As a means of recording the passage of time, the 12th century was that century which lasted from 1101 to 1200. In the history of European culture, this period is considered part of the High Middle Ages and is sometimes called the Age of the Cistercians. In Song Dynasty China an invasion by Jurchens causes a political schism of north and south. The Khmer Empire of Cambodia flourished during this century, while the Fatimids of Egypt were overtaken by the Ayyubid dynasty.
1132, The Southern Song Dynasty establishes China's first permanent standing navy, although China had a long naval history prior. The main admiral's office was stationed at the port of Dinghai.
1132–1183, the Chinese navy increases from a mere 3000 marine soldiers to 52,000 marine soldiers stationed in 20 different squadrons. Between this time, hundreds of treadmill-operated paddle wheel craft are assembled for the navy, in order to combat the Jurchen's Jin Dynasty in the north.
1178, Chinese writer Zhou Qufei, a Guangzhou customs officer, wrote of an island far west in the Indian Ocean (possibly Madagascar), from where people with skin "as black as lacquer" and with frizzy hair were captured and purchased as slaves by Arab merchants.
1185, Founding of the cathedral school (Katedralskolan) in Lund, Sweden. The school is the oldest in northern Europe, and one of the oldest in Europe as a whole.
Bhaskara, towering figure in several disparate fields of mathematics
Pierre Abailard, one of the first scholastic philosophers; author of "Historia calamitatum mearum", a confessional account of his life (including a description of his love affair with Héloïse)