A local, limited part of my monster TL

[basileus]

Just to remember I’m not idle, and I’m working hard (apart from my job as journalist, which already cost me a nervous breakdown some days ago…), I’ll post here the translation of my monster timeline’s part up to 1936 re: nations of Christian North Africa, which at this point I think it’s at least 95% definitive.
The main flaw of my TL is, quite obvious, its being focused to a desired situation in a certain year (1936) from which it should continue somehat more freely. Rewriting history ex post can sound quite ridiculous – apart the staggering amount of completely ininfluential details I’ve put into it, however I hopo you’ll find this part of my TL a good work.
I'll post only the part up to 800 b/c translating from Italian is quite a slow work and takes time. If you want I'll continue later with subsequent parts up to 1936.


(*TTL begins not in a precise year, but roughly in the years of Jesus, when the earliest, ininfluential PoD enters into existence, that is the ancient non-IE Ligurian language surviving south of the Po river and noth of the Ligurian Sea; the first precise dates I have put into it start with Jesus’ preaching. remeber my TL structure is NOt Pod-->consequences, but rather PoD--->consequences--->maybe return to the main flux of OTL history--->other Pod----> influx from oiher Pods anywhere else--->etc.)

P.S. Non-historical (better, non-OTL) characters are marked by a *.

I century C.E. Introduction of the dromedary into Egypt and the Zenete Desert (*OTL Sahara)
42 The Roman Empire absorbs the kingdom of Mauretania
About 300 Conversion to Christianity and lack of new conquests disrupt the slave-based economy throughout the Roman Empire
311 Berber revolt led by Alexander in Eastern Numidia; the Imperial Roman army razes Cirta, later rebuilt as Costantina
312-316 Donatist Schism inside the African Church of Carthage, provoked by the African Christian’s will to control the appointment of Carthage’s bishops, at the momnet up to the Bishop of Rome (the future Papacy). Emperor Constantine supports Rome, but the reasons behind the schism remain; the Donatists mark themselves as an autonomous Africana force, known for their cult of martyrs, their intransigence with “unworthy†priests (=those who were weak, abjurating Christianity under the last persecutions) and their refusal of the Church-State model enforced by Constantine
about 340 The Christian paleo-Communist movement of the Circoncellions rises in Roman North Africa from an internal schism within the Donatists.The Circoncellions soon prove to be a martyr-vocated movement, vehemently enemy of the rich and of a Church subservient to the powerful
397 In Roman Africa the Numidian prince Gildon asks to pass under the Easter Roman Empire sovereignity and cuts the grain transefrs to Rome; the revolt marks the strength of the African desire for self-government, following the Donatist Schism
398 Mascizel, Gildon’s brother, reestablishes the Western Roman Empire’s authority in Africa
411 After almost a century the Donatist Schism of Roman Africa Churches is officially settled in a synod at Carthage, also thanks to Saint Augustin from Ippona’s eloquence in denouncing the â€heresy†and promoting its eradication (paradoxically Saint Augustin will become more and more a symbol of North Africanism in the following centuries)
428 Under pressure from the Visigoths, the Vandals and the allied Alans emigrate to Northern Africa on a call from the Roman general Bonifacius, in revolt against the Western Roman Empire
429-431 The Vandals defeat their former ally Bonifacius – now begging for forgiveness and help from Ravenna - and besiege him during an entire year in Ippona/Bona (where Saint Augustin dies in the siege). In the end the Vandals quit the siege and Bonifacius flees to Ravenna, receiving official pardon from the regent Galla Placidia
about 430 The Vandal invasion of Roman North Africa paves the way for a renewed independence of most Berbers in the Atlas mountains; a weak Romano-Berber kingdom thakes shape in Mauretania with its capital at Volubilis/Ulili (*near OTL Fez, ruins still visible and interesting), whilst another centre of power – and resistence to Vandal domination - builds up around the town of Costantina (eastern Numidia)
435 The Western Roman Empire officially acknowledges Vandal possession of great part of former Roman North Africa
439 Carthage falls at the hands of Gaiseric’s Arian Vandals, which impose a harsh racist rule and begin a ferocious persecution against the Catholics
442 The Vandals conquer Sicily and Sardinia
about 450 The Arian Vandals, cruel masters of former Roman Africa, conquer Tripoli (Lybia) and exterminate the Circoncellions
455 Gaiseric’s Vandals horribly sack Rome (Pope Leo Magnus obtains from Gaiseric the respect of holy places and the renounce to massacres and burnings; the new Emperor Petronius Maximus is lynched by the mob) and conquer Corsica
461 The Vandals defeat and expel Western Roman forces landed in Africa
467 A Byzantine attempt to retake Carthage and Roman Africa fails because of the incompetence of general Basiliscus
492 The Ostrogoths take Sicily and Corsica from the Vandals
about 500 The Zenetes, partly still heathen partly Christians or converted to Judaism, bursting out from the very heart of the Desert which brings their name (*OTL Sahara) impose themselves as the ruling power amongst Northwestern Africa’s Berbers by founding several tribal potentates between Numidia (*OTL Algeria) and Mauretania (*OTL Morocco), notably the Djeddar kingdom of Tahert (Numidia)
533-534 Belisarius retakes Carthage and Sardinia for Byzantium, destroys the Vandal kingdom and deports the vanquished Vandals to Anatolia
about 540 Vast religious insurrection in the Aurés (Numidia) under Iabdas; the Byzantines cannot assume control of the North African interior
548 Byzantium comes to terms with the Numidian Berbers, obtaining full control of Ifrigia/Punia (*OTL Tunisia) but leaving in practice to the local Berbers and Zenetes control of the interior between its coastal fortresses at Septem/Sefta (*OTL Ceuta) and Ippona/Bona
586 The Byzantine emperor Maurice has his son Tiberius crowned in Rome Western emperor as Tiberius III, 110 years after Romulus Augustolus’ deposition by Odovacar, and divides the Western Roman Empire in the two Exarchates of Ravenna and Carthage
597 Major Berber rebellion in Byzantine Africa; Carthage is briefly under siege
607 Byzantine operatives assassinate Tiberius III and his son and heir Maurice in Ravenna; Pope Bonifacius III acknowledges Phocas’ authority on the West in exchange for the recognition of Roman primacy over Constantinople inside the Catholic Church
610 The Carthaginian rebel Heraclius the Young, son of the Exarch of Carthage Heraclius Crispus, sails towards Constantinople, where, welcomed as a hero, topples and kills Phocas the Tyrant
624 Spain’s Visigoths pass the Strait taking Septem/Sefta/Ceuta from the Byzantines and Tingis/Tangiers from local Mauretanians
638 Trying to compose the schism with the Monophysites in Syria and Egypt, the Byzantine emperor Heraclius adopts the Monotelist doctrine, harshly rejected both at home and in the West
648 The Byzantine emperor (basileus) Constans Pogonatos renounces Monotelism after its failure and rejection. The Byzantine Exarch of Carthage Gregorius rise in rebellion and has himself proclaimed Western Roman Emperor
649 The Arabs invade Byzantine Africa (Ifrigia/Punia) but the self-proclaimed Western Emperor Gregorius avoids direct confrontation abandoning his capital ai Sufetula/Sbeitla and barricading himself in Carthage, where the Arabs are soundly repelled
about 650 The Zenete Jarawa tribe, ruling the area of the Aurés massif (Numidia), converts en mass to Judaism
652 The Western Roman Emperor Gregorius occupies Sicily and relocates his capital to Siracusa, which he fortifies powerfully
653 Gregorius enters Rome and takes away Pope Martin I, saving him from the Byzantine emperor Constans’ henchmen. Ravenna Exarchate remains loyal to Constans
659 Paul of Samosata creates the Paulician heresy, dualist and Manichean. It will take root between Syria and Armenia, and later, in the Bogomil and Cathar versions, in the Sklavinias (*OTL Balkans), in southern France and North Africa
663 Byzantine basileus Constans Pogonatus plunges in Italy, besieges the Lombards in Benevento, erects Naples in Duchy, assaults and conquers Rome sacking it and deporting Pope Vitalianus in the Caucasus, then lays siege to Siracusa
665 After a two-year long siege basileus Constans of Byzantium captures Siracusa, slay Gregorius and his family, then puts there HIS OWN capital and proceeds to restore a resemblance of Byzantine authority at Carthage. Profiting of Byzantine internal striving in Sicily, king Grimoald of the Lombards conquers and half-destroys Rome
668 The hated basileus Constans is murdered at Siracusa, where Mezezios is crowned Western Roman Emperor
669 The Byzantine basileus Constantine IV crushes the revolt in Sicily and reestablishes Constantinople as the sole Imperial seat, frees Pope Vitalianus from his exile and installs him Siracusa. The Arabs invade Byzantine Ifrigia (*OTL Tunisia) and massacre its Christian people
670 The Arabs found Kairawan in Ifrigia
672 Once dead Pope Vitalianus in Siracusa, Adeodatus II is elected Pope in Rome under Lombard patronage
675 The Arab general Abu’l Muhajir invades Numidia, conquers Costantina and Stifa (*OTL Sétif) and defeats prince Koceila/Kusayla of Tilinsin (*OTL Tlemcen), who converts to Islam in order to have his life spared
682 The Arab governor Uqba bin Nafe, founder or Kairawan, reaches the Atlantic shores in Mauretania with his Muslim Arabo-Berber army, sacking and massacring on the route, but on his way back he must face the Christian revolt led by the prince of Tilinsin Koceila/Kusayla, who abjurated Islam; Koceila/Kusayla repels the invaders towards the desert, where Uqba bin Nafe is killed by Zenete raiders at Ghardaya. The Byzantines retake Rome from the Lombards
683 Koceila/Kusyla of Tilinsin invades Ifrigia and razes Kairawan
688 The Arabs led by Zuhayr defeat (*in OTL they KILLED him in battle) Koceila/Kusayla of Tilinsin at Kairawan and reconquer ifrigia (except Carthage and other Byzantine coastal fortresses)
695 The Arabs, upset at the destruction of Barce (Cyrenaica) by the Byzantines, take and raze Carthage
698 Decisive victory on the Arabs at Carthage by Byzantines and Numidians led by basileus Leontius and Koceila/Kusayla, which then proceed to destroy Kairawan once and for all annihilating the Arab army there. Ifrigia goes back to Byzantium, Koceila/Kusayla receives the title of Exarch of the Maurians
about 700 After Koceila/Kusayla’s death the Kahina, a Judeo-Berber female soothsayer of the Jarawa tribe already active in the anti-Arab struggle, becomes de facto the Queen of Northern African Berbers leading their victorious resistence against Spain’s Visigoths, and founds the so-calles Judeo-Christian Kahinid Exarchate (which arises some perplexity amongst the anti-Semite Byzantines)
709 Basileus Leontius the Saint defeats anew the Arabs at Matmata (Ifrigia). After long pressing by Byzantium, Pope Constantine bestows on the Archbishop of Carhage the title of Primate of Africa (*don’t laugh, please. That’s not a gorilla as Archbishop…)
711 Murder of Leontius and his fistborn *Sergius, just back in Constantinople after a four-year long absence; Leontius’ younger son *Tiberius IV assumes the imperial crown of the West at Siracusa whilst Byzantium plunges into civil war, quickly won by the Monotelite supporter Philippicus Bardane. The first Mauretanian mercenaries flock to Spain during a civil war (*not specified. Spain is far from completely outlined in my TL up to now)
712 Helped by Siracusan Western Byzantines the Kahina’s Berbers reconquer Septem/Sefta/Ceuta, thus ejecting the Visigoths from Africa
727 The Western Byzantine emperor *Tiberius IV denounces iconoclasm and has it solemnly condemned by a synod in Carthage
732 Donation of Sutri: Liutprand, king of the Lombards, marches upon Rome defeating *Tiberius IV’s forces, then meets Pope Gregorius III and makes act of contrition by ceding several lands and right in Tuscia (*OTL northern Lazio) to the Holy See in exchange for the Western Byzantine recognition of the Roman Duchy as a neutral territory under the Pope’s direct sovereignity
737-738 An attempted Visigoth invasion of Mauretania ends in an epic disaster amidst the mountains of the Rif
744 In the southern fringes of Mauretania proper the tribal confederation of the Berghawata takes shape
754 The early death of the infant *Maurice II at Siracusa estinguishes the Leontid dynasty on the Western Byzantine throne, sparking a long civil war amongst several pretenders to the crown
756 The strategos of Byzacena and pretender to the Western Byzantine throne *Marcianus Bulla crushes the last Muslim stronghold in Ifrigia at the battle of Midnatha (*don’t search for this, I’ve simply invented this last name). The North African berbers of the Kahinid Exarchate invade Visigoth Andalusia but are heavily routed in the battle of the Rio Grande (*OTL Guadalquivir, same meaning but in neo-Latin instead of Arab ;-) )
758 Muslims ousted from Ifrigia and local Islamicized Berbers found a Kharijite theocratic State in the Djebel Nefusah, south of Tripoli (Lybia), under Abu-l-Khattab Abd al-A'la ibn Assamh al-Ma'afiri
762 *Marcianus Bulla imposes himself as Western Byzantine emperor conquering Siracusa after killing *John Vivariotes in the battle of Lentini
767 Mauretania (*OTL Marocco) secedes from the Kahinid Exarchate under *Samuel I the Ulilite (his capital is Ulili [*OTL Volubilis, not abandoned in TTL]), a Christian convert discending of Spaniard Jews expelled by the Visigoths; the secession is supported and secured by the Berghawata army
772 Foundation of the Judeo-Berber kingdom of Sijilmasa (southwestern Mauretania), ruling the western wastes of the Zenete Desert (*OTL Sahara) and Mauretania Ultima (*OTL Mauritania)
784 The Maurians (*TTL Moroccans) conquer and pillage Tilinsin; the Kahinid Exarchate fragments into local Numidian petty kingdoms, under either Mauretanian or Western Byzantine influence
796-803 Jewish religious revolt in Numidia, centered on the messianic figure of *Isaac Reba. After submitting several towns and territories the rebels are crushed by the organized reaction of the Numidian states, led by the principate of Tahert
800 The Western Byzantine emperor *Leo Bulla sails towards Constantinople with his Siracusan fleet to topple the basilissa Irene, assassin of her son (sic!) and his brother-in-law Constantine VI, and reunify the Empire, but he’s thoroughly defeated and killed at Gallipoli leaving the Byzantine West without a ruler and prey to a new civil war. At Christmas Charlemagne, after forcing Pope Leo III to justify himself against his enemies’ charges, has himself crowned by the Pope as emperor of the Holy Roman empire (HRE) in Saint Peter at Rome, and fixes his own capital at Aquisgrana/Aaachen; loud protests by Constantinople and the warring pretenders to the throne of Siracusa, which do not recognize Charlemagne’s new title

 

[basileus]

Part 2, till 1000 A.D.

about 800 The Berghawata Maurians develop an own apocaliptic Judeo-Christian heretic doctrine based on the expectation of a Second Messiah to announce the end of times, and on the presence of a High Priest and a Temple they build in their religious center, Warzazata (*OTL Ouarzazate)
806 *Peter the Brigand, helped by Visigothic mercenaries, conquers Tilinsin (Numidia) from Mauretania. The Egyptian Omayyads, explotiting the raging civil war in the Byzantine West, invade and conquer Ifrigia and definitively destroy Carthage killing the self-proclaimed Byzantine Western emperor *Augustin of Malta; the Archbishop Primate of Africa *Maximus IV flees to Sicily
808 The Egyptian Omayyads found Tunis near the ruins of Carthage. Frankish and Lombard forces led by Pippin slay in the battle of Troina the last pretender to the imperial Western Byzantine throne of Siracusa, *Constantine Crisostratos; Sicily is annexed to the Carolingian Empire (HRE)
810 The Arabs of Ifrigia invade Numidia subduing several tribes and towns in the country
about 810 The preaching of *Saint Cassian of Hibernia, last of the Fathers of the Catholic Church, fovors use of local languages in the Christtian liturgy, and, in the following centuries, the graudal translation first of prayers, then of the Holy Texts themselves (*That’s quite revolutionary, and explains why in my TL people cling to its language or dialect even more harshly than in OTL, and the “major†languages can’t completely assimilate minor ones; my world is not simpler, but slightly MORE complex than ours)
812 With Visigothic help Peter the Brigand’s Numidians decisively defeat the Arabs, then on the site of the battle they build Cabilonica (*OTL Algiers, from the Greek: Victory of Cabilia)
819 King *Pippin of Sicily (OTL he was dead by now) secedes from a Carolingian Empire too divided to react
820 The Greater (or Earlier) Ifriqids of Tunis and Tripolitania secede from the Omayyad Caliphate of al-Fustat (Egypt)
about 825 The Greater Ifriqids gain suzerainity over all of Eastern Numidia
826 Death of King *Pippin of Sicily and war of succession in the island
827 Taking advantage of the succession struggle, the Greater Ifriqids invade Sicily under Khalid ibn Abdallah
829 A Byzantine fleet takes Siracusa and Messina
831 Khalid ibn Abdallah takes Siracusa and Palermo for the Greater Ifriqids
about 840 Saint Cyprian of Constantina completes the Christianization of the northern Zenetes, preventing the spreading of Islam
845 The Maurians (*TTL Moroccans), led by the Berghawata general *Simon of Arzaia, repel the last great Visigothic effort to conquer Mauretania by the king of Spain Theodoric, defeated and killed in the failed siege of Ulili
846 The Greater Ifriqids sack Rome; only the Vatican basilicas are spared. The Ifriqid fleet is later defeated at Punta Licosa by Duke Sergius of Naples
858 Salomon bar Yehuda founds the Berber Judeo-Christian kingdom of Cabilia amidst the mountains of northern central Numidia
870 The kingdom of Tilinsin (Western Numidia) is jointly conquered by *King David I of Mauretania, *King Joshua I of Cabilia and prince *Solomon II of Tahert
874 The Cabilians definitively stop Greater Ifriqid encroachment in Numidia in the battle of the Megirdia river (*OTL Medjerda)
878 The Greater Ifriqids take the Byzantine fortress of Taormina in Sicily
879 The Byzantine basileus Basil I the Great besieges and conquers Palermo and Siracusa crushing the Muslim power in Sicily
880 Basil I the Great conquers Malta, then lands in Ifrigia and annihilates the Greater Ifriqids at Sfakia (*OTL Sfax) restoring Byzantine domination in the area; *Ahmed bin Abd ar-Rahman reestablishes a post-ifriqid State at Tripoli (Lybia)
about 890 The Catholic Primate of Africa comes back to Ifrigia, with its see in Tunis, re-christened New Carthage
about 900 Christianity slowly replaces Judaism in the Zenete kingdom of Sijilmasa
912 The Byzantine strategos of Ifrigia *Gregorius Rantzas is defeated and killed by the Cabilian Numidians at Ippona/Bona
920 Queen *Tarkhane the Great of Cabilia reunifies all of Numidia by conquering Tahert and establishes the Tarkhanid Empire. The Byzantines finish off the Ifriqids conquering Tripoli (Lybia) but cannot advance further or even control Tripolitania itself
954 King *Roderic/Rodrigo VII of Visigothic Spain dies without issue: the subsequent civil war marks the end of a unified Visigothic kingdom of Spain
956 The Maurian chieftain of the Rif mountains *Rodrigo, born in Spairn, re-crosses the Strait leading an army of rebel Maurians, Zenetes and North African Jews. He invades Spain crushing in succession the two main remaining pretenders to the Visigothic crown of Toledo, *Luìs/Ludovic of Mérida and *Count Peter Berenger of Valencia, in the battles of the Frontera and of Linares. He themn proceeds to conquer Toledo and Castilla whilst the remaining Visigothic forces withdraw to Galicia, Asturias and Catalunya. The place of the Maurian landing in Spain will be called after the conqueror Arx Roderici (Rodrigo’s Stronghold), whence the name of Arrodriga (*OTL Gibilterra)
971 The Fatimids conquer Lybia expelling the Byzantines from Tripoli and liquidate the Kharijite State of Djebel Nefusah (*In TTL, due to butterflies the Fatimids don’t rise from Tunisia but from Oman)
973 The Numidians of the Tarkhanid Empire destroy the Kingdom of Mauretania in the battle of Mighnasa (*OTL Meknés). Mauretania is partially annexed, the rest is fragmented into petty tribal/feudal statelets
976 The Numidian pirate *Yusf Garamma conquer the Balearic Islands
978 The Numidian Tarkhanids annihilate the Berghawata religious state in southern Mauretania: the heretics are slain, their Temple razed
979 Exploiting the weakness of Byzantium embroiled in civil war, the Fatimids easily conquer Ifrigia overwhelming the strategos John of Trinacria at Gavissa (*OTL Gafsa)
981 The Fatimids conquer Malta
982 The HRE emperor Otto II of Saxony first invades Byzantijne Puglia (Thema Langobardiae), then heads to Calabria to stem the stem the marauding Fatimids, but he’s heavily defeated at Stilo
982-989 Fatimid conquest of Sicily; repeated Fatimid raids throughout Southern Italy
985 The Fatimids take Messina
989 With the fall of Taormina and Rametta at the hands of the Fatimids Sicily is cleared of Byzantine presence
990 The Ghana Empire conquers Awdaghost, commercial capital of the Zenetes of Mauretania Ultima (*OTL Mauritania)
996 Collapse of the Tarkhanid Empire of Cabilia/Numidia in the end of the three-sided civil war between the brothers *Donatus and *Cyprian, both claiming heritage, and the army commander *Bonus Massinissa
999 The Cabilian prince *Yoshua Lamzag, one the most powerful chieftains of post-Tarkhanid Numidia, routs the Fatimid invason in the battle of Bumerges
XI century C.E. The southern Zenetes, still partially heathen, dominate trade in “their†desert (*OTL Sahara)

 

[basileus]

Forgot to add this in A.D. 982: The Tarkhanid Numidian invasion of Maurian Andalusia ends in a major defeat at Ronda.
Next I'll post the part from 1000 to 1200

 

[basileus]

1005 Secession of Sicily and Ifrigia from the Fatimid Shi’a Caliphate under the Sunni Lesser (or Later) Ifriqids
1006 *Yoshua Lamzag dies fighting in inner struggles for power in Numidia
1015 The Lesser Ifriqids conquer Sardinia
1016 The Lesser Ifriqids, after sacking and definitively destroying Luni (Eastern Liguria), are thoroughly defeated and expelled from Sardinia in the battle of Bonifacio by the reunited fleets of Genoa, Pisa, Noli, Amalfi, Gaeta, Naples and the Papacy
1016-1017 The Christians of Ifrigia rise in rebellion against the Muslim Lesser Ifriqids, but are brutally crushed and expelled or deported to Numidia and Sicily
1018 King Augustin I of Maurian Andalusia crosses the Strait of Arrodriga (*OTL Gibraltar), defeats his rivals Donatus the Hindata and Rodrigo of Tangiers and is acknowledged as king of Mauretania
1023 The Lesser Ifriqids conquer Fatimid Tripolitania
1032 Sicily secedes from the Lesser Ifriqids under *Abdurrahman ibn-Musa al-Balermi
1038 The Byzantine general George Maniakes and the royal-stock Norwegian Harald Hardradi, with an army of Byzantine, Norse, Lombard, exiled Milanese and Norman troops, conquer Messina from the Sicilian Arabs and defeat them at Rametta
1040 Siege and conquest of Siracusa by the Byzantines
1043 George Maniakes completes the Byzantine reconquest of Sicily crushing the Arabs at Corleone
1045 George Maniakes annihilates the Lesser Ifriqids at Mamette (Ifrigia, *OTL Hammamet) thus reconquering Ifrigia and Malta for the Byzantine Empire; an indipendent sultanate under the Beni Khazran is founded at Tripoli (Lybia)
1050-1054 The Zenetes retake Awdaghost (Mauretania Ultima, *OTL Mauritania), risen to rival with Ghanaian capital Kumbi, thus starting a long struggle
1054 The town of Costantina imposes the Foedus Africae (sort of city-state federation) against the rising power of the local version of feudalism in Numidia. The Rodrigan dynasty of the Kings of Andalusia and Mauretania goes extinct at the death of Augustin II; Andalusia fragments in a dozen of local states ruled by Mauro-Hispanic and Jewish former generals, amongst whom Sevilla and Valencia are the most powerful, whilst the Maurian tribes and nobility reach an agreement electing the Archbishop of Ulili *Peter Thaddeus as Archbishop-King of Mauretania
1056 Following the struggle against Ghana, the Zenetes in Mauretania Ultima found the Zenete Confederation under the leadership of the Christian Tertullian Tezerke, starting a “crusade†for the Christianization of the remaining heathen tribes (*OTL this was the Almohad Revolution)
1059 The Zenete Confederation takes and razes Sijilmasa, thus putting an end to the local three-century old Judeo-Berber kingdom
about 1060 The Egyptian Fatimids expel the Banu Hilal to Lybia; this country will be almost wholly Arabicized by this wave of invaders
1061 Roger de Hauteville’s Normans conquer Messina from the Byzantines starting the long struggle for Sicily
1062 The Zenete Confederation invades southern Mauretania and founds Marrakesh as its own new capital. The Banu Hilal Arabs take Tripoli (Lybia) setting up there an own emirate
1063 Roger de Hauteville heavily defeats Byzantine forces at Cerami (Sicily)
1070 The Zenete Confederation completes the conquest of Mauretania by taking Ulili; the coastal towns on the Strait of Arrodriga (Tangiers and Sefta/Ceuta) give themselves to the Kingdom of Granada
1072 Robert the Guiscard conquers Palermo for the Normans
1074 Byzantine victory over the Normans at Castrogiovanni/Enna (Sicily)
1075 The Byzantine strategos of Africa (Ifrigia) Nikephoros Botaniates routs the Banu Hilal invasion of Christian North Africa in the battle of Tebessa. The Genoese conquer Cabilonica (*OTL Algiers)
1076 The Zenete Confederation sacks Kumbi, capitale of Ghana, thus starting the slow decline of the Ghana Empire, now under Zenete suzerainity, whilst the African gold trade routes move eastwards favoring Muslim traders from Lybia and Egypt
1078 The Normans conquer the Byzantine Sicilian stronghold of Taormina
1081 Heavy Byzantine defeat at the hands of the Normans at Catania (Sicily)
1086 Norman conquest of Siracusa. The Zenete Confederation led by its priest-king *Augustin Tezerke invades Maurian Andalusia, razes Sevilla and forces all the remaing post-andalusian statelets to pay feudal homage; Castilla exploits the moment to retake Toledo and installing its capital there
1087 The Normans rip Castrogiovanni/Enna (Sicily) off Byzantine hands. Normans and Pisans sack New Carthage (*OTL Tunis)
1090 The Norman capture of Noto marks the final conquest of Sicily and the expulsion of Byzantium from its last Italian possession
1091 Roger de Hauteville’s Normans take Malta, New Carthage and Byzantine Ifrigia
1098 A Berber crusading army is annihilated by the Banu Hilal in the battle of Nalut (Tripolitania)
about 1100 Spreading of Catharism to Christian North Africa, especially in Mauretania
1124-1138 Mauretania: “crusade†for conversion to Catharism by the followers of *Stephen of Gadir (OTL there was the Almoravid revolution)
1130 Roger II is crowned King of Sicily and Ifrigia in Palermo
1135 The weakened Ghana Empire manages to get rid of Zenete suzerainity
1138 *Stephen of Gadir overthrows the Zenete Confederation in the battle of the White Fortress and founds the Cathar Gadirote Empire in Mauretania
1144 The Cathar Gadirotes crush the Foedus Africae force at the battle of Urania (*OTL Orano/Wahran) causing the final collpase of the already shaky confederation; the former hegemones of the Foedus Africae, the princes of Costantina, put themselves under Sicilian Norman protection
1146 Pope Eugenius III and Saint Bernard of Clairvaux proclaim the Second crusade against the Turks of Syria and the Cathar Gadirotes of Mauretania
1147 In a preemptive move, The Cathar Gadirotes invade and conquer Andalusia starting an extremely harsh clash with the Catholic kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula
1148 The Castillans successfully resist the Gadirote siege of Toledo. The Sicilian Normans impose their suzerainity over most of Numidia
1149 The Gadirotes take Valencia and defeat a Frankish-Catalan crusader army at Teruel
1150 The Catholic crusade against the Gadirotes in North Africa is stemmed in the battle of Taorirt
1152 The Count of Portugal Rodrigo Gomes defeats the Maurian Gadirotes at Cascais and proclaims himself Most Catholic King in the newly-conquered Lisbon; the Gadirotes are also beaten in their failed siege of Zaragoza (Aragon). Genoa is expelled by her coastal possessions in Numidia at the hands of the Sicilian Normans
1155 The Sicilian Normans conquer Tripoli (Lybia)
1174 The Earlier Mameluks of Egypt retake Tripoli (Lybia) from the Normans and vassalize the Banu Hilal
1179 The Third Lateran Council in Rome renews the anathema against the Cathars
1180 The Cathar Gadirote Empire in Mauretania is toppled by the anti-heretic revolution of the Catholic Rifawa led by *Paul Iron Cross, who conquer Marrakesh and exterminate the Cathars from Spain to Numidia and Mauretania Ultima; many Cathars flee to Languedoc (southern France). *Augustine the Zenete reestablishes the Kingdom of Cabilia (central northern Numidia) in the wake of the decline of Siculo-Norman influence in Numidia
about 1180-1250 Grave religious turmoil throughout Christian North Africa: Cathar insurrections and guerrilla, massacre of the Muslim communities
1186 The Holy Roman Empire (HRE) inherits by way of marriage Norman Southern Italy, Sicily and Ifrigia
1187 The King of Cabilia *Augustin the Zenete conquers Tilinsin (*OTL Tlemcen) from the Maurian Rifawa
1189 After the death of King William II of Sicily and Ifrigia, the local Normans elect Tancredi of Lecce to avoid the succession of the HRE heir Henry VI, son-in-law of William II
1191 the HRE emperor Henry VI von Hohenstaufen crushes his rival for the throne of Sicily and Ifrigia Tancredi of Lecce
1194 Once overrun the last resistance, Henry VI has himself crowned King of Sicily and Ifrigia in Palermo
1197 The Earlier Maeluks invade and conquer Ifrigia; HRE emperor and king of Sicily and Ifrigia Henry VI dies of illness while vainly besieging New Carthage
1198 On the death of his mother Constance de Hauteville, little Frederick II of Swabia, son of Henry VI, has the new Pope Innocentius III as tutor

 

[MerryPrankster]

Very interesting TL, though spacing the entries out would make them much easier to read.

 

[basileus]

OK Matt, I was thinking about it, maybe I'll repost the first parts. Probably nothing tomorrow, I have to work all morning and half afternoon (for now).

 

[Guilherme Loureiro]

I'm skimming through this TL for now, but so far it looks good, very good. Keep up the good work.

 

[basileus]

A reader-frendlier repost

I century C.E. Introduction of the dromedary into Egypt and the Zenete Desert (*OTL Sahara)

42 The Roman Empire absorbs the kingdom of Mauretania

About 300 Conversion to Christianity and lack of new conquests disrupt the slave-based economy throughout the Roman Empire

311 Berber revolt led by Alexander in Eastern Numidia; the Imperial Roman army razes Cirta, later rebuilt as Costantina

312-316 Donatist Schism inside the African Church of Carthage, provoked by the African Christian’s will to control the appointment of Carthage’s bishops, at the momnet up to the Bishop of Rome (the future Papacy). Emperor Constantine supports Rome, but the reasons behind the schism remain; the Donatists mark themselves as an autonomous Africana force, known for their cult of martyrs, their intransigence with “unworthy†priests (=those who were weak, abjurating Christianity under the last persecutions) and their refusal of the Church-State model enforced by Constantine

about 340 The Christian paleo-Communist movement of the Circoncellions rises in Roman North Africa from an internal schism within the Donatists.The Circoncellions soon prove to be a martyr-vocated movement, vehemently enemy of the rich and of a Church subservient to the powerful

397 In Roman Africa the Numidian prince Gildon asks to pass under the Easter Roman Empire sovereignity and cuts the grain transefrs to Rome; the revolt marks the strength of the African desire for self-government, following the Donatist Schism

398 Mascizel, Gildon’s brother, reestablishes the Western Roman Empire’s authority in Africa

411 After almost a century the Donatist Schism of Roman Africa Churches is officially settled in a synod at Carthage, also thanks to Saint Augustin from Ippona’s eloquence in denouncing the â€heresy†and promoting its eradication (paradoxically Saint Augustin will become more and more a symbol of North Africanism in the following centuries)

428 Under pressure from the Visigoths, the Vandals and the allied Alans emigrate to Northern Africa on a call from the Roman general Bonifacius, in revolt against the Western Roman Empire

429-431 The Vandals defeat their former ally Bonifacius – now begging for forgiveness and help from Ravenna - and besiege him during an entire year in Ippona/Bona (where Saint Augustin dies in the siege). In the end the Vandals quit the siege and Bonifacius flees to Ravenna, receiving official pardon from the regent Galla Placidia

about 430 The Vandal invasion of Roman North Africa paves the way for a renewed independence of most Berbers in the Atlas mountains; a weak Romano-Berber kingdom thakes shape in Mauretania with its capital at Volubilis/Ulili (*near OTL Fez, ruins still visible and interesting), whilst another centre of power – and resistence to Vandal domination - builds up around the town of Costantina (eastern Numidia)

435 The Western Roman Empire officially acknowledges Vandal possession of great part of former Roman North Africa

439 Carthage falls at the hands of Gaiseric’s Arian Vandals, which impose a harsh racist rule and begin a ferocious persecution against the Catholics

442 The Vandals conquer Sicily and Sardinia

about 450 The Arian Vandals, cruel masters of former Roman Africa, conquer Tripoli (Lybia) and exterminate the Circoncellions

455 Gaiseric’s Vandals horribly sack Rome (Pope Leo Magnus obtains from Gaiseric the respect of holy places and the renounce to massacres and burnings; the new Emperor Petronius Maximus is lynched by the mob) and conquer Corsica

461 The Vandals defeat and expel Western Roman forces landed in Africa

467 A Byzantine attempt to retake Carthage and Roman Africa fails because of the incompetence of general Basiliscus

492 The Ostrogoths take Sicily and Corsica from the Vandals

about 500 The Zenetes, partly still heathen partly Christians or converted to Judaism, bursting out from the very heart of the Desert which brings their name (*OTL Sahara) impose themselves as the ruling power amongst Northwestern Africa’s Berbers by founding several tribal potentates between Numidia (*OTL Algeria) and Mauretania (*OTL Morocco), notably the Djeddar kingdom of Tahert (Numidia)

533-534 Belisarius retakes Carthage and Sardinia for Byzantium, destroys the Vandal kingdom and deports the vanquished Vandals to Anatolia

about 540 Vast religious insurrection in the Aurés (Numidia) under Iabdas; the Byzantines cannot assume control of the North African interior

548 Byzantium comes to terms with the Numidian Berbers, obtaining full control of Ifrigia/Punia (*OTL Tunisia) but leaving in practice to the local Berbers and Zenetes control of the interior between its coastal fortresses at Septem/Sefta (*OTL Ceuta) and Ippona/Bona

586 The Byzantine emperor Maurice has his son Tiberius crowned in Rome Western emperor as Tiberius III, 110 years after Romulus Augustolus’ deposition by Odovacar, and divides the Western Roman Empire in the two Exarchates of Ravenna and Carthage

597 Major Berber rebellion in Byzantine Africa; Carthage is briefly under siege

607 Byzantine operatives assassinate Tiberius III and his son and heir Maurice in Ravenna; Pope Bonifacius III acknowledges Phocas’ authority on the West in exchange for the recognition of Roman primacy over Constantinople inside the Catholic Church

610 The Carthaginian rebel Heraclius the Young, son of the Exarch of Carthage Heraclius Crispus, sails towards Constantinople, where, welcomed as a hero, topples and kills Phocas the Tyrant

624 Spain’s Visigoths pass the Strait taking Septem/Sefta/Ceuta from the Byzantines and Tingis/Tangiers from local Mauretanians

638 Trying to compose the schism with the Monophysites in Syria and Egypt, the Byzantine emperor Heraclius adopts the Monotelist doctrine, harshly rejected both at home and in the West

648 The Byzantine emperor (basileus) Constans Pogonatos renounces Monotelism after its failure and rejection. The Byzantine Exarch of Carthage Gregorius rise in rebellion and has himself proclaimed Western Roman Emperor

649 The Arabs invade Byzantine Africa (Ifrigia/Punia) but the self-proclaimed Western Emperor Gregorius avoids direct confrontation abandoning his capital ai Sufetula/Sbeitla and barricading himself in Carthage, where the Arabs are soundly repelled

about 650 The Zenete Jarawa tribe, ruling the area of the Aurés massif (Numidia), converts en mass to Judaism

652 The Western Roman Emperor Gregorius occupies Sicily and relocates his capital to Siracusa, which he fortifies powerfully

653 Gregorius enters Rome and takes away Pope Martin I, saving him from the Byzantine emperor Constans’ henchmen. Ravenna Exarchate remains loyal to Constans

659 Paul of Samosata creates the Paulician heresy, dualist and Manichean. It will take root between Syria and Armenia, and later, in the Bogomil and Cathar versions, in the Sklavinias (*OTL Balkans), in southern France and North Africa

663 Byzantine basileus Constans Pogonatus plunges in Italy, besieges the Lombards in Benevento, erects Naples in Duchy, assaults and conquers Rome sacking it and deporting Pope Vitalianus in the Caucasus, then lays siege to Siracusa

665 After a two-year long siege basileus Constans of Byzantium captures Siracusa, slay Gregorius and his family, then puts there HIS OWN capital and proceeds to restore a resemblance of Byzantine authority at Carthage. Profiting of Byzantine internal striving in Sicily, king Grimoald of the Lombards conquers and half-destroys Rome

668 The hated basileus Constans is murdered at Siracusa, where Mezezios is crowned Western Roman Emperor

669 The Byzantine basileus Constantine IV crushes the revolt in Sicily and reestablishes Constantinople as the sole Imperial seat, frees Pope Vitalianus from his exile and installs him Siracusa. The Arabs invade Byzantine Ifrigia (*OTL Tunisia) and massacre its Christian people

670 The Arabs found Kairawan in Ifrigia

672 Once dead Pope Vitalianus in Siracusa, Adeodatus II is elected Pope in Rome under Lombard patronage

675 The Arab general Abu’l Muhajir invades Numidia, conquers Costantina and Stifa (*OTL Sétif) and defeats prince Koceila/Kusayla of Tilinsin (*OTL Tlemcen), who converts to Islam in order to have his life spared

682 The Arab governor Uqba bin Nafe, founder or Kairawan, reaches the Atlantic shores in Mauretania with his Muslim Arabo-Berber army, sacking and massacring on the route, but on his way back he must face the Christian revolt led by the prince of Tilinsin Koceila/Kusayla, who abjurated Islam; Koceila/Kusayla repels the invaders towards the desert, where Uqba bin Nafe is killed by Zenete raiders at Ghardaya. The Byzantines retake Rome from the Lombards

683 Koceila/Kusyla of Tilinsin invades Ifrigia and razes Kairawan

688 The Arabs led by Zuhayr defeat (*in OTL they KILLED him in battle) Koceila/Kusayla of Tilinsin at Kairawan and reconquer ifrigia (except Carthage and other Byzantine coastal fortresses)

695 The Arabs, upset at the destruction of Barce (Cyrenaica) by the Byzantines, take and raze Carthage

698 Decisive victory on the Arabs at Carthage by Byzantines and Numidians led by basileus Leontius and Koceila/Kusayla, which then proceed to destroy Kairawan once and for all annihilating the Arab army there. Ifrigia goes back to Byzantium, Koceila/Kusayla receives the title of Exarch of the Maurians

about 700 After Koceila/Kusayla’s death the Kahina, a Judeo-Berber female soothsayer of the Jarawa tribe already active in the anti-Arab struggle, becomes de facto the Queen of Northern African Berbers leading their victorious resistence against Spain’s Visigoths, and founds the so-calles Judeo-Christian Kahinid Exarchate (which arises some perplexity amongst the anti-Semite Byzantines)

709 Basileus Leontius the Saint defeats anew the Arabs at Matmata (Ifrigia). After long pressing by Byzantium, Pope Constantine bestows on the Archbishop of Carhage the title of Primate of Africa (*don’t laugh, please. That’s not a gorilla as Archbishop…)

711 Murder of Leontius and his fistborn *Sergius, just back in Constantinople after a four-year long absence; Leontius’ younger son *Tiberius IV assumes the imperial crown of the West at Siracusa whilst Byzantium plunges into civil war, quickly won by the Monotelite supporter Philippicus Bardane. The first Mauretanian mercenaries flock to Spain during a civil war (*not specified. Spain is far from completely outlined in my TL up to now)

712 Helped by Siracusan Western Byzantines the Kahina’s Berbers reconquer Septem/Sefta/Ceuta, thus ejecting the Visigoths from Africa

727 The Western Byzantine emperor *Tiberius IV denounces iconoclasm and has it solemnly condemned by a synod in Carthage

732 Donation of Sutri: Liutprand, king of the Lombards, marches upon Rome defeating *Tiberius IV’s forces, then meets Pope Gregorius III and makes act of contrition by ceding several lands and right in Tuscia (*OTL northern Lazio) to the Holy See in exchange for the Western Byzantine recognition of the Roman Duchy as a neutral territory under the Pope’s direct sovereignity

737-738 An attempted Visigoth invasion of Mauretania ends in an epic disaster amidst the mountains of the Rif

744 In the southern fringes of Mauretania proper the tribal confederation of the Berghawata takes shape

754 The early death of the infant *Maurice II at Siracusa estinguishes the Leontid dynasty on the Western Byzantine throne, sparking a long civil war amongst several pretenders to the crown

756 The strategos of Byzacena and pretender to the Western Byzantine throne *Marcianus Bulla crushes the last Muslim stronghold in Ifrigia at the battle of Midnatha (*don’t search for this, I’ve simply invented this last name). The North African berbers of the Kahinid Exarchate invade Visigoth Andalusia but are heavily routed in the battle of the Rio Grande (*OTL Guadalquivir, same meaning but in neo-Latin instead of Arab ;-) )

758 Muslims ousted from Ifrigia and local Islamicized Berbers found a Kharijite theocratic State in the Djebel Nefusah, south of Tripoli (Lybia), under Abu-l-Khattab Abd al-A'la ibn Assamh al-Ma'afiri

762 *Marcianus Bulla imposes himself as Western Byzantine emperor conquering Siracusa after killing *John Vivariotes in the battle of Lentini

767 Mauretania (*OTL Marocco) secedes from the Kahinid Exarchate under *Samuel I the Ulilite (his capital is Ulili [*OTL Volubilis, not abandoned in TTL]), a Christian convert discending of Spaniard Jews expelled by the Visigoths; the secession is supported and secured by the Berghawata army

772 Foundation of the Judeo-Berber kingdom of Sijilmasa (southwestern Mauretania), ruling the western wastes of the Zenete Desert (*OTL Sahara) and Mauretania Ultima (*OTL Mauritania)

784 The Maurians (*TTL Moroccans) conquer and pillage Tilinsin; the Kahinid Exarchate fragments into local Numidian petty kingdoms, under either Mauretanian or Western Byzantine influence

796-803 Jewish religious revolt in Numidia, centered on the messianic figure of *Isaac Reba. After submitting several towns and territories the rebels are crushed by the organized reaction of the Numidian states, led by the principate of Tahert

800 The Western Byzantine emperor *Leo Bulla sails towards Constantinople with his Siracusan fleet to topple the basilissa Irene, assassin of her son (sic!) and his brother-in-law Constantine VI, and reunify the Empire, but he’s thoroughly defeated and killed at Gallipoli leaving the Byzantine West without a ruler and prey to a new civil war. At Christmas Charlemagne, after forcing Pope Leo III to justify himself against his enemies’ charges, has himself crowned by the Pope as emperor of the Holy Roman empire (HRE) in Saint Peter at Rome, and fixes his own capital at Aquisgrana/Aaachen; loud protests by Constantinople and the warring pretender to the throne of Siracusa, which do not recognize Charlemagne’s new title

about 800 The Berghawata Maurians develop an own apocaliptic Judeo-Christian heretic doctrine based on the expectation of a Second Messiah to announce the end of times, and on the presence of a High Priest and a Temple they build in their religious center, Warzazata (*OTL Ouarzazate)

806 *Peter the Brigand, helped by Visigothic mercenaries, conquers Tilinsin (Numidia) from Mauretania. The Egyptian Omayyads, explotiting the raging civil war in the Byzantine West, invade and conquer Ifrigia and definitively destroy Carthage killing the self-proclaimed Byzantine Western emperor *Augustin of Malta; the Archbishop Primate of Africa *Maximus IV flees to Sicily

808 The Egyptian Omayyads found Tunis near the ruins of Carthage. Frankish and Lombard forces led by Pippin slay in the battle of Troina the last pretender to the imperial Western Byzantine throne of Siracusa, *Constantine Crisostratos; Sicily is annexed to the Carolingian Empire (HRE)

810 The Arabs of Ifrigia invade Numidia subduing several tribes and towns in the country

about 810 The preaching of *Saint Cassian of Hibernia, last of the Fathers of the Catholic Church, fovors use of local languages in the Christtian liturgy, and, in the following centuries, the graudal translation first of prayers, then of the Holy Texts themselves (*That’s quite revolutionary, and explains why in my TL people cling to its language or dialect even more harshly than in OTL, and the “major†languages can’t completely assimilate minor ones; my world is not simpler, but slightly MORE complex than ours)

812 With Visigothic help Peter the Brigand’s Numidians decisively defeat the Arabs, then on the site of the battle they build Cabilonica (*OTL Algiers, from the Greek: Victory of Cabilia)

819 King *Pippin of Sicily (OTL he was dead by now) secedes from a Carolingian Empire too divided to react

820 The Greater (or Earlier) Ifriqids of Tunis and Tripolitania secede from the Omayyad Caliphate of al-Fustat (Egypt)

about 825 The Greater Ifriqids gain suzerainity over all of Eastern Numidia

826 Death of King *Pippin of Sicily and war of succession in the island

827 Taking advantage of the succession struggle, the Greater Ifriqids invade Sicily under Khalid ibn Abdallah

829 A Byzantine fleet takes Siracusa and Messina

831 Khalid ibn Abdallah takes Siracusa and Palermo for the Greater Ifriqids

about 840 Saint Cyprian of Constantina completes the Christianization of the northern Zenetes, preventing the spreading of Islam

845 The Maurians (*TTL Moroccans), led by the Berghawata general *Simon of Arzaia, repel the last great Visigothic effort to conquer Mauretania by the king of Spain Theodoric, defeated and killed in the failed siege of Ulili

846 The Greater Ifriqids sack Rome; only the Vatican basilicas are spared. The Ifriqid fleet is later defeated at Punta Licosa by Duke Sergius of Naples

858 Salomon bar Yehuda founds the Berber Judeo-Christian kingdom of Cabilia amidst the mountains of northern central Numidia

870 The kingdom of Tilinsin (Western Numidia) is jointly conquered by *King David I of Mauretania, *King Joshua I of Cabilia and prince *Solomon II of Tahert

874 The Cabilians definitively stop Greater Ifriqid encroachment in Numidia in the battle of the Megirdia river (*OTL Medjerda)

878 The Greater Ifriqids take the Byzantine fortress of Taormina in Sicily

879 The Byzantine basileus Basil I the Great besieges and conquers Palermo and Siracusa crushing the Muslim power in Sicily

880 Basil I the Great conquers Malta, then lands in Ifrigia and annihilates the Greater Ifriqids at Sfakia (*OTL Sfax) restoring Byzantine domination in the area; *Ahmed bin Abd ar-Rahman reestablishes a post-ifriqid State at Tripoli (Lybia)

about 890 The Catholic Primate of Africa comes back to Ifrigia, with its see in Tunis, re-christened New Carthage

about 900 Christianity slowly replaces Judaism in the Zenete kingdom of Sijilmasa

912 The Byzantine strategos of Ifrigia *Gregorius Rantzas is defeated and killed by the Cabilian Numidians at Ippona/Bona

920 Queen *Tarkhane the Great of Cabilia reunifies all of Numidia by conquering Tahert and establishes the Tarkhanid Empire. The Byzantines finish off the Ifriqids conquering Tripoli (Lybia) but cannot advance further or even control Tripolitania itself

954 King *Roderic/Rodrigo VII of Visigothic Spain dies without issue: the subsequent civil war marks the end of a unified Visigothic kingdom of Spain

956 The Maurian chieftain of the Rif mountains *Rodrigo, born in Spairn, re-crosses the Strait leading an army of rebel Maurians, Zenetes and North African Jews. He invades Spain crushing in succession the two main remaining pretenders to the Visigothic crown of Toledo, *Luìs/Ludovic of Mérida and *Count Peter Berenger of Valencia, in the battles of the Frontera and of Linares. He then proceeds to conquer Toledo and Castilla whilst the remaining Visigothic forces withdraw to Galicia, Asturias and Catalunya. The place of the Maurian landing in Spain will be called after the conqueror Arx Roderici (Rodrigo’s Stronghold), whence the name of Arrodriga (*OTL Gibilterra)

971 The Fatimids conquer Lybia expelling the Byzantines from Tripoli and liquidate the Kharijite State of Djebel Nefusah (*In TTL, due to butterflies the Fatimids don’t rise from Tunisia but from Oman)

973 The Numidians of the Tarkhanid Empire destroy the Kingdom of Mauretania in the battle of Mighnasa (*OTL Meknés). Mauretania is partially annexed, the rest is fragmented into petty tribal/feudal statelets

976 The Numidian pirate *Yusf Garamma conquer the Balearic Islands

978 The Numidian Tarkhanids annihilate the Berghawata religious state in southern Mauretania: the heretics are slain, their Temple razed

979 Exploiting the weakness of Byzantium embroiled in civil war, the Fatimids easily conquer Ifrigia overwhelming the strategos John of Trinacria at Gavissa (*OTL Gafsa)

981 The Fatimids conquer Malta

982 The HRE emperor Otto II of Saxony first invades Byzantijne Puglia (Thema Langobardiae), then heads to Calabria to stem the stem the marauding Fatimids, but he’s heavily defeated at Stilo. The Tarkhanid Numidian invasion of Maurian Andalusia ends in a major defeat at Ronda

982-989 Fatimid conquest of Sicily; repeated Fatimid raids throughout Southern Italy

985 The Fatimids take Messina

989 With the fall of Taormina and Rametta at the hands of the Fatimids Sicily is cleared of Byzantine presence

990 The Ghana Empire conquers Awdaghost, commercial capital of the Zenetes of Mauretania Ultima (*OTL Mauritania)

996 Collapse of the Tarkhanid Empire of Cabilia/Numidia in the end of the three-sided civil war between the brothers *Donatus and *Cyprian, both claiming heritage, and the army commander *Bonus Massinissa

999 The Cabilian prince *Yoshua Lamzag, one the most powerful chieftains of post-Tarkhanid Numidia, routs the Fatimid invason in the battle of Bumerges

XI century C.E. The southern Zenetes, still partially heathen, dominate trade in “their†desert (*OTL Sahara)

1005 Secession of Sicily and Ifrigia from the Fatimid Shi’a Caliphate under the Sunni Lesser (pr Later) Ifriqids

1006 *Yoshua Lamzag dies fighting in inner struggles for power in Numidia

1015 The Lesser Ifriqids conquer Sardinia

1016 The Lesser Ifriqids, after sacking and definitively destroying Luni (Eastern Liguria), are thoroughly defeated and expelled from Sardinia in the battle of Bonifacio by the reunited fleets of Genoa, Pisa, Noli, Amalfi, Gaeta, Naples and the Papacy

1016-1017 The Christians of Ifrigia rise in rebellion against the Muslim Lesser Ifriqids, but are brutally crushed and expelled or deported to Numidia and Sicily

1018 King Augustin I of Maurian Andalusia crosses the Strait of Arrodriga (*OTL Gibraltar), defeats his rivals Donatus the Hindata and Rodrigo of Tangiers and is acknowledged as king of Mauretania

1023 The Lesser Ifriqids conquer Fatimid Tripolitania

1032 Sicily secedes from the Lesser Ifriqids under *Abdurrahman ibn-Musa al-Balermi

1038 The Byzantine general George Maniakes and the royal-stock Norwegian Harald Hardradi, with an army of Byzantine, Norse, Lombard, exiled Milanese and Norman troops, conquer Messina from the Sicilian Arabs and defeat them at Rametta

1040 Siege and conquest of Siracusa by the Byzantines

1043 George Maniakes completes the Byzantine reconquest of Sicily crushing the Arabs at Corleone

1045 George Maniakes annihilates the Lesser Ifriqids at Mamette (Ifrigia, *OTL Hammamet) thus reconquering Ifrigia and Malta for the Byzantine Empire; an indipendent sultanate under the Beni Khazran is founded at Tripoli (Lybia)

1050-1054 The Zenetes retake Awdaghost (Mauretania Ultima, *OTL Mauritania), risen to rival with Ghanaian capital Kumbi, thus starting a long struggle

1054 The town of Costantina imposes the Foedus Africae (sort of city-state federation) against the rising power of the local version of feudalism in Numidia. The Rodrigan dynasty of the Kings of Andalusia and Mauretania goes extinct at the death of Augustin II; Andalusia fragments in a dozen of local states ruled by Mauro-Hispanic and Jewish former generals, amongst whom Sevilla and Valencia are the most powerful, whilst the Maurian tribes and nobility reach an agreement electing the Archbishop of Ulili *Peter Thaddeus as Archbishop-King of Mauretania

1056 Following the struggle against Ghana, the Zenetes in Mauretania Ultima found the Zenete Confederation under the leadership of the Christian Tertullian Tezerke, starting a “crusade†for the Christianization of the remaining heathen tribes (*OTL this was the Almohad Revolution)

1059 The Zenete Confederation takes and razes Sijilmasa, thus putting an end to the local three-century old Judeo-Berber kingdom

about 1060 The Egyptian Fatimids expel the Banu Hilal to Lybia; this country will be almost wholly Arabicized by this wave of invaders

1061 Roger de Hauteville’s Normans conquer Messina from the Byzantines starting the long struggle for Sicily

1062 The Zenete Confederation invades southern Mauretania and founds Marrakesh as its own new capital. The Banu Hilal Arabs take Tripoli (Lybia) setting up there an own emirate

1063 Roger de Hauteville heavily defeats Byzantine forces at Cerami (Sicily)

1070 The Zenete Confederation completes the conquest of Mauretania by taking Ulili; the coastal towns on the Strait of Arrodriga (Tangiers and Sefta/Ceuta) give themselves to the Kingdom of Granada

1072 Robert the Guiscard conquers Palermo for the Normans

1074 Byzantine victory over the Normans at Castrogiovanni/Enna (Sicily)

1075 The Byzantine strategos of Africa (Ifrigia) Nikephoros Botaniates routs the Banu Hilal invasion of Christian North Africa in the battle of Tebessa. The Genoese conquer Cabilonica (*OTL Algiers)

1076 The Zenete Confederation sacks Kumbi, capitale of Ghana, thus starting the slow decline of the Ghana Empire, now under Zenete suzerainity, whilst the African gold trade routes move eastwards favoring Muslim traders from Lybia and Egypt

1078 The Normans conquer the Byzantine Sicilian stronghold of Taormina

1081 Heavy Byzantine defeat at the hands of the Normans at Catania (Sicily)

1086 Norman conquest of Siracusa. The Zenete Confederation led by its priest-king *Augustin Tezerke invades Maurian Andalusia, razes Sevilla and forces all the remaing post-andalusian statelets to pay feudal homage; Castilla exploits the moment to retake Toledo and installing its capital there

1087 The Normans rip Castrogiovanni/Enna (Sicily) off Byzantine hands. Normans and Pisans sack New Carthage (*OTL Tunis)

1090 The Norman capture of Noto marks the final conquest of Sicily and the expulsion of Byzantium from its last Italian possession

1091 Roger de Hauteville’s Normans take Malta, New Carthage and Byzantine Ifrigia

1098 A Berber crusading army is annihilated by the Banu Hilal in the battle of Nalut (Tripolitania)

about 1100 Spreading of Catharism to Christian North Africa, especially in Mauretania

1124-1138 Mauretania: “crusade†for conversion to Catharism by the followers of *Stephen of Gadir (OTL there was the Almoravid revolution)

1130 Roger II is crowned King of Sicily and Ifrigia in Palermo

1135 The weakened Ghana Empire manages to get rid of Zenete suzerainity

1138 *Stephen of Gadir overthrows the Zenete Confederation in the battle of the White Fortress and founds the Cathar Gadirote Empire in Mauretania

1144 The Cathar Gadirotes crush the Foedus Africae force at the battle of Urania (*OTL Orano/Wahran) causing the final collpase of the already shaky confederation; the former hegemones of the Foedus Africae, the princes of Costantina, put themselves under Sicilian Norman protection

1146 Pope Eugenius III and Saint Bernard of Clairvaux proclaim the Second crusade against the Turks of Syria and the Cathar Gadirotes of Mauretania

1147 In a preemptive move, The Cathar Gadirotes invade and conquer Andalusia starting an extremely harsh clash with the Catholic kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula

1148 The Castillans successfully resist the Gadirote siege of Toledo. The Sicilian Normans impose their suzerainity over most of Numidia

1149 The Gadirotes take Valencia and defeat a Frankish-Catalan crusader army at Teruel

1150 The Catholic crusade against the Gadirotes in North Africa is stemmed in the battle of Taorirt

1152 The Count of Portugal Rodrigo Gomes defeats the Maurian Gadirotes at Cascais and proclaims himself Most Catholic King in the newly-conquered Lisbon; the Gadirotes are also beaten in their failed siege of Zaragoza (Aragon). Genoa is expelled by her coastal possessions in Numidia at the hands of the Sicilian Normans

1155 The Sicilian Normans conquer Tripoli (Lybia)

1174 The Earlier Mameluks of Egypt retake Tripoli (Lybia) from the Normans and vassalize the Banu Hilal

1179 The Third Lateran Council in Rome renews the anathema against the Cathars

1180 The Cathar Gadirote Empire in Mauretania is toppled by the anti-heretic revolution of the Catholic Rifawa led by *Paul Iron Cross, who conquer Marrakesh and exterminate the Cathars from Spain to Numidia and Mauretania Ultima; many Cathars flee to Languedoc (southern France). *Augustine the Zenete reestablishes the Kingdom of Cabilia (central northern Numidia) in the wake of the decline of Siculo-Norman influence in Numidia

about 1180-1250 Grave religious turmoil throughout Christian North Africa: Cathar insurrections and guerrilla, massacre of the Muslim communities

1186 The Holy Roman Empire (HRE) inherits by way of marriage Norman Southern Italy, Sicily and Ifrigia

1187 The King of Cabilia *Augustin the Zenete conquers Tilinsin (*OTL Tlemcen) from the Maurian Rifawa

1189 After the death of King William II of Sicily and Ifrigia, the local Normans elect Tancredi of Lecce to avoid the succession of the HRE heir Henry VI, son-in-law of William II

1191 the HRE emperor Henry VI von Hohenstaufen crushes his rival for the throne of Sicily and Ifrigia Tancredi of Lecce

1194 Once overrun the last resistance, Henry VI has himself crowned King of Sicily and Ifrigia in Palermo

1197 The Earlier Maeluks invade and conquer Ifrigia; HRE emperor and king of Sicily and Ifrigia Henry VI dies of illness while vainly besieging New Carthage

1198 On the death of his mother Constance de Hauteville, little Frederick II of Swabia, son of Henry VI, has the new Pope Innocentius III as tutor

 

[basileus]

Continuation through the XIII and XIV centuries C.E.

1211 Swabian/Sicilian and Genoese forces reconquer New Carthage from the Earlier Mameluks. Frederick II of Swabia, Sicily and Ifrigia, now newly supported by his tutor Pope Innocentius III, is elected as HRE emperor

1212 The Maurian Rifawa army of Spain is defetaed by Castilla in the great battle of Cuenca. The Cabilian fleet is defeated by the Pisans at Formentera

1218 Fifth Crusade: a great European crusader army led by HRE emperor Frederick II of Swabia, Sicily and Ifrigia and the King of France Philippe II Auguste conquers Egypt crushing the Earlier Mameluk Sultan al-Kamil’s forces in the battles of Damietta, Rosetta, Giza and al-Faiyum. Egypt is given as a fief to the Templar Order, which reaches the apogee of its power

1219 Frederick II takes Jerusalem and assumes the local crown

1221 Fall of Tripoli (Lybia) at the hands of the Genoese; the interior of Lybia remains in the hands of the local Muslim Arabo-Berber tribes, which will annihilate some attempts to penetrate the region from Egypt by the Templars

1226 Frederick II definitively crushes Muslim power in Ifrigia, from now on firmly Christian land. The last Cathars of Languedoc, abandoned by their former patron Count Raymond VIII of Toulouse, scatter from the Pyrenees to Lombardy and North Africa (Numidia), but their epoch is nearing the end

1228 HRE emperor Frederick II expels all the Muslims from Sicily and Malta, and install his loyal Saracen guard at Lucera and Nocera (Southern Italy)

1229 *John the Pious wins the civil war in Numidia and proclaims the kingdom of Greater Cabilia (a name that will impose over the classical one of Numidia for a couple centuries)

1238 The Kingdom of Granada secedes from the Maurian Rifawa Empire

1239 After years of “cold war†between the Papacy and the Empire, Pope Gregory IX excommunicates the HRE Emperor Frederick II (despite his immense successes against Muslims and his fanatic persecution of heretics)

1241 Frederick II assaults and conquers Rome and the Papal lands, and adds Tuscany to the HRE domains ripping it off the Guelph Marquis *Alberico II of Canossa; the Church reacts by forming an exiled antiimperial papal cour at Lyon. Gregory IX and his successor Celestine IV die there, and the Papacy experiences a two-year long vacancy

1243 At Anagni, near Rome, The Genoese of Ghibelline family Sinibaldo Fieschi is elected Pope as Innocentius IV

1244 Destruction of the Maurian Rifawa Empire by *Alphonse the Clement, Duke of Morocco/Marrakesh. Pope Innocentius IV flees again to Lyon to avoid a very presumed menace by Frederick II

1245 The Council of Lyon, summoned to reunify the Church, again excommunicates HRE emperor
Frederick II (accused of favoring the 1244 sack of Jeruslaem by the Syrian post-Chorasmians!)

1247 The Maurian *Cauta colonizes and Christianizes the Canary Islandes by meddling with local Guanche politics and carving an own kingdom at Gran Canaria

1250 *Alphons the Clement is crowned king of Morocco (all Mauretania) at Marrakesh. With Frederick II’s death the last great Medieval emperor of the West vanishes

1250-1254 Manfredi, stepbrother of the new HRE emperor Conrad IV von Hohenstaufen and natural son of Frederick II, defends Southermn Italy, Sicily and Ifrigia from Papal greed

1257 King *Alphonse I the Clement of Morocco subdues the Canary Islands at *Cauta’s death and definitively Christianizes the local Guanches

1258 Manfredi has himself crowned as King of Sicily and Ifrigia at Palermo, and is immediately excommunicated by Pope Alexander IV

1261 Hulagu Khan takes Damietta and devastates Alexandria, criushing Crusader power in Egypt; massacre of the Egyptian Copts at the ahnds of the Muslims, part of Egypt’s Christians flees to safety (the Great Exile to Nubia and Ethiopia)

1263 Manfredi crushes the last Muslim insurrection in southern Ifrigia at Sfakia (*OTL Sfax)

1266 Charles of Anjou conquers Southern Italy and Sicily with the benediction of the new Pope, the French Clement IV, by defeating and killing Manfredi at the battle of Benevento (Campania)

1268 Charles of Anjou conquers Ifrigia; Conradine of Swabia, son of former HRE emperor Conrad IV, formal titular King of Jerusalem and legitimate pretender to the HRE crown, called in Italy by the Ghibelline party, retakes Naples and Southern Italy

1269 16 yo Conradine of Swabia is defeated and decapitated by Charles of Anjou at the battle of Eboli (Campania), thus forever ending the Hohenstaufen imperial house

1270 Last Latin/Frankish Crusade led by King Louis IX the Saint of France and his brother Charles of Anjou: Louis IX dies in battle at Heliopolis with his other brother Tristan, Charles of Anjou comes to terms with the Ilkhan Mongols and comes back to Italy, forcing Genoa to cede Tripoli (Lybia) to him as a fine for hosting the last cathar bishop of Toulouse, Bernard Oliba

1274 Abahai Khan of the Ilkhans converts to Mazdeism and proclaims himself Shah-in-Shah of Persia. Morocco, once subjugated the Zenete tribes of Mauretania Ultima, tries to invade the Christian Djolof Empire of Senegal but is heavily defeated

1275 Greater Cabilia rips the Rif off Morocco

1280 The Ilkhans conquer Tripoli (Lybia) from Charles of Anjou, thus making the westernmost amongst the unbelievable conquests of Gengis Khan’s descendandts’ conquest s, and definitively chase the Crusaders fro the Middle East with reduction of Acre.

1281 Anjou-Papal-Serbo-Bulgarian alliance against Byzantium, which replies by binding herself with Aragon and Greater Cabilia

1282 Vespri Siciliani: the great rebellion of Sicily against the Anjou spreads from Palermo throughout the island, with both Byzantine and Aragonese support; King Peter III of Aragon, son-in-law of Manfredi, is crowned King of Sicily and Ifrigia in Palermo

1285 On his death King Peter III of Aragon leaves to his sons Alphonse III and James II Aragon and Sicily-Ifrigia respectively

about 1290 Ilkhanid Egypt makes himself half-independent under the local Muslim military governors of Cumanian stock (the Later Mameluks)

1291 The Genoese Vivaldi brothers and Jacopo Doria circumnavigate Africa from the Canary islands but are killed in Somalia and no news return to Europe. The King of Sicily and Ifrigia James II reunifies Aragonese possessions on the death of his brother Alphonse III of Aragon

1293 The Aragonese beat the Anjou in the great naval battle of Pantelleria and definitively secure their power on Ifrigia

1296 Pope Bonifacius VIII, being Corsica and Sardinia under Papal suzerainity since 754, creates a Kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica under James II’ Aragonese “protection†in exchange for the restitution of Sicily and Ifrigia to the Anjou, but the Sicilians say no and crown as king Frederick of Aragon, thus starting an own Aragonese dynasty

about 1300 The Christian Djolof Empire of Senegal rules from Mauretania Ultima up to Guinea and the Niger’s springs, conflicting the Muslim Empire of Mali

1301 New Carthage, the last isolated Anjou possession in Ifrigia, is conquered by the Aragonese

1302 Peace of Caltabellotta between the Anjou and Aragon: Sicilia and Ifrigia remain under Frederick of Aragon as Kingdom of Trinacria and Africa, whilst Southern Italy and Naples remains to the Anjou retaining the name and title of Kingdom of Sicily

1307 The French pope Clement V, a puppet in the hands of the King of France Philip IV the Handsome, orders the arrest of the Templar Knights and the confiscation of their huge trasures in favor of the Dominicans (actually, Philip will pocket the money). Many Templars manage to flee to safety in North Africa

1310 Greater Cabilia is reduced to vassal state by Aragon

1312 The Synod of Vienne (France) dissolves the Templar Order, which is absorbed by the Hispotaliers; part of the Templars, in hate to the renegade and traitor Papacy, pass to the Akritai Order in Anatolia

1318-1323 Harsh war between the Christian Djolof Empire of Senegal and Muslim Mali for supremacy in Guinea; in the end the Senegale prevail with help from tne Zenetes in the battles of Labé (Guinea) and Nara (Mali)

1318-1334 The Great African War: Aragon, Venice and Morocco vie against Genoa, France, Greater Cabilia (rebel to Aragonese suzerainity) and Byzantium for control over Ifrigia

1319 The insurrection of the Sunni Mameluks under the Sultan of Assuan Nasir ed-Din Mohammed frees Egypt from the Ilkhanid yoke, establishing the Later Mameluk Empire; Tripolitania reverts to the Banu Hilal Arab tribe

1323-1345 The Egyptian ibn-Battuta, the Muslim Marco Polo, visits the Mali Empire, India, China, Central Asia

1325 Hajj (pilgrimage) of Mali Mansa (emperor) Musa I at Mecka. Sucha are the riches in gold spent by the splendid sovereign on his route that in Egypt inflation rises sharply, whilst the Christian nation begin to take interest in Black Africa

about 1330-1340 The heathen Mossi of the Kingdom of Yatenga (Upper Volta) sack Timbuktu and hold it for ten years, the are chased back by Mali, which puts there its capital

1334 After may years of raging battles by land and sea the Great African War ends with the acknowledgement of Ifrigia as Kingdom, vassal of Genoa, under *David I of Megirdia. Genoa cedes Smyrne to Byzantium but holds control on Biserta, Tabarka and Tripoli (Lybia), Aragon keeps Malta

1335-1338 The civil war of Morocco marks the end of the Alphonsine dynasty

1338 Duke *Roger of Sefta/Ceuta of the powerful Adamite clan, winner of the Moroccan civil war, founds the Adamite kingdom in Morocco

about 1350 The heathen Fulani (Peul, Fulbe) nomads of Senegal, in order to flee from Christian pressure, begin a long migration towards the interior along the Niger river, becoming a common presence throughout Western black Africa. The Tuaregs (southeastern Zenetes converted to Islam instead of Christianity) conquer the Air region in northern Niger (*OTL State, not the river!) subduing and Islamicizing the local Hausa people

1351 The Genoese discover the San Siro archipelago (*OTL Madeira, uninhabited) and claim it for their Republic

1354 The Aragonese take Tripoli (Lybia) from Genoa

1367 Count Amadeus VI of Savoy, in a personal Crusade, conquers Cyrenaica from the Later Mameluks of Egypt and cedes it to Saint John’s Knights

1360 The Moroccan Adamites conquer and overthrow Greater Cabilia

1380 Augustin IV the Greatof the Adamites conquers Ifrigia and rips Biserta and Tabarka off Genoese hands, reunifying Christian North Africa for the first time in almost a millennium, and proclaims the Empire of Africa moving his capital in Tilinsin (*OTL Tlemcen). Queen Mary of Sicily, after a failed attempt to kidnap her, marries *Carlo del Seprio, brother of the Duke of Milan *Alessandro del Seprio

1381 The Egyptian Later Mameluks reconquer Tripoli (Lybia) and Cirenaica

1396 A Crusade against the Later Mameluks of Egypt proclaimed by the Empire of Africa alone aborts after the battles of Sabratha (Tripolitania) and Jaffa (Palestine). An African-Genoese-Sicilian fleet repels King Martino I of Aragon’s attempt to retake Sicily in the battle of the Egadi Islands; the Empire of Africa gains Malta and suzerainity over Sicily (this last thing opens a quarrel with the Roman Papacy)

1399 Portugal takes San Siro (*OTL Madeira) from Genoa

 

[basileus]

the XVth century

XVth century C.E. Definitive Christianization of the Southern Zenetes, except the tribes in the Ténéré desert, the Tuaregs, already Islamicized

1407-1408 Civil war in Sicilia following Queen Mary’s death. Her son from her first marriage and legitimate heir, Martin, kills his stepfather *Carlo del Seprio and his stepbrother *Federico but is overrun and killed at Mazara del Vallo by *Augustin V’s African imperial army: Sicily is directly annexed to the Empire of Africa

1409 Guilhem III of Narbonne, judge (king) of Arborea (western Sardinia), offers his land in vassalage to the Emperor of Africa *Augustin V

1412 The Empire of Africa takes Tripoli (Lybia) from the Later Mameluks

1413 The African explorer *Mascizel Tarhuna discovers the Azores Islands

1422 When Guilhem III of Arborea dies without issue the Aragonese of King Alphonse V invade Sardinia, but they are thoroughly crushed at the battle of Sanluri by African imperial forces, and the island is directly annexed to the Empire of Africa, now openly in war with the Spanish kingdoms for influence both in The Mediterranean and the Atlantic

1424 The united fleets of Aragon, Portugal and Castilla decisively smash the African Imperial one at the battle of San Isidro del Desierto (*OTL Lanzarote, Canary Islands)

1428 Peace of Granada between Aragon, Castilla, Portugal, Milan/Genoa and The Empire of Africa. Sicily and Tripoli (Lybia) go to Aragon, Genoa gains Malta, Sardinia is carved between the Empire of Africa (Cagliari), Aragon (Alghero, Sassari, Oristano), the Papal States (Gallura) and Genoa (Carloforte, Iglesias), whilst Castilla gains the Canary Islands

1433 The Christian Southern Zenetes led by Akil conquer Timbuktu, Gao and all of Mauretania Ultima (*OTL Mauritania) founding the so-called Kingdom of the Infidel Marauders; Mali, gravely weakened, has to move its capital from Timbuktu to Niani, loses lands even in the south to the Upper Volta Mossis and loses former suzerainity over several local States in the area

1434 The Portuguese Gil Eannes is the first European to go beyond Cape Bojador (Atlantic Zenetia, *OTL Western Sahara)

1442-1443 Alphonse V’s Aragonese, with the instrumental help of Seprian (*Milanese) forces led by the Condottiero Niccolò Piccinino and official support by Pope Eugenius IV, besiege and take Naples from the Anjou reunifying alla of Southern Italy for the first time from 1282

1445 Thanks to the Venetian seafarer Alvise Cadamosto the Portuguese make contact with the Christian Djolof Empire of Senegal and begin the black slave trade (*slavery exists despite Christianity, for heathens and Muslims or “renegade†Christians, read disloyal subjects...) from the Island of Gorèe

1447 The Aragonese wipe away the African Imperial forces in Sardinia at the battle of Decimomannu and buy Gallura from the Papacy in exchange for abandoning their support of the Anti-Pope Felix V (Felix of Savoy), thus reunifying all of Sardinia under their domination

1448 The Kingdom of Granada recognizes African imperial suzerainity

about 1455 The Mossi of Upper Volta sack Walata (Mauretania Ultima) thus reaching their northernmost expansion beyond the Niger river

1456 The Venetian Alvise Cadamosto discovers the Capo Verde Archipelago fro the Portuguese crown

1458 When King Alphonse V of Aragona dies, his kingdom is divided between his two sons: Aragon and Sicily go to John, Naples to Ferdinand (nicknamed Ferrante the Bastard); civil war erupts at once between the two, with the feudal barons of Southern Italy supporting John

1462 Ferdinand/Ferrante of Naples defeats the rebel barons and his stepbrother John of Aragon and Sicily in the battle of Sarno, thus obtaining uncontested domination over Naples and Southern Italy

1464 A last attempt by John of Aragon and Sicily to recover Naples is crushed in the naval battle of Ischia

1468 The Songhais of Gao take Timbuktu from the Zenetes, putting an end to the Infidel Marauders kingdom

1469 Reunification of Spain with the marriage between Isabel of Castlla and Ferdinand of Aragon

1480 A Byzantine army conquers Otranto, Gallipoli and Taranto (Puglia) taking advantage of the turmoil in the kingdom of Naples; the Italian States sign a hasty peace at Rovigo, by which Venice recovers Bergamo and Monselice and the Canossa acknolewdge the independence of Florence. Final collapse of the Empire of Africa because of the succession war between Empress Flavia’s sons and ethno-religious strife; from the chaos rise anew the three national kingdoms of Morocco (under the Berghanti dynasty), Greater Cabilia/Numidia (under the Princes of Costantina) and Ifrigia/Punia (under the Dukes of Mamette [*OTL Hammamet]) and the Zenete principality of Tuggurt. The Upper Volta Mossi again sack Walata (Mauretania Ultima)

1481 Great anti-Byzantine alliance between the Italian States (with the important exception of Venice, under blackmail), The HRE, the Papacy and Hungary. The great battle of Capua between the Italian coalition led by King *Francis of Orléans-Adria and the Byzantines under the command of general *John Kastrioti is bloody and indecisive, but the King of Hungary Matthia Corvinus goes on the offensive occupying Bosnia and defeating at Lazarevac (Serbia) the Byzantines, noew forced to evacuate Southern Italy

about 1485 King Saul I of Mauria sends the Maurian fleet along the African coast on the Portuguese route up to the Gulf of Guinea

1492 The Genoese Cristoforo Colombo “re-discovers†America (*it’s a long story I still haven’t written) for the Spanish crown, touching the Bahams, Cuba and Hispaniola (Sabnto Domingo/Haiti). The Mauro-Spanish kingdom of Granada is conquered by Spain, which again expels its own Jews to North Africa

1495 The Maltese scholar *Alessandro Grande proposes the use of the names Punia, Numidia and Mauria to replace Ifrigia, Greater Cabilia and Marocco; the use is widely accepted even in popular use in a matter of decades

1497 The Ragusean (*from Dubrovnik) *Matteo Dunavcich explores the Lesser Antilles for both Ragusa/Dubrovnik and Mauria. The Spaniards conquer Melilla (Mauria, on the Med)

1498 The Maurians rip the island of Bioko/Fernando Poo poff Portuguese hands