AARabian Nights: Tales from the Caliphate
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Insha'Allah it won't crash again, I put a save that seems to work in dropbox, just in case.
Let's leave him and look at the state of the empire. Late Ismail III spent most of his reign fighting endless wars with his brother Nasr, who very nearly won, crowning himself in Damascus. In order to rally support Ismail was forced to agree on large concessions for nobility, all land given in iqta were proclaimed hereditary and couldn't be recalled by Caliph. His army, consistent mostly of Berber, Bedouin and Sudanese tribes of Africa were notoriously predatory on its long march over the lands of Syria. Ismail III sided with tribal chiefs, who remained faithful, over urban populace of Syria, who declared for Nasr.
But after the victory at Irbid and death of Nasr, Ismail found himself a hostage of his army. In order to channel its energy he invaded Cilicia, and conquered it from the Greek principality, one of the shards of decaying Byzantium. Soon after the conquest he died, nearly universally hated among middle and upper classes, but hailed among soldiery. Before his death, he wrote:
Among the fratricidal tides of Fatimid succession, few of his brothers survived him. Few, but way more then enough to jeopardize Sadiq's life:
One, Jalil, rides to Damascus from Tarabulus, contemplating and measuring what would be better: to let the boy sit on the throne, while gathering all strings of power into Jalil's able hands, or murder him and seize Imamat for himself.
Another, Murad, stirs in his far away city of Qum, always left behind his more able brothers, he believes that time had come for him to claim what's his right.
And on the hills around the city of Bilbays the richest and most powerful man in the caliphate contemplates strange rituals, which would outrage and horrify any God-fearing Moslem. He isn't Sadiq's uncle, but he is the most dangerous man in the empire, and lives of hundreds of thousands subjects of Caliphate depends on the side he'll take in upcoming events.
*Thanks to Mughal emperor Aurangzeb for fitting quote.
Chapter 3
Thу following few days diffused into one in Sadiq's mind. They consisted of riding from the city to the military encampment, where he was cheered by a mob of warriors, who then descended on their knees in recognition of his superiority as God's representative on Earth. Though an attentive boy, such as Sadiq, can't help, but notice that more then a few of this soldiers were helped to their knees by their comrades, one pushing head and shoulders down, while other delivered a punch to the backside of the knees. He now sleeps in the lavishly decorated tent, unmindful of the silent war going on around the camp, with those non-happy with his ascension being cut down in their sleep. Let's leave him and look at the state of the empire. Late Ismail III spent most of his reign fighting endless wars with his brother Nasr, who very nearly won, crowning himself in Damascus. In order to rally support Ismail was forced to agree on large concessions for nobility, all land given in iqta were proclaimed hereditary and couldn't be recalled by Caliph. His army, consistent mostly of Berber, Bedouin and Sudanese tribes of Africa were notoriously predatory on its long march over the lands of Syria. Ismail III sided with tribal chiefs, who remained faithful, over urban populace of Syria, who declared for Nasr.
But after the victory at Irbid and death of Nasr, Ismail found himself a hostage of his army. In order to channel its energy he invaded Cilicia, and conquered it from the Greek principality, one of the shards of decaying Byzantium. Soon after the conquest he died, nearly universally hated among middle and upper classes, but hailed among soldiery. Before his death, he wrote:
Among the fratricidal tides of Fatimid succession, few of his brothers survived him. Few, but way more then enough to jeopardize Sadiq's life:
One, Jalil, rides to Damascus from Tarabulus, contemplating and measuring what would be better: to let the boy sit on the throne, while gathering all strings of power into Jalil's able hands, or murder him and seize Imamat for himself.
Another, Murad, stirs in his far away city of Qum, always left behind his more able brothers, he believes that time had come for him to claim what's his right.
And on the hills around the city of Bilbays the richest and most powerful man in the caliphate contemplates strange rituals, which would outrage and horrify any God-fearing Moslem. He isn't Sadiq's uncle, but he is the most dangerous man in the empire, and lives of hundreds of thousands subjects of Caliphate depends on the side he'll take in upcoming events.
*Thanks to Mughal emperor Aurangzeb for fitting quote.
Hi, guys and girls. I have a sort of writing block. I wanted to write this as a narrative with a few POV characters as I did for good old "the Prince", but if I'm fairly well versed in an everyday life of medieval Russian, the medieval Arab Muslim is the whole other story. Specifically if I have to deal with 6-year old caliph. You'd need to be a far better writer to pull this off, and I'm not even native English speaker.
So, what do you say if I change the style towards more history-book, as in "Shahs of Shahi Shahdom", with maybe a few more personal vignettes?
And yes, that's the way of fishing for comments.
So, what do you say if I change the style towards more history-book, as in "Shahs of Shahi Shahdom", with maybe a few more personal vignettes?
And yes, that's the way of fishing for comments.
That seems fair. I enjoy narrative but realise how difficult it can be at times.
For this specific example maybe have the regent as your POV character instead (for vignettes)?
For this specific example maybe have the regent as your POV character instead (for vignettes)?
This is GREAT. And Ekorovin have crept out of his summer lair to once again try to conquer the entire world, (Not as a mad hindu though 
). May you have the best of luck oh great caliph.
Subbed
). May you have the best of luck oh great caliph. Subbed
I've spent a few evenings reading about succession in Saudi Arabia, current state of affairs in Bahrein and recent velvet coup in Qatar. Boy, did it give me some ideas!
Chapter 4 - The Gate of Deliverance
Prince Jalil, the brother to Caliph and regent of the state, sat behind low table, sipping honeyed water and waited for any hint of reaction from a man standing in front of him. The man, Abdul-Salam, “Servant of Peace”, was badly named indeed. From head to heels this dark-skinned man with a sharp eyes and a grace of the deadly leopard looked unmistakably like a warrior. Caliph’s mentor and the leader of Caliph’s armies said cautiously:“I am faithful to the da’wa” – he finally said.
“Ah, that’s a good reply, indeed. – now, tell me, what will happen to the da’wa now in a mess my beloved brother left us? There are already some emirs defecting to Seljuks, perhaps not believing in our ability to rein in the state. Sadiq is a bright child, there’s no doubt of that, but he’s still a child. With Seljuks hungry at our doors, will he suffice? Or Seljuks prevail, and our precious Ismaili da’wa will be outlawed again, like in bad old Abbasid times.” – Jalil said.
“I’ve crushed Seljuks already, - Abdul-Salam replied, - can’t see why I can’t do it again.”
“Seljuks are only part of our problem. Emirs are stronger than they ever were, Caliph’s word means little, and to make matters worse bloody Hussain is inventing his own religion. We both know that by the time Sadiq enters adulthood there won’t be nothing much to rule.”
“Ah, but I can’t see what makes you think you’re better fit to rule?”
“I’m best of the worst. Murad is a tool, Abdul-Qadir is Hussain’s pet and our less civilized subjects won’t accept anyone without granddaddy Zeid the Conqueror’s blood in his veins. Besides, I know what needs to be done. Hussain needs to be shortened about a headlenght, for example. Our beloved family tree needs some branches removed. Land given in iqta should not be irrevocable. Men of the da’wa should be raised to the positions of power, and such positions should be vacated from the people whose only worthy feat was to be born in al-Fatimiyyun family.” – Jalil replied.
“What of Sadiq?”
“What of him? He’s a nice boy. We can’t let him live free, of course. But perhaps some palace in the countryside, harem with nice concubines.”
Abdul-Salam’s eyes narrowed – “And how long, do you think, will take for some half-mad beggar to begin preaching that Sadiq should be restored? How long before this beggar will assemble the mob of zealots and fashion himself a nice little entourage? How long before some tribal chiefs decide that restoring the rightful Caliph is as good excuse to burn and pillage soft decadent cities as any? No, Sadiq must go.”
Eunuch held the pillow to Sadiq’s faith long after the boy seized resisting. He was a cautious one, and didn’t want his last mission to go awry. No, not something this important. The eunuch waited, confirmed once again that caliph was dead. Then the eunuch fished out a dagger from his clothes, pressed a blade against his throat, felt its cold touch and with a one decisive slash, eunuch opened his throat.
It's sad to see him go, he was a genius, after all, but 22 stewardship isn't bad also. Plus, regencies are tough times for Muslim lands - you can't straighten up decadents while in regency, so decadence piles up and before you know you have a tribal invasion to deal with.It's not a total shock but still, poor Sadiq!
Poor Sadiq... But great chapter, and lets hope that the new sultan is a good sultan.
Chapter 5 - the Gate of the Attacker
Prince Abdul-Qadir was rattled still. Despite the fact the he can handle the sword as good as any man, he wasn’t born a hero. Yet, the desperate times required desperate measures. The degree of said desperation became evident few weeks past, when the news of his brother Murad’s death of illness came to him, followed by the news of his nephew Sadiq’s death, and his brother Jalil’s ascension.
It wasn’t hard to predict who would be next to die. Abdul-Qadir hasn’t been considered the principal player in Caliphate’s politics. Even his personal iqta was God-forgotten emirate of al-Wahab in Upper Egypt, the leagues and leagues of desert with few oases and the only city worthy of such a name, Fayyum.
Yet it was the border with Infidel Empire of Ethiopia. Ethiopians weren’t peaceful neighbors. Twice their emperors led full-scale military expeditions as far as Cairo. Both times they were repelled by swords of faithful, and the war degenerated into endless series of raids and counter-raids. The ancient Forty-day road, trade route between Egypt and the land known as Sudan, snaking through the oases, were in use again, slaves captured in these raids its main commodity. This economy attracted a certain kind of people. In order to clean the cities of rivalling street gangs or fottowa, who became more and more dangerous due to the trend of some of the fotowwa groups beginning to adopt an ideology which brought them into contact with mystic circles then seeking corporate forms, the onofficial policy of channeling them towards the caliphate’s borders were in place. The promise of absolution of previous trespasses granted to those who participate in the holy war against infidels lured fotowwa members to places like al-Wahab, where they became a fighting force to be reckoned with.
And Abdul-Qadir made his best to attract them to his side, granting money to their warcheifs. He also purchased a number of warrior slaves, mostly famed Nubian archers. And concentrated this army in al-Baḥrīya oasis, sending his emissaries to different princes of Egypt, trying to rally their support.
In the fortress-city of Bilbays, the capital of the most powerful prince of all caliphate, Hussain, known as the Silent, the message of Abdul-Qadir’s sedition invoked the urgent meeting between Hussain and his viziers. A score of slaves, their eardrums pierced to annihilate the risk of spying, attended to them. Of course, one has to account for lip-reading, thus all of these slaves will have to be executed anyway.
“Allah’s the witness, Abdul-Qadir’s not the brightest star in the sky. If he doesn’t move against Cairo immediately, his army will eat oasis clean, and then disintegrate without an enemy in sight. And he doesn’t have enough forces to assault Cairo, not without our support. And intend to give it to him. Abdul-Qadir’s the perfect caliph. I mean, Sadiq would grow up, and become dangerous, while one can most surely presume that Abdul-Qadir’s not going to become any sharper. And with this dreary Jalil as caliph, I assure you, none of us will die natural death. Now, you all know me, I’m against the war. War’s bad for business, open war at least. But here we have no choice, I’m afraid. Thus, we should gather our forces in Egypt and march to Cairo. Send the messenger to Abdul-Qadir, invite him to make his move. I don’t think anyone in Egypt is capable to stand against our combined forces, not with all capable commanders chasing Turks and Greeks in Anatolia. And after we achieved full control in Egypt and gather all the taxes from the land, we would strike for Syria. With Damascus in our hands, Jalil’s forces will disintegrate, and some of his commanders will undoubtedly take matters in his own hand, sending us his head on a platter. Thus, I proclaim this session of divan to be over.”
Abdul-Qadir wants. Well, seeing that within a space of a few weeks after his brother Jalil's ascension his other brother Murad died (I have nothing to do with it, but good luck explaining it to Abdul-Qadir) his impulses to strike first is somehow understandable.
On the other note, I still can't find the proper way to write this. Narrative just doesn't seem to work for polities so big and campaigns so wast. Actual march from the southernmost border of caliphate to Damascus should take the space of a novel if narrated from participant's point of view. I probably try switching towards more "history book/omniscient being" narration.
I want to announce that I've started a new AAR, set in Armenia, in which I'll try to restore the borders of Great Armenia of Antiquity in 867.
This AAR is not abandoned, however, though perhaps I will treat Armenian one as primary for some time.
This AAR is not abandoned, however, though perhaps I will treat Armenian one as primary for some time.
I've got enough material for an update, but I don't know when I will be able to compile it. I have a great problem with pacing here, narrative demands thorough examination of things, while I've already played too far. It probably takes 3-4 chapters to get to 1129 where I stopped playing. I hope I'll write them before the end of the month.
