1221

This article is about the year 1221.

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	12th century – 13th century – 14th century
Decades:	1190s  1200s  1210s  – 1220s –  1230s  1240s  1250s
Years:	1218 1219 1220 – 1221 – 1222 1223 1224

1221 by topic

Politics

State leaders – Sovereign states

Birth and death categories

Births – Deaths

Establishments and disestablishments categories

Establishments – Disestablishments

Art and literature

1221 in poetry

1221 in other calendars

Gregorian calendar	1221 MCCXXI
Ab urbe condita	1974
Armenian calendar	670 ԹՎ ՈՀ
Assyrian calendar	5971
Bengali calendar	628
Berber calendar	2171
English Regnal year	5 Hen. 3 – 6 Hen. 3
Buddhist calendar	1765
Burmese calendar	583
Byzantine calendar	6729–6730
Chinese calendar	庚辰年 (Metal Dragon) 3917 or 3857     — to — 辛巳年 (Metal Snake) 3918 or 3858
Coptic calendar	937–938
Discordian calendar	2387
Ethiopian calendar	1213–1214
Hebrew calendar	4981–4982
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	1277–1278
- Shaka Samvat	1143–1144
- Kali Yuga	4322–4323
Holocene calendar	11221
Igbo calendar	221–222
Iranian calendar	599–600
Islamic calendar	617–618
Japanese calendar	Jōkyū 3 (承久３年)
Julian calendar	1221 MCCXXI
Korean calendar	3554
Minguo calendar	691 before ROC 民前691年
Thai solar calendar	1763–1764

Year 1221 (MCCXXI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.

Events

• January – The Mongol army under Jochi captures the city of Gurganj (modern-day Konye-Urgench in Turkmenistan) and massacres the inhabitants, reported by contemporary scholars as being over a million.
• February – The oasis city of Merv on the Silk Road is sacked by the Mongols under Tolui at the orders of Genghis Khan. Contemporary scholars report over a million people are systematically killed in a genocide.
• May 13 – Emperor Juntoku is forced to abdicate and is briefly succeeded by his 2-year-old son Emperor Chūkyō on the throne of Japan. Ex-Emperor Go-Toba leads the unsuccessful Jōkyū War against the Kamakura shogunate.
• June 16 – The Jews of Erfurt, Germany were massacred al Kiddush Hashem. This day was observed as a fast day for many years.

The Jews were falsely accused of a ritual murder. A crowd stormed the synagogue where the Jews had gathered. As usual the threat was baptism or death. The Jewish quarter including the synagogue was razed, many Jews were tortured and killed. Among the martyrs were Shem Tov ha-Levi and Rabbi and Mrs. Shmuel Kalonymos, Hy"d.

• July 29 – 10-year-old Emperor Go-Horikawa ascends to the Chrysanthemum Throne of Japan.
• Mid-December – John III Doukas Vatatzes becomes Byzantine Emperor (in the Empire of Nicaea).
• A large and highly efficient Mongol army, dispatched under Subutai by Genghis Khan to Georgia, defeats two Georgian armies around Tbilisi, but lacks the will or equipment to besiege the city.
• Genghis Khan enters the Indus Valley in modern-day Pakistan.
• Majd al-Mulk al-Muzaffar, the grand vizier of Greater Khorasan, is killed in a genocide by the Mongol invaders.
• The Maya of the Yucatán revolt against the rulers of Chichen Itza.
• Sultan al-Kamil, son of al-Adil ("Saphadin") who was a brother of Saladin, offers Jerusalem to the Crusaders for ten years in return for Damietta, which the Crusaders eventually give up in exchange for a safe retreat from the Nile Delta.
• The city of Nizhny Novgorod in Russia is founded.

Births

• October 9 – Salimbene di Adam, Italian chronicler
• November 23 – King Alfonso X of Castile (d. 1284)
• Bonaventure, Italian theologian and saint (d. 1274)
• Boleslaus the Pious, Duke of Greater Poland (d. 1279)

Deaths

• August 6 – Saint Dominic, Spanish founder of the Dominicans (b. 1170)
• October 4 – William IV Talvas, Count of Ponthieu (b. 1179)
• October 21 – Alix of Thouars, Duchess of Brittany (b. 1201)
• Roger Bigod, 2nd Earl of Norfolk
• Mutukan, 1st Son of Chagatai Khan