Heirs of the Pharaohs: Ancient Egypt Restoration Campaign

[DensleyBlair]

Time to see what minerals Murtin is made of. He’s going to need a good bit of strength to get through the next few years, I dare say.

 

[HistoryDude]

Bolad did well. Egypt is reconquered!

Also, Byzantium seems to be doing well. Excellent!

Ouch. That was bad! Civil war is coming, and it will tear Egypt-Kush apart...

Wait, the Copts actually agreed with the Kushites on something? Everybody run! It's the end of the world!

 

[ChicagoZohan]

Chapter 3.1: Darkest Rumors

What does it take to be Great? I mean, the sort of Great that Alexander was, or Temujin. The sort of Great that shatters kingdoms and shakes the earth itself. Certainly, it takes some level of skill. Alexander was a cunning general; but for all his cunning, could he have won his wars without the mighty army his father Philip left him?

It also takes a certain mindset. In almost every 'Great', we find a sort of ruthlessness - a willingness to take action at any cost, action that 'lesser' men might draw back from.

Sometimes the actions that it takes to forge an empire are truly heinous. Does that make them defensible? I think any of us with modern sensibilities would be horrified by the thought.

Yet for people living in ancient times, the idea that their 'great' men would sometimes do unspeakable things in the pursuit of feats that the culture would go on to glorify is seemingly accepted.

In the year 942, High King Murtin ibn Ngid[1] inherited the High Kingdom of Greater Kush from his father Bolad II, whose death had been orchestrated at the hands of the realm's new Muslim vassals. Kush appeared strong at first glance, having gained control of almost the entirety of Nubia, Egypt, and much of the western Sahel. Yet the High King held only his great-grandfather's village of Ubaid; with his father's premature passing, his middle brothers had inherited mighty chiefdoms in conquered lands, while his two youngest brothers - neither yet weaned, even - inherited the rest of the High King's traditional Kordofani holdings.

The High Kingdom of Kush's relatively simple laws had been derived from tribal traditions, and they did not allow a monarch to revoke his vassals' lands. There was only one way that the land would pass to Murtin.

The Official Histories of Kush[2] claim that the boys had both gotten lost in the wilderness (at the ages of 2 and 4, allegedly), but both the Annals of Tunis[3] and the Coptic Chronicles[4] claim that they were murdered on King Murtin's orders. The methods which the Annals mention are as inventive as they are unlikely, but according to the Chroniclers the boys were simply left outdoors after dark for the hyenas to finish off.

The sources all agree that the king would find himself crushed by immense guilt over their deaths (though the Kushite chronicles do little to explain why he should be feeling guilty at all). Stress would continue to plague Murtin throughout his rule.

Hoping to avert the same fate that had befallen his father, King Murtin's first official order of business was to get the Arabian Dukes in line. Though he would take a rather diplomatic approach, he'd make heavy use of Samaale -- his father's spymaster, and a woman who'd come to be known in the Annals of Tunis as the 'Samaale Witch of Kush'. She'd keep a cunning eye upon his court, ensuring no one would plot against him.

Murtin's first target would be Duke Zaia, an elderly Egyptian who seemed relatively open to persuasion. Unfortunately, he would soon die, and be replaced by his son Duke Is'mail, a man so zealous in the Ash'ari faith that he despised Murtin and his Kushite kingdom.

While Murtin's efforts did prevent the Muslim Dukes of Egypt from rising in rebellion, the commoners were not so easy to control. In April of 944, the entire kingdom of Egypt erupted in revolt, seeking to install the son of the deposed Sultan back upon the throne. Prince Muammar ibn Abanoub would join the rabble and lead them himself, but following a series of decisive battles the peasants he'd managed to rouse had been scattered, and in February of the next year Bashir, the king's other son, would be captured in battle. Following this, the rebellion would fizzle out as the cowardly Muammar returned to his father's court where it still held sway, in the lands of Naqis.

As the uprising drew to an end, Murtin would notice that the Sheikh of Negev had broken away from his Abanoubid overlord. The Kushite army crushed the Sheikh's forces with ease and took the holding.

At the same time, some of Murtin's vassals would engage in their own wars, seizing lands in Nubia. The Abanoubid dynasty would fall, overthrown by their successors, the Al-Umari; somehow the shattered dynasty had left the lands of Acre to a vassal of the Kushites as well, granting them a second province in the supposed Kingdom of Jerusalem -- a meager province which would soon bring the mighty Kushite kingdom into conflict with the Catholic kingdoms of the West.

For now, though, Kush was the clear power in the region. Murtin had held on to power and even expanded his lands, slightly. The future was looking bright for the Daju people.

[1]Murtin was born to a concubine, and so is referred to as her son rather than his farther's
[2] A long-living chronicle maintained by the Kushite crown over many generations and established after High King Murtin sponsored the adoption of the Coptic alphabet later in his life
[3]Now written from exile in the Wilayah of Tabassa, where the Aghlabid court would flee from Byzantine and Kushite expansion
[4]There are two sets of Coptic Chronicles from this point. Some would be written by refugees who fled to the Byzantine court after the conquest of Nubia, and who would take a very dim view of the Kushites; meanwhile Coptic Nubians who remained even during Kushite occupation would write more favorably of the Kushites, and eventually assimilate into the Kushite Chronicles as many of the writers converted or died off.

 

[ChicagoZohan]

So I've played a ton recently -- and then the patch came out! So I'm itching to play but I feel like I need to get everything that's current written up first.

We've got King Murtin, his successor, and most of the next successor as well done. I've played a little in the new patch -- I just couldn't resist -- but I'll keep posting updates for a while until I'm caught up, now.

Murtin was Just so I hated to do what I did -- but I was in a super vulnerable position, and I figured the stress was worth it. He certainly paid for it, in many ways.

 

[ChicagoZohan]

Chapter 3.2: The Fall of Al-Umari

The fall of the Abanoubid dynasty to the Al-Umari was a blessing to the Kushites, who had recently sealed a blood truce with the Abanoubids. The failure of the princes Muammar and Bashir to retake their father's throne had given Emir Khaireddin the pretext he would need to overthrow his liege; this would only make him a target for Kushite conquest. In September of 945, war was declared; Naqis would fall before the end of 946, completely conquered by Kush.

Meanwhile, King Murtin had shifted the focus of his stewards, from converting the Nubians to the Daju way -- a task which was easy, for the Nubians and Daju had similar traditions, but which was of little value for precisely that reason -- to converting the grand cities won in the conquests of Egypt. By bringing Daju culture to these major cities, Murtin hoped to induce the Daju culture to blossom and grow. He dreamed of ruling over the lands of Egypt himself, and of bringing cities and castles to the vast lands of the Sahel; but as of now the Kushite kingdom was still a tribal one, and would struggle to rule over Egypt directly.

The newly conquered lands of Naqis, Murtin would grant to the boy Moussa -- son of a minor chief in Darfur -- who would be married to Murtin's daughter, Ngid. Children born of the union would be born to the Tantamani line.

In July of 948, Murtin would embark on his next war of conquest, this time against the rump Nubian state which struggled to hold on to its last few bits of land, warred upon now by Kushite vassals, now by the Abbasids, and now by Kush itself. This time the target would be the Duchy of Alwa, which would be easily seized.

During the war, one Count Samson -- ruler of the town of Ushara, on the edge of the duchy -- had fallen into Kushite hands, but eagerly agreed to convert to the Kushite faith for his release. In exchange for this loyalty, when the duchy of Alwa was conquered, Murtin would grant him the rest of the duchy as well.

From the south came news of war; Yorubaland, which had grown quite mighty, had attempted to subjugate the kingdom of Igbo-Benuan. Had they succeeded, they would have formed a powerful union -- one which could challenge the High Kingdom of Kush for dominance in inner Africa. The Igbo-Benue had bested the Yoruba forces, buying Kush time; but Murtin resolved to pay more attention to his western border.

Shortly after the war, a second son would be born to Murtin, named Moussa. Unlike his predecessors, Murtin would never take any concubines; as such he would only ever have three children, two sons and a daughter. Of course, with two sons, the succession would once again become a matter of consideration for Murtin I.

Perhaps recalling his own struggles with succession, the Kushite oral tradition (though not their written chronicles, at least not until much after this time) makes mention of Murtin's deteriorating mental state during this time. Stress would continue to plague the High King, expressed as self-doubt. Trying to prove himself a powerful ruler, Murtin would send raiding parties into Abbasid lands in Ethiopia. The Abbasids would quickly muster their own forces in the region, but the raiders would escape with much loot while the army was still mustering.

With the plundered wealth pouring into the Daju capital, High King Murtin began throwing extravagant feasts, showing off his exotic booty. These feasts continued past the point of good taste, past the point of impressing his vassals, and would soon become a coping mechanism; supposedly the only coping mechanism which calmed the High King.

Murtin had been raised to be a fighter, and was quite a skilled raider as a youth. However, before taking the throne, he had lost his eye and his leg in battle. Early in his rule, he had used this as a motivator to hone his mind, knowing his body could never serve him in battle again. Now, he used it as an excuse to grow fat and old, neglecting his health.

Still, Murtin's mind was still sharp, and the crop rotation projects which his father had started were completed under his rule. Murtin began to study the cities his people had conquered, and assigned his steward and a number of his most educated courtiers to applying the lessons of Cairo and Alexandria to the lands of the Daju.

Murtin would also continue to attempt to better his relationship with with the Egyptian Muslim vassals his father had acquired through conquest. Murtin would attempt to learn Arabic, but unfortunately try as he might he never managed to grasp the foreign tongue. Still, his attempts had earned him the respect of Duke Gabri'el, who ruled one of the coastal provinces that had been conquered, and he agreed to convert to the Kushite faith when pressed.

The following decade would pass in relative peace. In the early 950s, the Kushites set out on a massive raiding campaign in the lands of Somalia and Ethiopia, returning with massive amounts of wealth. While Murtin would continue hosting a healthy amount of feasts, he would also use a significant chunk of the wealth to finance a pilgrimage to Alexandria, now under Kushite rule at last. During his time at the temples, he would finally master the art of communing with Wepwawet, earning the designation of a Wise Man.

On his return, Murtin would invest the rest of the plunder into the villages of Kordofan, fortifying them using the knowledge of cities he had gained while visiting his more urbanized holdings, making the pilgrimage beneficial secularly as well as pious.

 

[ChicagoZohan]

Chapter 3.3: The Time of Small Wars

By September of 955, the chiefs under King Murtin were ready for war once more. They'd invade the rump state of Nubia again, but after a few victories and the capture of King Epimachos, Murtin agreed to release him with his lands intact in exchange for his conversion to the Kushite faith.

This success would be followed by the conversion of Duke Arsenios, who ruled over the Delta where the great River Nile spilled into the sea. His adoption of the Kushite faith was a solid victory. Almost all the lands of the Sahel had been converted to the Kushite faith now, with just a few pockets of Bori remaining. Egypt had begin to be converted, as had Nubia, but the Coptic and Ash'ari faiths still held much sway among the subjects of Kush.

Culturally, little effort had been made to assimilate the western tribes; the Hausa, Sao, Zaghawa, and Kanuri still lived in their ancestral lands, for the most part. The cities of Egypt itself had begin to be converted, though, as had the lands of Nubia. Murtin wished to bring the Daju culture to the developed parts of his empire first and foremost; if the western tribes accepted Daju rule -- which, in the recent decades, they had -- he had little incentive not to leave them be.

In the north, Emir Ghiyasaddin of the Awijilid Emirate was heir to lands that lay within Egypt; the Emirate had once been under Abanoubid rule, but had broken away when the Kushites conquered Egypt. Hoping to forestall this inheritance, Murtin would declare war upon the emirate in November of 957; his councilor Sabah, the holder of those lands, had died in March of the following year, as Murtin had feared, leaving the Awijilids stronger.

Still, the war was soon won with little trouble, and the lands granted to Murtin's second son, Moussa. His eldest would inherit the homeland of the Daju while his youngest would become King of Egypt under his eldest's rule.

During this war, King Murtin's son and heir, Murtin, would come of age. He would be married to the Queen of Great Darkanui, a distant cousin of his named Bor; she was the daughter of King Mbakin ibn Bolad of Great Darkanui, the kingdom Bolad II had set up in conquered Kanem. Her mother was a foreign chief's daughter, from a very far-away land; some historians believe her to be Russian, of all things. Later in the Tantamani Dynasty, children would occasionally appear with blond here; it is likely Bor and her mother are the source of these genes. Shortly before their marriage, Bor's father would die with no male issue, making her queen.

Almost as soon as the war had ended, another began. The Catholic rulers had banded together under the Pope's call and declared war upon Caliph Seyfullah of the Abbasid Caliphate. For their accursed holdings in the Negev and Acre, the Kushites would be pulled into this war as well.

 

[HistoryDude]

Well, our new High King is ruthless, but that might be needed.

I think the Kushite Chronicles are the most biased source.

This crusade is bad news...

 

[ChicagoZohan]

Chapter 3.4: The First Crusade

In the year 959, Pope Lucius called upon the rulers of all Catholic nations to unify together and drive out the heathens and infidels from the Holy Land. Though the Crusade for Jerusalem was nominally directed at the Abbasid Caliph, the High Kingdom of Kush had taken the lands of Acre and the Negev, and as such had a stake in this war as well. But as the war began, Murtin's army was not dispersed throughout his realm; no, he had just defeated the Emir of Syrte, and had secured the lands just south of Tunis, a short hop across the sea from Roma herself.

Wasting little time, Murtin gathered his army and hired every Arab and Byzantine ship he could find. At great expanse, his fleet managed to bring his army to Italy, and it laid siege to Rome itself.

The Eternal City was massively fortified, and so the siege took a long time; but the Catholic armies had already been committed in Jerusalem, where they faced off the very competent Caliph's forces. They could spare no relief force to save Rome.

While his army laid siege to Roma and Crusaders crashed with Arabs in Jerusalem, High King Murtin reclined within his holding in Kordofan and began an in-depth, focused study of the Kushite traditions. He had set his mind to the task of reforming the Kushite faith, restoring it to the glory it possessed under the Pharaohs of old.

Of course, maintaining an organized faith was difficult without a written tongue, and so applying the Coptic script to the Daju tongue and encoding the Daju creation myths and the story of their people -- from the time of the Pharaohs to the rise of Bolad I, and eventually to Murtin himself. This would be a monumental task; he commissioned the aid of Bogirg, a master of the Daju oral tradition, as well as a host of Coptic scholars. Again, this would be extremely costly, but the realm had been prospering for decades under Murtin's rule, and he could afford these expenditures even while waging the war against the Catholics.

Even while the war continued, Murtin was able to further expand his realm. Emir Tayyib, a Kushite, had inherited the Awjilid Emirate from his Muslim father. With some prodding from Murtin, he agreed to swear fealty to the Kushite realm.

War in Jerusalem continued, neither the Arabs nor the Catholics able to gain the upper hand. The Catholic Crusaders would capture a few of Jerusalem's castles, but then the host of Arabs would roll in, defeat their armies, and siege them back to Arab hands; while they did so, the Crusaders would regroup and capture land elsewhere. Yet even as they fought, more and more of the Papacy's holdings fell to Kushite hands.

Meanwhile, work on the codification of the Kushite language to the Coptic alphabet continued quickly, and with the excellent team he'd put together they soon completed the first volume of The Official Histories of the Kushite Peoples. Biased as this work was, it nevertheless remains an excellent primary account of the Kushites as they viewed themselves.

Soon the Papal holdings had fallen to Kushite control, and eager to end the crusade at last King Murtin once more emptied the treasury chartering a host of ships to take his army to Jerusalem. Once the Kushite forces arrived, the war was basically over. Between the Kushites and the Arabs the Crusaders found their forces smashed again and again, and soon they were forced to concede defeat.

King Murtin had gained much prestige and respect for the Kushite faith through his victories, and with the Kushite language now possessing a writing system, he felt the realm ready to reform the faith. He had gotten so far as to begin inviting the priests of the realm to the capital for the discussion on the new faith's codes when his reign was suddenly cut short. In late 964, at the age of 49, King Murtin suffered a series of heart attacks that left him shattered. He would die a few days later, leaving the throne to his 24 year old son, High King Murtin II. He had ruled for 22 years, two decades of relative peace and prosperity for the realm.

 

[Cora Giantkiller]

Something charming about the Kushites sacking Rome, I don't know what to say.

It's a shame that Murtin I wasn't able to reform the faith, though.

 

[ChicagoZohan]

Chapter 4.1: The Brief Reign of King Murtin II

In 964, following the death of his father, High King Murtin II took the throne of Greater Kush. He found the realm stable and large, missing only the a pair of tiny provinces to complete Nubia, Egypt, and the lands that Bolad I had claimed as Kush.

Murtin II was a learned man, craven and patient. He loved nothing more then to bury his head in a book, which was a fine legacy for his father's son -- he dreamed of completing Murtin I's task and reforming the Kushite faith.

Like all Kushite rulers, Murtin II would begin his reign by establishing his credibility, both secular and divine. In November of 964 he would send raiders into the Aghlabid Emirate, though they would continue to pillage and loot across all of North Africa. The fortunes they would bring back would swell the Kingdom of Kush's coffers, and would destabilize the Aghlabid Emirate to the point where in the years to come it would falter, with much of it being swallowed up by Kush's vassals.

At the same time, Murtin would set out on a pilgrimage to Alexandria, becoming a wise man like his father before him and earning the priests' respect. He would soon be well on his way to reforming the faith.

It was during this pilgrimage that, after consultation with the Kushite priests, Murtin II would officially declare the Tantamani bloodline to be divinely descendent -- not just in the abstract, diluted sense of being descended from the Pharaohs of old, but that Bolad I was literally born of a divine union. Many historians consider this to be the first step of Murtin II's plan for the restoration of the Pharaohs; yet this would be a task that would fall to his son, High King Mbakin.

High King Murtin's supposedly divine blood couldn't save him from smallpox, which he would catch the year he returned from Alexandria. His physician, a supposedly skilled medicine woman named Gosgod, tried to treat Murtin, but a botched treatment left him crippled. He would die within the year, leaving the High Kingdom of Kush to his six year old boy Mbakin.

Yet from these humble beginnings would arise one of the greatest kings the Daju had ever seen.

 

[ChicagoZohan]

I think I will play some more of Mbakin's reign before I keep posting suffice to say, it's been a very interesting reign and might rival King Bolad I in terms of the number of chapters!

 

[Nikolai]

You’ve come far! And now it all rests on the shoulders of a boy Pharaoh...

 

[TheButterflyComposer]

Definitely on the path of the divine pharaohs now. All chrisrendom though is now aware of Kush, and hates it.

 

[Cora Giantkiller]

Having a six year old heir is such a coin-flip; they're either kings for sixty years or one.

 

[stnylan]

Well Martin II didn't last long.

His father started off in blood, but actually left the realm in a pretty good state.

 

[Brisingr]

This AAR continues to excite. I'm eager for this promised long reign and for the reforming of the Kushite religion--back into that of the Ancient Egyptians, perhaps?

also lol @ Kush taking Rome and ending the crusade

 

[ChicagoZohan]

Chapter 5.1: Reign of the Boy King

In the year 967, after only three brief years on the throne, King Murtin II succumbed to smallpox, leaving his throne to his six year old son, High King Mbakin. Strangely for a Daju, the boy had blonde hair, courtesy of his Russian ancestry; this would be a source of great embarrassment to the young boy, and in his later years he would resurrect the Ancient Egyptian tradition of shaving one's head, along with a great many other traditions of Ancient Egypt.

Soon after Mbakin took the throne, he was betrothed - at the urging of his court and vassals - to the daughter of Chief Samson of Nubia, cementing the Chief's alliance with his liege. In exchange, the 'humble' chief (who had converted to Kushitism during the Nubian conquests and was granted his chiefdom for his loyalty) would be made King of Nubia.

The rump state of independent Nubia had finally fractured into tiny chiefdoms, and no independent ruler still held claim to the title. Eager to seal his domain, King Samson would urge the young king into a war with the last two free Nubian tribelands. Following a quick victory, Kushite control of Nubia was finally cemented for good.

Mbakin had inherited a stable realm. Kushite dominance of the Sahel was unchallenged, and the tribes to their immediate west were fractured and weak. Further beyond, the realms of Ghana and Adiukru had emerged as mighty regional powers, but hey were too often occupied with fighting one another to pose a serious threat to Kush.

In the east, Ethiopia and the horn of Africa were home to moderately sized kingdoms vying for control in the vacuum left behind by the collapse of the Abyssinians. The Abbasids, too, have muscled in on Ethiopia, and beyond their control of Arabia is unchallenged.

In North Africa, the Kushites are mighty, ruling over all of Egypt as well as the coastal lands to the east. The once mighty Aghlabid Emirate is now a fallen power, its lands slowly grabbed by Kushite vassals. The Byzantines, too, have grabbed some African holdings at this time, including Rome's ancient enemy of Carthage.

By this time, the High Kingdom of Kush had begun to develop the iconic internal structures it would use to manage its realm throughout its existence. In the Sahel, the chiefdoms were divided into kingdoms, named (very roughly) for the peoples they encompassed. In the west were Great Darhausa, Great Darsao, and Great Darkanui (though the King of the Sao and the King of the Kanui were the same person, at this time). In the east were Nubia and Egypt, kingdoms whose titles had too much significance for the Daju to change.

In 971, at the urging of the new Nubian king, Mbakin would declare war once more, this time upon the Kingdom of Damot in Ethiopia, demanding that the king swear fealty to him. A bloody war followed, with Daju and Damot forces hunting each other mercilessly through the highlands of Ethiopia, but the Kushite forces were simply too numerous and well-trained after years of fighting. The generals and warriors were all hardened veterans, and this wouldn't change even if their liege was now an inexperienced youth.

Still, every war takes its price. Mbakin's heir (at least until he could produce a child of his own) was his uncle, King Moussa of Egypt. The young king was slain in the fighting, leaving control of Egypt to his infant son, and the realm's succession as precarious as ever.

In late 974, the King of Damot finally agreed to bend the knee before the Kushite king.

 

[stnylan]

With their traditional regions now pretty much if not entirely reclaimed ... where now for the Kushites? Finish off the Horn - or to try and content the Levant as did Ramessees?

 

[TheButterflyComposer]

Well, they might be better off completing the African conquest...but there's a lot of gold to be made in the levant that Africa simply can't provide yet, except in the southern most parts of the map.

 

[HistoryDude]

Well, the Catholics are doing badly. Nice job sacking Rome.

Shame about the failure to reform the faith and the early death.

This division might be a bad idea...

Also, with Catholicism so weakened, perhaps the Byzantine Empire will take advantage. Epic Roman-Egyptian (Byzantine-Kushite) for control of the Levant and Egypt, perhaps?