Planet of Hats
Donor
Oh, plagues will be entirely different; the human factor in their movement absolutely changes with butterflies.
Moonlight in a Jar: An Al-Andalus Timeline
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No one has. It's a chaotic system. Hence the butterfly effect. Worldwide climate may obey understandable trends, but meteorological formations are only predictable on short duration and using previous readings as a base.
On the other hand, it's easier to avoid errors in logic by sticking to OTL events for anything big enough to impact more than a handful of people.
With the slaves in control of politics and day to day running, do they also control the religious stuff the Caliph does or does said random caliph have some freedom of that.
Also how is the client state (ifrinids) in morroco dealing with the saqaliba, the saqaliba haven't replaced them with other slave admin people, and their loyalty is to the caliph not them.
Also how is the client state (ifrinids) in morroco dealing with the saqaliba, the saqaliba haven't replaced them with other slave admin people, and their loyalty is to the caliph not them.
Planet of Hats
Donor
The Saqaliba give the Caliph more or less free rein in matters spiritual; they've positioned themselves, however, as executors of his wishes, especially in matters concerning the budget. The various Slavic hajibs have little interest in dictating matters of faith so much as in preserving the unity of Andalusia and ensuring people stay in line behind the rightful Caliph.
The Maghreb is a little divided but the Ifranids side with the Caliphate more or less loyally, in part because they'd rather the al-Mutahirin not eat them.
Planet of Hats
Donor
They're coming. The Qaidids and Zirids were somewhat easier targets because of the atrophying of Fatimid support.
It'll be fun to see Al-Andalus put the smack down (hopefully) on the ITTL version of what is quickly becoming one of my least favorite muslim dynasties in the medieval period.
But yeah that makes sense. I bet they are also intending on somehow conquering Al-Andalusia as well with how fucking insane they are.
But yeah that makes sense. I bet they are also intending on somehow conquering Al-Andalusia as well with how fucking insane they are.
ACT IV Part I: Al-Andalus at the Onset of the 12th Century
Planet of Hats
Donor
Excerpt: Travels Afar in the Latin World and the Lands Beyond - Everart of Rouen, AD 1117
Note from Dr. Mirza: Everart of Rouen was a Norman merchant born in the city of Rouen sometime around the year 1050. Everart seems to have had a very interesting life at a time when most Christians did not leave their villages; he traveled much of the European and Mediterranean world, visiting both Christian and Muslim ports of call. While much of his work, often simply called Everart's Travels, concerns his time in Venice, Genoa and Constantinople, Everart's account also includes the time he spent in Iberia near the dawn of the 12th century, where he was asked by the Norman King to deliver a letter to the Caliph in Cordoba, and provides an interesting look at the Christian perspective on al-Andalus in the early days of the Lateran Wars.
From Santiago our party went on towards the southeast, and followed the road towards the Duero. Now there are few great cities and forts one can stop at along the way, for in truth the land of Hispania is a sparsely-developed one, and indeed, as we descended into the vale to the north of the Duero, beheld a vast emptiness of land, where woodlands and wild beasts ruled much of the land, and the few villages dotting it were small places.
It is said that these lands are so sparsely populated because, many generations ago, they were the lands of the Moors, and those people did retreat to the south and leave much of this vale absent of inhabitants. And yet, the return of men of the faith here has been slow, though not for want of good land, for there was much of it that we beheld as we followed the road southward, on towards the river crossing.
We crossed the Duero by the town called Salamanca, which is one of the larger in this area, and where the knights led by Anquetil de Guichainville had come to settle after safeguarding these townsfolk from the blandishments of the Gallaecian pretenders. These knights had constructed new fortifications and made safe the settlement, and the people prospered greatly here. Here we met Anquetil himself, and he welcomed our caravan with a great feast, and told us of the building he planned to do, for indeed in those days the city was ruled by men of our land, and well away from what argument remained in the mountains of the Leonese.
On the next morn we set off once again and made our way to the south. There we crossed through the central mountains, which are somewhat perilous and with some routes rather poorly-marked. On the way we encountered a party of Moors on horseback, who questioned us harshly as to our purpose there, but allowed us to continue on our way when convinced strongly enough of our deference, though they dispatched two of their number to ride with us. And we descended with them from the mountains into a new town which is called Manzora[1], where we stopped for respite.
It must be pointed out that while we speak of the Moors, there are in fact two types of them, and they are quite different. Those Moors who met us in the mountains were of the type most familiar to us: They are blacks,[2] and they dwell in the countryside, and are prodigious riders of horses. This manner of Moor comes of course from Mauretania, and he is a skilled rider of horses and a thrower of javelins, and almost always a stern and hard man of battle. In his carriage he seems every bit a warrior, though with a way to him unlike the knights of our kind.
The other manner of Moor is much unlike the black Moors. These are the White Moors, and they are fair, though it is said that many have married with the Moors themselves and can cross between the two races or appear as either. In truth these White Moors speak and dress much like their dark brothers, and some are merchants by nature. We saw many of them as we rode through Manzora, some of them with the carriage of fighting men, others plying their trades. We saw some few of their women, but mostly the men, who viewed us with some suspicion but nevertheless sold to us.
While there, we met a Moor who told us that he and his people had lived here all of their lives. It is, in truth, said that the White Moors are descended of those Goths who betrayed the cross and surrendered their lands to the infidel, and that they adopted the ways of the Saracens far to the east and now worship Mahomet. And yet, among them live the Goths who remain Christians, though in truth we met few of them, and those we met spoke the tongue of the Moors and wore their garbs, and they lived among the Moors with little complaint and even paid their tribute to the King of the Moors every year.
From Manzora we rode southward, into the more populous parts of the Moorish lands, where we encountered hostelries where we made respite in the evenings. Each of these is most well-appointed, with fountains where it is said the Moors must wash themselves regularly in tribute to their god. Soon we arrived at a city called Merida, on the river they call the Guadiana. This city is home to an old aqueduct, and it is said it is older even than the Moors or the Goths. Here we met an old Christian man who told us that it was a miraculous aqueduct, and that it brought good fortune to their city.[3] When we left in the morning, we bore to the southeast, towards that ridgeline known as the Moorish Mountains, beyond which lies the capital of the Moors.[4]
Beyond the Moorish Mountains, we beheld the city the Moors call Cordoba, and descended into it. In splendour this city is no less great than even Constantinople, and no less vast in its peopling, though they are all Moors, save of course for the Christians and the Jewry, whose temples and holy places can be seen among the holy places of the Mahometans. Here as well you can find many of their number wearing garments of indigo, for the Moors cultivate it, though it is most rare beyond the sea lanes. As we made our accommodations, I met a merchant whose name was Saul, and he was a Jew, and I arranged for a caravan of fine indigo to be made ready for the time of our departure, for one can make a substantial profit arriving home with such fine wares, yet seldom few are the merchants who travel past the mountains these days.
The ways of the Moors are quite different from the ways of the Christian, though it must be said that those Christians I met seemed healthy and hale, and went to their churches with none speaking ill of it. And indeed, it seems their lives here are peaceful, and that they even have their own bishops. Now the Moors are quite different in their ways, for in our lands, it is the tradition for the ruler of the kingdom to be invested of his power by the will of the pontiff of Rome, and though the king may rule by sanction of God, the voice of God is ensconced at the seat of Rome. The Moor is different, for the King of the Moors is also called Caliph, which is also high priest, and so the voice of worship is never separated from the voice of the throne.
Perhaps, though they are heretics and infidels, there is something to this way, for the people were happy and prosperous, and their realm well-protected by soldiers accoutred much like great knights - they are Slavonic, and the Moors speak of them, strangely, as both servants and overseers, for they are the servants of the King of the Moors, and taught all their lives to hear his will and carry it out. It is both the will of the church and the king at once that they safeguard.
Some among us privately did envy this state of affairs, even hearing word as we did of the feuding between the Emperor and the Bishop of Rome, and we despaired of the disunity that must needs follow from it.
Excerpt: The Most Unlikely Palm: How Medieval Andalus Survived and Thrived - Ibrahim Alquti, Falconbird Press, AD 2012
It can fairly be said that the Lateran Wars were the period which marked the divergent trajectories of much of Europe. The last decade of the 11th century, on into the 12th, would cut a stark dividing line between a backward, divided Christian world and a rising Muslim world, with powerful cities and populous lands coming into Muslim hands and Christendom becoming ever more fractured into competiting polities. More than anything, this trend ensured the continued survival of Islam in Iberia, together with the Rule of the Slaves.
The election of Amalric of Cambrai as Pope Urban II in 1083 triggered six years of grinding civil war as Holy Roman Emperor Hermann II - crowned by an antipope, excommunicated by Urban, and dealing with a rebellion among his Italian vassals - sought to impose his prerogative upon Rome. The grinding conflict saw Hermann defeated in 1089 in his siege of Milan, most of the Lombards coming down against him and exhausting his forces, then pushing the exhausted imperial army back towards the north. With his vassals restive and churchmen across the realm grumbling, Hermann agreed later that year to the Peace of St. Gallen, in which the Antipope John XXI was deposed and returned to his see, the Emperor recognizing Urban as the rightful Pope. However, the issue was far from over: Hermann continued to claim lordship over Italy despite the unwillingness of many of the Italians to be governed by him, particularly the powerful lords of Tuscany and Spoleto. And Hermann continued to expect Urban to bow to his wishes - an insistence which would put Pope and Emperor at odds for years to come.
In Andalusia, meanwhile, matters were rather more peaceful, with the Saqaliba entrusted mainly with the rooting out and unlanding of those remaining forces opposed to the current state of affairs, nominally in the name of the regnant Umayyad Caliph, Abdullah II. In fact administrative power continued to lie in the hands of Wahb, though by 1089 he was growing older and beginning to move to set up his first son, 'Ayyash - the future Mu'ayyad al-Din - to succeed him. He quickly paired his son up with one of the more successful Saqliba military leaders, the commander named Al-Hasan ibn Salafumir, and set to work building political support for the pair.
The support of Al-Hasan, who had married one of Wahb's daughters, saw 'Ayyash quickly accepted as the heir apparent, the young man taking to his father's teachings relatively well. This process of grooming an heir early on would give al-Andalus needed political stability, though in truth the hierarchical nature of the Saqaliba power structure made things a little easier.
The al-Andalus of the last decade of the 11th century was one in which the potential of native Andalusi Muslims, long constrained by Umayyad ideas about the supremacy of Arabs, gradually reached its full flower. The 12th century would mark something of a high age for the region, with Andalusi artists, merchants, poets and inventors pushing the frontiers of culture and science.
Truthfully, the most dire threat to Andalusia at this time came not from the Christians - Leon still paralyzed by war with the Normans of the nascent Kingdom of Santiago, themselves grappling with Gallaecian baronial rebellions - but from their fellow Muslims. By 1090, the Zirids of Ifriqiya had been badly beaten by the radical sect known as the al-Mutahirin - a fanatical Berber group obsessed with ritual and cultural purity. With aid from the Fatimids not forthcoming as the Shia Caliph struggled with the fallout of famine in his own realm, the Zirids sought peace with the al-Mutahirin, converting back to Sunni and removing the name of the Fatimid Caliph from the khutbah.
In the summer of 1090, the al-Mutahirin began to put pressure on those Berber tribes nominally loyal to al-Andalus, pushing into the greater part of the Maghreb in a series of confrontations with the Banu Ifran. The Ifranids quickly appealed to the Caliph for aid; Wahb responded by dispatching 'Ayyash and Al-Hasan with a column of some thousand elite Saqaliba, along with regular troops, to bolster the Banu Ifran. This force met a large body of forces fo the al-Mutahirin at Oujda early in 1091. Contemporary writers suggests 100,000 al-Mutahirin joined the battle; modern scholarship suggests the numbers were substantially smaller, but that the Andalusian and Ifranid contingent, supported by mercenaries, dealt the al-Mutahirin a serious blow, driving them back into the mountains. The force spent some time in the Maghreb, working to try and liberate part of the coast. Some of our account of this campaign comes, interestingly, from the firsthand accounts of Geoffrey de Ryes, a Norman knight serving the Caliph as a mercenary.
While the al-Mutahirin maintained strong designs on most of the Maghreb as well as al-Andalus itself, the Saqaliba maintained their alliance with the Ifranids in the face of this threat, securing more friends in Africa and working to blunt the threat the purity fanatics would face. The al-Mutahirin, meanwhile, would soon find themselves facing raids from both Berber and migratory Bedouin nomads, forcing them to divide their armies to chase desert raiders.
With Europe, meanwhile, continuing to spasm with the paroxysms of the feud between the Emperor and the Pope, the 12th century appeared set to belong to Islam.
[1] Mansura, the new town settled by the men with Ibn Qays.
[2] No they aren't. They're Berbers.
[3] The Acueducto de los Milagros.
[4] The Sierra Morena range.
Note from Dr. Mirza: Everart of Rouen was a Norman merchant born in the city of Rouen sometime around the year 1050. Everart seems to have had a very interesting life at a time when most Christians did not leave their villages; he traveled much of the European and Mediterranean world, visiting both Christian and Muslim ports of call. While much of his work, often simply called Everart's Travels, concerns his time in Venice, Genoa and Constantinople, Everart's account also includes the time he spent in Iberia near the dawn of the 12th century, where he was asked by the Norman King to deliver a letter to the Caliph in Cordoba, and provides an interesting look at the Christian perspective on al-Andalus in the early days of the Lateran Wars.
From Santiago our party went on towards the southeast, and followed the road towards the Duero. Now there are few great cities and forts one can stop at along the way, for in truth the land of Hispania is a sparsely-developed one, and indeed, as we descended into the vale to the north of the Duero, beheld a vast emptiness of land, where woodlands and wild beasts ruled much of the land, and the few villages dotting it were small places.
It is said that these lands are so sparsely populated because, many generations ago, they were the lands of the Moors, and those people did retreat to the south and leave much of this vale absent of inhabitants. And yet, the return of men of the faith here has been slow, though not for want of good land, for there was much of it that we beheld as we followed the road southward, on towards the river crossing.
We crossed the Duero by the town called Salamanca, which is one of the larger in this area, and where the knights led by Anquetil de Guichainville had come to settle after safeguarding these townsfolk from the blandishments of the Gallaecian pretenders. These knights had constructed new fortifications and made safe the settlement, and the people prospered greatly here. Here we met Anquetil himself, and he welcomed our caravan with a great feast, and told us of the building he planned to do, for indeed in those days the city was ruled by men of our land, and well away from what argument remained in the mountains of the Leonese.
On the next morn we set off once again and made our way to the south. There we crossed through the central mountains, which are somewhat perilous and with some routes rather poorly-marked. On the way we encountered a party of Moors on horseback, who questioned us harshly as to our purpose there, but allowed us to continue on our way when convinced strongly enough of our deference, though they dispatched two of their number to ride with us. And we descended with them from the mountains into a new town which is called Manzora[1], where we stopped for respite.
It must be pointed out that while we speak of the Moors, there are in fact two types of them, and they are quite different. Those Moors who met us in the mountains were of the type most familiar to us: They are blacks,[2] and they dwell in the countryside, and are prodigious riders of horses. This manner of Moor comes of course from Mauretania, and he is a skilled rider of horses and a thrower of javelins, and almost always a stern and hard man of battle. In his carriage he seems every bit a warrior, though with a way to him unlike the knights of our kind.
The other manner of Moor is much unlike the black Moors. These are the White Moors, and they are fair, though it is said that many have married with the Moors themselves and can cross between the two races or appear as either. In truth these White Moors speak and dress much like their dark brothers, and some are merchants by nature. We saw many of them as we rode through Manzora, some of them with the carriage of fighting men, others plying their trades. We saw some few of their women, but mostly the men, who viewed us with some suspicion but nevertheless sold to us.
While there, we met a Moor who told us that he and his people had lived here all of their lives. It is, in truth, said that the White Moors are descended of those Goths who betrayed the cross and surrendered their lands to the infidel, and that they adopted the ways of the Saracens far to the east and now worship Mahomet. And yet, among them live the Goths who remain Christians, though in truth we met few of them, and those we met spoke the tongue of the Moors and wore their garbs, and they lived among the Moors with little complaint and even paid their tribute to the King of the Moors every year.
From Manzora we rode southward, into the more populous parts of the Moorish lands, where we encountered hostelries where we made respite in the evenings. Each of these is most well-appointed, with fountains where it is said the Moors must wash themselves regularly in tribute to their god. Soon we arrived at a city called Merida, on the river they call the Guadiana. This city is home to an old aqueduct, and it is said it is older even than the Moors or the Goths. Here we met an old Christian man who told us that it was a miraculous aqueduct, and that it brought good fortune to their city.[3] When we left in the morning, we bore to the southeast, towards that ridgeline known as the Moorish Mountains, beyond which lies the capital of the Moors.[4]
Beyond the Moorish Mountains, we beheld the city the Moors call Cordoba, and descended into it. In splendour this city is no less great than even Constantinople, and no less vast in its peopling, though they are all Moors, save of course for the Christians and the Jewry, whose temples and holy places can be seen among the holy places of the Mahometans. Here as well you can find many of their number wearing garments of indigo, for the Moors cultivate it, though it is most rare beyond the sea lanes. As we made our accommodations, I met a merchant whose name was Saul, and he was a Jew, and I arranged for a caravan of fine indigo to be made ready for the time of our departure, for one can make a substantial profit arriving home with such fine wares, yet seldom few are the merchants who travel past the mountains these days.
The ways of the Moors are quite different from the ways of the Christian, though it must be said that those Christians I met seemed healthy and hale, and went to their churches with none speaking ill of it. And indeed, it seems their lives here are peaceful, and that they even have their own bishops. Now the Moors are quite different in their ways, for in our lands, it is the tradition for the ruler of the kingdom to be invested of his power by the will of the pontiff of Rome, and though the king may rule by sanction of God, the voice of God is ensconced at the seat of Rome. The Moor is different, for the King of the Moors is also called Caliph, which is also high priest, and so the voice of worship is never separated from the voice of the throne.
Perhaps, though they are heretics and infidels, there is something to this way, for the people were happy and prosperous, and their realm well-protected by soldiers accoutred much like great knights - they are Slavonic, and the Moors speak of them, strangely, as both servants and overseers, for they are the servants of the King of the Moors, and taught all their lives to hear his will and carry it out. It is both the will of the church and the king at once that they safeguard.
Some among us privately did envy this state of affairs, even hearing word as we did of the feuding between the Emperor and the Bishop of Rome, and we despaired of the disunity that must needs follow from it.
~
ACT THE FOURTH
"THE MATTER OF EUROPE"
"THE MATTER OF EUROPE"
~
Excerpt: The Most Unlikely Palm: How Medieval Andalus Survived and Thrived - Ibrahim Alquti, Falconbird Press, AD 2012
THE MATTER OF EUROPE
Al-Andalus During the Lateran Wars
Al-Andalus During the Lateran Wars
It can fairly be said that the Lateran Wars were the period which marked the divergent trajectories of much of Europe. The last decade of the 11th century, on into the 12th, would cut a stark dividing line between a backward, divided Christian world and a rising Muslim world, with powerful cities and populous lands coming into Muslim hands and Christendom becoming ever more fractured into competiting polities. More than anything, this trend ensured the continued survival of Islam in Iberia, together with the Rule of the Slaves.
The election of Amalric of Cambrai as Pope Urban II in 1083 triggered six years of grinding civil war as Holy Roman Emperor Hermann II - crowned by an antipope, excommunicated by Urban, and dealing with a rebellion among his Italian vassals - sought to impose his prerogative upon Rome. The grinding conflict saw Hermann defeated in 1089 in his siege of Milan, most of the Lombards coming down against him and exhausting his forces, then pushing the exhausted imperial army back towards the north. With his vassals restive and churchmen across the realm grumbling, Hermann agreed later that year to the Peace of St. Gallen, in which the Antipope John XXI was deposed and returned to his see, the Emperor recognizing Urban as the rightful Pope. However, the issue was far from over: Hermann continued to claim lordship over Italy despite the unwillingness of many of the Italians to be governed by him, particularly the powerful lords of Tuscany and Spoleto. And Hermann continued to expect Urban to bow to his wishes - an insistence which would put Pope and Emperor at odds for years to come.
In Andalusia, meanwhile, matters were rather more peaceful, with the Saqaliba entrusted mainly with the rooting out and unlanding of those remaining forces opposed to the current state of affairs, nominally in the name of the regnant Umayyad Caliph, Abdullah II. In fact administrative power continued to lie in the hands of Wahb, though by 1089 he was growing older and beginning to move to set up his first son, 'Ayyash - the future Mu'ayyad al-Din - to succeed him. He quickly paired his son up with one of the more successful Saqliba military leaders, the commander named Al-Hasan ibn Salafumir, and set to work building political support for the pair.
The support of Al-Hasan, who had married one of Wahb's daughters, saw 'Ayyash quickly accepted as the heir apparent, the young man taking to his father's teachings relatively well. This process of grooming an heir early on would give al-Andalus needed political stability, though in truth the hierarchical nature of the Saqaliba power structure made things a little easier.
The al-Andalus of the last decade of the 11th century was one in which the potential of native Andalusi Muslims, long constrained by Umayyad ideas about the supremacy of Arabs, gradually reached its full flower. The 12th century would mark something of a high age for the region, with Andalusi artists, merchants, poets and inventors pushing the frontiers of culture and science.
Truthfully, the most dire threat to Andalusia at this time came not from the Christians - Leon still paralyzed by war with the Normans of the nascent Kingdom of Santiago, themselves grappling with Gallaecian baronial rebellions - but from their fellow Muslims. By 1090, the Zirids of Ifriqiya had been badly beaten by the radical sect known as the al-Mutahirin - a fanatical Berber group obsessed with ritual and cultural purity. With aid from the Fatimids not forthcoming as the Shia Caliph struggled with the fallout of famine in his own realm, the Zirids sought peace with the al-Mutahirin, converting back to Sunni and removing the name of the Fatimid Caliph from the khutbah.
In the summer of 1090, the al-Mutahirin began to put pressure on those Berber tribes nominally loyal to al-Andalus, pushing into the greater part of the Maghreb in a series of confrontations with the Banu Ifran. The Ifranids quickly appealed to the Caliph for aid; Wahb responded by dispatching 'Ayyash and Al-Hasan with a column of some thousand elite Saqaliba, along with regular troops, to bolster the Banu Ifran. This force met a large body of forces fo the al-Mutahirin at Oujda early in 1091. Contemporary writers suggests 100,000 al-Mutahirin joined the battle; modern scholarship suggests the numbers were substantially smaller, but that the Andalusian and Ifranid contingent, supported by mercenaries, dealt the al-Mutahirin a serious blow, driving them back into the mountains. The force spent some time in the Maghreb, working to try and liberate part of the coast. Some of our account of this campaign comes, interestingly, from the firsthand accounts of Geoffrey de Ryes, a Norman knight serving the Caliph as a mercenary.
While the al-Mutahirin maintained strong designs on most of the Maghreb as well as al-Andalus itself, the Saqaliba maintained their alliance with the Ifranids in the face of this threat, securing more friends in Africa and working to blunt the threat the purity fanatics would face. The al-Mutahirin, meanwhile, would soon find themselves facing raids from both Berber and migratory Bedouin nomads, forcing them to divide their armies to chase desert raiders.
With Europe, meanwhile, continuing to spasm with the paroxysms of the feud between the Emperor and the Pope, the 12th century appeared set to belong to Islam.
~
[1] Mansura, the new town settled by the men with Ibn Qays.
[2] No they aren't. They're Berbers.
[3] The Acueducto de los Milagros.
[4] The Sierra Morena range.
Do the al-Mutahirin like the almohads claim to be a a cliphate? If not with caliphate do the zirids look to?
Edit sorry what are the chances they will go for sicily as its a good target weak, shia and no allies.
Edit sorry what are the chances they will go for sicily as its a good target weak, shia and no allies.
Looks like Al-Andalus is seen in a weirdly positive manner to some of those far from home. I have a strange feeling that many contemporary Europeans would see the caliphate as - if not as a force that could upend Christendom - than as a rich land filled with exotic, puffed-up, mercantile infidels.
I wonder if the stereotypes around Jews would be transferred to Andalusians ITTL. Probably not, but the shades of wealth and power being held by Cordoba could raise some cultural eyeballs.
I wonder if the stereotypes around Jews would be transferred to Andalusians ITTL. Probably not, but the shades of wealth and power being held by Cordoba could raise some cultural eyeballs.
Jews had those stereotypes because they lived in communities dispersed through Europe, and were thus always nearby. Al-Andalus will probably be seen as a rich unknown infidel nation rather than a group of dispersed people.
Planet of Hats
Donor
Sicily is beyond the grasp of the al-Mutahirin, as they don't quite understand what a boat is. They have the same problem as many dynasties founded by Berber rigorists who came howling out of the High Atlas with nothing but religious zeal and a whole lot of angry zealots on horses: Religious zeal doesn't float.
They aren't a Caliphate, nor are they Mahdist, but they do consider the existing Caliphs to be a) pretenders, in the case of the Umayyads, b) held hostage by impure parties, in the case of the Umayyads and Abbasids, or c) heretics, in the case of the Fatimids. They hold highly discriminatory views towards the Shia in particular. They'd certainly like to install a Caliph somewhere whose worldview matches their own, which is why they are sometimes associated with a branch of the Hammudid family - ie. Berberized Sharifs branched off from the Idrisids.
At the moment, not a ton; there aren't many of them yet, but they are used for a lot of jobs the Saqaliba consider themselves above now. Many of the servants at the Alcazar in Córdoba are black Africans, for example.
Most of them are prisoners captured in the various internecine wars in West Africa, then sold to Berber traders and traded up the Gold-Salt-Slave Road into Sijilmasa, then north into Andalusia. Many of them are Mande peoples - Soninke, Mandinka and other related peoples, i.e. those who run what is currently the Ghana Empire/Awkar. There's also a large chunk who are Wolof or Fulani peoples captured by the Chiadma and Lamtuna Berbers in their raids on Takrur.
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In your world @Planet of Hats how many continents are there? Is europe considered a continent or is it euraisa, America 2 or 1.
Planet of Hats
Donor
That's an interesting debate.
The Muslim world tends to think of two continents: Afroeurasia on the one hand, and the Algarves on the other (the Algarves being the Americas, which are considered a single continent). In part this is because of how much Islam in this world has come to cross the boundaries of traditional Europa. Antarctica is increasingly considered a third continent, mostly because a good chunk of it has melted due to a couple centuries of rampant global warming causing world sea levels to rise catastrophically, as you might've spotted on the Cawania map awhile back; in fact, some of Antarctica has even become exposed. Then there are the major islands, like OTL Australia and New Zealand. Greenland is sometimes classified as a fourth continent; some of that has also become exposed, mostly in the south part of the landmass, though this is somewhat halting as future MiaJ-world grapples with the fallout of this much sea level rise.
Christian Europeans, meanwhile, tend to think of more continents: Europe, Africa, Asia, a couple of Americas, OTL Australia, and sometimes India. They usually think of Antarctica as an ice ball. They also tend to have strenuous debates about whether Andalusia and the Haemus are part of Europe or not, for various reasons. Muslims like to troll these debates by asking if Ifriqiya and Maghrib shouldn't be considered part of Europe.
Those from East Asia tend to think of Eurasia as one continent and Africa as a continent on its own because of its dramatic cultural differences from the rest of Eurasia, with the Americas as a third continent.
Theres alot from this we can learn from, something important in the balkans will happen, i honestly have a feeling it wont be islam invading but an asian group, neo paganism anyone?
Also jihad 40k hasn't as christians confirmed to to exist in modern world.
Islam will not take all of americas so inawarminister might be right about viking vinlanders.
Andalusia controls the mahgrab but not ifriqiya so later invasion?
But more importantly asia it seems to have a opinion so the may not have been colonised so may be technology as advance so china changes everything.
Just me probably looking to deep into it.
Crippling all of Christianity to preserve Islamic Spain seems a bit excessive...
Crippling all of Christianity to preserve Islamic Spain seems a bit excessive...
To be fair most muslims live in indian subcontinent and indonesia, it is likely these places will not be as islamic as they are today. Remember china will be standing strong. And we are seeing a diverging islamic world, also you really kinda need to cripple it so andalusia can survive its problems held it back heavily, again the less developed north was able to kick it butt to the extent they had to bring jihad 40k over the sea to save them.
Planet of Hats
Donor
The writer may be being a little dramatic.Crippling all of Christianity to preserve Islamic Spain seems a bit excessive...
Honestly, Europe had OTL setbacks as it was - the Investiture Controversy, for instance, could've ended more in favour of the Emperor and led us down the road of a Holy Roman Empire with more direct control over the faith and less of an independent Pope meddling in Christendom's business. The Lateran Wars are basically TTL's Investiture Controversy and represent a big showdown of whether the power of the Emperor derives from the Pope, or if the power of the Pope is subject to control of the Emperor. Muslim historians tend to see the Lateran Wars as a missed opportunity for caesaropapism to come to Western Europe and eliminate the squabbling between the Pope and the kings. From our perspective, that's... OTL.
Christendom's actually going to make some big gains in this century, irrespective of missing the boat on permanently sidelining the Pope. Certainly Muslim Spain is going to have some difficulty once the Hispano-Normans finish beating down the baronial rebellions. The Normans are much stiffer opponents than the Iberians. You've also got more Adventures in the north; Christians are actually well ahead of schedule in stomping down the Slavs east of Denmark, and more Adventures in the Baltic are probably going to come sooner than later.
A lot of stuff that results in future!MiaJ-world turns on what's going to happen in China. Song China was on an interesting course in the 11th and 12th centuries.
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