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CK2 - Dev Diary #126 - Muslim Rulers in The Iron Century

Welcome to another Dev Diary! Today we are going to take a look at some of the Muslim rulers you can find in the Iron Century bookmark. (And like yesterday, keep in mind several of these rulers have randomized traits/stats)

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A look at the Muslim world at large.

al-Ikhshid of the Ikhshidid Dynasty: In our bookmark, Al-Ikhshid has recently been granted the governorship of Egypt. Though he wasn’t really supposed to have his title until the year 938, we chose to call him Al-Ikhshid as his dynasty is known as the Ikhshidid dynasty, and that is what he is generally known as. Functionally speaking, he is set up as a Sunni Sultan holding Egypt and huge parts of Syria, with tributaries to his north, south-east and south. He is bordering the Fatimids in the west, and the Jannabid Qarmatians to the east. In many ways, Al-Ikhshid and his dynasty is one of the powerhouses in the bookmark, and will most likely play an important role.

Historically speaking the Ikhshidid dynasty held Egypt for about 35 years, until they were invaded by the Fatimids who made it the capital of their newly founded Caliphate.

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Caliph Ar-Radi of the Abbasid Caliphate: In our two earliest bookmarks (769 and 867), the Abbasid Caliphate is an impenetrable powerhouse, but in 936 they have fallen apart to infighting and lost almost all their importance. As they are barely holding on to their old core lands around Baghdad, they are surrounded by threats who want to take control of the Caliphate and its lands. Ar-Radi is often seen as the last of the real Caliphs, but even his rule was cut short at the age of 31 in the year 940.

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al-Hasan of the Hamdanid dynasty: Both al-Hasan and his brother Ali hold lands in the Al-Jazira region north of the Abbasid Caliphate. They are both Shia rulers, Ali holding the western lands under his brother’s overlordship. Historically speaking al-Hasan played an important role in the politics of the Abbasid Caliphate, while his brother was essential in holding back the Byzantine attacks across the Al-’Awasim in Cilicia. They later received the titles Nasir al-Dawla and Sayf al-Dawla, under which they are better known.

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The Buyid Dynasty: The three Shia brothers of the Buyid dynasty are all playable in the 936 bookmark. Ali holds the Satrapy of Fars, Hasan holds the Satrapy of Jibal while Ahmad holds lands under Ali.


As the first of importance in the dynasty, Ali was a governor and commander under the Ziyarid ruler Mardavij (better known as the last Zoroastrian ruler). After finding out his lord was planning to eliminate him, he took his troops and established the Satrapy of Fars. After Mardavij was assassinated by his own slave troops, the Buyid dynasty was bolstered with troops and started expanding north and eastwards. Later on Ahmad would go on to become a leading figure in the Abbasid Caliphate, and start the Buyid’s century long control of the Caliphate, until they were pushed out by the Seljuks about a hundred years later.

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Vushmgir of the Ziyarid dynasty: Vushmgir is the Sunni brother of Mardavij, better known as the last major Zoroastrian ruler. Vushmgir would go on to embrace Islam, and bring his people properly into the fold. In our start he has inherited the remains of his brother's shortlived kingdom. He has several Zoroastrian vassals, and he is surrounded by greater Muslim nations at all sides. Who's to say you couldn't pick up your brother's legacy properly though, and put an end to the Muslim incursions into Zoroastrian lands.

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Caliph Abd-al-Rahman of the Umayyad dynasty: In far flung Iberia, far from the diminishing authority of the pathetic Abbasid Caliphs in Baghdad, Abd-al-Rahman has established his own Caliphate. Centered around Cordoba, the Iberian Caliph is ready to challenge the Fatimids in Ifriqiya as well the French and León to the north. He would go on to create the The Caliphate of Cordoba would continue for almost a century before it shattered into lots of Taifa Successor kingdoms, which were so well known during the tumultuous times of the Reconquista.

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Hopefully you found this small little look into some of the major Muslim rulers of the bookmark interesting. Tomorrow we will take a look at some of the Pagans rulers that will play an interesting role in the bookmark.

And like always, here's a link to the ongoing AAR: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...century-mini-aar.1179523/page-2#post-25482390
 
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Tomorrow we will take a look at some of the Pagans rulers that will play an interesting role in the bookmark.
So will you also introduce any rulers of Zoroastrian or Eastern Religions?
(By the way I don not think there will be any interesting Jewish rulers.)
 
Since the Ikhshidid were granted the governorship from the Abbasids, shouldn't they be at least a tributary to the Abbasids? It weird seeing you guys talking about Al Ikhshid being granted Egypt, but no mention who granted him that.
 
So will you also introduce any rulers of Zoroastrian or Eastern Religions?
(By the way I don not think there will be any interesting Jewish rulers.)

My guess would be that the next two dev diaries are pagans and Eastern rulers (in either order), with the Eastern rulers dev diary possibly having interesting Mazdans as well (though, since those are unlocked by tOG, they might be lumped together with the pagans).
 
I think this may become my favourite start date. There are several significant powers but no superblobs anywhere.

Since the Ikhshidid were granted the governorship from the Abbasids, shouldn't they be at least a tributary to the Abbasids? It weird seeing you guys talking about Al Ikhshid being granted Egypt, but no mention who granted him that.

That's a good point.

My guess would be that the next two dev diaries are pagans and Eastern rulers (in either order), with the Eastern rulers dev diary possibly having interesting Mazdans as well (though, since those are unlocked by tOG, they might be lumped together with the pagans).

It says at the bottom of the dev diary that tomorrow will be the pagans' turn.

So double sunni caliph... Is that a new feature or you just renamed Arab emperors to caliphs?

That's probably a specific name for their new empire title. Titles can have a special title defined for whoever holds them. That's how you can have a king tier character be called a Grand Prince or Archduke.

Edit: Snow Crystal, speaking of titles, why are the Umayyads both holding an empire and a kingdom? Is that just to make sure that de jure vassals don't start looking for independence?

The caliphate of Cordoba was proclaimed in 929, only 7 years before the start, so I'm assuming the empire title they have is titular and they need the kingdom in order to be the de jure liege of their own vassals.
 
Since the Ikhshidid were granted the governorship from the Abbasids, shouldn't they be at least a tributary to the Abbasids? It weird seeing you guys talking about Al Ikhshid being granted Egypt, but no mention who granted him that.

Of course Caliph was more of a nominal ruler at this stage and Ikhisid guy deposed the earlier governor of Egypt so him being vassal of a caliph would be nominal at best and in-game would probably just lead to guy kicking up independence faction on day 1 against his pitiful liege.

So will you also introduce any rulers of Zoroastrian or Eastern Religions?
(By the way I don not think there will be any interesting Jewish rulers.)

Since we already have revelation about "special decision for Mardavijs legacy", one can guess that Vushmgir (at least for human player) is "the" zoroastrian start of this bookmark as ultimately the last gasp of the faith had been extinguished year before. There does appear to be Mazdan under Samanids based on screenshot, he is likely a this guy, but otherwise one should not assume there are too many Zoroastrians left in the world.
 
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By the way I don not think there will be any interesting Jewish rulers

There is Khazaria! At the very height of its Jewish "renaissance".

I hope the devs also reveal something about India and Zoroastrians.
 
I know it probably wouldn't make it in for Iron Century but is there any chance of you guys adding a 'holdinggfx' parameter to match the new 'unitgfx'? I can't imagine it effects many players but I know there have been plenty of times with different mods I've wanted to tweak and play around with different mish-mashes of holding, character and unit gfxs and I imagine this would make a lot of modders lives a lot easier!
 
al-Ikhshid was a Turkish soldier, ghulam, and then sultan. I mean it's maybe understandable for the game mechanics (actually not, Armenian Byzantine emperor's cultures reflected as Armenian), but at least you can gave him a turkish look. Its about genetics, you know. You can do this DEVteam.

Edit: Actually, Tulunids was Turkish too. Even their chronicles says that they are turkish. They aren't assimilated in Egypt, just integrated. But game show that they are egyptian, even worse, they have dark skin (no racism here). I don't think at these times any Fergana Valley based ruler had dark skin. Weird decisions.

Edit 2: Just come in mind. Salaaddin Ayyubi, was Kurdish or Turkish. Chronicles at that age says different about his etnicty. But not a single chronics, or historian says that he is levantine, arab. But game shows us Salaaddin was an arab.

Its interesting because these people are celebrities of that time. One of the most prestigious at their age, but no elaboration from DEVs.
 
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This is my most requested feature. We need something that destroy an empire (except chinese super powers)

Historically, internal unrest brought down most empires. So the quickest way would a faction that destroys the realm's top title.

Any events to Fall of the Cordoba Caliphate and rise of Taifa Kings?

I think decadence revolts serve this purpose already.
 
Were does the name of "Iron Century" actually come from? Is that a reference to something or just because it sounds pretty cool?