State of the World
Anno domini 1200, Anno Hegirae 596
The twelfth century was undeniably one dominated by the Kurds. Shah Aurang the Magnificent had not only expanded his empire's borders to their greatest historical boundaries, but he also led a cultural revival that spread through the Middle East like silk aflame, consolidated the Shahdom around the monarch and reinstated its hereditary structure, halted the stagnation of learning in the House of Knowledge, improved the administrative efficiency of his realm to the point where he was one of the richest living monarchs, and even spurred the beginning of the Islamisation of Anatolia. In short, Shah Aurang undoubtedly presided over the Kurdish Shahdom at its apex.
But as the Magnificent crosses from this world to the next, many fear that Kurdistan would descend into chaos with him. Even before the Shah had been lowered into the ground, a thousand issues have divided the satraps of the empire, fragmenting the shahdom in two. As the years rush past and millennia-old conflicts re-emerge, the very foundation of the empire built through sheer will is beginning to crack and rupture.
However great a hegemony Kurdistan may have exerted on the Near East throughout the 1200s, there is simply no guarantee that they would be able to retain this status through the oncoming storm of religious sectarianism. And to complicate matters, as the new century dawns, dozens of ancient and nascent powers alike are slowly etching their mark on the world, lusting after their own history and legacy, all of whom will undoubtedly come to rival the Kurdish Shahdom in its eminence.
It's high time they were painted a picture of their own.
To check out the previous world map, click here.
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The Abbasid Sultanate
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There are many dangers on the horizon, both inside the Shahdom and without, but the imminent threat to Kurdish dominance is undoubtedly the revived Abbasid power to the south. The Kurds and the Abbasids have a long history, stretching back to the Abbasid Revolution and the toppling of the Umayyad
Khilafa in the 700s, but their 'understanding' took a turn for the worst when a certain Kurdish lord declared independence from his Abbasid liege. Over the course of three years and a series of stunning victories, with Emir Hashim Ankooshi defeating the
Khalifa at every turn, the Abbasids were forced to bow before the emir's demands, thus establishing the first independent Kurdish state in millennia.
Despite an official ceasing of hostilities, however, a turgid rivalry between the two dynasties had slowly bloated to outright hatred over the following centuries. The Ankooshi Shahs had chased the Abbasids out of Mesopotamia and Syria, killing every man or child they could get their hands on, but dynasties with the power and influence that the
Khalifas wielded are notoriously difficult to exterminate. Eventually, after losing their hold on Arabia and Persia, the Abbasids retreated to the last stronghold still loyal to them, a small emirate near Khiva, and there they were forced to relinquish their claims to the Caliphate, the last and largest gem on their crown.
One might have expected, after such devastating setbacks, that the old family would begin to slowly fade from history, but that's not exactly the way it went. Instead, during the 1110s, the famous Emir Shujah launched an invasion of the crippled Hashimid
Khilafa of Arabia, smashing the decadent sultans in battle after battle until they were forced to the negotiating table, where the Abbasid Emir once more took hold of his ancient Arabian kingdom.
Though he did allow the Hashimids to keep their emirate in Baluchistan, along with the now-corrupted title of
Khalifa, Emir Shujah was re-crowned as Sultan of Arabia, spurring a new era of prosperity for the ancient family.
Still, the Arabian peninsula was all rock and sand, and apart from the Holy Cities of Mecca and Medina, it wasn't desirable by any stretch of the imagination. As long as the Kurds managed to stay united and keep the rich, fertile domain of Mesopotamia and Syria under their control, they would be able to repel any Abbasid incursion with relative ease. That was not the case, however, with the powerful empire rising to their north.
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The Empire of Carpathia
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The Empire of Carpathia, referred to as the Bulgar Empire by foreigners, had been a power on the rise for centuries now. It had begun as a small pagan chiefdom in Serbia, but after an unprecedented conquering spree towards the end of the eleventh century, they quickly came to rule the vast plains ranging from Hungary to the Caucasus. Even more impressive, however, was that the Bulgars had managed to keep hold of their newly-conquered land despite facing open rebellion for decades, wisely converting to Orthodox Christianity and consolidating the chiefdom into a full-fledged empire.
Since then, the
Imperators (emperors) of Carpathia had been in constant conflict with the Basileus in Constantinople, both on the battlefield and off it. Historians number at least six officially-declared wars between the two powers in the twelfth century alone, discarding the innumerable raids and border skirmishes, though the Roman Empire had been victorious in all of these wars, seizing large tracts of land in the Balkans and Georgia.
Now, however, everything was struck in a precarious imbalance. The Roman Empire had been devastated by their most recent war with the Kurds, utterly humiliated and forced to cede their richest provinces. If
Imperator Kresimir came calling now, would the Basileus still be able to hold him off? And if the Romans fold before the Bulgar hordes, would they turn to the infidel next? Would the Kurds' greatest victory also lead to their demise?
The world holds a bated breath, awaiting the inevitable consequences following the fall of the Basileus. Shah Aurang, however, would not bear the price himself, already confined to his deathbed and whispering his last words to his sons. He had undoubtedly forged himself a legacy worthy of legend, ensuring that Islam would not be dying out anytime soon by pushing back the greatest threat to its survival, but that is not the case everywhere.
Further west, the oldest of all ruling Muslim dynasties proved to their own brethren that, no matter how puissant a king might consider himself to be, the eventual decline and fall of his House was as assured as the setting of the sun.
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The Catholic Domain of Andalusia
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The Umayyads had once, hundreds of years past, ruled from Damascus to Cordoba as successors to the Prophet himself. After being dealt a decisive defeat during the Abbasid Revolution, however, they'd receded and instead fortified themselves in Hispania. And from there they watched as the Abbasids rose to their apex, stagnated in both political influence and religious duty, before folding as a surge of Kurds seized their most valuable lands from them. All the while, they themselves expanded steadily and carefully, and by the end of the eleventh century, they ruled all of Hispania and large parts of Francia.
Then came the
First Council of Kings, the
Audita tremendi papal bull, and the calling of the Second Crusade. This launched a military expedition of unprecedented scale, with five different kings answering the call and marching across Europe to press the rightful claims of 'God and Christendom'. This crusade was much shorter than the ones which would follow, the Umayyads simply did not have the manpower or monetary capacity to hold off enemies at three different fronts, and it ended with the midnight fleeing of the royal family and the collapse of their sultanate behind them. And in place of the once-mighty empire, the Catholic Domain of Andalusia rose.
With the new kingdom still in its infancy, it is yet impossible to know whether it will rupture under the strain of a religiously diverse population or if it would go on to complete the Reconquista. The recently-crowned King Heinrich, however, is already proving to be the stubborn man needed to root the kingdom into the very ground of Hispania, with the king already throwing back an invasion of the African Moors and commanding that Muslims in his court either leave for good, or die in their thousands.
This was not the only front where Christians were facing, and defeating, Muslim lords. As the Umayyad Empire slowly suffered endless blows until it was reduced to rubble, the Laridid Emirate broke off and established an independent state in Aquitaine. As they watched the great power to their south collapse before the Crusaders, however, surely the Emirs could not have expected the frenzied, zealous Christians to simply leave them be...
And indeed, just a scant few years after defeating and dismantling the Umayyads, the Catholics came calling yet again.
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France and Burgundy
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As the Second Crusade came to an end, spurring the continuation of the Reconquista, the kings who participated in the expedition began the longer process of reclaiming the rest of Western Europe for Catholicism. Because of the slowly growing rift between the newly-founded Holy Roman Empire and the powerful kingdoms in the west, however, the Pope had refused to call a crusade for Aquitaine, instead siding with the Kaiser and outright ignoring any attempts to persuade him into doing otherwise.
Thus, it was only over the course of fifty years and a dozen wars that the Kings of France and Burgundy had managed to slowly push the borders of the Laridid Sultanate further and further back, eventually leaving the Muslims with just a small stretch of land on the coast of Barcelona. And in October of 1184, King Géraud launched his final campaign against the sultanate, seizing the castles and forts dotting the coast and finally expelling the last remnants of the Umayyad Empire from Europe.
And only now, with the Muslims thrown out of Western Europe and confined to a small corner to Hispania has it become evident that Islam had long lost the battle for Europe. At this point, it's impossible to imagine that any magnitude of invasion attempted by either the Moors or the Kurds would be successful in the re-taking the vast domains once ruled by the Umayyads.
In fact, upon hearing of Christendom's many victories at his capitol in
Namuthij Al Rua'a, Shah Hezar had simply scoffed, reportedly saying: '
I care not what happens in at that barren edge of the world, let them come here and we'll show them the steel of a Kurdish Muslim.'
Still, one worries that the newly-crowned Shah Hezar is underestimating the capabilities of his enemies, and perhaps foolish to simply discard any possible threat. Even in the first few days of his reign, it is obvious that Hezar is not the man his father was, and as apocalyptic rumours slowly travel the roads from the east and the Pope begins writing letters and sending envoys in the west, it seems as though the very survival of the Kurdish Shahdom is coming into doubt.
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The Kingdom of England
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The last of the many kingdoms to flourish during the twelfth century is, perhaps, one that would go on to have the greatest impact on history. The British Isles were relatively isolated for a large part of their past, until a young, little-known general rose from the midst of dozens of squabbling dukes during the 1090s and seized a small stretch of land to call his own. From there, Lord Osweald, as he was known, embarked on a series of famous wars that saw him crowned and anointed as King of all Anglo-Saxons by the end of the century. Despite being united through force of arms, however, this newly-established kingdom did not begin to exert its influence on its environ until the First Crusade, when it seized large parts of Normandy and Northern France from a heretic Waldensian king.
Even after the Scots handed the reigns of the kingdom back to the French, however, the English refused to relinquish their hold on Normandy, quickly souring diplomatic relations between the two nascent nations, a souring that would last hundreds of lifetimes and cost thousands of lives. Nevertheless, historians generally concede that it is exactly this greed that dragged the English into European waters for the first time, quickly turning them from a secluded kingdom to an influential force in Continental politics.
With their entry onto the main theatre of the ever-present conflict between Islam and Christendom, spectators do not doubt that the reigning monarch of England, whoever they may be, will play an important role in future expeditions against the infidel. This time, however, the stakes are much higher than a rogue heretic king or an empire on the decline. This time, there is but one destination to which the Crusaders will be marching, trudging through mountain passes and under the sweltering summer heat, slaughtering tens of thousands as they force their way to the very heart of Christendom.
What does the future hold for the haggard men striding another century of this earth? Would the sudden rise of Christendom ever stagnate or falter? Would the Kurdish hold over the Near East tighten or ease? Would the oncoming century highlight a conflict far bigger than Islam and Christendom, perhaps shedding light on the many rumours coming from the east... surely there could not be a menacing war-god and his four dogs on the march to smite both Muslim and Christian into obscurity?
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Religious Situation
Not much to comment on here, it seems. Germanic has been pretty much completely extinguished from Northern Europe, unfortunately, though that was to be expected. Also, a few Sunni provinces in Kurdistan and Persia have flipped to Shi'ism, interestingly. But apart from that, no other major religious shifts seem to have happened. Not yet, at least.
