1500 in a world where the Abbasid Caliphate managed to conquer the Byzantine Empire. The Islamic World in 1500 can be divided into three regions; the North (Rum and Central Asia), the East (Persia, Oman, Multan, and Java), and the West (Maghreb, Cordoba, and Ghana). Europe is a technologically backwards backwater.
The Sultanate of Rum, with its capital at Rome, is a Sunni state with a Christian majority and significant Sunni and Ismail Shia minorities. It has a Hellenized culture, and views itself as the successor to the Roman Empire. It controls the territory of the former Byzantine Empire, and the southern two thirds of the Italian peninsula. It possesses Armenia and the Georgian states as its vassals. Rum's major cities, Rome and Byzantium, form integral parts of the Mediterranean trade network. This network transports items as far removed as Bulgar furs and Akan bronze from Kumasi to Helsinki. The sphere of influence that the Sultanate of Rum created includes Volga and European Bulgaria, Cumania, and the Oghuz Turks. Rum's main rivals are the Maghrebi Caliphate and the Holy Roman Empire under the House of Luxembourg. The Caliphate controls Sicily and Sardinia, allowing the Caliphs to split the Mediterranean in two and disrupt Roman trade. The Holy Roman Empire intends to reclaim the Italian peninsula from the Romans, while the Sultanate hopes to protect the wealth of Italy and the Great Mosque of Rome.
The Central Asian states include Cumania, Volga Bulgaria, Turkmenistan, Bukhara, the Kimek Confederacy, the Karakhanid Khaganate, the Kirghiz Emirate, and the Gokturk Khanate. Cumania was once a nomadic horde, but has become sedentary and turned to agriculture. The Cumans produce excellent horses, which are prized throughout the Islamic world. Most Cumans are Sunni. Volga Bulgaria has its capital at Bolghar, and made its wealth as a trading post that specialized in furs. Between the 10th and 13th centuries, Bolghar's population grew by a factor of ten. Volga Bulgaria has a significant Bedouin population from immigration, and the Khan of Bulgaria has a unit of Bedouin bodyguards. Turkmenistan is ruled from Chardzhou, and is a major center of trade and learning between the Persian and Chinese worlds. Scribes in Merv, one of the world's largest cities, invented the printing press in the 1300s. Bukhara is another major center of trade, and is part of the Persian sphere. The Karakhanid Khaganate was for a time a major power in Central Asia, but later stagnated. Its neighbors realized that its elective monarchy system made it worthwhile to keep around, and whenever the Karakhanid khan dies, its neighbors intervene to place their chosen candidates on the throne to control a greater share of Silk Road trade revenue.
The Persian Empire is centered on Baghdad and has a Sunni ruling class despite the majority Shia population. They benefit from both branches of the Silk Road, the overland route through Central Asia and the sea route around the coast of India. Persia's main allies are Bukhara and its fellow Shia country Yemen, and it has Kurdistan as a vassal. Persia is the wealthiest part of the Islamic world, as well as the most scientifically advanced. Persian alchemists experimented on rocketry, designed balloons that were developed into airships in the early 15th century, and discovered a method for refining aluminum. The Persians are the world's primary consumers of coffee, which is mostly cultivated in India as a result of the Omani Indian Ocean Trade. The Persian emperors maintain an embassy in China to keep the trade routes open, and a large contingent of Persian diplomats exists to keep the Central Asian states on friendly terms. Persia's enemies are Oman, the Maghreb, and the Zoroastrian kingdom on the Caspian Sea.
Oman is a major sea power, and maintains a trading post empire across the Indian Ocean. It adapted the Maghreb's steam galleys into an oceangoing design. Oman's empire largely operates around India, and controls the Maldives. It extracts tribute from Zanzibar, the Somalis, Zimbabwe, and the Madagascan kingdoms. Oman's rivals are Multan, who wants to regain control of Sindh; Malaya, who wants to control the Malay Straits and monopolize trade in the Indies; and Persia, with whom Oman competes for control of the Straits of Hormuz. Most Omanis are Ibadi.
The Sunni Maghrebi Caliphate is ruled from Damascus in the al-Sham region. It possesses Sudan and the Bedouin tribes as vassals, and is allied to Algiers, Ethiopia, and Ghana. The Maghreb is linked to Ghana through the Trans-Saharan Trade, which brings gold and slaves across the Sahara by way of airship or camel caravan. Scientists in the Caliphate have adapted a gaslamp to serve as the heat source for a steam engine, and drawn up plans developing on the idea. The result bears a striking resemblance to a primitive internal combustion engine. The Maghreb has a problem with Tuareg and Berber raiders on the southern border, and is intermittently involved in wars with Persia and Rum. The Caliphate views Cordoba as a rival because of their commercial competition in Africa.
Cordoba is a Sunni state on the Iberian peninsula and North Africa. It is allied to the Sultanate of Rum. Cordoba's main adversaries are France and the Caliphate. Due to continued demand for Chinese and Indian goods after a war against the Caliphate, Cordoba decided to search for a westward sea route to Asia. They knew of the Icelandic colony called Vinland, and assumed that it was on the Kamchatka Peninsula. Therefore, in 1431, Andalusian sailors set out on a course to the south of Vinland and found a series of islands south of a peninsula connected to the mainland. Realizing that this was not, in fact, Asia, the Andalusians returned and made preparations for another expedition to conquer the islands for Cordoba. The natives the Andalusians contacted would have perished from Old World diseases, but the Vinland colonists had already caused the natives of Newfoundland to be exposed and develop immunities.
