Religion

Topics represented

Religion (351) · Buddhist traditions (97) · Hindu traditions (62) · Chinese traditions (61) · Judaism (43) · Islam (42) · Christianity (34) · Empire and state (20) · Daoist traditions (19) · Catholic Christianity (17) · Sunni (16) · Roman Empire (14)

Records and sources

Ordered by start date. Long lives and processes may begin before the period you want to study.

1. 970

   Foundation of al-Azhar

   A teaching center founded in Fatimid Cairo; its later history includes a prominent Sunni role.

2. c. 1001–c. 1300

   Bagan and Burmese Buddhisms

   Bagan preserves a major concentration of Buddhist temples and production linked to regional networks and changes in patronage.

3. 1010

   Consecration of Brihadisvara, Thanjavur

   Rajaraja I’s temple documents links among Chola patronage, Shiva, inscription, and ritual economy.

4. c. 1011–c. 1087

   First Goryeo Tripitaka

   The Goryeo court sponsors a complete woodblock canon, linking state protection and textual authority.

5. c. 1017–c. 1137

   Ramanuja and Vishishtadvaita

   Ramanuja articulated an influential Vaishnava Vedanta and southern devotional networks; dates are conventional.

6. 1040–1105

   Rashi’s commentaries

   Rashi’s Bible and Talmud commentaries became an enduring reference for Ashkenazi learning.

7. 1042

   Atisha in Tibet

   Atisha arrives from Bengal and his teachings become important in Tibetan lineages; they do not encompass the full diversity of schools.

8. c. 1054

   Rupture between Rome and Constantinople

   The excommunications of 1054 are a conventional symbol of separation between Latin and Greek communions. They should be understood as a long process shaped by language, jurisdiction, theology, and politics.

9. 1054

   The 1054 legation in Constantinople

   The Latin legation of 1054 and excommunications between representatives of Rome and Constantinople aggravated ecclesial tensions. They do not by themselves amount to one single, definitive date of separation between all eastern and western churches.

10. 1055

    Seljuq entry into Baghdad

    The Seljuqs presented themselves as protectors of the Abbasid caliphate and Sunni Islam, separating military power and caliphal authority.

11. 1095–1099

    First Crusade and capture of Jerusalem

    After Urban II’s call at Clermont, crusader armies captured Jerusalem in 1099. This records the religious-military program and extreme violence against Muslim and Jewish inhabitants, without celebratory language.

12. 1095–1099

    First Crusade and relations with the Eastern Empire

    The First Crusade crossed Byzantine territories and reordered relations among Constantinople, crusader leaders, and neighboring states. Military cooperation coexisted with divergent objectives, jurisdictions, and mistrust.

13. 1099

    Crusader capture of Jerusalem

    A religious and political conflict affecting Muslim, Christian, and Jewish communities; it is not presented as an inevitable clash of religions.

14. c. 1100–c. 1150

    Angkor Wat as a Vaishnava sanctuary

    Angkor Wat was built in a Khmer setting where Hindu traditions intertwined with later Buddhist transformations.

15. c. 1100

    Lingayat/Virashaiva movements

    Communities linked to Basava developed distinctive practices and literatures; their classification as “Hindu” is contested.

16. c. 1101–c. 1300

    Medieval origins of Wudang palaces

    UNESCO dates the origins of Purple Heaven Palace to the twelfth century and Nanyang Palace to the twelfth–thirteenth centuries, with later rebuilding. The Daoist center predates these palaces, reaching back to the early Tang period.

17. 1130–1200

    Zhu Xi and the Four Books

    Zhu Xi’s commentaries helped establish the Four Books as a basis for Confucian learning and examinations. Their later influence was considerable, although interpretations and official orthodoxy varied across dynasties.

18. c. 1140

    Gratian’s Decretum

    The Decretum, composed around 1140, organized and discussed apparently discordant canons and authorities. It became central to canon-law teaching and practice; it was not papal legislation promulgated as a state code and did not exhaust all sources of ecclesiastical law.

19. 1153–1186

    Monastic reorganization under Parakramabahu I

    During his reign in Sri Lanka, Parakramabahu I brought rival monastic communities into a reformed organization. This episode of patronage does not summarize Theravada transmission across Southeast Asia.

20. 1167

    Wang Chongyang and Quanzhen expansion

    Wang Chongyang and his disciples developed the Quanzhen tradition, a Daoist network of cultivation and ordination that became influential in northern China.

21. 1170–1180

    Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah

    Maimonides compiled a decisive systematization of Jewish law in Egypt; its influence and controversies cross communities to this day.

22. 1175

    Honen and Jodo-shu

    Honen founds a Japanese Pure Land school centered on Amida and accessible to varied publics.

23. 1187

    Saladin retakes Jerusalem

    Saladin’s forces retook the city and Islamic sanctuaries were rededicated; recorded as a situated political and religious change.

24. c. 1191

    Eisai and Japanese Zen

    Eisai returns from China and teaches Zen; later Zen schools are not one uniform tradition.

25. c. 1200–c. 1600

    Maritime diffusion in Southeast Asia

    Trade, local networks, and elite conversions contributed to the spread of Islam; chronologies and routes are multiple.

26. c. 1201–c. 1300

    Nalanda’s functional end

    UNESCO places Nalanda’s sack, abandonment, and functional end in the thirteenth century; this entry records the institutional outcome without assigning the whole transformation to a single cause.

27. 1204

    Fourth Crusade and capture of Constantinople

    Armies of the Fourth Crusade conquered Constantinople in 1204 and established a Latin Empire. The result fragmented the Byzantine political space and displaced populations and elites; it did not end the continuity of eastern Roman states.

28. 1206

    Consolidation of the Delhi Sultanate

    The centralization of a sultanate in North India connected new Indo-Islamic elites and institutions; it does not describe the subcontinent’s full religious diversity.

29. 1215

    Fourth Lateran Council and trial by ordeal

    Canon 18 of the Fourth Lateran Council barred clerics from blessing or participating in water- or hot-iron ordeals. By withdrawing ecclesiastical support, it altered an evidentiary mechanism in several jurisdictions; it did not by itself abolish every ordeal or every form of trial by combat.

30. c. 1224

    Shinran and Jodo Shinshu

    Shinran develops a Japanese Pure Land form reshaping community, practice, and religious authority.