme Vietnamese military commander who authored the Proclamation to the Officers and thrice defeated the Mongol Yuan Empire's invasions of Đại Việt.

Chí Linh (Hải Dương), Vietnam

4 Full Record →

Mansa Sakura

Sakoura (Mansa Sakura)

Mali

Unknown – 1300

Emperor of the Mali Empire (reigned c. 1285–1300) who rose from royal court bondage to seize imperial authority during a period of dynastic chaos, expanding Mali's borders to their greatest extent prior to Mansa Musa.

Niani, Guinea

3 Full Record →

2

King Ramkhamhaeng

พ่อขุนรามคำแหงมหาราช

Sukhothai Kingdom

c. 1239 CE – c. 1298 CE (59 years old)

Third king of the Sukhothai Kingdom known as Ramkhamhaeng the Great, who created the Thai writing system in 1283 and established the idyllic paternal 'Father Rules Children' monarchy.

Sukhothai, Thailand

2 Full Record →

Philosophy & Thought

Sant Dnyaneshwar

संत ज्ञानेश्वर

Yadava Dynasty

1275 – 1296 (21 years old)

Brilliant 13th-century Marathi poet-philosopher and Nath yogi who translated the Bhagavad Gita into vernacular Marathi in the 9,000-verse 'Dnyaneshwari' at age fifteen, founding the egalitarian Varkari Bhakti movement.

Alandi (Pune, Maharashtra), India

3 Full Record →

4

Dnyaneshwar

ज्ञानेश्वर

Yadava Dynasty

1275 – 1296 (21 years old)

Maharashtrian Bhakti saint, poet, and Nath yogi who translated the Bhagavad Gita into vernacular Marathi in 'Dnyaneshwari' at age fifteen, founding the Varkari tradition.

Alandi, India

4 Full Record →

Kublai Khan (Setsen Khan / Emperor Shizu of Yuan)

8

🕯️ 1,170

Kublai Khan (Setsen Khan / Emperor Shizu of Yuan)

Хубилай хаан / 元世祖忽必烈

Mongolia

23 September 1215 – 18 February 1294 (78 years old)

Grandson of Genghis Khan who completed the conquest of China, founding the Yuan Dynasty. Established modern Beijing (Dadu / Khanbaliq) as imperial capital, introduced universal paper currency (Chao), and hosted European traveler Marco Polo.

Khanbaliq (Dadu / Beijing), China

8 Full Record →

Sciences & Discovery

Ibn al-Nafis

ابن النفيس

Syria

1213 – 1288 (75 years old)

Islamic physician and polymath who spent his career in Cairo as Chief Physician of Egypt, celebrated for discovering the pulmonary circulation of blood three centuries before William Harvey.

Cairo, Egypt

3 Full Record →

Sciences & Discovery

10

🕯️ 880

Ibn al-Nafis (Ala al-Din al-Qurashi)

ابن النفيس (علاء الدين علي بن أبي الحزم)

Syria

1213 CE – 17 December 1288 (75 years old)

Syrian-Egyptian physician and chief of Cairo's hospital who discovered pulmonary transit (lesser blood circulation) 300 years before William Harvey and Michael Servetus, refuting Galen.

Cairo, Egypt

10 Full Record →

5

Yaghmurasen ibn Zyan

يغمراسن بن زيان

Algeria

1206 – 1283 (77 years old)

Astute Zenata Berber statesman who founded the Zayyanid Kingdom of Tlemcen in 1236, fortified the Mechouar palace, and defended Algerian regional sovereignty against Marinid and Hafsid rivals for nearly half a century.

Tlemcen, Algeria

5 Full Record →

Nichiren

日蓮

Kamakura Period

1222 – 1282 (60 years old)

Fiery Kamakura reformer and founder of Nichiren Buddhism who declared the Lotus Sutra the supreme teaching and established the chanting of 'Namu Myoho Renge Kyo' for personal and national peace.

Mount Minobu, Japan

3 Full Record →

5

Mechthild of Magdeburg

Mechthild von Magdeburg

Holy Roman Empire

c. 1207 – c. 1282 (75 years old)

Beguine mystic and visionary poet whose 'The Flowing Light of the Godhead' pioneered vernacular German mystical literature, expressing ecstatic Bridal Mysticism.

Eisleben, Germany

5 Full Record →

Albertus Magnus

Duchy of Bavaria

c. 1200 – 1280 (80 years old)

Dominican polymath, Bishop of Regensburg, and Doctor of the Church who introduced Aristotelian science to medieval Europe and mentored Thomas Aquinas.

Cologne, Germany

3 Full Record →

5

Military Leaders & Strategists

Yahya ibn Sharaf al-Nawawi

يحيى بن شرف النووي

Syria

1233 – 1277 (44 years old)

Renowned Shafi'i jurist, traditionist, and ascetic author of 'The Forty Hadith', 'Riyad al-Salihin', and 'Al-Majmu', who fearlessly challenged Sultan Baibars for the rights of the poor.

Nawa, Syria

5 Full Record →

7

Baibars

الملك الظاهر ركن الدين بيبرس البندقداري

Desht-i Qipchaq (now Kazakhstan)

c. 1223 CE – 1277 (54 years old)

Fourth Mamluk Sultan of Egypt and Syria who crushed King Louis IX at Fariskur, commanded the vanguard that defeated the Mongols at Ain Jalut, and dismantled Crusader castles across the Levant.

Damascus, Syria

7 Full Record →

Al-Zahir Baybars

الملك الظاهر ركن الدين بيبرس البندقداري

Cumania (Kazakhstan)

c. 1223 CE – 1277 (~54 years old)

Fourth Mamluk Sultan of Egypt and Syria, warrior-king who defeated the Seventh Crusade, crushed the Mongols at Ain Jalut, and dismantled Crusader kingdoms.

Damascus, Syria

3 Full Record →

Muhammad I al-Mustansir

محمد المستنصر الحفصي

🌐 Hafsid Sultanate

1228 – 1277 (49 years old)

Hafsid monarch who assumed the title of Caliph (Amir al-Mu'minin) in 1259 and successfully repelled the Eighth Crusade led by King Louis IX of France in 1270.

Tunis, Tunisia

3 Full Record →