Directory

1250 CE

Egyptian politician Bahaa el-Din bin Hanna appointed Vizier of Egypt as the last vizier in the Ayyubid Sultanate of Egypt. Aybak becomes ruler of Egypt, beginning the Bahri Dynasty of the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt. After 5 days he stands down and the six-year-old Al-Ashraf Musa is nominally proclaimed sultan. Egyptian politician Bahaa el-Din bin Hanna appointed Vizier of Egypt as the first vizier in the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • July 21 – Aybak becomes ruler of Egypt, beginning the Bahri Dynasty of the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt. After 5 days he stands down and the six-year-old Al-Ashraf Musa is nominally proclaimed sultan.source
  • A kurultai is called by Batu Khan in Siberia as part of maneuverings which will elect Möngke Khan as khan of the Mongol Empire in 1251.source
  • The first of the Parlements of Ancien Régime France is established.source
  • The Welayta state is founded in modern-day Ethiopia.source
  • Samoa frees itself from Tongan rule, which begins the Malietoa dynasty in Samoa (approximate date).source

Conflict & Security

  • April 8 – Battle of Fariskur: Louis IX (the Saint) is captured by Baibars' Egyptian Mamluk army while he is in Egypt conducting the Seventh Crusade; he later has to ransom himself.source
  • July 9 – The Qaymariyya tribe engineers a coup d'état to hand over Damascus to An-Nasir Yusuf. The garrison in the citadel surrenders later to him.source
  • In Tunis, a popular rebellion against newly arrived, wealthy and influential Andalusian refugees breaks out, and is violently put down.source
  • Medieval music: The Notre Dame school of polyphony ends.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • July 22 – Egyptian politician Bahaa el-Din bin Hanna appointed Vizier of Egypt as the first vizier in the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt.source

Religion & Belief

  • March 11 – Egyptian politician Bahaa el-Din bin Hanna appointed Vizier of Egypt as the last vizier in the Ayyubid Sultanate of Egypt.source
  • The Hafsid caliph al-Mustansir enforces laws of ghiyar, or differentiation for non-Muslims. As such, Jews have to wear a distinguishing badge (shikla) which Tunisian Jews will have to wear into the nineteenth century.source
  • The Sienese bankers belonging to the firm known as the Gran Tavola, under the steering of the Bonsignori Brothers, become the main financiers of the Papacy.source

Economy & Finance

  • The Flemish town of Douai emits the first recorded redeemable annuities in medieval Europe, confirming a trend of consolidation of local public debt started in 1218, in Rheims.source
  • World climate transitions from the Medieval Warm Period to the Little Ice Age.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • Villard de Honnecourt draws the first known image of a sawmill.source
  • The first usage is made of the English word "cuckold", according to the Oxford English Dictionary.source
  • The Rialto Bridge in Venice (in modern-day Italy) is converted from a pontoon bridge to a permanent, raised wooden structure.source
  • The Ponts Couverts fortified bridges of Strasbourg (in modern-day France) are completed.source

Science & Discovery

  • Albertus Magnus isolates the element arsenic, as the 8th discovered metal. He also first uses the word "oriole" to describe a type of bird (most likely the golden oriole).source

Health & Medicine

  • October 12 – A great storm shifts the mouth of the River Rother in England 12 miles (20 km) to the west; a battering series of strong storms significantly alters other coastal geography around Romney Marsh.source
  • The world population is estimated at between 400 and 416 million individuals.source

Crime & Justice

  • April 30 – King Louis IX (the Saint) is released by his Egyptian captors after paying a ransom of one million dinars and turning over the city of Damietta.source
  • May 2 – Al-Muazzam Turanshah, Ayyubid Sultan of Egypt, is murdered, ending effective Ayyubid Dynasty rule in the country. He is briefly succeeded by his widow, Sultana Shajar al-Durr.source
  • Starting in this year and ending in 1275, the Muslim Shougeng Pu, likely a Persian or an Arab, serves as the Commissioner of Merchant Shipping for the Song dynasty Chinese seaport at Quanzhou, due to his effort in defeating pirates.source

Culture & Society

  • Vincent of Beauvais completes his proto-encyclopedic work Speculum Maius ("Greater mirror").source

Births

  • April 8 – John Tristan, son of Louis IX (d. 1270)source
  • December 25 – John IV Doukas Laskaris, emperor of Nicaea (d. 1305)source
  • December – al-Allama al-Hilli, Persian Shia theologian (d. 1325)source
  • Fra Dolcino, Italian priest and reformist (d. 1307)source
  • Robert II, French nobleman and knight (d. 1302)source
  • 1250–1259 – Guido Cavalcanti, Italian poet and writer (d. 1300)source
  • Margaret of Burgundy, queen of Sicily (d. 1308)source
  • Albert III, Margrave of Brandenburg-Salzwedel, German nobleman and knight (d. 1300)source
  • 1250 or 1259 – Asher ben Jehiel, German Jewish rabbi (d. 1327)source
  • Theodoric of Freiberg, German physicist (d. 1311)source
  • Diether of Nassau, archbishop of Trier (d. 1307)source
  • Albert II, Duke of Saxony, German nobleman (d. 1298)source
  • Matteo I Visconti, Italian imperial vicar (d. 1322)source
  • Záviš of Falkenstein, Bohemian nobleman (d. 1290)source

Deaths

  • February 2 – Erik Eriksson, king of Sweden (b. 1216)source
  • February 2 – King Erik Eriksson of Sweden dies. The ten-year-old Valdemar, the eldest son of Birger Jarl, is elected King of Sweden, and becomes the first king from the House of Bjälbo.source
  • February 8 – Fakhr ad-Din, Egyptian ruler and military leadersource
  • February 8 – William Longespée (the Younger), English knightsource
  • February 11 – Jean de Ronay, French Grand Mastersource
  • April 6 – Hugh XI of Lusignan, French nobleman (b. 1221)source
  • April 6 – Guillaume de Sonnac, French Grand Mastersource
  • May 2 – Al-Muazzam Turanshah, Ayyubid ruler of Egyptsource
  • May 26 – Peter I (Mauclerc), French nobleman (b. 1187)source
  • June 7 – Vitslav I, Danish nobleman and knight (b. 1180)source
  • June 11 – Alice of Schaerbeek, Flemish Cistercian lay sister (b. c. 1220)source
  • June 18 – Theresa of Portugal, queen of León (b. 1176)source
  • August 10 – Eric IV (Ploughpenny), king of Denmarksource
  • December 13 – Emperor Frederick II dies, beginning the 23-year-long "Great Interregnum". Frederick is the last Holy Roman Emperor of the Hohenstaufen dynasty; after the interregnum, the empire passes to the Habsburgs.source