part 5 - more detailed view on Asabiya
'Asabiya
It is internal tribal coherence, a driving force of Arab societies as described by Ibn Khaldun in his Muqaddimah. It is a value, perhaps between 0 and 100, which increases or decreases depending on how the ruler treats his own clan and tribe (Qabila). The goal is to keep Asabiya as high as possible.
Each dynasty/clan is influenced by 2 Asabiyas. The clan's Asabiya and the tribe's Asabiya.
The Clan's Asabiya
is based on ruler's prestige and relations inside the clan as well as how the particular clan treats other clans of his own tribe (Qabila).
The base number is ruler's prestige divided by his age. Then for every ruler's pious or prestigeous action (or the oposite) the clan receives either positive or negative points (like in decadence).
Examples of positive asabiya points are marriage with member of another clan within the same Qabila, marriage within the own clan (but not incest!), honoring a call to war from another member of the same clan or Qabila, granting a landed or honorary title to a member of own clan or Qabila, appointing a clan or Qabila member to a council etc.
The clan's Asabiya influences:
- relations of other clan members to the ruler and to each other (+/- point for every point of Asabiya)
- numeric strength of clan's army (the Ashira, the tribe) – it influences the manpower
- morale of clan's army (the Ashira, the tribe)
- ability of the clan to claim leadership in the entire Qabila
- chance and length of straightening up a decadent dynasty/clan member
If clan's Asabiya of a settled clan is very high and the ruler who holds the main title isn't the one with highest prestige, the ruler is challenged by pretender, who would inherit the leadership if the clan was nomadic (the one with highest prestige per age). Due to high Asabiya the tribe will follow the tribal pretender (except those parts of clan which have close ties to the challenged ruler), and if victorious the pretender takes the throne, leaving the ruler with some lower title. In case of white peace, the pretender holds his titles, if defender wins, the pretender gets imprisoned. Every year of such war means -1 clan Asabiya. (Example – Qawurd's revolt against Malik-Shah in the Seljuk empire and later Seljuk internal inheritance wars – according to tribal traditions Qawurd would have been the next leader after the death of Alp Arslan instead of young Malik-Shah. The later wars lasted long and wekened the clan's Asabiya so much, that the winning ruler Sanjar had to rely on other forms of army – thus wekening clan's Asabiya even more – it later evolved into Qabila invasion of the Oghuz clans, which will be described later under Qabila's Asabiya).
The Qabila's Asabiya
Qabila's Asabiya means solidarity of the whole tribal confederation (Qabila). It is based on combination of 2 values: a) average of all Qabila's clans and b) the prestige per age of ruler of the leading clan. It is strenghtened by every positive interaction between the clans (marriage, honored alliance, granted land to other clan's member etc.)
It influences
- the chance of clans helping each other in a war
- adds small bonus/malus to all clans' armies morale
- the strength of Qabila revolt against a weak/decadent clan
- the chance that Qabila will unite and invade some neighbouring kingdom (the stronger Asabia, the higher chance of invasion)
If the Qabila's Asabiya is high, while some of its clans has low Asabiya (I.e. the difference is 40+), there is high chance of Tribal invasion event – the tribe will unite and destroy the falling clan (absorb it) – the falling clan is expelled from the Qabila and the Qabila launches tribal invasion. If that is successful, the targeted clan disappears (Game over) and all its power (manpower, land and titles) is confiscated by the leading clan of the Qabila. (some members of the defeated clan may emerge at the fringes of Islamic world as adventurers and restore the dynasty – like the Umayyads). This kind of invasion can take even generations to happen – the clan's Asabiya can be constantly low, but as long as the Qabila's Asabiya isn't high enough the Qabila invasion doesn't happen. (Example: the Abbasid revolt against Umayyads or above mentioned Oghuz invasion into Seljuk empire in the times of Sanjar).
If the Qabila's Asabiya is low, the whole confederation is more vulnerable to foreign attacks, its member clans may be subordinated by neighbouring rulers and if the Asabiya drops below certain level, it may split – each clan would become its own Qabila and can be subject of invasions of bordering Qabilas, which – if they win – can absorb the clan into another clan (the leading clan of attacking Qabila).
As can be seen the tribal coherence– Asabia – can work independently of existing mechanic of Decadence. On the other hand it functions as its counter-definition. Asabiya requires the player to assign land to his clan/dynasty members, which is often used tactic to prevent rising decadence. Combination of these 2 mechanics can therefore lead to higher impact of decadence on muslim countries. OTOH the Asabiya is ballancing force to decadence as it also influences morale of the army and other things.
