Finally!
Section Six
To his magnificence the Doge of the Serene Republic of St. Mark and his Respected Council:
January 1584
We have waited far too long to resume contacts with this awesome new Islamic Empire. I refer to it by what believe is a more accurate rendering of its identity. The Caliph’s armies have annexed the old Mamaluke state with little more than a whimper, gathering in Egypt, Mecca, and the Holy Land into its embrace. Although I see few of its ships at sea, the Caliphate now has the potential to dominate these waters. Our position hangs by a thread, and I can only hope that its more immediate neighbors fear it as much as we should.
A supreme effort of consolidation has taken place over the last twenty years. The old Shia schismatics have largely disappeared. Even the slightest breath of religious dissent within Islam now results in tortures of which even a Spaniard might be aghast. Beyond this, the old Arab-Persian-Turkish split has largely been resolved. There are now three royal tongues, with each of the great Muslim races represented on something like equal terms. The Caliph has actively encouraged intermarriage among the emirs of the nations, trying to forge some kind of unity. The depth of support for his rule may always be shallow, limited to the Mesopotamian heartland, but it is now certainly broad. I can only wonder how long the desperate rebellions in Egypt will continue- they are persistent but doomed.
The Caliph’s now has a relatively large standing army and a growing fleet. With his vast new wealth and bottomless reserves of manpower, the Caliph’s armies are rapidly catching up to western standards of war-making. This might has triggered a dangerous over-confidence, however, which I believe may be of great use to us. A great anti-Caliphal alliance has been forged of the Ottoman Turks, the Emir of Tripoli, and the Great Mughal of India. The Caliph’s government has let its old alliances lapse, and done little to abet the fears of its neighbors. It appears all now expect the next Arab stroke to come against them. The Caliph can only count on the weak Baluchs and Adenites for support- more a burden I expect than a genuine aide.
I visited our traders in Alexandria and Basrah before journeying to Baghdad. Everywhere I hear of the Caliph’s determination to dominate the whole of Islam. Should he succeed, who do you think will be next?
June 1585
It appears that the Caliph has begun rounding out his frontiers. All eyes are on Arabia, as the Emir of Aden has traveled by foot to Baghdad to offer his allegiance after “insulting” a minister of the emperor. Apparently he kept the man waiting for an interview. The Caliph left the man standing in the desert sun for a full day without food or water before deigning to receive him. This is truly a hard people.
March 1587
I have been endeavoring with little success to discover the whereabouts of this mysterious “Fahti “ family my predecessor spoke of with such knowledge. I cannot discern whether they have been deposed or were some deranged fabrication. The previous ambassador was here for quite a long time…….
I writing to report that the forceful expansion of the Empire has been directed south to the Sudan. There is a strange Christian kingdom of Nubians there, once vassals of the Mamalukes. They are little more than barbarians, by all reports, and the Saracen armies marched up the Nile and readily dispatched their African enemies. After a brief war that began last year, Nubia has been reduced to a rump state, with all its outlying provinces occupied by the Caliph. His servants are working to suppress the christian majority in that region, yet more evidence of his damned pagan apostasy.
November 1590
After repeated “suggestions” from the Council, I have contacted the Arabic heir of Dennis de Corrella, one Karim. He is an officious and humble man, and thank the kind Virgin he speaks Italian fluently. Unfortunately, he seems to think he is a bit greater than he is, always pestering me with advice and cautioning me as to the deadly intrigue of this corrupt regime. I will of course consult with him if the Council insists, but he is better at interpreting than thinking. The man raises sheep for a living, after all.
The Caliph has assumed a more removed and regal pose in the last few years, rarely venturing out to meet his subjects. One must treat his lowest sycophants as Kings of the Earth in order to receive the slightest help. And I need not speak of the depravity of all these whores and eunuchs. All the wealth flowing into the kingdom appears to be going to buy gold dinner plates.
But we must not be deceived by appearances. This is an ambitious regime hungry for domination, and even the French would stand in awe of their duplicity. Perhaps they learned it from the Saracen during the Crusades.
September 1593
I am sitting on a veranda overlooking the port of Basrah, watching the creation of a great Arabic Armada in the Persian Gulf. The town is full of soldiers and supplies being prepared for the journey south. The last Shiite state, the trading kingdom of Oman, is under attack by the expanding caliphate. They have been protected all these years by their great fleet and inaccessible terrain, surrounded as they are on all sides by the great Arabian Desert. Unfortunately for them, the Caliph is determined to undertake what the government believes will be an easy contest. The Omanis, schismatics as they are, can look for no aid from abroad.
July 1594
The war has taken an interesting turn. The Caliph’s armies are invincible in the field, but now prowess can save an army from starvation and thirst. The deserts are proving a far more formidable army than the Omanis themselves. It seems their characterization of the desert as a great moat may have some merit. The government here is further distracted by a massive rebellion in Egypt, caused by some sort of local domestic disturbance. From what I can gather, the Feyyadin, as the long-suffering peasants of the Delta are called, were required to send food to supply the army even amidst a famine. They reacted predicatably, and two garrison armies have been bested already. I could hope that the rebellion enjoys progress, but it seems to be doing little more than prolonging the war with Oman. The Caliph is simply diverting his newly created armies to quell the revolt.
April 1595
The war against Oman has reached an abrupt end. The principal city of Oman itself was under siege, leaving its other chief town, an island far to the south on the African coast called Zanzibar, as the only one not under threat or occupation. All of the other (worthless, desert) provinces have been in the hands of the Caliph for some time, but these two cities have held on stubbornly. Fearing Oman would fall, the Emir and his family fled the city upon the approach of the Caliph’s army and sailed to Zanzibar, which they believed war more secure. Disgusted by their cowardice and effete behavior, the general defending Zanzibar by all reports had them executed and thrown into the sewers after “treating the emir like the woman he is”. The government quickly collapsed into chaos.
Sensing an opportunity, the Caliph’s government has recognized the enemy general orchestrating the coup as Emir, in exchange for ceding all the Omani towns other than Mascate and Zanzibar, its two wealthiest. The ministers here are ecstatic at he acquisition of Oman’s colonies in Indian Ocean and Africa, but from my viewpoint they are without value. Ah well, at least the kingdom was not absorbed entirely.
May 1597
With the new colonies it stole from Oman in the last war, the Caliphate has embarked on an aggressive colonization program. The monarchy forcibly sent thousands to young men and women to the barren African coast, either to cement control of the new conquests or create neighboring states. For some reason beyond my understanding those barren wastelands have attracted settlers from overcrowded Mesopotamia in a burst of colonial enthusiasm. I can only think that the Caliphate must desperately seek glory abroad to abate its vicious despotism at home.
February 1599
As I expected, as I feared, the enslavement of Aden was only a prelude to forcible annexation. In an old ploy, the Caliph’s government waited until the ruler of their client state was distracted by internal revolt before summoning him to appear immediately. The hapless emir could of course not do so, so the Caliph declared him a contumacious vassal, stripped him of his territories in a mockery of a judicial proceeding, and then, in a shocking display of treachery, the Emir’s own ministers had him drowned in his bed. The Caliph’s troops were welcomed with open arms by the faithless aristocracy of Aden, but the native peasants are heartily displeased.
What makes this annexation all the more disastrous is that Baghdad now has control of the substantial Aden navy. In the last war against Oman, the empire was never able to wrest control of the seas from the Omani traders, but with this recent addition… well, I am sure you can guess where next the covetous eyes of the Emperor will come to rest.
August 1601
All justice seems to be abandoned in this realm, as the wolves guard the sheep and then devour them.
I have been too long in the East I fear, to see such things as customary. After all these years, the anti-Caliphal league has still not acted against the Empire, existing only on paper. I can only suspect this is due to trepidation- no one wants to suffer the consequences of attacking first. Meanwhile, the Caliphate consumes its weaker neighbors. The Kingdom of the Baluchi, fearing conquest by the Mughals, has sworn fealty to its ally and “protector” the Caliph of Baghdad. We can see what such a form of protection meant for the Emir of Aden.
I simply cannot understand the barbarous laws of these people. The Caliph has somehow gulled the populace that the mere appearance of judicial process on a local scale is the substance of true justice. He has begun sending out experts in islamic law trained in Cairo and Baghdad out into the provinces to act as “advisors.” I can only believe this is another form of control, however insidious.
December 1604
I have now been in this place for two decades, grimly doing the work set out for me. While I readily understand the importance of this post, I cannot understand the Council’s unwillingness to act on my advice. I have done that has been requested, and even gone beyond by seeking audience with the chief ministers of state to express our concerns at the heady expansion. I am met with cold silences and lack of courtesy, and ridiculous comments that rendering equivalent our long effort to restore order to the Balkans and the Caliphate’s rapacity. I beg the Council to send a younger and more able man to fill this post if they have not the confidence to take my suggestions seriously. The Caliph is more than a viper- he is a whole nest of them, and all peaceful and civilized men are his prey.
August 1607
The effort to “round out” the empire’s frontier’s is well underway. The Emirate of Oman, so badly defeated in the last war, is once again being victimized. The Imams of Baghdad are whipping up the populace in a burst of anti-Shiite frenzy in support of the conflict. There seem to be few here who are opposed to it. The military is tired of peace, the new Arab navy would like an opportunity to test its mettle, and the trading community in Basrah wishes to eliminate, or at least coopt, a long-standing rival for economic hegemony in the Indian Ocean.
The conduct of the war has been typically sly and underhanded. A major fleet was filled to the masthead with soldiers and sailed in secret to Zanzibar. The armies of the Caliph were quiescent in the Arabian Peninsula itself. Once the Zanzibar expedition was in place, the Caliph declared war and attacked Mascate and the african island.
January 1609
After an exhausting period of siege warfare and skirmishes in the desert, Mascare and Zanzibar have both fallen to the hordes of the Caliph. He has “generously” allowed the emirate to retain its independence, but has required the cession of the island of Zanzibar with its wealthy trading concerns to the empire. All here appear quite satisfied at this turn of events. I can only wonder why the Turk has not realized the wolf snacking outside his door? Do they not recognize that once the smaller powers directly abutting the Caliphate are consumed, they are next on the menu?
May 1612
Must I die here, forgotten, in the desert and surrounded by heathens? Are my missives being received, and if so, are they being read of simply filed away in some forgotten archive? But I will continue, unthanked, my duties to the Republic.
There is little to report here- the Arab Empire is prosperous and generally stable. There are always revolts somewhere in the provinces, but they are always readily suppressed. The Caliph has continued his policy of incremental expansion. A clear pattern has emerged over the last several decades: steal a few border towns at a time from unfriendly but weaker powers, preliminary to a war of conquest, or coopt the ruling families and then dispose of them to annex the kingdom in one stroke. Always there are large gifts and constant emissaries sent to the significant powers on the Caliph’s frontiers, in order to win their neutrality if not their assent. The latest to fall has been the long-standing vassal nation of Baluchistan. The impoverished Emir has been forced to send ever larger sums to the Caliph in tribute, and for some time has been reduced to merely another lord at the Caliph’s court. Convinced to spend his inheritance here in the great imperial capitol, he is so in debt that the Caliph has agreed to simply purchased his kingdom. Disgusting.
December 1617
Perhaps the Caliph has recognized the limits of his potential for expansion. After several years of ceaseless revolts in the Baluchi province of Kalat, the great Arab has restored a member of the ruling family to rule there, keeping the rest of the Baluch provinces for himself. It is a wasteland out there I here, and the occupation was proving more expensive than it was worth.
March 1620
Just in case anyone is interested, the Caliph is destroying the christian nation of Nubia in the Sudan.
July 1621
Sudan has fallen, and the imperial armies have been diverted east to finish off Oman.
May 1623
I will no longer participate in this farce of a posting. I have spent my life to no purpose here. The great emporium of Mascate lies in ruins and the Emirate has been abolished. All of Arabia and the coasts of the Red Sea are now under the rule of a corrupt and damned regime. They no control a solid block of territory stretching from the Nile to Tranoxania, and from the Caspian to Africa. With a gigantic army, substantial fleets, and a stupefyingly large treasury, it is only a matter of time until this prideful monarchy destroys its coreligionists and then us. I for one will not be here to see it.
