Manuel, to forestall the formation of a…

The seated wooden statue of Dainichi Nyorai at the Shingon temple of Enjō-ji in Nara is the earliest and best-substantiated work by Japanese master sculptor Unkei.

An inscription on the pedestal records that he began work on the piece in 1175 and brought it to completion the following year.

The sculpture has been designated a National Treasure.

Unkei's next documented works, from the early 1180s, commissioned by military leaders prominent in the ensuing Kamakura shogunate, for temples in eastern Japan, will be are physically more massive and powerful, as will be his giant Niō at Tōdai-ji.

By contrast, in this early work Unkei employs a more "gentle" or "tranquil" style.

Bishop Absalon founds Copenhagen (Danish: Kobenhavn; or the "merchants' harbor") in 1176 with the fortified Slotsholmen, or Castle Isle, as the city’s nucleus.

Recent archaeological finds indicate that by the eleventh century, Copenhagen had already grown into a small town with a large estate, a church, a market, at least two wells and many smaller habitations spread over a fairly wide area.

Many historians believe that the town dates to the late Viking age, and was possibly founded by Sweyn I Forkbeard, King of Denmark from 986 to 1014.

Mieszko III protects the Jews of Poland and permits them to mint coins bearing Hebrew inscriptions.

Kilij's victory may also have won him the recognition of the 'Abbasid caliphs in Baghdad, for he has begun to mint coins bearing the name of al-Mustadi' (1170-80).

Another major confrontation occurs between the Zengids and the Ayyubids in the spring of 1176, his time at the Sultan's Mound, fifteen kilometers (9.3 miles) from Aleppo.

Saladin again emerges victorious, but Saif al-Din manages to narrowly escape.

The Ayyubids proceed to take other Syrian cities in the north, namely Ma'arat al-Numan, A'zaz, Buza'a, and Manbij, but fail to capture Aleppo after a second siege.

An agreement is laid out, however, whereby Gumushtigin, the governor of Aleppo, and his Muslim allies at Hisn Kayfa and Mardin will recognize Saladin as the sovereign of his dominions in Syria while Saladin allows for Gumushtigin and as-Salih al-Malik to continue their rule of Aleppo.

The Syrian grand master, the legendary Rashid ad-Din as-Sinan, rules from the fortress of Masyaf, virtually independently of Assassin headquarters at Alamut.

Rashid and his successor chiefs are known as the shaykh al-jabal (Arabic: “mountain chief”), which is mistranslated by the crusaders as the “Old Man of the Mountain.” Feared for his practice of sending his followers to murder his enemies, Rashid ad-Din makes several attempts on the life of Saladin, who opposes the Isma'ili Shi'i sect.

Saladin invades Assassin territory in 1176, and gains a truce.

Turan-Shah has succeeded in acquiring his own territory in Yemen but has clearly done so at the expense of his power in Cairo.

Saladin has rewarded him rich estates in Yemen as his personal property.

Turan-Shah did not feel comfortable in Yemen however, and repeatedly asked his brother to transfer him.

In 1176, he obtains a transfer to Syria, which he will governed from Damascus.

In addition, he is given large fiefs in Baalbek that used to belong to his father Najm ad-Din Ayyub.

Upon leaving Yemen, the administrator of his estates here is unable to promptly transfer the revenue from his properties to Turanshah.

Instead, he leaves Turanshah roughly two hundred thousand dinars in debt, but this is paid off by Saladin.

Christians in Egypt under Muslim rule are second-class citizens, who pay special taxes and have no access to political power.

The Copts are cut off from the main stream of Christianity, but they are allowed to practice their religion unmolested.

Under the Muslim caliphs and the sultans, Qift has remained one of the chief cities of Upper Egypt.

Al-Adil in 1176 suppresses a revolt by the Christian Copts of Qift, hanging nearly three thousand of them on the trees around the city.

An uprising by Abbas ibn Shadi, who overruns Qus along the Nile River in central Egypt, is coincidental or possibly in coordination with the disturbance at Aswan.

Al-Adil crushes both rebellions.

Saladin's palace administrator, Armenian Mamluk Sharaf al-Din Qara-Qush, continues his raids in western North Africa for the rest of 1175 and throughout early 1176, bringing the Ayyubids into conflict with the Almohad rulers of the Maghreb.