Part 4 - the Mulk government
This is a government system which allows slave soldiers and slave governors. It can be one of the most stable governments, especially in the first 2-3 generations, where ties between the ruler and other members of ruling class are stable and based on personal land assignment. As the time passes, the ruler needs to be more cautious and carefully chose his governors from among the slaves, dynasty members and tribal allies. Dynasty/clan or tribe members are the most reliable, but at the same time the most dangerous, as they can claim the throne for themselves. Slaves are also very faithfull, especially if freed, but if they have children, they may want to seize the power for themselves and establish their own slave dynasties. Lastly the Qabila members are not the most reliable allies and may be seen as the weakest side of the government. However, if the Qabila's Asabiya is held high enough, they can be used as very strong force to opose potentially rebelling dynasty members or slave armies/governors if they grow too strong. On the other hand the Qabila can represent a big threat if is being ignored and if the Asabiya is not being cared of, it can result in massive revolt led by other tribes, which may overthrow the ruling dynasty/tribe (Abbasids vs. Umayyads).
This system is meant to represent the islamic empire of the Abbbasids as well as most of “Western” muslim states, such as Tulunids, Fatimids or Aghlabids, but also the East Iranian states such as Samanids or Tahirids.
The difference between the Arab and Persian states among these is the institution of the Qabila – while the Arabs can use it, the settled Persians can't, and they can only use dynasty and slaves to balance each other. In history they usually failed and were overrun by increasing power of slave governors establishing their own dynasties.
Land assignment
This government uses imperial administration where the land is given to viceroys or 2 groups of relatives. The groups, which may become governors are following:
- Dynasty members (if land is granted to the same dynasty member, it increases Asabiya of the dynasty and thus also improves the Qabila's Asabiya)
- Qabila members – members of other tribes within the same Qabila confederation (it increases prestige of the ruler and the Qabila's Asabiya, as well as it improves relations between the two tribes (Ashiras)
- Slaves or freed slaves – for titles at duke level and higher, the character needs to be released slave (he can possibly rule over other nobles or tribe/dynasty members and it can not be slave) – this gives the player Asabiya malus
This is a basic difference between Mulk and Iqta government systems. While in Iqta the land can be assigned to any noble or slave, in Mulk, it is limited only to members of the Qabila and Slaves. In case of cultures which don't support the Qabila system (Persians), the dynasty has to rely on its own members and slaves.
Army of the Mulk
A mulk government allow wide scale of armies to be fielded. These are:
- personal levies of the ruler – troops levied from personal holdings of the ruler – are directly controlled.
- Levies of landed vasals – they are all raised together when vasal levies are raised. It, however, depends on who is the vasal. If he is a member of the same clan, a slave governor, or is a lower vasal (baron, city mayor), the army is controlled directly, just like other vasal levies in game. But if the vasal is a member of another clan, the army acts independently as allied force, despite being levied together with vasals (no need to call these as allies, like in the case of tribal armies – see below).
- Tribal army of ruler's clan (Ashira) – standing army of the Ashira (works the same as retinues/horde) – also this is directly controlled by the ruler.
- Tribal army of other clans (Ashiras) within the same Qabila – standing army of other Ashiras. They can only be raised if Qabila's Asabiya is high enough and they are called into war as allies based on Qabila mechanics. On the field they act like independent allied units.
- Slave army/armies – The slave companies – standing armies employed by the ruler (see Slave companies).
Mercenaries are not allowed, instead of them there are the Slave companies.
Laws and taxes
The above described system is allowed and enforced by the fact, that the land administration strongly prefers taxes over military levies. Among all groups of land owners all obligations which prefer levies over taxes are locked. The farthest one can get is the balance between the two.
This gives the rulers enough money for standing (slave) armies, but also gives him smaller levies.
Vasal obligations are divided into: Burgher (cities), Ashira (own clan), Ghulam (slave) and Qabila vasals (qabila governors, not the Qabila tribal armies who are not vasals)
As described above, the ruler can also invoke the tibal Asabiya and call the Qabila's tribal army – this is excluded from these obligations and is subject to Qabila settings. The Qabila pays no taxes whatsoever (never ever), it only provides military help.
more to come:
the role of Islam in the Qabila DLC, the religious orders - the Almoravids, Almohads and Qarmatians (the system could also - in modified version - be used for monastic orders in the christian world.)