1426
A small number of sailors stumble out of the southern jungles near Marawiyah speaking of vast lands to the south populated with great numbers of peoples and cultures. They are taken aboard ships and returned to Iberia where their leader will meet with the sultan, being awarded an estate in the Algarve for his trials.
1427-29
Muslim traders scout the entire coast of the Al-Mustanqae As-Maya, establishing trade settlements along the shore, though many tribes are outwardly hostile and resist contact
A Maya uprising from the south provokes Abu Bakr to attack the Kuchkabal of Can Pech, believing its king K’an Itzammaj to be responsible. He defeats the Maya, forcing them to concede large areas of territory south of the Wilayat al-Maya, linking Belish and Al-Maya together for the first time.
Bilal al-Sa’id Ibn Qurrah dies under suspicious circumstances, leading the chiefs of the Bilali clan to hold Salah Ibn Umar responsible. Asim reforges ties with the Ghazi clans in Muluk, especially the Al-Shabibs, whose patriarch Walid was responsible for many of the most severe atrocities in the wars in Belish. More importantly, it was a blatant violation of the informal truce established in the Riysh following the aftershocks of that invasion.
1430
Carlo Barbani of Genoa becomes the first non-Muslim sailor to visit the Riysh, delivering a shipment of grain in exchange for a quantity of native furs and some Karbi slaves, which are named in Italian (as are all of the peoples of the New World)
le persone d'oro, “the golden peoples”, after both their skin tone and the gold that had already become associated with the New World. They are also sometimes referred to by the blanket term
Caraibi.
A hurricane destroys Boriken and the south Riysh but leaving Muluka [Hispaniola] unscathed. Rightly frightened by a rebellion from the Mulukan sheikhs, Salah Ibn Umar buys the loyalty of the Islamized Tayni warlord Al-Suruk of central Sayadin. In exchange for being a buffer against Bilali influence in the west Salah Ibn Umar agrees to support Al-Suruk’s kingdom in his wars against pagan tribes to the west of Sayadin.
1432
Growing tensions in the Riysh deeply trouble the ailing Yusuf II, who considers having the entire Bilali clan imprisoned and executed but decides against it at the council of his regent Hassan, who worries overt military intervention in the territory would simply provoke open rebellion.
Muhammad Ibn Maseed al-Halaby of Sijilmasa signs an agreement with the Qaranid prince Muhammad Ibn Husni that in the event of Husni’s accession he would pursue war against Aragon, ceding a portion of the Tunisian coast to Sijilmasa after victory in exchange for Sijilmasan military support. This violated Al-Kebiris détente, which is why it was kept secret.
Increasing Ottoman power in the eastern Mediterranean worries European monarchs about becoming trapped between Islamic powers, the Ottomans in the east and the Ayshunids in the Atlantic. The Pope writes a letter to Santiago of Castile, imploring him to curb the Ayshunids for the sake of Christendom.
In a noticeable ramping up of tensions, the Pope is rumored to have also drafted a letter accusing the Aragonese of working with the Ayshunids to threaten the Papal dominions in Italy. The letter is never sent but rumor of it nevertheless rockets through the European noble families. Fernando of Aragon responds by flirting with founding a separate state church, independent of the Papacy.
1434
Yusuf II dies. He is succeeded by his son Muhammad I.
A series of epidemics moves through the Riysh, wiping out almost the entire native population of the South Riysh. Among the victims are Salah Bin Umars sons, all but one of whom die over the span of several months.
The
Menkay (king) of Al-Jinit, Guanareji marries into an Arab trade family and converts to Islam. He invades the neighboring islands and establishes the Sultanate of Kinariu. He establishes amicable relations with Muhammad I.
Desperate for new colonists Salah Ibn Umar orders sweeping slave raids in Al-‘Akhdir against the pagan K’iche and Lowland kingdoms. Large numbers of unconverted Maya are shipped to the Riysh as a result.
1436-40
The king of Chakan Putum, Ox K’awil converts to Islam after several years of having a nativized Iman, Ibn Yusuf (known as Mitnal to his captors) in his court. He takes the Arabic name Salim and encourages the conversion of his populace, though many rebel against it. By this point however, many northern lords had converted, putting additional pressure on the lowland Maya, many of whom had originally fled the Arab conquest.
French weakness during the midst of the Hundred Years War leads Fernando of Aragon to consider invading the French mainland through Toulouse to pull all remaining French influence out of Italy and Sicily. Before his fleet departs their docks at Cagliari a Florentine fleet burns the harbor in a daring night raid. Mercenaries, known as the
Florinni set the fleet alight under the orders of Cosimo de' Medici, who saw in the operation an opportunity to curry favor with both the Pope and the other Italian city-states (who universally hated Aragon).
1441
Al-Kebira of the Qaranids dies, succeeded by his son Ibn Husni. Ibn Husni’s first moves at Sultan are to invade the Aragonese holdings in Ifriqya. An embryonic alliance with Sijilmasa comes to fruition, as 20,000 Berber cavalry move northeast from their bases in the Sahara to ransack the Aragonese fort of San Cristobal while Ibn Husni sieges Algiers.
A crew of Arabs shipwrecks on the coast far to the northwest of Niblu [Florida]. They are captured and murdered by local peoples shortly thereafter.
1444
On a pretense of corruption, Salah Ibn Umar orders the arrest of the principle ghazi commanders, and the seizure of their estates. Asim takes this as a declaration of war, and gathers his families personal forces at Muluk, driving out loyalist tax collectors. Asim attempts to align the interior Tayni Keshiqs to his cause, but the consistent abuses inflicted upon them by the ghazi families causes them to rebuke his offer.
Salah Ibn Umar calls in his favors with Al-Suruk. In a series of midnight raids Bilali holdings in Sayadin are sacked by Tayni forces marching out of the jungle. Asim responds by unleashing his private army on the Tayni villages in Muluk and Sayadin. In the span of two months, thousands of Islamized natives are massacred, along with any Arabs living among them. Under the command of Mustafa Ibn Muhammad Al-Franj a ghazi army raids Boriken.
Fernando of Aragon fights, and loses the battle of El Chebouf with Ibn Husni and retreats to Tunis, leaving much of Aragonese North Africa undefended. The decline of French, Pisan and Portuguese military power (the complete elimination of the latter actually) leaves Aragon in an odd position. Its European rivals devastated but its Islamic rivals ascendant, the unsteady Aragonese empire survived relatively unscathed in Europe but was effectively destroyed in Africa.
Santiago of Castile dies of a mysterious illness, rumored to be an early wave of syphilis. He is succeeded by his son Henry III “The Cripple”, after his malformed right leg which left him unable to walk without assistance.
The Islamized lord of Halatun Jen [Hultunchen] known as Muhammad Juljan Juljab I sails to Iberia, the first Maya lord to do so. He is received by Muhammad I with honor and is given lands in the Algarve.
The last unconverted native Keshiq of Sayadin, Jumubana, is deposed by his neighbor Al-Suruk. The western shore of Sayadin is thence force dominated by Islamized client-kingdoms of the Ayshunids.
The Muslim trader Sahr Al-Abbas sails north, reaching the shoreline of Kembuwali [Cempoalli] and contacted the local official there, Azcalxochimac, who had recently become
calpixque (governor) of the territory after the Mexica conquest of the region only two years prior. The region is dubbed Kutashtah [Cuetlaxtlan], or more shortly Al-Kutash, after its native name. The native population is labelled
Meshikiyy after the endonym of the ruling class.
Using a translator recruited from the Wilayat al-Maya, Al-Abbas was able to negotiate the establishment of a trading settlement near the town and the hosting of a number of merchants from within his party. He himself toured the region for several weeks before returning to Bohiyya, where he informed Salah ibn Umar of the discovery.
News of a large, organized and militaristic power to the north caused great consternation to some in the Riysh. Salah decided against any potential invasion, believing the power of this new nation to be beyond the capabilities of his small provincial army to deal with. Muslim traders soon began to make yearly trips with the north after Al-Abbas’s expedition.
1445-7
Henry III recognizes what previous monarchs did not, that the Islamic territories to the west were of much greater significance beyond what had been previously thought. Fascinated by the wealth flowing to Seville from the Ayshunid colonies to the west, he begins to seek explorers to sail west themselves and find territories in the
Tierra de Oro, “Land of Gold” outside the grip of the Muslims.
Salim Ash K’awilah [Ox K’awil] attacks the pagan
Juntali [Chontal] Maya at Tishjal [Tixchel]. He takes the city and destroys many of its native monuments (in a odd mix of traditional Maya practices upon the conquest of a city and Islamic iconoclasm) .
Salah Ibn Umar defeats the ghazis at the battle of Dhufalah. Mustafa Ibn Muhammad is castrated and beheaded in Buhuq. His testicles are sent to Asim in a box.
Moctezuma I, curious about these outsiders but apprehensive after several negative omens, has
Pochteca (merchants) spies infiltrate the Muslim camp outside Kembuwali. One of them even boards a Muslim ship and travels through the Riysh before returning, treated as a merchant by the local Islamic authorities.
Islamized Maya rise up and rebel against the traditionalist lord of Bakahal [Bakhalal], deposing him and petitioning for a Muslim replacement. Abu Bakr appoints the leader of the rebels Mahmud Ash Al-Ushuk as the new mayor of the town.
Disease ravages Al-Kutash. The local populace, believing the foreigners responsible attack the Muslims at Kembuwali, sacking their outpost and driving off the merchants there. The Arabs approach Azcalxochimac, who punishes the native townsfolk severely. This inflames tensions between the local populace and the Arabs, though it strengthens the relationship between the Arabs and the Mexica, who value the commerce.
A New World strain of Tuberculosis enters Iberia in force, sweeping across the peninsula and nearly killing Muhammad I. Granada and Valencia are the hardest hit, losing up to a fourth of the regional population over the next several years. Fernando of Aragon is among the many victims, as well as his then-wife Maria of Ibiza. He is succeeded by his son James.
1449
Sancho of Portugal dies, immediately instigating a revolt in northern Portugal (the machinations of 1405 not easily forgotten). Henry III defeats the rebels and institutes a policy of repressing Portuguese culture, going so far as to ban the speaking of Portuguese entirely, though that sweeping ban doesn’t last long, and has little effect outside major cities.
News of open rebellion in the Riysh prompts Muhammad I to send a fleet to restore order. Combining with forces sent from the Wilayats to the south, the navy lands at Muluk under the command of the general Faris Ibn Mirtimi (whose family were converted Portuguese nobility). Asim rallies his forces and fights at the Hills of Mawanaq. Bilali soldiers fight off waves of Ayshunid infantry from mountaintop ramparts, using primitive firearms and booby traps to inflict heinous casualties.
Ibn Husni completes his conquest of Aragonese Ifriqya, easily taking Aragonese territory that was left undefended without either a king or a fleet to protect it. He enters Tunis and receives the surrender of the city commander on July 12th, ending a century of Aragonese rule in North Africa. As a reward for their services in the war, he fulfills his contract with Sijilmasa, giving the Emirate exclusive trade contracts to deal out of Oran, Algiers and Tunis, as well as a substantial chunk of the territory in the south (territories largely conquered by the Sijilmasan army).
Azorian Arabs stage a retaliatory invasion of Tall al-Karbiyy, massacring Karbi tribespeople and driving them from the eastern shores of the island.
1452
The decisive Bilali victory at Mawanaq does not save the rebellion, as a prolonged blockade of Muluki ports alongside raids from vengeful Tayni forces Asim to surrender to Muhammad I. He is imprisoned in Iberia while the leaders of the ghazi families are executed. Walid of the Al-Shabibs is exiled to Marawiyah, where he is presumably killed by natives shortly thereafter. Muluk is occupied and the former ghazi holdings are divided among loyalist families. The Wilayat al-Maghrib al-Bahr is divided into three sections, the Wilayat al-Riysh, the Wilayat al-Muluk and the Wilayat al-Sayadin
As a reward for his loyalty, Al-Suruk is given the governorship of the Wilayat al-Sayadin, while Salah Ibn Umar is given the Riysh and Faris Ibn Mirtimi is given Muluk.
The king of Achi, Tekum K’o’yil converts to Islam as a bid to secure aid from the Muslims to support his wars against the K'iche'-Kaqchikel alliance to the south. Abu Bakr, not wishing to become involved in inter-kingdom wars so far beyond the borders of his own territories, can do little more besides sending a small number of Sufi’s to attempt to capitalize on the king’s conversion.
While sailing south towards the Riysh, the Azorian Arab Yusuf Abu Salah is thrown off-course, making landfall many miles north of known territory. He reaches a vast fertile coast populated by alien peoples, though vaguely similar to those natives of the Riysh. The natives receive him graciously, and tell him the land is called
Al-Walayat [Guale / Sea Islands]. After residing with the Walayi for a time Yusuf follows the coast south, reaching Muluk in January of 1464.
1453
Constantinople falls to the Ottomans after a lengthy siege, sending shockwaves throughout Christian Europe. Pius II calls for crusade, both in the west and the east to reclaim lost Christian territories. For his part, Muhammad I sends a cordial congratulations to Mehmed II, though the Ottoman state cares or thinks little about Al-Andalus.
More importantly, it represents the isolation fully of Christendom, trapped between Islamic powers. Growing concerns about how to alleviate this situation will lead many Christian leaders to press for expeditions to discover new trade routes outside Muslim control in the future. Some Castilian leaders associate the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople with the Ayshunid conquest of Toledo.
Henry III’s expeditions to the New World, postponed significantly due to the epidemics of earlier years, begin anew. With royal funding, the Normano sailor Alfons Drapero begins to organize an expedition to sail northwest, past the Riysh towards suspected lands further to the north.
1456
James IV of Aragon tries to retake Ifriqya but fails miserably when a storm destroys much of his fleet and Berber tribesmen rout what few forces were able to establish themselves on land. Behind his back, many nobles label him James “The Unfortunate”.
Moctezuma I meets with the Arab Omar Al-Kindi, (who spoke Nahuatl and several Maya languages), attempting to elucidate the nature of the larger Ayshunid state. The meeting ends amicably, and Arabs are granted permission to reside in many cities in the empire, though they are specifically forbidden from exerting any political authority in, or near the empire. On his return to the coast, Omar witnesses mass sacrifices coinciding with the Panquetzaliztli festivals to Huitzilopochtli. Reports of these events ripples through the Riysh, horrifying Salah Ibn Umar as well as Muhammad I, who mulls declaring a jihad specifically to curb such practices. Omar will later return to Al-Kutash on several more visits, publishing his extensive findings in a
rihla after his return to Iberia.
Muslim slavers sail the coast east of the Riysh named the Khabaqiyah [Guyana], (after the name of a tribe the slavers encountered, applied to the entire region), but conclude it is an endless swamp, unfit for any substantial colonization.
Abdullah Al-Humyukah is the first Tayni Keshiq (of the Munukiyy in Sayadin) to carry out the hajj.
Alfons Drapero sets sail from Porto for the New World with 5 ships of Castillian design, called
Caravelos, after the Moorish name.
1457-60
Muhammad I decides to tacitly tolerate the flagrantly heathen religious practices of the Mexica, unwilling to commit to a land war in the new world, especially after the comparatively minor campaigns in Belish had unleashed so much chaos afterwards (the gargantuan trade network that was developing along the coast was also a compelling argument for peace). This decision provokes a firestorm of criticism in Iberia, as firebrand imams accuse Muhammad I of shedding his responsibility as a Muslim of opposing pagan practices and spreading the realm of Islam.
Muhammad I, intent on avoiding the sort of noble infighting that often crippled the kingdom, developed a form of collective council inspired by the Cortes Portugal, called the
Talub, “the assembly”. Representatives from the noble families convene to discuss issues of the state and are gifted a level of collective authority to deal with certain issues. Unlike a Maghrebi council of sheikhs, they are not associated directly to individual Arab or Berber clans and they have no power over the election of the king (which is centralized to the royal family).
The Drapero expedition makes landfall on the shore of
Al-Walayat, though significantly farther north than where Yusuf had landed. They name the shore they make camp at
La Mella Castillanei, “The Castillian Coast”, in Normano-Spanish (the native tongue of much of the crew and the captain himself).
1462
Castilian explorers scout the interior, discovering a tribe that call themselves
Chowanoc. These local peoples, who were faintly aware of the presence of other foreigners to the south (including tale of Yusufs presence in the area earlier), meet with them under relative friendliness. Drapero returns to Iberia to deliver news to Henry III.
The
qadi of Lisbon, Ibn Darras begins to loudly criticize Muhammad I, gathering significant popular support for his proposal of rooting out heretical Islamic sects in the Riysh as well as declaring
jihad against the Mishiki. After a fiery
khutbah [sermon] comparing the Sultan to Abd-Allah ibn Ubayy (a chief during Muhammads lifetime who allied with the Jews and was an enemy of Muhammad), Ibn Darras is arrested and imprisoned.
Abu Bakr dies while in Iberia. He is succeeded as governor by Yazid Al-Rundi.
Arab traders establish enclaves along the Kutashtan coast, founding trading posts at Shalabiyy [Xalapan], Tushiyy [Tuxpan] and as far south as Kuluk [Culua].
Attempts by Sufi orders to convert local peoples in Al-Kutash run into stiff opposition from local rulers. They find more sympathy from the
Tanakiyy [Totonacs], who are attracted to Islam as an alternative to Mexica state-sponsored religion. The merchant Eloxochitl is the first among them of note to convert to Islam, his name being rendered as Abu Ali Alushushih Al-Kutashti.
1463-64
Henry III is encouraged by the success of the expedition, and especially by the gold trinkets given to him by Drapero. He draws up plans both for the further expansion of Castilian territory in the New World and even the invasion of the Blessed Isles [Azores], to establish Castilian control over some of the new world trade routes. He construes his actions as a response to the Papal urging to expand Christendom, pledging himself to the cause of delivering the natives to God before the Muslims take them.
Al-Rundi marries the daughter of the lord of Hushmal [Uxmal], Lady Sak Kan as a way to reinforce connections with the local aristocracy. By this point, almost every Maya lord north of Can Pech is Islamized (though decidedly not Arabized).
Tariq Ibn Salah Al-Fariq becomes the first Arab to reach the Pacific Ocean through Al-Misiktu [Mosquito Coast / Nicaragua].
Al-Suruk raids Al-Niblu, though he is unable to gather many slaves. He dies as part of an internal coup shortly thereafter. His victorious rival, known as Tibankiyu is given the governership of Wilayat al-Sayadin
1465-67
Supporters of Ibn Darras, known as the
Al-Mudatahadin (the persecuted) sway several prominent nobles in the Ayshunid court to their side, especially the eldest son of the Farisi family, Abdullah Abu Sa’id Al-Farisi. Abu Sa’id becomes the leader of this noble faction, and a prime candidate for the throne, despite Muhammad I elimination of the formal influence nobles had over the throne. Rumblings about a potential succession crisis begin to stir in Seville.
1469-72
Henry III cracks down on Islamic conversion in Castile, forbidding open signs of Islam and going so far as to offer cash bonuses to those who converted to Christianity. In many areas in northern Iberia, Muslims are driven out by mobs.
Drapero is lavishly rewarded for his endeavors, though he soon falls out of favor with the crown due to personal controversies. Henry III appoints Christopher Lorenzo de Toro to head the colonial activities in his stead.
Muhammad I has many Mudatahads executed and/or imprisoned in a series of purges, but it only inflames the movement. Abu Sa’id, unbeknownst to the state government, begins to shelter many rebels at his personal estates near Toledo.
Muhammad I, in what he believes to be a stroke of genius, orders the exile of the Mudatahads to the Riysh, giving Abu Sa’id control of a army and command to declare war against the Mishiki. He refuses to release Ibn Darras however.
Abu Sa’id however, while stationed in Kinariu decides instead to take the Ayshunid throne himself rather than pursuing the ostensible goal of the Mudatahads i.e. to root out paganism in the New World and restore Islam there. This disappoints many of the conservative members of the movement, some of whom elect to stay in Kinariu or travel to the Riysh to preach there.
Abu Sa’id sails his fleet back to Iberia, landing at Cadiz and declaring himself in open rebellion against the Sultan and calling on the people to join him. Some do, but his miscalculation was in overestimating support for a popular coup during a time of great prosperity (delivered by the very state he wanted to overthrow).
1472
While marching from Cadiz to Seville, Abu Sa’id is intercepted by Muhammad I. Most of his soldiers, being unloyal to the Mudatahad cause, desert rather than fight, leaving Abu Sa’id with a small force of supporters to flee into the Sierra Morena. Several months later he is captured by villagers and delivered to Muhammad I, who has him (in a sort of cruel irony) exiled to Al-Mustanqae As-Maya, where he is given over to the natives as a slave. Ibn Darras will remain in prison for the rest of his life.
1474
Muhammad I dies, leaving the throne to his son Ahmed. Ahmed is far more puritanical than his father, and had the Mudatahads not risen in such open revolt to his office earlier, he might have been a convert himself. Regardless, he called for religious reform in both Iberia and the Riysh to root out deviant sects and unify the kingdom. He appoints Farouk Al-Tawili as the potential commander of an invasion of Al-Kutash, to deal with the pagans there.
Henry III organizes his fleet for an invasion of the Blessed Islands [Azores]. He also dispatches more ships to expand his foothold in the New World.
Summary 1425 - 1474 CE
The seeds sown by the earlier Ayshunids come to fruition with both the Bilali and Mudatahad revolts. While both are successfully put down, the effects of the Bilali revolt devastate the Riysh.
Castile does little in the grand game of European politics, biding its time to see which of its rivals leave a opening. With the rise of Henry III, Europeans begin to realize the scope of the Islamic expansion to the west, and begin to crave their own piece of the pie.
The Qaranids finally remove the hated Aragonese from African soil, but in doing so are forced to sign a deal with Sijilmasa, giving territory and trade concessions that will only embolden the secretive desert emirs.
Aragon wobbles, but does not yet fall. While its territories in Africa are gone and its grand plans of a continental empire in tatters, the Aragonese empire in the Mediterranean survives mostly unscathed. At the helm of the incompetent James IV though, that likely will not last much longer.
Fig 1. Iberia and the Maghreb in 1474
Fig 2. The New World in 1474
