1132

By place

Levant

• Summer - Imad al-Din Zengi, Seljuk governor of Aleppo and Mosul, marches on Baghdad, to add it to his dominions. He is defeated by the forces of Caliph Al-Mustarshid, near Tikrit. Zengi flees and escapes, with the help of Tikrit's governor Najm ad-Din Ayyub, who conveys him across the River Tigris.

Europe

• July 24 - Battle of Nocera: Rebel Normans under Count Ranulf II defeat the Sicilian forces, led by King Roger II. Seven hundred knights are captured, and Roger is forced to retreat to Salerno.

England

• Barnwell Castle is erected in Northamptonshire.

Asia

• June - A fire breaks out in the Chinese capital of Hangzhou, destroying 13,000 houses and forcing many to flee to the nearby hills. Due to large fires as this, the government installs an effective fire fighting force for the city. Items such as bamboo, planks, and rush-matting are temporarily exempted from taxation, 120 tons of rice are distributed among the poor. The government suspends the housing rent requirement of the city's residents.
• The Southern Song court establishes the first permanent standing navy, with the headquarters of the Chinese admiralty based at Dinghai.

By topic

Religion

• Diarmait Mac Murchada has the abbey of Kildare in Ireland burned, and the abbess raped. He becomes king of the province of Leinster.
• Malachy is appointed archbishop of Armagh in Ireland, to impose the Roman liturgy on the independent Irish Church.
• March 5 - Rievaulx Abbey is founded by the Cistercian order, near Helmsley in Yorkshire.
• December 27 - Fountains Abbey soon to join the Cistercian order, is founded near Ripon in Yorkshire.
• Basingwerk Abbey originally Benedictine, and later Cistercian, is founded near Holywell in Wales.