New Map of the Middle East & Islamic World

Byzantine fanatic

Byzantine fanatic

Hi all,

I have created a map just for fun, showing the Middle East/Islamic countries with borders redrawn. This was done for entertainment purposes only, and does not have any serious intent. The setting of this map is now (April 2019) but re-imagined in a way that would be more advantageous to the Muslim countries. It would also right a few of my favourite historical "wrongs".

Key: Dark green - Turkey
Blue - Egypt / Arab Sunni state
Brown - Greater Iran
Red - North African Arabic Federation
Light green - Morocco
Purple - Israel
Pink - Emirate of Sicily
Gold - Andalus
Sandy beige - federation of UAE, Oman and Yemen

Turkey expands.png


Historical notes -

1. Turkey has united with the Muslim countries of Albania and Bosnia, and has also regained Salonica (hometown of Ataturk)
2. The Treaty of Gulistan (1813) has been reversed. Iran recovers territory from Russia and Azerbaijan
3. The Shia part of Iraq unites with Iran. It will retain control over its own internal affairs as a federated state of Greater Iran.
4. Kurdistan (orange) has been established. It is high time the Kurds had a country of their own. Territory is gained from Turkey, Syria and Iraq.
5. The nations of the Emirate of Sicily (Pink) and Andalus (Gold) have been created. These former Muslim territories will return to Muslim control as they were unjustly seized during the Middle Ages. The "reconquista" is rejected and reversed.

General points:

By uniting several Muslim countries together and expanding others, I have significantly reduced the number of small, weak Muslim countries, and replaced them with much larger, more powerful empires. The aim of this change is to increase the power and influence of the Muslim countries, and enable them to stand on their own strength and resist outside interference in their affairs.

Lastly, though Byzantine fanatic may talk about hypothetical border changes, it is not meant to be taken seriously. :p

Hi @Koprulu Mustafa Pasha @I'tikaf @Dingus Khan @haider najib @Tasoli let me know what you think. #JustForFun
 
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Tomislav Addai

Tomislav Addai

Byzantine fanatic said:
These former Muslim territories will return to Muslim control as they were unjustly seized during the Middle Ages. The "reconquista" is rejected and reversed.

Lastly, though Byzantine fanatic may talk about hypothetical border changes, it is not meant to be taken seriously. :p
Click to expand...
Implying consent under UN recognized plebiscite by the indigenous population of Andalusia, Maghreb, Egypt, Fertile Crescent and Persia to imposition of Islamic rule. Come on.
 
Byzantine fanatic

Byzantine fanatic

Nathan12479 said:
I dread to think how unstable these countries would be due to religious and ethnic conflicts...
Click to expand...

Might not be too bad. For instance, Shia Iraq and Iran have been united. Kurdistan is united by ethnicity. The blue Egypt/Arab Sunni state consists overwhelmingly of Sunni Arabs. The Maghreb nation (red) doesn't have any significant ethnic nor religious differences - they're Sunni Arabs. Turkey gains some lands in Europe but most of it is already inhabited by Bosnian and Albanian Muslims anyway, and they no longer have any Kurdish territories in the east.

The Pink and Gold nations were thrown in for fun, and would be more... problematic. Perhaps the Pink could be a vassal nation of the red, and perhaps I should have just given the Gold nation's territory to Morocco, as it has the necessary culture to recreate al Andalus. I guess the main issue would be to convert the population as speedily as possible and push for a linguistic change as well. I can't see people liking that much though... If only this was the computer game Empire Total War where you can just recruit a priest/agent for 100 gold and convert the population to your religion before "liberating" them... XD

On the plus side, perhaps they could be won over with free lamb shawarma, falafel, couscous and humus... :p
I once voted for someone in my university elections because they were handing out free cookies.
 

Hominid

Byzantine fanatic said:
Might not be too bad. For instance, Shia Iraq and Iran have been united. Kurdistan is united by ethnicity. The blue Egypt/Arab Sunni state consists overwhelmingly of Sunni Arabs. The Maghreb nation (red) doesn't have any significant ethnic nor religious differences - they're Sunni Arabs. Turkey gains some lands in Europe but most of it is already inhabited by Bosnian and Albanian Muslims anyway, and they no longer have any Kurdish territories in the east.
Click to expand...

Azerbaijan would not be happy about being part of Iran. There are more divisions in life than religious ones.
 
Byzantine fanatic

Byzantine fanatic

Hominid said:
Azerbaijan would not be happy about being part of Iran. There are more divisions in life than religious ones.
Click to expand...

True, they speak a Turkic language so they don't quite fit with Iran. On the other hand, Iranians view the Azeris as "Turkified Iranians", and there is some historical evidence to support this view. That region was historically part of Persia almost without exception since the 5th century BC. Further, Persia was itself ruled for centuries by Persianised Turkic dynasties for centuries, and so Turkic and Iranian history is closely linked.

Being part of Iran might be not be too bad, at least from a linguistic perspective. The OTL Iranian provinces of West Azerbaijan, East Azerbaijan, Ardabil, and Zanjan provinces already contain majority Azerbaijani populations. Use of regional languages including Azerbaijani, is allowed under the Constitution of Iran. School education is in Persian, and Azeri language and culture is studied at universities and other institutions of higher education. Article 19 of the Iranian constitution adds: “All people of Iran, whatever the ethnic group or tribe to which they belong, enjoy equal rights; colour, race, language, and the like, do not bestow any privilege.” The Azerbaijani language is used for books and newspapers in the area, and many Iranian provinces have radio and television stations in local language or dialect, especially Azerbaijani and Kurdish.
 
Byzantine fanatic

Byzantine fanatic

Viralworld said:
Armenia would probably want a word about this set-up as well
Click to expand...

Thanks for pointing out this error. I've mistakenly included Armenia's Lake Sevan, inside the Iranian area. I should've drawn that area more carefully. My apologies - I was working in haste from a blank map without borders marked. It appears I confused Lake Sevan with Lake Urmia when drawing that border curve that runs just north of the lake. I'll try to correct this in the next version.
 
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