The Reign of Sultan Mohammed Shah IV Thuqluqid (916-929 AH) (1511-1523 in the Christian calendar) (A/D/M 6/6/7)
also known as Mohammed Shah, the reformer.
Part I: Sultanate
Mohammed Shah IV was very influenced by the tales of Faisal of Fez, a traveler from North Africa, about the West. He could spend several nights hearing the old man talk about the War of the Two Emperors, that pitted Bohemia (Holy Roman Emperor) against the Byzantine Empire, for example. He also loved the tales the court bards told about the Shahanrishah, the epic of Persia.
It was no wonder then that he married only foreigners. His first wife, Samara of Kokkand, would have much influence about him. She brought new customs from a land much influenced by the reborn kingdom of Persia, a culture much more advanced than the ones seen in India (at least from Mohammed Shah’s point of view).
Mohammed Shah had inherited from his father not only a throne, but also a war. He ended the affairs quickly, as the siege of Madras was over three months after he had been crowned. Peace with Madurai soon followed.
Even though Mohammed Shah IV was an able general on his own, probably one of the best of the world, he preferred not to take the field, unless he’d die like his father, of a minor wound that festered. Instead he relied on his generals.
In 1512 the nobles of Delhi said that the sultan should seize the opportunity to attack Ming as the neighboring empire was still suffering under the civil war. Mohammed Shah IV did so and in 1512 the 1st Jihad against Ming started.
Many Delhi merchants had prospered from the lucrative trade with Ming, establishing themselves at Jiangsu. Ming officials tried to expel them as soon as the war started, but a careful bribe was enough to make them forget. That this thing happened is proof of how much the imperial authority had waned in China, as the Ming couldn’t control their own capital officers.
(lost 50 ducats, but totally worth it) .
Emperor Wanli I Joy of Ming was facing too many troubles and a war with Delhi was too much for him. Without even a skirmish, Delhi negotiators were able to demand the release of Tibet and Qin as sovereign nations, allied with Delhi
(78% peace deal with 0% war score) .
Delhi nobles had a special delight in recreating the Tibet empire, this time as a despotic monarchy and friendly towards them. Any of the old nobles of the noble republic were killed by hanging.
The peace deal with Ming meant that the Chinese empire would be divided. This was a very old stratagem of Delhi, used by Mohammed Shah IV’s ancestors against the Timurids. Ming would no longer matter in the world from now and would threaten Delhi no more.
In October of 1512 travelers from the west told stories about a reunion of Christians in Africa, near Timbuktu. Apparently “bishops” of the “Catholic Church” had enacted something called “Counter-Reformation” there. Mohammed Shah IV didn’t care much about this news, but was curious about the name of the place these “bishops” gathered: Gao.
In that same month, Mohammed Shah IV started the first of his reforms. He changed the way soldiers in Delhi’s armies were trained, demanding more professionalization and training, depending less on peasant levies
(national idea = military drill +1.0 morale)
Delhi enjoyed 3 years of peace after that, but the sultan’s mind didn’t. He was awestruck with his wife and the courtiers that came with her, with the tales she told by his bed and the way she raised the young Mohammed Shah V. In February he finally made his mind and decided to emulate the ways of the Persian culture of the kingdoms of the west. His intellectuals would read the works of Avicenna, Al-Khwarizmi, al-Marwazi, al-Farghani, al-Sufi and so on. The nobles at his court would have to wear the latest Persian fashion and talk in Persian as well.
(national decision = modernization – changes tech from Indian (60%) to Islamic (80%) and -5 stability)
The access to these great books would bear fruits very soon, as Khidr Khan Jahan, advisor to Mohammed Shah IV, would write an astronomical book of his own based on the studies of the Persian sages of the past
(astronomical book = +2 stability)
At that same year (1515) Mohammed Shah IV would decide to make a nation-wide census to see the state of his nation. He decided that it’d be done again 85 years after the first one and each 100 years after that, using numerological tables.
STATE OF THE NATION
Delhi’s income is the second highest, losing only to Portugal even at -2 stability.
The number of provinces as well is the highest in the world now that Ming has weakened.
The army is the 6th largest. It’s composed of 6 10,000 batallions, each one composed of 4,000 Indian infantry (offensive-defensive F/S/M 0-0/1-0/1-1 movement 1) and 6,000 Indian cavalry archers (offensive-defensive F/S/M 0-0/1-0/2-1 movement 2).
In other aspects, though, Delhi is much behind other nations.
The navy is # 22, with only 13 ships (3 carracks and 10 cogs).
The technology is very much below Latin Europeans, with the best ones of them having 16-18. Delhi has:
(this picture is actually from 1522. Forgot to take the screen shot before)
Finally, on the ledger, Delhi is very centralized (-3) and innovative (-5). The last few movements have been toward plutocratic, since free subjects would make a cost in stabilization, which is already high.
Advisors are good (4* at least), as is cultural tradition (almost 100%).
My objectives to keep me from getting bored are:
Unify India. All Indian cultural groups should be under my rule.
Don’t expand beyond that. I’ll only annex non-Indian provinces if they’re part of a mission or to release them as vassals afterward. My domains should only be India and eventual colonies.
Keep Indian military units. I’d like to see how Indian units fare against others. If I wanted to use line infantry or caracole cavalry I’d play as Sweden or France, not Delhi.
Become defender of the faith. Earn the right to call myself khalifa by defending all Sunni muslims in danger everywhere. It’d be an interesting late game objective.
Don’t have democratic form of government. It wouldn’t go so well with the caliphate theme. I could become a republican dictatorship, but none of those which have elections.