Baghdad in the Sky with Diamonds - A Jalayirid AAR

morningSIDEr said:

Still, the Jalayirid Empire has considerable resources and whilst there has been some very tough fighting, and considerable losses for the Jalayirids, I still think once they mobilise their forces fully they will be able to recover the situation. Although only if they act quickly enough.

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We shall have to see the Jalayirid comeback!

ANO1453 said:

The loss of those lands doesn't even pinch the mighty caliphate. If necessary, the Caliphate could even release Greece as a vassal.

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While the Caliphate is indeed powerful, but it must not fall into such hubris! The consequences could be… devastating

germanpeon said:

Loving this, excellent writing.

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bananafishtoday said:

Just wanted to say I absolutely love this AAR, and it's inspired me to work on one of my own.

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Thank you very much and I hope you continue to enjoy my dabbles in writing And I look forward to your AAR bananafishtoday!

loki100 said:

brilliant update ... and the war in the balance -- good job finishing off those pesky Austrians but the loss of Constantinople hurts

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The Romans will get what's coming to them for defiling the City of the World's Desire...

Alfredian said:

Regional armies will give them problems in the long term I would think. Look at the early Roman Empire. Legions became fixed in one place (e.g. the Rhine, the Danube, Syria) and began to identify with that area in particular. The central authority starts to become a 'foreign' power, causing resentment by telling them to fight outside their own region.

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Exactly! :mischievous smile:

The war must have been tough. It looks like someone roasted that tortoise.

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Poor poor tortoise


The taking of Constantinople, at least in the way it was executed, was a mistake. The removal of all but one of the Christian armies – the one in charge of the siege itself - from the region of Thrace, and the desperate march south by the combined Muslim armies, estimated at nearly 80,000 men – in separate detachments –weakened the Roman position in the area. Furthermore, unable to take the surrounding countryside due to the impending Muslim attack, and cut off from any supply route by sea – thanks to the blockade enforced on the City’s docks - the troops were forced to requisition the food in the Civil Granaries, reserved for the event of siege and to feed the poor.


Lastly, not only were the City’s inhabitants hungry, they were also very different from the ones that peopled Constantinople before its conquest by the Turks. The pressure of the Jizya tax led many to renounce their former faith, as well as the recent attempts at missionary work, begun after the Ottoman empire lost its Asian half and needed a loyal – Muslim -population that supported its rule, that lead to the curtailing of the Millets’[1] former autonomy and numbers. The - mostly reliable – 1543 Ottoman Census of Constantinople puts the number of non-Muslims[2] at around 23%, and even the adherents of the Orthodox Church – which was by far the largest denomination of Christians in the City – harbored considerable resentment towards the ‘Franks’ for various reasons[3]. Thus, during the Caliphate’s siege of Constantinople, the Romans found themselves cornered, with ever dwindling food supplies, a hungry and resentful population, a complete naval blockade and under siege by an enemy that was clearly superior in number, well-supplied, and had considerable knowledge and practice in the use of siege artillery.

While the siege of Constantinople was draining manpower from being applied at the fractured western Roman line, its outcome was fairly predictable. A month into the siege, a protest by a local imam over the lack of food boiled over into a large-scale riot after the same imam was executed. The clouds of smoke that arose from the city’s center alarmed the Muslims, who took to the battered walls and ramparts of the city, and succeeded in securing the walls between the Golden Gate and the Gate of Pege, at the city’s southwestern extremity.


Unlike a field battle, the complex nature of the City’s landscape lead to intense urban warfare, and both sides suffered immense casualties, but by the next day the Caliphate’s troops broke through to the Harbor of Theodosius, which allowed direct supplies and relief forces to enter the city, from Nicomedia, on the other side of the Bosporus. Eventually, the Christians surrendered due to the massive onslaught of troops that entered the city after its entrances were secured by the Jalayirid forces. They were slaughtered to the man, and the army’s leaders were imprisoned. However, Constantinople had taken much damage from nearly a week of nigh-on total war on its streets – besides the fierce rioting before the Muslim assault - and was to take several years, even decades, to return to its former splendor. Isma’il took it upon himself to reestablish the governorate, reintegrating the few officials that had survived the Frankish conquest of the City and setting up a special board, staffed with several officers, charged with maintaining a large militia - responsible directly to the Caliph and not to the regional governorate - to rebuild key public works and the city’s outer walls, to hunt down any looters in the siege’s aftermath, and to provide adequate defense in case of a new Roman incursion on the city. 2,000 soldiers were provided as a stop-gap until a true citizen militia could be recruited among the population. This group of ‘soldiers’, which survived long after the Roman Crusade, was to play a vital role during the later fragmentation of the Caliphate, and serve as a Praetorian Guard of sorts, such was its influence as the most well-organized and furnished fighting force in the city.


While the retaking of Constantinople was a victory in terms of morale for the troops, it did little to remedy the Caliphate’s shaky position in Macedonia, Thessaly and Central Greece. The Austrians pressed ever harder at Athens and the Peloponnese, and had managed to defeat in several battles the Army of Greece, which was now holed up in Attica. However, the Austrians did not expect the Blue Army’s previous landings in Corfu, and their subsequent control of a strip of land from Corfu to Larissa in Thessaly; the Blue Army manned several makeshift forts along strategic roads and passes to prevent any aid or reinforcements from reaching the Austrian frontlines, and had managed to resist the Roman attacks from the north against its positions.

Meanwhile, the combined Muslim forces, under Isma’il, had set off from Constantinople, and were moving through Macedonia. The Roman armies in the region – which were intended to pierce through the Blue Army’s positions but failed to do so - were annihilated at the Battle of Kroussa. Isma’il then divided his troops in two corps. The first, under the command of Murad Bey, was to retake the remaining occupied territories to the north and northeast, and set up defensive positions along the pre-war border; the second, under Isma’il’s personal command, would smash through to the Blue Army’s position, while setting up provisional militias and garrisons along the way; should Murad Bey’s troops be defeated and a retreat needed, these militias would be used to hamper the enemy’s movements, providing time for a retreat. Many cities and towns opened their gates to the advancing Muslim armies and, by July 12, with the meet up completed, tens of thousands of troops began pouring into Greece.


The lack of supplies and the remarkable resilience showed by the Blue Army’s fortifications had lead the Roman armies in Greece to fall into a state of despair, and, with some 57,000 Muslims attacking from the north and the Red Army – which had recently disembarked near Athens - the two-pronged Muslim attack resulted in the rapid capitulation of some 19,000[4] soldiers. After order was restored to the region and civil authority passed to the Governorate of Greece[5], the troops began marching north.

The final push began in October 1553. Murad Bey had done his work admirably, and scouts showed no sign of enemy armies in the recently established borders. Wary of a failure such as the previous year’s Spring Offensive – which lead to the Romans taking control of much the Caliphate’s land in the Balkans, Isma’il moved carefully, perhaps too much. The lack of enemy armies was due both to the defeat of the ones in Greece – which didn’t managed to withdraw to their territory, and were routed and annihilated by the Muslims – and revolts among the Austrian protestants, who revolted all across the Habsburg domain, and which required the Emperor himself, Boczek I, to intervene to save his Austrian allies. He used this both to show to the Princes of the Empire that Protestantism would not be tolerated by himself and his successors, and to make Austria seem somewhat dependent on his own realm.


Therefore, Isma’il managed – despite his slow movements - to advance all the way to Sarajevo in the Kingdom of Bosnia before any opposition arose. The spent Romans were, however – and to the surprise of Isma’il himself, since he was so close to their homeland - easily defeated, and, to the Holy Roman Emperor and the Christians’ dismay, by February 1554, Isma’il was at Vienna’s gates.


[1] A Millet was the Ottoman term for a particular religious community. They were granted the ability to establish separate legal courts and to rule themselves under their own religious laws. Their privileges were severely diminished as the Ottoman Empire sought to ferociously convert its European population to Sunni Islam.

[2] Non-Muslims include all religious groups aside from Muslims – Jews and Oriental Orthodox believers, mostly – not just those following Greek Orthodoxy under the Patriarch of Constantinople. However, the City remained culturally Greek for the most part, despite the considerable Turkish –and later Arabic – communities.

[3] This was epitomized in the famous saying, by Loukas Notaras, the last High Admiral of the Byzantine Empire, ‘Better the Sultan’s turban than the Cardinal’s hat’. Indeed, most of the former Byzantine intelligentsia converted to Islam rather than flee to Catholic Europe. The hate against Catholics was mostly due to the Catholics' part in nearly annihilating Russian Orthodoxy and the distrust common among two different branches of the same faith, which saw each other as heretics.

[4] These Roman troops were either massacred sold into slavery, as the Caliph had no reason to return them to their countries in the midst of the war, and no capabilities to maintain them as POWs.

[5] Bear in mind that the Governorate of Greece encompassed the region of Greece – the Peloponnese, Attica, Aetolia and Thessaly – plus Epirus, Thessaly and Macedonia. The mostly Greek city of Constantinople however, was soon given its own governorate, and administered Thrace, Bulgaria, Wallachia and the northwestern areas of Anatolia.

morningSIDEr said:

I rather think the Holy Roman Empire is going to long regret ever antagonising the Jalayirid Empire!

Very good stuff, as I had thought once the Jalayirids fulled mobilised they were able to turn the tide with ease. The only real blight amongst this considerable victory seems to be the sacking of Constantinople, but considering the attack made even this seems a relatively acceptable casualty. Thus now the Jalayirid's stand at the gates of central Europe, I look forward to reading what happens next!

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We shall have to wait as Isma'il determines the fate of all peoples east of the Alps .

loki100 said:

again great stuff, with the war now in your favour its time to add domination of the Central Med to the Enmpire?

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Thank you. I do think Isma'il may have some designs for Southern Italy, if nothing else...

->On Calipah and others' advice, I have rewritten the first update in a History-Book format. I will continue to do this, and the original updates are still available under 'spoiler' brackets in those updates.

Abd thank you to everyone who voted for this AAR on the ACAs!

The earlier updates have all been refitted, and new updates will be resumed soon

Feedback​

Alfredian said:

I think we may need to the Poles to ride to the rescue of Vienna. The Austrians don't look like they can do the job themselves. If there are no Poles then the Austrians will have to hope Ismail catches some terrible illness, very soon.

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The Poles are gone, and I think the Austrians are very much praying for the Scourge of God's death

Calipah said:

Lovely work on the first chapter. A bit more to go, and the gem will truly shine [KFC has gotta' go and make way for style ]

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Done, and thanks!

Alfredian said:

I am going to have to refit my earlier AARland Choice AARwards votes for this as a comedy AAR to historybook.

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Great

skinkyskating said:

Very interesting AAR, what mod are you using that lets you form caliphate, thank you.

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It's self-made. I can send it to you or post it here.

Arilou said:

I'm more interested in what mod you have that uses historical japanese clans rather than the silly ahistorical ones of vanilla.

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There are various ones, like the 'Japan Mod' and the 'More Daimyo Mod'. You can find them somewhere in the mod section of the EUIII forum.

Vienna, in the mid-sixteenth century, was a far different city than it had ever been. While its earlier incarnations had always been placed at the outskirts of the so-called civilized world, the Vienna of the Habsburgs was at the very center of it. One of the most important cities in the Holy Roman Empire – perhaps only surpassed by Prague, the Emperor’s seat, and Lubeck, the economic powerhouse of northern Germany – it had grown by leaps and bounds under the patronage of its Habsburg Kings. Their territorial expansion in Naples, Croatia and western Hungary had accentuated the city’s role as the capital of a multicultural empire. Artists flocked to its palaces and taverns, seeking support from its wealthy burghers, and, if they were deemed worthy, the King himself. Its walls were sturdy, its men strong, and the Reformation’s influence had provoked much philosophical discussion – even if this facet of intellectual life curried little favor in the Habsburg court.

However, its rulers’ disposition towards conquest, their desire to increase their influence in the southern Balkans as well as to dislodge the Muslims from the region proved to be catastrophic for the prosperous city. Caliph Isma’il himself, the ‘Scourge of God’ – protestant believers were quick to think of him as a punishment for the Church’s luxury and corruption – was at their gates; after the ultimate failure of the Roman Crusade, the Christians were now pulled into the defensive. The surrender of much of the Roman armies in the south had freed up a clear path for Isma’il to strike at the very heart of the Empire. As the Caliph set about to mount siege artillery and barricades around the city, King Albrecht V sent dispatches both to Emperor Boczek and to his nobles across the kingdom. He urged them to take up arms, so as to drive the Muslim menace ‘all the way to Mecca’. Meanwhile, he waited inside the city walls, hoping for allied relief.


This relief came two months later. The city was in a famished state, with the garrison barely scraping by. Despite this, and thankfully for Albrecht, the Caliph had not been able to pierce the city’s walls. Albrecht had carefully demolished structures outside the walls, depriving the Muslims from cover and providing his soldiers with a clear line of fire. The situation was nonetheless dire: many had already begun to die from famine, since the King had not managed to restock the city’s granaries prior to the siege. Isma’il had managed to breach several key segments of the walls, and continued to shell the city with his heavy cannons, mounted on a hill to the south.

Deprived of coordinated command, the Roman forces outside the city raided the besiegers’ camps persistently, but to no avail. As May rolled in, Vienna’s population – amid Albrecht’s solemn refusal to broker peace - had already begun several unsuccessful riots and an attempt on the King’s life had occurred, which was foiled only by fortune. Seeing his people’s desperation, he seemingly surrendered his person to the enemy forces so as to broker an agreement. However, once he was taken into Isma’il’s – who was ecstatic at having one of the Caliphate’s greatest rivals in his control – custody, he began to concoct his plan. Sending – through a spy in the Muslim ranks - missives to his officers and Emperor Boczek, who were outside the city; he instructed them to strike at dawn, and, attached to this letter, a detailed chart of the guard’s movements[3].

With Vienna under the tenuous hold of Albrecht’s lieutenants, the Romans chose to act fast. On the night of the 7th of May, they massed on the flanks of the main Muslim camp, where Isma’il and most of his generals were stationed. Neutralizing the scouts and guards that protected the camp’s entrance, they slowly crept ever closer to the main tent. Suddenly, one of the enemy soldiers awoke. Drunkenly, he stumbled from his tent, but soon he realized: an ambush. He yelled, and in a minute’s time the entire camp was in frenzy. The men, sobered by the thought of death, rose up from their slumber and attempted to fight back the Christians. For some, it was too late; many were killed in their sleep.


Caliph Isma’il awoke with a distant yell. Without a pause to think, he got up and was about to grab his equipment when someone burst into his tent. The red light of the burning tents painted the silhouette of a huge man, and his axe gleamed menacingly. With his preparations interrupted, Isma’il grabbed the closest blunt instrument he could find. He held an ornate brass candelabrum, trying to remember his many years of training. A Caliph didn’t find himself in such distressful situations every day. Not often enough, at least. The huge figure lunged forward, and Isma’il dodged his spirited attack, taking advantage of the man’s powerful but slow build. The Caliph flailed his improvised weapon at the attacker’s back, and he fell to the ground with a loud shriek. Isma’il again hit him, again and again; his body was soon a sunken mass, devoid of life.


Like a hydra, just as one head was cut off, another grew in its stead, and two men entered the richly decorated tent, though its elaborate carpets and table ware were red with the dead captain’s blood. Isma’il applied his talents admirably, surviving several waves of enemies bent on his annihilation. Soon, however, they overpowered him. Although Boczek wanted him alive to parade in the streets of Prague, the Caliph soon felt the touch of steel. A blade entered his ribs, and Isma’il thought his final thoughts. A few lines of poetry crossed his mind as he tumbled to the floor.

His killers spared no time in making it known to the Muslims that their leader was dead. Perhaps driven by their fervor, perhaps due to not having heard the announcement, the soldiers continued fighting. Just as smoke began to rise above the camp, Murad Bey, the commander of the southwestern camps, sent a number of scouts to investigate the source of the fire. When they returned with news of the Caliph’s death, General Murad planned his move.


At this time, it is important to reflect on Murad Bey’s life and his personal relationship with the Caliph. Murad, a Turkish janissary in the service of the Ottoman Empire at the time of its demise, was deemed by Isma’il as the only mildly competent man in the Ottoman military; this led to Isma’il offering him a post as a commander in his own army after the conquest of the Ottoman Empire. Since denying the Caliph’s request might have him branded a traitor, Murad reluctantly accepted. While he was to open his tenure in the Roman Crusade with the disastrous Spring Offensive, Isma’il’s tacit forgiveness and Murad Bey’s growing fascination for his ruler’s sagacity and prowess lead to a certain degree of friendship between both. Isma’il is recorded to have consulted Murad Bey in nearly all of his military ventures since then, to the exclusion of the rest of the general staff, who saw Murad with a certain degree of jealousy due to the weight the Caliph gave to his words. It is no surprise that his Caliph’s death was to imbue Murad with a burning desire to avenge his master.

Seeing the defense of the main camp as moot, Murad resolutely decided to avenge Isma’il’s death by breaking the Roman’s backs: Vienna had to be taken. Ordering his small caliber artillery to attack on a concentrated point in the southwestern walls, the general rallied his men and relayed to them the sad news. While his speech is alluded to in several period works, nothing survives but a few fragments, whose authenticity is arguable. The practical effect of this speech however, was to instill in the men the idea that taking Vienna was the only way to conclude the war to any satisfying degree. Having succeeded in opening a breach in the walls, Murad ordered a general attack, while instructing the men in the other camps to either participate in the assault or to relieve the men at the main camp.


Marching with his own men into the breach, through the corpse-ridden fields, Murad soon took to the walls and began to eliminate the crossbowmen and arquebusiers that had resulted in the death of so many of his men. Their morale depleted by famine, and their weapons unsuitable for melee, they soon surrendered, as did the rest of the garrison as soon as Murad reached the Royal Palace and hung the Caliphate’s unmistakable green flag. Knowing he could not keep enough troops in the city to defend it from an attack when he sallied forth to attack the Roman camp – or perhaps as a lesson for the Caliphate’s enemies – Murad – in a way that Isma’il would abhor – ordered his men to burn the city down. In a few hours’ time, the city descended into a carnival of red and orange lights, as the fire consumed the wooden buildings and everything inside them, and released great grey clouds, obscuring the dawning sun.

Decided to turn the trick on the Romans, Murad Bey sent scouts to raid the main Roman camp to the northwest, where Albrecht and Boczek were now stationed. While Boczek was eager to attack the force under Murad Bey, King Albrecht convinced him that prolonging the current situation would hamper the Muslims, who were suffering heavy casualties in their main camp. Convinced he could not bait them, Murad Bey then ordered for a detachment to attack the camp’s northernmost gate, to force the Romans to respond. This they did, and against Albrecht’s recommendations, Emperor Boczek , thinking this contingent to be the remnants of the Muslim force, ordered most of his troops to ward them off. Surprised that his trap worked, Murad attacked with his remaining troops the southern gates. The lack of guards resulted in an easy takeover of the gates, and his troops swarmed into the camp. He personally captured Albrecht and Emperor Boczek, having surrounded their tents and killed the Emperor’s personal guard.

He then neutralized the enemy troops sent to repel his decoy force to the north, attacking them from the rear. Riding to the southern camp, ordered the Christian troops to either stand down or have their leaders executed. Most obliged, and the others were killed. The Battle of Vienna had been won.


The King and the Emperor were forced to sign a humiliating treaty soon after, on the grounds of burnt Vienna – the poetically named ‘Treaty of Ashes’. They were forced to relinquish all pretenses to the Balkans, and surrender to the Caliphate most of its occupied territories - which included the near entirety of the Balkan Peninsula.


The Siege and Battle of Vienna of 1554 were, perhaps, two of the most important events in history, both European, Arabic or otherwise. It heralded the absolute peak of the Caliphate’s military prowess and power, as it threatened and annihilated its enemies, even if they were at the very center of Europe. The Protestant Reformation, which had derived its original impulse from the Pope’s inability to defend Christendom against the Muslim tide, knew a second wind, as not even the Holy Roman Empire was safe. The Emperor’s authority was shattered; his depleted armies could not maintain order throughout the Empire nor keep the princes from converting to Protestantism – or Toledism - to further evade his and the Pope’s grasp. Dependent on the Emperor for support, many of the hundreds of small towns, monasteries and baronies were taken by regional powers in an unprecedented land grab. The attempts at rehabilitation of the Imperial office and at the destruction of Protestantism by the later Emperor Viktorin I were to lead to Forty Years’ War. In Austria, the Catholic Habsburgs were soon to be exiled to Naples, as Toledist rebels sprung up against the battered state. After several years of civil war between the various protestant factions – and some catholic movements – the nation would emerge under a protestant monarchy, ruled by Friedrich von Drasche, a formerly a lowly baron.


Outside the Empire, religious wars were to flare up in France, with the growing numbers of ‘Huguenots’ being dissatisfied with their lack of rights and the discrimination accorded to them in government posts. The Kingdom of England-Aquitaine was to use this opportunity to realize their dreams of controlling France, with limited success, since the French still remembered the English attempts on their sovereignty during the Hundred Year’s War. In the Netherlands, without the Emperor as a mediator and tensions over Protestant conversions, Holland, Utrecht and the Duchy of Brabant seemed to be on the verge of a full-on, three-sided war.

While Murad Bey was received as a hero in the Caliphate, he had many issues to resolve. Caliph Isma’il’s son was far too young to rule, and Murad Bey took it upon himself to serve as regent, and his opponents were silenced by the Army’s loyalty to him. While well-meaning, Murad’s regency was to herald later military coups, and his administration of public finances was less than extraordinary. However, the Caliphate was at its height and, by maintaining the peace, Murad was to secure the future ascension of Caliph Hasan III.

Arilou said:

Are you westernized? How's the tech standing?

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I am, in game terms, westernized. But I couldn't call it that, given the zealous Islamic nature of the Caliphate. I think of it instead as a conjunction of increased state patronage and good governance, together with peace that allows trade to fuel technological development. Some of the larger revolts were actually aftershocks from this. In case you wonder, I westernized via console the Bosporan Republic, to reflect its advanced technological ability (it somehow had better tech than me despite me being at a better tech group).

However, my large size dulls my advantage somewhat, and most western powers are 3-4 techs ahead to me, except in government and land tech.

loki100 said:

whow ... what an update - I do like the idea of the candle sticks ending in a military museum.

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Thanks! It's a candelabrum with history

Must say, very impressed with the redone opening posts too.

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Thanks, I aim to please!

But from your comments towards the end - this is as good as it gets for the Caliphate? I'd have thought massive religious turmoil was just what you needed to exploit the victory?

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I doesn't mean that its downhill from here, no. It's just that an empire, though united by creed, whose capital is away from the recent theater of conquest (Baghdad is not a very optimal capital for a Mediterranean empire; Mariam (the II) understood this and tried to move the capital to Alexandria, starting the Alexandrian period; this didn't last due to the court's opposition) and is as massive as the Caliphate needs a great ruler to keep it energetic. We still have many years of running time, but every empire has its end (although I think I'm doing a bit too much foreshadowing). We can't just have (magnificent) Suleimans at every corner and it wouldn't be a very good history book if I just conquered the world...

The Caliphate still sees a good chunk's worth of expansion, though not necessarily at a Mariamesque 'lets conquer Europe' speed

skinkyskating said:

Regarding your self made mod I would prefer that you post it so that others might enjoy it as well. Thank you.

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Will do!

Nice update, are you going for wc?

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Probably not: a) I don't feel it would be a very good AAR if I just whacked around the world aimlessly; b) I hate excessive rebel-whacking; c) I'm not that much of a good player. So far its been mostly luck and awesome rulers. I think I'm better at depicting 'small', 'fragile' empires than a globe-spanning superpower. It just sounds so ahistorical I can't commit it to paper But I hope I keep you guys entertained with my provincial exploits