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Henri, count of Hainaut, is made emperor of Romania (the Latin empire) in August (see 1205). He will reign until his death in 1216 as Henri I, defeating the Bulgars in Europe, making efforts to reconcile his Greek subjects to Latin rule, and frustrating the efforts of Theodore Lascaris (see Nicaean Empire, 1208).
Muizz-ud-Din Muhammad of Ghur is assassinated at Damyak March 15 after a reign that has helped to establish Muslim power in India, and his former viceroy Kuth-ud-Din Aibak (Qutb-ud-Din Aybak) takes over Delhi as the first independent Muslim ruler of north India. A former slave from Turkestan who was named viceroy in 1192, Aibak is technically a slave. He quickly obtains manumission and will consolidate his rule by marrying women from families with more legitimate claims to power (see 1210).
The Turkish general Ikhtiar-ud-Din Bakhtiar Khilji leads a raiding expedition to the eastern Bengal town of Lakshmanabali, near Gour, and plunders the Radha region of the Malda district as he passes through (see 1201). Turks and Afghans will vie for control of eastern Bengal for centuries.
Mongols on the Chinese border overrun the Uigurs under the leadership of their chief Temüjin (or Temüjen [Tie Mu Zhen, or Tieh Mu Chen in Chinese]), 44, who is proclaimed Genghis Khan (Cheng Ji Si Han in Chinese)—"emperor of all emperors"—at Karakorum.
The Beguine movement that begins to develop in Switzerland, the Rhineland, northern France, and the Low Countries brings together lay-women—all pledged to chastity, poverty, manual labor, and communal worship—into all-female, self-governing communities (year approximate). A surplus of females in this century and the next will make it impossible for many young women to marry unless they have dowries, and while one must have a dowry to join a convent, a beguinage has no such requirement.
Uigurs on the Chinese border employ block printing to print Buddhist works in the Turkish language, using alphabet script derived from the Phoenician through Aramaic and other languages, with Sanskrit notes and Chinese page numbers. Genghis Khan will employ the Uigur scholar Tatatonga, who will use his script to record documents in the Mongol language (see Korea, 1234).
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