Switching Between Christian and Muslim

[unmerged(545031)]

Other ways that might still work (though be sufficiently annoying as to not be worth trying)
- vassalize to someone of the other religion. Hope he sends in his bishop at some point.
- do things to severely upset your heir. Swap to an opposing-religion ruler, and butter him up enough to invite him to your court, then demand conversion and swap back. Do silly things to get yourself killed (large numbers of assassination attempts on high-intrigue people, for example) so that he grabs the spot.
- Build up a significant block of money, then begin a reign of tyranny. strip the titles off of all your vassals, then proceed to imprison/banish or imprison/kill every muslim (and pagan) in your court. Anyone who remains will likely hate you, but that's okay. If necessary, imprison/banish them too. If they manage to flee, that's fine Now there shouldn't be anyone to auto-assign the kids to after you place them with a mentor of your religion of choice. Might be an entertaining thing to try regardless.
- Stop leaving your heirs lying around. Imprison them or employ them. Family members in your council and family members in jail cost no decadence, and can still inherit just fine. Sure, imprisoning your sons on their 16th birthdays upsets your wives and costs some tyranny, but it totally works.

 

[Prince Michael]

I am having a game where I have had no problems at all with this issue but it may be because I was a Muslim vassal of a Christian lord.


I started in 1076 as the Sheikh of Lleida in duchy of Barcelona, dynasty Hudid. Andalusian Sunnis, they are. Already in the start I set a goal to convert to Catholicism and Catalan culture, just to simulate being a Morisco/Converso, to build up a dynasty with Andalusian Arab roots. I immediately swore fealty to the de Barcelona dukes of Barcelona. I had lots of Catalan Catholic courtiers which to assign guardians to my kids, no problem. Various results: Andalusian Sunnis, Andalusian Catholics, Catalan Sunnis, Catalan Catholics. Then I made the Catalan Catholic son my heir, with normal Muslim Open Succession method, giving him (most) lands. When I died, my new character was him. No problem. But as I suggested, this may be due that I was a vassal of a Christian lord.

As someone pointed out, the female children are given tutors automatically (never noticed that the game never notifies you "Child needs a guardian" when your girls turn 6?) when playing a Muslim. This is usually nice because girls can't inherit anyway, so what kind of education they get is kinda irrelevant because they are married away instantly, and you can get quite a bunch of girls, when you have always 4 wives... Nice thing is that you can still boost vassal relations when giving these "useless" daughters to vassals to educate. Just give them new guardians (I think the game gives them courtier guardians).


BTW and off-topic, the method of swearing fealty to an infidel is a very good strategy in turbulent Iberian lands. You can't go holy warring, but you are safe from AI holy wars. Even when you are vassal of a Christian, you have still "Conquest CB" with which you can eat your lieges form inside very quickly. As the Sheikh of Lleida you can even swap lieges endlessly whenever it suits you, because both King of Aragon AND Duke of Barcelona are both your de jure lieges. In addition, you have strong claims to your neighbouring counties owned by your half-brothers/uncles IIRC. Bonus is the titular "Hudid Duchy (Duchy of Zaragoza) which you can claim from your relatives and give for example to some coastal lord mayor (this Republic of Zaragoza is even ruled by my Muslim relatives, who squeeze some more money from Christian lands - +25% republic ruled, +100% republic ruled coastal, +100% grand republic capital city, +25% jizya tax...). Now it's 1150s and I own the whole de jure Aragon and beyond, and I even put a Hudid in the throne of Castile, the peninsula split between Castilian Catholic Castile/Leon Hudids and my Catalan Catholic Aragon Hudids. It was going to turn soon boring, when no enemies around, and Castile holy warring its way to Marrakech, but luckily the Fatimids have invaded their way in rapid pace to my borders and I am now waiting some clash with them...

The roleplay aspect with conversions can be great, only minus is that your coat of arms doesn't change, I have still the Muslim type of round COA.

 

[vmarra]

If he wanted to do this he really needed to do it way earlier, if he was a count or Duke or even King I guess he could have sworn fealty to a Christian overlord than changed to his liege's religion... Being Emperor there isn't any option I know of...