the Hundred Rolls, an English census seen as a follow-up to the Domesday Book completed in 1086, is finished; it began in 1274. Africa Marinid forces take the city of Algiers, at that time independent. Asia March – Mongol forces (some 200,000 men) under Bayan of the Baarin (Hundred Eyes) defeat a Chinese army of 130,000 men led by the Song chancellor Jia Sidao on the Yangtze River. Sidao sends an emissary to Bayan to discuss a truce, but he declines to negotiate. Dowager Empress Xie Daoqing strips Sidao of his rank and titles, and is later on her orders executed by one of his own guards, as he is sent to exile in Fujian. The 21-year-old Marco Polo together with his father and uncle, Niccolò and Maffeo Polo, arrives at Kublai Khan's opulent summer palace at Shangdu (or Xanadu), after a 4-year journey. They present the "Great Khan" sacred oil from Jerusalem and papal letters of Pope Gregory X. Kublai takes Marco into his royal court and appoints him as a 'special envoy' (possibly as a tax collector). The mountain fortress Alamut Castle (Eagle's Nest) is temporarily recaptured from the Mongols by a Nizari force under Shams al-Din Muhammad.Virani, Shafique N.; Virani, Assistant Professor Departments of Historical Studies and the Study of Religion Shafique N. (2007). The Ismailis in the Middle Ages: A History of Survival, a Search for Salvation, p. 32. Oxford University Press, USA. . April – The Japanese era Bun'ei ends and the Kenji era begins during the reign of the 8-year-old Emperor Go-Uda (until 1278). By topic Art and Science Jean de Meun completes the French allegorical work of fiction, Roman de la Rose, with a second section (the first section was written by Guillaume de Lorris in 1230). Markets In Ghent, the first instance is recorded of emission of life annuities by a town in the Low Countries; this event confirms a trend of consolidation of local public debt in northwestern Europe, initiated in 1218 by Reims. Technology The verge escapement, a simple type of escapement used in clocks, is invented (approximate date). Religion August – Gregory X persuades King Alfonso X (the Wise) to give up his claim to the title of "King of the Romans". Gregory gains support in northern Italy through Rudolf I, king of Germany. Ramon Llull, Spanish scholar and theologian, establishes a school in Majorca to teach Arabic to