In steps of Ibn Battutah - A Marinid AAR

[elvain]

in 1324-1356 Abu Abdallah ibn Battuta, a famous traveller from Tangiers in Marocco made a journey through all of muslim world of his time. He started in Morocco to visit Mecca, but instead of comming home he visited Yemen, Sudan, Iraq, Palestine, Syria, Iran, Anatolia and Byzantine empire, Golden Horde, Khwarizm, India and China and then got back to Morroco from where he made his last journey around Western Africa and around river of Niger.
His journey ispired this AAR.

Political goal:
- unite all "western muslims" of "al-Andalus" (Iberian peninsula) and Maghreb (Morocco and Algeria) into one state ruled by the Marinid dynasty.
- all muslim provinces visited have to be under muslim rule. If local muslims are not able to do it, Marinid army has to.

Main goal:
- a knight from Marinid court will visit all muslim provinces on the map, vill visit Golden Horde (or it's successor), especially town of Sarai, get to the eastern edge of the map in Syria, visit Tebuk in Arabia to simulate Hajj (muslim pilgrimage to Mecca) and then through north african coast get back home. All eventual "stops" on his journey are welcome.
Conditions of the goal:
- the journey will be done all alone or with up to 2 desert cavalry/camel riders units - all muslim lands have to be visited in peace.
Limitations:
- free declaration of war to a Muslim country is prohibited
- diplomatic relations with Papacy and it's helpers is prohibited, unless it helps in liberation of a muslim province from rule of infidels.
- No possibility of marriage of muslim princess to non-muslim kingdom. A prince can marry a christian (not pagan!) princess only in order to inherit a muslim province

Settings:
- version 1.05
- mod: Holy Rome 1.8
- hard settings
- pause during battles off

--
startscreen:

royal family:

diplomatic relations:
http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/3...lationstg5.png
religious map:
http://img161.imageshack.us/img161/6...eligionuc4.png

[elvain]

Chapter 1 - Marinid emirate of Morocco

in 1356 famous Abu Abdullah Ibn Battuta returned home to the Marinid Morocco

his last journey was in service of mighty emir Ali, but his previous travells, thugh were very instructive and informative for all who have heard them, the emir decided that it would be good if one more of his subject would make such voyage areound the muslim world and possibly cross it's borders if it would enrich the court in Marrakech.

He decided that such voyage is possible, but he also was very ambitious in "muslim issue" in the Maghreb and Andalucia. Many good muslims lived in provinces of Andalucia and Valencia under an infidel rule of catholic kings and in Granada, which was ruled by ruthless and evil emir who - long ago - declared war on Marinids.

To unite western muslims he first had to build up his own domain in Morocco. The cities, however weren't much developed, but had some potential:
http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/8...rrakeshks3.png
http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/5...angiersxa3.png
http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/8...rrakeshks3.png

the most important thing was to have good income that would enable safe life of all western muslims. Trade agreements with the Zayyanids in Algeria and Mameluks in Egypt were good for start


--
PS: next update can come on sunday somewhen late in the evening

[Freddan]

Interesting goals Elvain, I will follow this.

[elvain]

thanks. I hope I will be able to update on saturday...

[Garuda]

I'm looking forward to following another of your aars. And from the beginning this time.

Is it just me or does anyone else think that the Queen look like a man in drag?

*Runs away before the Royal Guard catches him*

[Freddan]

Is it just me or does anyone else think that the Queen look like a man in drag?

*Runs away before the Royal Guard catches him*

Nope, I have to agree with you on that point.

[elvain]

hey, who has the courage to say bad words about the queen of Marinids!?!?

you can await a sword of honour being ready to revenge on such bad words about our most *cough* beautifull *cough* queen.

There is no place in the world that can save you from rightfull revenge!

[elvain]

Chapter 2 - Granada

On the other side of strait of Gibraltar, there was rich province of Granada, which, among other things, had pasture, which was very important for the emirate of Marinids.
But the Nasrid emir was at war with the emir of Marinids and our economy needed help, so emir Aadil was sent to Granada to plunder their villages and force them to peace which would be good for the Marinids, or be ready for other consequences of the war.


But Nasrid (Granadan) prince Dinar was sent by his cowardly father to stop the plundering.

Nasrid Granadan army could, however, hardly be called an army, in comparison to what our emir Aadil had under command.


The battle couldn't last long,
the peasants fleed very soon and the prince was surrounded by Marinid soldiers.

Sadly one of our soldiers decided not to follow Aadil's orders and killed prince Dinar during the battle.
That was very sad news for us as the honour of our king dropped in eyes of other good muslims.

The more disapointing the death of courageous prince was when Zayyanid emir
agreed to peace with Nasrids of Granada who then became vassals of Zayyanids
and princess of Granada was married to Zayyanid prince.

[elvain]

I forgot one ver important thing.

The AAR starts in 3rd Dhu'l-hijja 756 (December 9, 1355) and every 3 minutes in the clock present 1 lunar year.

The years will be mostly put in arabic era (since 622)

[Freddan]

Nice update, unlucky with the prince there.

By the way, this AAR got me interested in KoH again, are there still a lot of mods out there? 'Cuz I'm thinkin' about installing it again and maybe make an AAR..

[elvain]

Nice update, unlucky with the prince there.

By the way, this AAR got me interested in KoH again, are there still a lot of mods out there? 'Cuz I'm thinkin' about installing it again and maybe make an AAR..

there still are mods that have been there.

and some of them work even with the newest patch...

[elvain]

Chapter 3 - Granada (part 2)

Zayyanid victorious peace treaty with Granada forced emir of Marinids to the only possible way to save Granadan muslims from infidel rule
(Granada was also at war with Castilia which was much more powerfull not only than Granada but also Marinids)
So emir Aadil landed in Granada and marched towards the city


Granadan army was very weak,
the people could consider themselves lucky that it was Marinid army who assaulted the city and not Castilian.


emir ordered his men to spread and isolate each enemy squad and eliminate them one by one
each with 2 squads of saracens. Archers supported them from the back.



in the end only the king of Granada was left alone with his guards.
He knew how desperate his situation is,
but he found last courage of his and charged right between Marinid armies which surrounded him.



Emir Aadil offered him to survive and to live in Marrakesh as honourable friend of Marinid emir,
but emir Aalam of Granada refused this offer and fought untill his last breath
(though his opponents didn't want to kill him).
Finaly he ran on a sword of unlucky marinid soldier to kill himself.



This was how proud Nasrid kingdom of Granada has fallen into oblivion.
Just before holy month Ramadan 763 since Hijra (1362 C.E.) Granada has fallen into hands of Marinid emir Ali.

The good thing was that we got Horses - the most valuable trade good.

[elvain]

Chapter 4 - Rising glory 763-774 A.H. (1362-1373 C.E.)

The news about the fal of Granada were spread fast throughout the entire world.
As the trade between Morocco and Egypt was abnormally intensive,
the first gratulations were expected from the court of Mameluks.
But the glory seemed to be even higher than emir Ali expected.
Not only did the sultan al-Hasan gratulated to the fresh conquest,
furthemore he offered alliance.


"We heard about glorious victory of your armies, mighty emir Ali ibn Uthmán!
We would like to ask you,
if you would agree to our offer of alliance with mighty sultan of Mameluks,
lord of Egypt and protector of Mecca," said the ambassador of Mameluks in Fes.
Emir Ali replied:
"We are most pleased that mighty sultan, protector of Holy places,
finds us valuable enough to be his allies. Certainly we agree to your generous offer."

Not much later a problem appeared in Granada.
Soon after our officers took controll over Granada, a loyalist Absi demanded restoration of Nasrid kingdom.


but emir Aadil's experience grew after the victory in Granada:


so he rapidly caught Absi and while his men were plundering, the rebel was killed.



The Marinid rule over Granada was now secured.
Not much later this news spread over the rest of Iberian peninsula,
where a war between infidel christians was taking place. Small western kingdom of Portugal was at war with Castilia which was oppresing good muslims in Andalucia.
To help his potential enemy's enemy,
emir Ali agreed to sign trade agreement with Portugal.


not much later another kingdom was informed abuot rising glory of Marinids.
But the head of infidels wasn't the best partner to trade with.

[elvain]

Chapter 5 - Portugeese war 774-778 A.H. (1373-1377 C.E.)

Since Castilia was at war with Portugal,
terrible news were comming to Granada and Tangiers and other muslim cities from Cordoba,
the capital of Andalucia which was under Castilian rule.
The king of Castilia - who was in need of more gold -
was confiscating property of rich muslim merchants in Cordoba
their prayers were continuously being disturbed by his officials
so when it appeared that Portugal is losing the war,
emir Ali decided to join the war on portugeese side.


It, of course pleased the king of Portugal,
who already lost province of Lisbon, and a messanger has arrived to our Emir.


emir Aadil, our marshal, was sent to Lisbon to plunder local churches
and to initiate a revolt against Castilian rule.
Sadly he was attacked by conde Garcia of Castilia and his strong army


But quite soon, castilian reinforcements of king Pedro have arrived
emir Aadil ordered his men to attack the king first


Pedro's army seemed to be little weaker than Garcia's,
but our men had to be fast to have chance to win the battle


We attacked directly the king, but his peasants disabled the direct attack
and there was not enough time for more complicated manoeuvres,
as Garcia's army was near.
Emir Aadil was losing one squad after another,
but king Pedro was still alive.
There was no other choice left than to withdraw from the battlefield.



A rebellion was initiated, but with 2 castilian marshals in the province it had no chance of survival. Emir Aadil couldn't help the rebels so he boarded a ship and sailed back home to reinforce his squads.

Sadly, in the very beggining of year 778 A.H. Castilian armies had conquered also town of Porto and eliminated kingdom of Portugal.
Emirate of Marinids was left alone in this war.

[Freddan]

Ouch, unlucky there. Castile seems really strong and I guess you'll have a really tough opponent in them. The alliance with the Mameluks should be nice.

Its also nice to see that people are still making mods for KoH, such a awesome game just a bit neglected from the developers. I'll probably make an AAR in the summer when I got time.

Keep the good work up Elvain!

[elvain]

I'm glad there still are people interested in reading KoH AARs and playing the game.

To be honest I do this instead of finnishing HolyRome 1.8's final version as I'm little tired of all that testing

btw, Castile will appear to be even stronger... and the Mameluk Alliance was the best thing to do in the beggining. Though they are too far to make me even think of invoking alliance against Castilia - it couldn't help me at all and I wouldn't risk loss of such important ally (who I will need later in order to fulfill the goal)

[elvain]

Chapter 6 - Economy and diplomacy 774-783 A.H. (1373-1381 C.E.)

During the war against Castilia emir Ali continued to build up his emirate's image of prospering state.
For that he needed to improve state economy which will - hopefully -
later help to defeat Castilians not only on the battlefield, but also in diplomatical activities.
The goal was to isolate Castilia as much as possible and improve international importance of Marinid emirate.

Before the portugeese campaign of emir Aadil started, first important trade good was achieved.


In the very end of the battle in Lisbon, a terrible news arriver to Marinid court.
Our most important ally, sultan al-Hasan of Mameluks has passed away.
Through our royal marriages Ali's son Faris had right to claim parts of Mameluk sultanate
namely provinces of Barka, Libya and Alexandria,
but he decided not to claim this right in order to improve our relations with sultan Muhammad.




Several months later a messanger arrived with news that
currently most beloved ruler in Europe is Bernhold, graf of Mecklenburg,
some local ruler in cold and far north


in spring 782 A.H. another trade good was achieved (in Granada)


As the time passed, emir Ali noticed that kingdom treasury needs higher income,
especially because of lasting war against Castilia which wasn't going good (see next chapter)
So he hired another trader and asked Serbia for trade agreement.


Serbians first refused, but they were at war with Aragon
so they asked emir Ali to attack Aragon.
COnsidering the fact that Aragon was opressing good muslims in Valencia
emir Ali agreed and signed trade agreement with Serbia.

The result was extremely hot northern border of Granada.

[elvain]

Chapter 7 - Castilian raids in Granada 779-781 A.H. (1378-1380 C.E.)

After Ramadan 778 everything looked nice.
The Emirate was prospering, the winter was warm
and Castilians had their own problems in their new domains in Portugal.

Though emir Ali knew it is just question of time when will the Castilians attack Granada.
He wanted to srprise them and attack them again from the sea,
but while emir Aadil's army was having rest in Granada and waiting for new men to come from Tangiers,
2 terrible news arrived - too soon for weakened emirate.


a cleric who governed Granada - we thought that it is emir Abrar -
appeared to be a spy from Aragon, Ramiro of Denia
a muslim who betrayed his faith and converted to cristianity and spied in Granada!

Furthemore, king Pedro of Castilia invaded Granada and started to plunder village of Gibraltar.


While king pedro was plundering Gibraltar, another message arrived from the border.
"My lord, another castilian army is comming!" he cried
"Another?" asked emir Aadil.
"So, let's stop them, I know this conde Garcia, he's not that good and we could defeat him while his king is plundering!"


He fortified a camp in a way of conde Garcia and awaited the attack.


Castilians had no chance against fortified camp of emir Aadil and soon conde Garcia withdrew from the battle.

Luckily his army was damaged so much that he had to refill his squads in Castilia and has left Granada.

In the meantime, king Pedro finnished his plundering of Gibraltar
and ordered his men to march towards Ronda, another village in Granada.
Emir Aadil had no time to refill his squads so he again fortified his camp halfway between Gibraltar and Ronda.
He was attacked


but after a while he was victorious again.


He stayed in his camp, but soon his camp was attacked again by king Pedro.
Again Castilians cowardly fleed from the battle.
But this time emir Aadil had enough experience to improve his healer skill

[Freddan]

Very nicely done, the Castillians seems to be really dangerous, but you are doing great with the little you have!

KUTGW!

[Anguille]

Great story Elvain...next update?