upright=1.35|thumb|The [[Kingdom of Vaspurakan (908–1021)]]

Year 1021 (MXXI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar.

Events

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By place

Europe

  • November &ndash; Emperor Henry II conducts his fourth Italian military campaign. He crosses the Brenner Pass with a 60,000-strong army, and reaches Verona, where he receives Lombard levies. Henry proceeds to Mantua and then into Ravenna, to spend Christmas there.
  • Abd al-Aziz al-Mansur, a grandson of the prominent Andalusian figure Almanzor begins his rule in Taifa of Valencia, a Moorish kingdom in Al-Andalus (modern Spain), ushering in a period of relative stability and prosperity that will last until 1061. Taifa of Valencia gained its independence from the Caliphate of Córdoba in 1010.

Africa

  • February 13 &ndash; On one of his habitual night rides in the outskirts of Cairo, the Fatimid caliph al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah disappears, most likely assassinated by disaffected palace factions, apparently involving his sister, Sitt al-Mulk.
  • March 26 &ndash; On the feast of Eid al-Adha, the death of al-Hakim, kept secret for six weeks, is announced, along with the succession of his son, al-Zahir li-i'zaz Din Allah. On the same day, al-Hakim's designated heir, Abd al-Rahim ibn Ilyas, is arrested in Damascus and brought to Egypt.
  • The last evidence of indigenous Christian and non-Arabophone culture in Tripolitania (modern Libya) is seen.

Asia

  • Senekerim-Hovhannes Artsruni, Armenian king of Vaspurakan, surrenders his kingdom to the Byzantine Empire. In return, he receives Sebasteia and becomes governor of Cappadocia.
  • Battle of Shirimni, the Byzantine Empire under Basil II defeats the Kingdom of Georgia under Giorgi I at Shirimni, at the Lake Palakazio, modern Lake Çıldır, Turkey
  • Hovhannes-Smbat III, King of the Armenian kingdom of Ani, is attacked by his younger brother Ashot IV, and loses much power to him, becoming concurrent king of outlying territories.
  • Emperor Rajendra Chola I extends his influence of the Chola Empire to the banks of the Ganges River (North India) and invades Bengal.
  • Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni appoints Malik Ayaz to the throne, making Lahore (modern Pakistan) the capital of the Ghaznavid Empire.
  • The Chinese capital city of Kaifeng has some half a million residents by this year. Including all those present in the nine designated suburbs, the population is over a million people.

North America

  • Vikings known to be residing L'Anse aux Meadows on Newfoundland (island).</onlyinclude>

Births

  • December 8 &ndash; Wang Anshi, Chinese chancellor (d. 1086)
  • Eudokia Makrembolitissa, Byzantine empress (d. 1096)
  • Fujiwara no Kanshi, Japanese empress consort (d. 1102)
  • Wugunai, Chinese chieftain of the Wanyan tribe (d. 1074)

Deaths

  • February 13 &ndash; Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, Fatimid caliph (b. 985)
  • March 5 &ndash; Arnulf, French archbishop and illegitimate son of Lothair III
  • March 16 &ndash; Heribert, archbishop of Cologne (b. c. 970)
  • July 7 &ndash; Fujiwara no Akimitsu, Japanese bureaucrat (b. 944)
  • August 17 &ndash; Erkanbald, German abbot and archbishop
  • August 29 &ndash; Minamoto no Yorimitsu, Japanese nobleman (b. 948)
  • Fujiwara no Yoshikane, Japanese nobleman (b. 957)
  • Hamid al-Din al-Kirmani, Fatimid scholar and philosopher
  • Hamza ibn 'Ali ibn-Ahmad, founding leader of the Druze
  • Liu Mei, Chinese official and general (approximate date)
  • Mac Cú Ceanain, king of Uí Díarmata (Ireland)
  • Shams al-Dawla, Buyid emir of Hamadan (Iran)
  • Trilochanapala, king of the Kabul Shani dynasty

References