Speaking of which, I wonder if the TTL Inca have expanded past their OTL boundaries at this point. I dimly recall there being a campaign in the south at around the 1520's, thought that might just be me confusing this TL with The Sons of Inti.
A House of Lamps: A Moorish America
- Thread starter dontfearme22
- Start date
Cuāuhtemōc
Banned
That's if the Inca hadn't already splintered from the diseases and possible civil war.
There was a response about the incas staying unified and recovering partially from the civil war by the time of first contact but past that point anything is possible.
Their experience with the battle of tenochtitlan probably will make ayshunids more cautious in terms of trying to take over amerindian empires wholesale.
Their experience with the battle of tenochtitlan probably will make ayshunids more cautious in terms of trying to take over amerindian empires wholesale.
There was a campaign into South America, but it was into Colombia and the Muisca confederacy, not towards the Andes.
In general with the Inca, my position for now stands: there was the Inca civil war, Atahualpa won but beyond that its gonna stay a mystery.
The Ayshunids were very careful around the Mexica until Iberian zealots forced the local peoples hands, but then again - once they did conquer the Mexica it opened up huge amounts of new economic revenue, so there are mixed lessons to learn from the wars in Mexico. On one hand, dont underestimate a native empire, even one weakened by disease. On the other hand, once you do conquer them, you can make more money than with them as allies. The Inca are a totally different species of foe compared to the Aztecs so we will see how those lessons are applied, and what comes of it (if the Inca still exist when the Ayshunids enter Peru of course...)
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Quick update: The Mexico map is quickly ballooning into what looks to be a massive update. I originally wanted to just do the economic situation, like I did with the Riysh, but every part of it is becoming more and more intricate. What will likely happen is just a economic update with a map of similar theme and style to the Riysh map followed by a update that looks specifically at the political situation in Mexico c. 1550 by itself, as well as several other maps looking at other aspects of it. I will do several snapshot updates like this leading up to the next main timeline piece, which will push to 1600.
I am going to, over time, transition to a model where I have rarely these large timeline updates and then long periods where I do smaller snapshots on society, culture, politics, economics etc. to flesh out the world. There will be probably a very long break between the 1600 timeline update, and then a longer one until whichever one comes after that.
sneak preview of one (there will be several) c.1550 Mexico Maps
I will fight back my internal tendency to blitz towards a update and try to work this one over to make it as comprehensive and thorough and polished as possible, your patience is much appreciated. Also, as IRL commitments begin to creep back into my life my overall schedule will start to slow down, sorry about that one.
I am going to, over time, transition to a model where I have rarely these large timeline updates and then long periods where I do smaller snapshots on society, culture, politics, economics etc. to flesh out the world. There will be probably a very long break between the 1600 timeline update, and then a longer one until whichever one comes after that.
sneak preview of one (there will be several) c.1550 Mexico Maps
I will fight back my internal tendency to blitz towards a update and try to work this one over to make it as comprehensive and thorough and polished as possible, your patience is much appreciated. Also, as IRL commitments begin to creep back into my life my overall schedule will start to slow down, sorry about that one.
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The Mishican Economy in the 16th century
The Mishican Economy in the 16th century
Mesoamerica proper, as the Ayshunids thought of it was divided into three separate entities: The Yucatan, “Mexico”, and the lands of wild, untamable tribes bordering the edges of both. While the Yucatan was relatively stable and increasingly an island of peace and prosperity within the warlike New World, Mexico was a labyrinth of shifting polities, religions, and marching armies. Its vast economic wealth constantly outweighed its rebellious nature though, and Mexico quickly became the new frontier of economic exploitation as the 15th marched into the 16th century.
History
Unlike the Riysh, where first contact produced a rapidly shifting society built on the edge of pandemic and the shattering of native social cohesion, Mexico was (at first), more stable. Here the first Arab settlements existed on the periphery of vast native cities, guests at the behest of local rulers, much like Arabs were accustomed to in various old-world polities. Arab outposts managed trade with the Riysh, acting as intermediaries between the already well-established state-controlled trade networks within Mexico and the Riyshi markets.
This scenario was profitable, but did little to satisfy either party – native nor Arab. For the natives, the long claws of disease soon sunk deeply into Mexico like they had in the Riysh, and though the external pressure of Arabization that had truly shattered the Taino was absent in the vast majority of affected lands, such was the scale of the pandemic that a breakdown of relations was in retrospect, inevitable. Native lords turned on the Arabs, blaming them for the disease (rightfully so, though it was not an intentional effect of the Arabs presence there), while angry mobs ransacked Arab outposts. Only the nascent Islamization of the Totonacs prevented wholesale war against the Arabs, that-and the unusual tolerance the Aztecs emperors showed towards Arab traders, perhaps due to an urge to capture some of the unusual technology and creatures the Arabs had brought to the region. As waves of disease crippled native society, Arabs spread more easily, and like in the Riysh-Islam spread with them. Despite the catastrophic death tolls however, the native population of Mexico was still far larger, and vastly more sophisticated than any society in the Riysh, a fact that meant the Arabs, even after exploiting the demographic crisis in Mexico, still acted as side-players to the eastern Mexican market economy rather than monopolizing it. The Arabs truly learned this lesson after an abortive invasion of the heart of the Aztec empire ended in disaster, the Arab army routed and its commander gutted by a native turncoat leader.
In the wake of this disaster, the economic policy in Mexico shifted drastically. Impressively willing to adapt their tactics in lands where they did not have to directly bear the consequences, the Riyshi merchant patriarchs collectively moved towards a softer touch, working through native intermediaries and limiting Arab travel into the interior to those who lived in Mexico, who were better versed in native society. Arab military forces shifted from leading armies, to aiding those forces of native lords in their own regional wars, intensified by the breakdown of the Aztec empire and the outbreak of general anarchy alongside it. Through this policy, it was more difficult for natives to unify against the Arabs, and it made native lords begin to actively vie for Arab forces, willing to convert to Islam, promise trade concessions and land for a few hundred crack troops. Inexorably, one by one, the native statelets that had risen up in the east out of the wreckage of the Aztec empire were either reabsorbed by the Aztecs, or Islamized and brought into the fold of the larger Arab new world order. The Mexica, pressed on the west by the ascendant Tarascan state, and on the east by an overextended military and constant insurrections, shrunk to a stump of their former glory, finally fully crippled by the wars with the followers of Ibn Tahaz. In the wake of this, the Arabs leapt at the opportunity, and without any major native force east of Tzintzuntzan to resist, they soon did what they were unable to do in their first invasion, take direct control over large swathes of Mexico – and its wealth alongside it. Many native states fell into the hands of Arab advisors and their native clients in a complex web of protectorate states ringing independent native Sultanates like barrier reefs. Arabs now controlled every significant trade route in eastern Mexico, and they soon ruthlessly exploited this. Native lords were pressed hard to deliver tributes in silver, wood, gold, cotton, and a plethora of other goods, alongside slaves from still-pagan, enemy states (unconverted Chontal Maya especially became the predominant source for slaves in the new world). By the mid-16th century, the only major part of the once mighty native market economy not somehow in Arab control were the great silver deposits in western and northern Mexico, though the bulk of goods extracted from these mines ended in Arab hands eventually.
The Mexican Economy: A State Built on Silver
The Riyshi economy in the 16th century was dominated by large plantations ruled by noble merchant families worked by a perpetually shifting force of migrant servants, knawed on the fringes by bandits, pirates, and tribes. Mexico was similar only in the sense that the Arab elite endlessly strove to maximize their personal wealth and minimize cost and danger. The 16th century Mexican economy was still a village economy, with 90+ percent of the population a class of native peasants working the land with a small merchant class and an even smaller native elite class. Arab taxes imposed on native clients demanded both goods and labor, goods in the form of metals and agricultural goods delivered by the native farmers and labor in the form of workers for the mines, crews for ships, and laborers for coastal, Arab ruled estates. Islamized natives were deliberately given far better treatment, though the Arabs consistently biased towards Totonacs, their first, and oldest allies in the region, over Nahuan peoples (this bias momentarily changed in the aftermath of the rebellion of Ibn Tahaz, though not permanently). Islamized native leaders reaped great wealth, and many had begun to marry into Arab families by the early 16th century. Islamized natives aided the Arabs especially in slave-raiding, as they were more than happy to sell their pagan enemies to the Arabs as a reward for Arab aid in local conflicts. To prevent desertion and insurrection, these pagan slaves were largely sent to the Yucatan and the Riysh to supplement local labor shortages. Mexican women especially became very popular as domestic servants. The ‘ayedi underclass that powered the Riyshi economy was also present in Mexico, to a lesser degree due to the larger native workforce however.
One advantage Arabs had in Mexico they did not have in the Riysh, and one that limited the need to export Arab workers to the region, was that the pre-existing native economy was one that was of much similar shade to the Arab economy than the Taino, hunter-gatherer, almost idyllic society had been. There was a pre-existing large peasant class, with a merchant and business middle class, and a native elite deeply entrenched in their status who had already used a system of conscripted labor and tribute to exact wealth from the villages. All these traits were only slightly modified to suit Arab needs, reminiscent of similar tactics the Arabs had used in the Yucatan to great effect.
The backbone of this entire system was silver. The Arabs hungered for both it and gold in equal measure. Large native-run silver mines were leveraged to feed into the Arab economy, those local leaders who actually controlled the mines labor force thoroughly bought and seduced by Arab emissaries into trade agreements, highly profitable for both parties. The violence of the Chichimec tribes who ruled much of the interior separating these northern silver mines from Arab ports not only prevented direct Arab expansion into the region but also led to the ghazi armies of the Riysh being exported to Mexico, and all their supplemental problems with them. Though the ghazis never attained the same level of power they did in the Riysh (at least, not in the 16th century), their presence led to several unintended consequences for the Mexican economy, the least of which was the slow, unintentional leeching of Arab technology and beasts into the indigenous northern desert economy.
Maps
Mesoamerica proper, as the Ayshunids thought of it was divided into three separate entities: The Yucatan, “Mexico”, and the lands of wild, untamable tribes bordering the edges of both. While the Yucatan was relatively stable and increasingly an island of peace and prosperity within the warlike New World, Mexico was a labyrinth of shifting polities, religions, and marching armies. Its vast economic wealth constantly outweighed its rebellious nature though, and Mexico quickly became the new frontier of economic exploitation as the 15th marched into the 16th century.
History
Unlike the Riysh, where first contact produced a rapidly shifting society built on the edge of pandemic and the shattering of native social cohesion, Mexico was (at first), more stable. Here the first Arab settlements existed on the periphery of vast native cities, guests at the behest of local rulers, much like Arabs were accustomed to in various old-world polities. Arab outposts managed trade with the Riysh, acting as intermediaries between the already well-established state-controlled trade networks within Mexico and the Riyshi markets.
This scenario was profitable, but did little to satisfy either party – native nor Arab. For the natives, the long claws of disease soon sunk deeply into Mexico like they had in the Riysh, and though the external pressure of Arabization that had truly shattered the Taino was absent in the vast majority of affected lands, such was the scale of the pandemic that a breakdown of relations was in retrospect, inevitable. Native lords turned on the Arabs, blaming them for the disease (rightfully so, though it was not an intentional effect of the Arabs presence there), while angry mobs ransacked Arab outposts. Only the nascent Islamization of the Totonacs prevented wholesale war against the Arabs, that-and the unusual tolerance the Aztecs emperors showed towards Arab traders, perhaps due to an urge to capture some of the unusual technology and creatures the Arabs had brought to the region. As waves of disease crippled native society, Arabs spread more easily, and like in the Riysh-Islam spread with them. Despite the catastrophic death tolls however, the native population of Mexico was still far larger, and vastly more sophisticated than any society in the Riysh, a fact that meant the Arabs, even after exploiting the demographic crisis in Mexico, still acted as side-players to the eastern Mexican market economy rather than monopolizing it. The Arabs truly learned this lesson after an abortive invasion of the heart of the Aztec empire ended in disaster, the Arab army routed and its commander gutted by a native turncoat leader.
In the wake of this disaster, the economic policy in Mexico shifted drastically. Impressively willing to adapt their tactics in lands where they did not have to directly bear the consequences, the Riyshi merchant patriarchs collectively moved towards a softer touch, working through native intermediaries and limiting Arab travel into the interior to those who lived in Mexico, who were better versed in native society. Arab military forces shifted from leading armies, to aiding those forces of native lords in their own regional wars, intensified by the breakdown of the Aztec empire and the outbreak of general anarchy alongside it. Through this policy, it was more difficult for natives to unify against the Arabs, and it made native lords begin to actively vie for Arab forces, willing to convert to Islam, promise trade concessions and land for a few hundred crack troops. Inexorably, one by one, the native statelets that had risen up in the east out of the wreckage of the Aztec empire were either reabsorbed by the Aztecs, or Islamized and brought into the fold of the larger Arab new world order. The Mexica, pressed on the west by the ascendant Tarascan state, and on the east by an overextended military and constant insurrections, shrunk to a stump of their former glory, finally fully crippled by the wars with the followers of Ibn Tahaz. In the wake of this, the Arabs leapt at the opportunity, and without any major native force east of Tzintzuntzan to resist, they soon did what they were unable to do in their first invasion, take direct control over large swathes of Mexico – and its wealth alongside it. Many native states fell into the hands of Arab advisors and their native clients in a complex web of protectorate states ringing independent native Sultanates like barrier reefs. Arabs now controlled every significant trade route in eastern Mexico, and they soon ruthlessly exploited this. Native lords were pressed hard to deliver tributes in silver, wood, gold, cotton, and a plethora of other goods, alongside slaves from still-pagan, enemy states (unconverted Chontal Maya especially became the predominant source for slaves in the new world). By the mid-16th century, the only major part of the once mighty native market economy not somehow in Arab control were the great silver deposits in western and northern Mexico, though the bulk of goods extracted from these mines ended in Arab hands eventually.
The Mexican Economy: A State Built on Silver
The Riyshi economy in the 16th century was dominated by large plantations ruled by noble merchant families worked by a perpetually shifting force of migrant servants, knawed on the fringes by bandits, pirates, and tribes. Mexico was similar only in the sense that the Arab elite endlessly strove to maximize their personal wealth and minimize cost and danger. The 16th century Mexican economy was still a village economy, with 90+ percent of the population a class of native peasants working the land with a small merchant class and an even smaller native elite class. Arab taxes imposed on native clients demanded both goods and labor, goods in the form of metals and agricultural goods delivered by the native farmers and labor in the form of workers for the mines, crews for ships, and laborers for coastal, Arab ruled estates. Islamized natives were deliberately given far better treatment, though the Arabs consistently biased towards Totonacs, their first, and oldest allies in the region, over Nahuan peoples (this bias momentarily changed in the aftermath of the rebellion of Ibn Tahaz, though not permanently). Islamized native leaders reaped great wealth, and many had begun to marry into Arab families by the early 16th century. Islamized natives aided the Arabs especially in slave-raiding, as they were more than happy to sell their pagan enemies to the Arabs as a reward for Arab aid in local conflicts. To prevent desertion and insurrection, these pagan slaves were largely sent to the Yucatan and the Riysh to supplement local labor shortages. Mexican women especially became very popular as domestic servants. The ‘ayedi underclass that powered the Riyshi economy was also present in Mexico, to a lesser degree due to the larger native workforce however.
One advantage Arabs had in Mexico they did not have in the Riysh, and one that limited the need to export Arab workers to the region, was that the pre-existing native economy was one that was of much similar shade to the Arab economy than the Taino, hunter-gatherer, almost idyllic society had been. There was a pre-existing large peasant class, with a merchant and business middle class, and a native elite deeply entrenched in their status who had already used a system of conscripted labor and tribute to exact wealth from the villages. All these traits were only slightly modified to suit Arab needs, reminiscent of similar tactics the Arabs had used in the Yucatan to great effect.
The backbone of this entire system was silver. The Arabs hungered for both it and gold in equal measure. Large native-run silver mines were leveraged to feed into the Arab economy, those local leaders who actually controlled the mines labor force thoroughly bought and seduced by Arab emissaries into trade agreements, highly profitable for both parties. The violence of the Chichimec tribes who ruled much of the interior separating these northern silver mines from Arab ports not only prevented direct Arab expansion into the region but also led to the ghazi armies of the Riysh being exported to Mexico, and all their supplemental problems with them. Though the ghazis never attained the same level of power they did in the Riysh (at least, not in the 16th century), their presence led to several unintended consequences for the Mexican economy, the least of which was the slow, unintentional leeching of Arab technology and beasts into the indigenous northern desert economy.
Maps
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I reconsidered all my life decisions while putting in the settlement names on these maps....
Sounds fun, looking by the ethnic map, it looks like a big recipe for more wars.
In the future. Imagine Islamic cowboys, donned in Arabic robes, bandoliers and hats. Wielding their revolvers in their hands. Well, I can see a lot of adventurers and settlers from both Europe and Middle-East, coming over to the New World.
In the future. Imagine Islamic cowboys, donned in Arabic robes, bandoliers and hats. Wielding their revolvers in their hands. Well, I can see a lot of adventurers and settlers from both Europe and Middle-East, coming over to the New World.
Ha, though I can picture the native people of Mesoamerica have a much stronger cultural prominence here than in OTL.
Up next is the timeless classic movie, Lawrence of al shishimana ........
The Horse in Mexican Societies
The Horse in Mexican Societies
No other creature proved more enigmatic to the indigenous peoples of the new world than the horse. Its prowess in combat and its fearsome appearance quickly went into local legend and transformed the lifestyles of every people who could master its cocksure nature.
The Arab Horse
Andalusians brought several breeds of horse with them on their new world expeditions. The most famous was the Andalusian War Horse, of the jenet breed as it was known to the Christians, “Hisan Al-Andalusiya”, as well as breeds from North Africa, prized for their hardiness (The “Barbary” horse, “Hisan Al- Murrākush” after the horse markets in Marrakesh). They were large horses, renowned throughout Europe as prime war horses, the same sort of stature and appearance that struck such fear into Taino Indians when they first encountered Arab horses in the late 1300s.
By the 1500s, Arab horses were bred primarily in the fertile valleys around Granada by professional horse-masters recruited from North Africa, dubbed kabllarah after the Castilian caballero. Well aware of the prestige of their native horse breeds the Ayshunid sultans were in the grips of a full-blown arms race with Castile for the rearing of prestige horse breeds, causing such large stables to fall entirely into the hands of the state as governmental enterprises. The value of an Andalusian prime stud was such that the punishment for stealing one was execution. Both the Castilians and Ayshunids engaged in regular espionage and propaganda campaigns to promote the value of their horses over their competitors.
These state-ran stables, the al-zarba, were responsible for fielding the war horses used by the Andalusian expeditions west, using pioneering methods of horse breeding and rearing to ensure prime mounts. It was a stud from the zarba of Seville that carried Abu Ali ibn Mahmud al-Mursiyah during his first march through the new world in 1370.
Native Names for Equines
The first new world peoples to encounter horses were the Antilles Taino in the late 1300s, who nativized the Arabic term in lieu of any native word to describe the beast, “hísan”. The Taino quickly grew to fear horses, which were far larger than any other native land animal in their environment. Oftentimes a single Arab could rout a force of rowdy Taino by simply charging at them, astride his horse and bellowing while swinging a flashing saber. It was observed by the writer Ibn Nuh that “it is the fury of the horse that conquered the Tayni, for such was their fear of the Arab breed that they would weep and bare their heads for execution rather than face it against them…”
This term became nativized and spread throughout the Riysh and even to the mainland in the earliest years of Arab conquest, to the extent that the “great deer”, as they became known, were known about well before mainland peoples met Arabs face to face. Before Arab contact these creatures were dubbed variously hitzan to the Yucatec, witznah to the Chontal, or wiska’ to the Totonacs. Native understanding of them was understandable vague and fraught with folklore, such as one Yucatecan belief that they could be repulsed akin to demons by ritual (a belief that proved disastrous against Arabs in the field for obvious reasons). While the Maya and Gulf Coast peoples came to view equines broadly as deer, to the nahuan peoples of Mexico they were perceived closer to dogs, more specifically, the “long dog” of Aztec writings, the chichime ixhueyac. This could possibly be explained by the growing distance between the native peoples and the creatures themselves or the association of dogs with death, and the association of the appearance of horses and therefore Arabs with the spread of disease, cocoliztli, “the pest”. Literally, to witness the “long dog” was to witness the messengers of the underworld. This only served to compound the native fear of the beasts, which continuously worked in the Arabs advantage, and greatly increased the amount of time until such native peoples began to experiment with equestrianism themselves, out of superstition (for the Maya and coastal peoples it took much less time). After prolonged contact with Arabs, this awkwardly compounded term was quickly superseded by Arabic, as well as a bevy of other vocabulary related to equestrianism – all thoroughly nativized. Yet the older attitudes surrounding horses persisted beyond the initial period of incipid contact between nahuan peoples and horses.
The First Native Cavalrymen
For all the Arab terms taken to describe the various aspects of equestrianism, one that was not borrowed was the Arabic al-faris, “horseman”. Instead, in a telling sign of who the Mexica credited, or perhaps better blamed, for the introduction of old world creatures into their world, the nahuatl term for a horse rider became papantlacah, referring to Papantla, a major Totonacan cultural center. It was indeed the Totonacs who pioneered horse riding among Amerinidian peoples, both being the closest to the Arabs and the most willing to adopt their technology. This was even above the earlier-contacted Maya (likely due to their conservative attitudes and their jungle environment which prohibited the effective use of horses in daily life).
The first Totonacan horsemen were likely this who lived near early Arab merchant camps, attempting to ride horses to the great amusement of their own masters. Initially, Arabs were hesitant about selling horses to local rulers and risk losing the aura of fear that made horses so effective in the Riysh. Eventually, after longer contact horses started to be exchanged as gifts with prominent local leaders as the relationship between Arabs and Gulf Coast peoples become more egalitarian and friendly. It was at this point, around the mid-1400s that native horse-riding began to truly develop as an art. While early attempts by natives to tame horses ended in clumsy failure, or as one early Arab writer jokingly stated, “It is painful to watch the Kutashti [Totonac] debase the furusiyya to ape the true horseman.” this clumsiness did not last long. Under the tutelage of Arab horse-masters invited into local estates by eager lords and a fervor to master the enigmatic and powerful creature, Totonacan riders soon developed great skill as equestrians. Observing customs in Mexico, the Genoan merchant Alberto di Ponente noted in his 1467 memoirs that “in every estate of this land, it is customary to set a series of posts affixed with muslin pads, and the rider will ring them and pierce the pads with his lance as a show for his patrons. It is a sight to see, the deftness and grace by which they carry out their pageantry in this manner, and it delights those moors who are invited to visit, for whom the entire spectacle seems designed to impress…”
Totonacan riders never truly were the masters of their own horses, for despite all the willingness of Arabs to groom a cadre of skilled riders they maintained strict control over the true ownership of the steeds themselves, including loaning out fertile mares only to those native lords of supreme loyalty to the Arabs, and only to Muslims. Exceptions were made to the most powerful of native rulers, such as the Aztec emperor, who received multiple stallions over the course of several Arab diplomatic visits. Just as the Sultan in Seville was willing to sell prime studs to Christian kings, the wali’s in the Riysh were just as open to doing the same with pagan rulers of particular renown.
Soon prime studs were scattered throughout the noble courts of Mexico, but still only was it on the Gulf Coast that horsemanship developed into an actual caste of society. Arab leaders came to recruit the best among native horsemen, often the younger sons of local elites, for their own retinues, the al-faris al-kutashti. These natives would eventually ride into combat incorporated into Arab armies, lightly equipped with oftentimes only a lance, relying more on the psychological impact of a cavalry charge than any skill at prolonged combat. These cavalry rode in separate units under Arab commanders, and often returned to their own territories to fight in the armies of their own lords after the campaigns were over.
Seeing natives ride alongside Arabs in combat only intensified Mexica interest in developing their own mounted units, superstition be damned. After the failed attack on Tenochtitlan in the late 15th century, a large amount of Arab prisoners and equipment fell into Aztec hands. The prisoners were sacrificed to a man, a mistake which would prove to haunt the Mexica later on, but the captured horses and equipment were stockpiled and soon became the target of intensive experimentation by Mexica leaders. Without any sort of foreign aid, certainly no further help from Arabs would be coming after the breakdown in relations, these attempts continually ended in failure. Further mistakes, including a fire breaking out in the impromptu stables in Tenochtitlan and causing half the captured horses to burn to death or flee, only hindered these efforts. Eventually, by the early 16th century the Mexica succeeded in developing a rudimentary cadre of cavalry, dubbed the totonomeh, though they were restricted to parades, a sign that the Mexica were painfully aware still of their own limitations in equestrianism. It is possible that the first usage of the totonomeh warrior society in combat was at the campaigns in Teotitlan against the Chinantecs, who were themselves increasingly adept horsemen, but it is unclear. A history describing the battle later on only writes that, “they [the Arabs] bade that the Shintaniyyah [Chinantecs] charge forward, which they did to bugles and drums. They met the Mishikah at the base of the valley, and there was a great commotion where the horses met, though it was difficult to see for the dust that was produced…”
These totonomeh wore strikingly similar costume to the Arabized horsemen they fought, riding light and fighting with lances. The Mexica later codified this warrior society with official costume and prisoner counts, with codices depicting inductees into the order as wearing white and black bodysuits. This costume was likely modeled off the dress of Arabs and their native allies. A warrior could be inducted into the order for taking 6 prisoners, the same level as being a Cuachicqueh. However, as the Mexica state withered under constant outside pressure and internal demographic crashes, the quality of equipment withered as well, so that the totonomeh spent much of their history as an order fighting for dwindling resources in a strained military. Some Arab writers noted that by the period of the Tahazid revolt the Mexica had taken to stripping the dead of their clothing and equipment after combat, regardless of faction, and even fashioning war costumes out of the robes of dead Arabs.
The rise of the Mexica horseman societies served only to barely shake up what was truly a long period of military decline in central Mexico, though they did mark the beginning of an equally long period of military reform by native powers in response to changing rules of warfare. Though they started as a young and often scrappy cadre of warriors, the totonomeh soon came to supersede other, more prestigious orders in the Mexica state as the 16th century went on. Similarly, the adoption of cavalry to any extent by the pagan Mexica opened up the floodgates for other native Mexican states to do the same, the decoupling of horses and Islam giving a sense of security to native rulers eager to exploit the power of cavalry for themselves without inviting Arabs into their courts. This included the Tarascan state, who developed a force called the “hiuatsi quangariecha” lit. “Valiant Coyote Warriors” with captured Aztec horsemen and Arab studs. Except for the Huastecs, almost every Mexican ethnostate had adopted some sort of cavalry by the mid-late 16th century.
Here the apparent Arab influence on the aztec warrior societies is clearly evident, with his headgear a faux-turban shape and his saddle itself a Arab import. The distinctive black and white coloring of their bodysuits and raccoon-like facepaint left a impression on Arab writers, who mentioned it in nearly every text describing Aztec military structure.
Here the rider carries a hardwood lance in his offhand with a corresponding shield, and in his main hand readies a heavy wooden club, both strikingly traditional weapons even by Mexican standards.
No other creature proved more enigmatic to the indigenous peoples of the new world than the horse. Its prowess in combat and its fearsome appearance quickly went into local legend and transformed the lifestyles of every people who could master its cocksure nature.
The Arab Horse
Andalusians brought several breeds of horse with them on their new world expeditions. The most famous was the Andalusian War Horse, of the jenet breed as it was known to the Christians, “Hisan Al-Andalusiya”, as well as breeds from North Africa, prized for their hardiness (The “Barbary” horse, “Hisan Al- Murrākush” after the horse markets in Marrakesh). They were large horses, renowned throughout Europe as prime war horses, the same sort of stature and appearance that struck such fear into Taino Indians when they first encountered Arab horses in the late 1300s.
By the 1500s, Arab horses were bred primarily in the fertile valleys around Granada by professional horse-masters recruited from North Africa, dubbed kabllarah after the Castilian caballero. Well aware of the prestige of their native horse breeds the Ayshunid sultans were in the grips of a full-blown arms race with Castile for the rearing of prestige horse breeds, causing such large stables to fall entirely into the hands of the state as governmental enterprises. The value of an Andalusian prime stud was such that the punishment for stealing one was execution. Both the Castilians and Ayshunids engaged in regular espionage and propaganda campaigns to promote the value of their horses over their competitors.
These state-ran stables, the al-zarba, were responsible for fielding the war horses used by the Andalusian expeditions west, using pioneering methods of horse breeding and rearing to ensure prime mounts. It was a stud from the zarba of Seville that carried Abu Ali ibn Mahmud al-Mursiyah during his first march through the new world in 1370.
Native Names for Equines
The first new world peoples to encounter horses were the Antilles Taino in the late 1300s, who nativized the Arabic term in lieu of any native word to describe the beast, “hísan”. The Taino quickly grew to fear horses, which were far larger than any other native land animal in their environment. Oftentimes a single Arab could rout a force of rowdy Taino by simply charging at them, astride his horse and bellowing while swinging a flashing saber. It was observed by the writer Ibn Nuh that “it is the fury of the horse that conquered the Tayni, for such was their fear of the Arab breed that they would weep and bare their heads for execution rather than face it against them…”
This term became nativized and spread throughout the Riysh and even to the mainland in the earliest years of Arab conquest, to the extent that the “great deer”, as they became known, were known about well before mainland peoples met Arabs face to face. Before Arab contact these creatures were dubbed variously hitzan to the Yucatec, witznah to the Chontal, or wiska’ to the Totonacs. Native understanding of them was understandable vague and fraught with folklore, such as one Yucatecan belief that they could be repulsed akin to demons by ritual (a belief that proved disastrous against Arabs in the field for obvious reasons). While the Maya and Gulf Coast peoples came to view equines broadly as deer, to the nahuan peoples of Mexico they were perceived closer to dogs, more specifically, the “long dog” of Aztec writings, the chichime ixhueyac. This could possibly be explained by the growing distance between the native peoples and the creatures themselves or the association of dogs with death, and the association of the appearance of horses and therefore Arabs with the spread of disease, cocoliztli, “the pest”. Literally, to witness the “long dog” was to witness the messengers of the underworld. This only served to compound the native fear of the beasts, which continuously worked in the Arabs advantage, and greatly increased the amount of time until such native peoples began to experiment with equestrianism themselves, out of superstition (for the Maya and coastal peoples it took much less time). After prolonged contact with Arabs, this awkwardly compounded term was quickly superseded by Arabic, as well as a bevy of other vocabulary related to equestrianism – all thoroughly nativized. Yet the older attitudes surrounding horses persisted beyond the initial period of incipid contact between nahuan peoples and horses.
The First Native Cavalrymen
For all the Arab terms taken to describe the various aspects of equestrianism, one that was not borrowed was the Arabic al-faris, “horseman”. Instead, in a telling sign of who the Mexica credited, or perhaps better blamed, for the introduction of old world creatures into their world, the nahuatl term for a horse rider became papantlacah, referring to Papantla, a major Totonacan cultural center. It was indeed the Totonacs who pioneered horse riding among Amerinidian peoples, both being the closest to the Arabs and the most willing to adopt their technology. This was even above the earlier-contacted Maya (likely due to their conservative attitudes and their jungle environment which prohibited the effective use of horses in daily life).
The first Totonacan horsemen were likely this who lived near early Arab merchant camps, attempting to ride horses to the great amusement of their own masters. Initially, Arabs were hesitant about selling horses to local rulers and risk losing the aura of fear that made horses so effective in the Riysh. Eventually, after longer contact horses started to be exchanged as gifts with prominent local leaders as the relationship between Arabs and Gulf Coast peoples become more egalitarian and friendly. It was at this point, around the mid-1400s that native horse-riding began to truly develop as an art. While early attempts by natives to tame horses ended in clumsy failure, or as one early Arab writer jokingly stated, “It is painful to watch the Kutashti [Totonac] debase the furusiyya to ape the true horseman.” this clumsiness did not last long. Under the tutelage of Arab horse-masters invited into local estates by eager lords and a fervor to master the enigmatic and powerful creature, Totonacan riders soon developed great skill as equestrians. Observing customs in Mexico, the Genoan merchant Alberto di Ponente noted in his 1467 memoirs that “in every estate of this land, it is customary to set a series of posts affixed with muslin pads, and the rider will ring them and pierce the pads with his lance as a show for his patrons. It is a sight to see, the deftness and grace by which they carry out their pageantry in this manner, and it delights those moors who are invited to visit, for whom the entire spectacle seems designed to impress…”
Totonacan riders never truly were the masters of their own horses, for despite all the willingness of Arabs to groom a cadre of skilled riders they maintained strict control over the true ownership of the steeds themselves, including loaning out fertile mares only to those native lords of supreme loyalty to the Arabs, and only to Muslims. Exceptions were made to the most powerful of native rulers, such as the Aztec emperor, who received multiple stallions over the course of several Arab diplomatic visits. Just as the Sultan in Seville was willing to sell prime studs to Christian kings, the wali’s in the Riysh were just as open to doing the same with pagan rulers of particular renown.
Soon prime studs were scattered throughout the noble courts of Mexico, but still only was it on the Gulf Coast that horsemanship developed into an actual caste of society. Arab leaders came to recruit the best among native horsemen, often the younger sons of local elites, for their own retinues, the al-faris al-kutashti. These natives would eventually ride into combat incorporated into Arab armies, lightly equipped with oftentimes only a lance, relying more on the psychological impact of a cavalry charge than any skill at prolonged combat. These cavalry rode in separate units under Arab commanders, and often returned to their own territories to fight in the armies of their own lords after the campaigns were over.
Seeing natives ride alongside Arabs in combat only intensified Mexica interest in developing their own mounted units, superstition be damned. After the failed attack on Tenochtitlan in the late 15th century, a large amount of Arab prisoners and equipment fell into Aztec hands. The prisoners were sacrificed to a man, a mistake which would prove to haunt the Mexica later on, but the captured horses and equipment were stockpiled and soon became the target of intensive experimentation by Mexica leaders. Without any sort of foreign aid, certainly no further help from Arabs would be coming after the breakdown in relations, these attempts continually ended in failure. Further mistakes, including a fire breaking out in the impromptu stables in Tenochtitlan and causing half the captured horses to burn to death or flee, only hindered these efforts. Eventually, by the early 16th century the Mexica succeeded in developing a rudimentary cadre of cavalry, dubbed the totonomeh, though they were restricted to parades, a sign that the Mexica were painfully aware still of their own limitations in equestrianism. It is possible that the first usage of the totonomeh warrior society in combat was at the campaigns in Teotitlan against the Chinantecs, who were themselves increasingly adept horsemen, but it is unclear. A history describing the battle later on only writes that, “they [the Arabs] bade that the Shintaniyyah [Chinantecs] charge forward, which they did to bugles and drums. They met the Mishikah at the base of the valley, and there was a great commotion where the horses met, though it was difficult to see for the dust that was produced…”
These totonomeh wore strikingly similar costume to the Arabized horsemen they fought, riding light and fighting with lances. The Mexica later codified this warrior society with official costume and prisoner counts, with codices depicting inductees into the order as wearing white and black bodysuits. This costume was likely modeled off the dress of Arabs and their native allies. A warrior could be inducted into the order for taking 6 prisoners, the same level as being a Cuachicqueh. However, as the Mexica state withered under constant outside pressure and internal demographic crashes, the quality of equipment withered as well, so that the totonomeh spent much of their history as an order fighting for dwindling resources in a strained military. Some Arab writers noted that by the period of the Tahazid revolt the Mexica had taken to stripping the dead of their clothing and equipment after combat, regardless of faction, and even fashioning war costumes out of the robes of dead Arabs.
The rise of the Mexica horseman societies served only to barely shake up what was truly a long period of military decline in central Mexico, though they did mark the beginning of an equally long period of military reform by native powers in response to changing rules of warfare. Though they started as a young and often scrappy cadre of warriors, the totonomeh soon came to supersede other, more prestigious orders in the Mexica state as the 16th century went on. Similarly, the adoption of cavalry to any extent by the pagan Mexica opened up the floodgates for other native Mexican states to do the same, the decoupling of horses and Islam giving a sense of security to native rulers eager to exploit the power of cavalry for themselves without inviting Arabs into their courts. This included the Tarascan state, who developed a force called the “hiuatsi quangariecha” lit. “Valiant Coyote Warriors” with captured Aztec horsemen and Arab studs. Except for the Huastecs, almost every Mexican ethnostate had adopted some sort of cavalry by the mid-late 16th century.
Here the apparent Arab influence on the aztec warrior societies is clearly evident, with his headgear a faux-turban shape and his saddle itself a Arab import. The distinctive black and white coloring of their bodysuits and raccoon-like facepaint left a impression on Arab writers, who mentioned it in nearly every text describing Aztec military structure.
Here the rider carries a hardwood lance in his offhand with a corresponding shield, and in his main hand readies a heavy wooden club, both strikingly traditional weapons even by Mexican standards.
Awesome, I was looking forward to seeing Mexica horsemen. Wonder if they'll end up spreading north or south before the Arabs get there.
Photoshop, internet radio and coffee.
Honestly, thats it - I take plain base maps from various sources, whichever gives the highest resolution, and then its just a few relatively simple techniques to generate all the polygons and labels which I can go into more detail individually if you want, but its really nothing especially complex.
When did gunpowder start to appear in the New World? Seems to be no traces of it yet.
There's been gunpowder in the new world since about the mid 1400s but its rare. Certainly the Ayshunids used gunpowder weaponry and heavy artillery but primarily in the form of cannonry on ships and in defensive emplacements. Handguns were rare even in Iberian armies, so in Riyshi forces moreso, but their impact was much more magnified there because of the psychological advantage - a single handgun could scatter a entire force of indians, unprepared for its sound and effect. In my short article on the Hezzi I mention that ghazi bands often had atleast 1 handgunner with them for precisely that purpose. It would be similar in Mexico and the Yucatan, handguns are rare but intentionally dispersed into Arab forces to maximize their effect.
Stuff like cannons would have appeared in mainland military installations at the earliest by the mid-late 1400s, by 1550 certainly every major fort in the Arab new world would be fortified with gunpowder weaponry, and Arab forces would have contingents of musketeers in them, if they were a bit less sophisticated than their European or even Ottoman counterparts.
I haven't pushed the timeline past 1550 yet, but as of 1550 the Castilian colonies are in full swing, and on the warpath. Much of the Castilian intent in the new world is to wrest its resources from the Arabs, so the Castilian colonies are really forward operating bases for the Castilian navy to raid Arab settlements further south. They are largely walled coastal fortresses with a few civilian families attempting to grow crops nearby with a adjoined military garrison. Expect over the next century or so for European colonization in the New World to absolutely explode, especially as France, Spain and England compete for control of the eastern seaboard. Similarily, the Genoese and Venetians will begin vying for control over the atlantic trade routes. So some european powers will be set on forcibly dominating the new world while others will attempt to work with the Arabs to extract valuable trade concessions.