Public Figures & Cultural Luminaries

Religious Figures & Theologians

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Al-Mahdi ibn Tumart

محمد بن تومرت (المهدي)

Morocco

c. 1080 – 1130 (~50 years old)

Masmuda Berber religious reformer who studied in Baghdad under Al-Ghazali, proclaimed himself the Mahdi, authored the theology of Tawhid (Divine Unity), and founded the Almohad revolution in Tinmel.

Tinmel (High Atlas), Morocco

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Religious Figures & Theologians

4

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Bahya ben Joseph ibn Paquda

בחיי אבן פקודה

Spain

c. 1050 – c. 1120 (70 years old)

Andalusian Jewish philosopher and dayyan (rabbinic judge) who authored 'Duties of the Heart' (Al-Hidayah ila Fara'id al-Qulub), the foundational classic of Jewish ethics.

Zaragoza, Spain

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Monarchs, Kings & Royalty

4

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Alexios I Komnenos

Ἀλέξιος Αʹ Κομνηνός

Turkey

c. 1048 CE – 1118 (~70 years old)

Byzantine Emperor who founded the Komnenian dynasty, rescued the empire from near-collapse, and whose appeal to Rome sparked the First Crusade.

Constantinople (Istanbul), Turkey

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Religious Figures & Theologians

9

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Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazali (Hujjat al-Islam)

أبو حامد محمد بن محمد الغزالي

Iran

c. 1058 CE (450 AH) – 19 December 1111 CE (505 AH) (53 years old)

Pivotal Islamic thinker celebrated as "Proof of Islam" (Hujjat al-Islam). Revitalized religious sciences by synthesizing orthodox jurisprudence, theology, and Sufi mysticism in his masterpiece Ihya Ulum al-Din.

Tous, Iran

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Military Leaders & Strategists

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Bohemond I of Antioch

Bohemond de Hauteville

Duchy of Calabria (Italy)

1 – 1111 (57 years old)

Norman prince and supreme military strategist of the First Crusade who captured Antioch through bribery and routed Kerbogha's relief army to found the Principality of Antioch.

Canosa di Puglia, Italy

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Religious Figures & Theologians

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Anselm of Canterbury (Doctor Magnificus)

Anselmus Cantuariensis

Italy

c. 1033 CE – 21 April 1109 (~76 years old)

Archbishop of Canterbury and founder of scholasticism famous for formulating the Ontological Argument for God's existence and the motto "Faith seeking understanding" (Fides quaerens intellectum).

Canterbury, United Kingdom

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Military Leaders & Strategists

2

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Kilij Arslan I

I. Kılıç Arslan

Sultanate of Rum

1079 – 1107 (28 years old)

Second Sultan of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum who was the first Muslim commander to face the First Crusade, wiped out the Peoples' Crusade in 1096, and established Konya as the capital of Anatolia.

Silvan (Diyarbakir), Turkey

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Philosophy & Thought

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Cheng Yi

程頤

Song Dynasty

1033 – 1107 (74 years old)

Northern Song dynasty philosopher who, alongside his brother Cheng Hao, established the School of Principle (Lixue) that formed the philosophical foundation of the Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucian orthodoxy.

Yichuan (Henan), China

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Monarchs, Kings & Royalty

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Yusuf ibn Tashfin

يوسف بن تاشفين

🌐 Lamtuna Sanhaja

c. 1009 – 1106 (~97 years old)

Ascetic Sanhaja Berber leader who co-founded Marrakech in 1062, built the colossal Almoravid Empire from Senegal to the Pyrenees, and saved Islamic Spain from the Reconquista at the Battle of Sagrajas (Zallaqa) in 1086.

Marrakech, Morocco

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Religious Figures & Theologians

9

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Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi of Troyes)

רש״י (רבי שלמה יצחקי)

France

22 February 1040 CE – 13 July 1105 CE (65 years old)

Eleventh-century French rabbi revered as the "Father of Commentators." His concise, luminous commentaries on the Hebrew Bible and Babylonian Talmud remain essential to all traditional Jewish learning and preserved Old French vocabulary.

Troyes, France

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Literature & Poetry

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Su Shi

蘇軾 (Su Dongpo)

Song Dynasty

1037 – 1101 (64 years old)

Northern Song dynasty polymath (1037–1101), known as Su Dongpo, who excelled as a poet, calligrapher, painter, and statesman, revolutionizing Ci lyric poetry and leaving an immortal cultural legacy.

Jia County (Henan), China

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Literature & Poetry

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Su Shi (Su Dongpo)

蘇軾 (蘇東坡)

China

8 January 1037 – 24 August 1101 (64 years old)

Supreme cultural polymath of the Northern Song dynasty whose buoyant Buddhist-Taoist resilience, peerless ci poetry, and prose masterworks—like the Red Cliff Odes—rank him as one of China's greatest literary titans.

Changzhou (Jiangsu), China

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Sciences & Discovery

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Su Song

蘇頌

China

1020 CE – 1101 CE (81 years old)

Song Dynasty Prime Minister and engineer who designed the 40-foot water-driven astronomical clock tower of Kaifeng, featuring the world's earliest mechanical escapement and endless power-transmitting chain drive.

Xiamen (Fujian), China

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Military Leaders & Strategists

3

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Godfrey of Bouillon

Godefroy de Bouillon

Duchy of Lower Lorraine (Belgium)

1 – 1100 (40 years old)

Leader of the First Crusade and first ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem who took the title 'Advocate of the Holy Sepulchre' and won the Battle of Ascalon.

Jerusalem, Palestine

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Military Leaders & Strategists

3

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Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar (El Cid)

Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar

Kingdom of Castile (Spain)

1 – 1099 (56 years old)

Castilian military leader and folk hero of the Reconquista who served both Christian and Muslim lords, never lost a battle, and conquered Valencia.

Burgos, Spain

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Religious Figures & Theologians

3

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Marpa Chokyi Lodro

མར་པ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་བློ་གྲོས

Tibetan Kingdom

c. 1012 – c. 1097 (85 years old)

Tibetan householder yogi and translator who journeyed thrice to India, studied under Naropa and Maitripa, and founded the Kagyu lineage in Tibet, famously mentoring Milarepa.

Lhodrak, China

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Sciences & Discovery

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Shen Kuo (Shen Gua)

沈括

China

1031 CE – 1095 CE (64 years old)

Song Dynasty universal polymath whose Dream Pool Essays described the magnetic needle compass (magnetic declination), petrified bamboo fossils (geomorphology), and movable type printing.

Yuhang (Hangzhou, Zhejiang), China

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Military Leaders & Strategists

3

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Malik Shah I

جلال الدولة معز الدنيا والدين ملكشاه

Seljuk Empire

1055 – 1092 (37 years old)

Third and greatest Sultan of the Great Seljuk Empire whose reign, alongside Grand Vizier Nizam al-Mulk, represented the military and cultural zenith of medieval Islamic civilization.

Isfahan, Iran

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