Moonlight in a Jar: An Al-Andalus Timeline

[Otterspottersmotters]

But on the other hand, the state probably has a more robust bureaucracy and development policy so that may not be needed. I could see the hajib taking on banking with the state finances and bankrolling projects, making capital pooling less critical to kickstarting private endeavours.

Huh, so the country has a foundational structure in which capitalism can theoretically emerge, but not the political climate to make it happen. I could definitely see a kind of mercantilism-on-steroids emerge from this which could end up bottlenecking Andalus in the future.

Also is it too late to proclaim my undying love for this timeline and the cat god himself?

 

[Nyvis]

Huh, so the country has a foundational structure in which capitalism can theoretically emerge, but not the political climate to make it happen. I could definitely see a kind of mercantilism-on-steroids emerge from this which could end up bottlenecking Andalus in the future.

Also is it too late to proclaim my undying love for this timeline and the cat god himself?

Well, early capitalism tended to be mercantilistic. But companies became more prevalent with the Netherlands, a bourgeoisie heavy country with a pretty weak government reliant on asking private interests and cities nicely for things to get done. So you get the VOC. Just like Prussia was a military with a state, the Netherlands was a bourgeoisie with a state. But when the English jumped in, the EIC had royal backing and was more of a state-private partnership.

Of course it's also possible Andalusia goes the way of Spain OTL, with a supermercantilism that strangles economic development. But their trend of private adventurism doesn't indicate a desire for that level of control and their tendency to go for trading posts and accidentally stumble into conquest seems more Dutch/English than Spanish to me.

Still, we'll have to watch and see if private capital pooling takes off.

Another thing of interest will be how Andalusia decides to handle foreign merchants in its colonial possessions. Spain closed its colonies off OTL and only ended up creating a bunch of English smuggling and losing on tax revenues. But OTL Spain also had indirect Italian involvement financially, whereas here Italy is separated by a religious barrier. It'll be interesting to see what direction the Italian and Dutch capital takes if it can't invest in ventures west through Andalusia. French and English ventures will probably add themselves to the equation.

The dynamic of the China trade isn't going to mirror OTL either so that's going to be big. OTL, Spain exported its mined silver to China, then brought back Chinese products to Europe with China being mostly a passive player to this process.

 

[last admiral]

As someone who got through university mainly by playing video games, thanks for reading.

May i ask how you manage to pull it off?

 

[Planet of Hats]

May i ask how you manage to pull it off?

Memory and passive listening skills, and good game choice.

I spent a lot of my class time playing games, but usually games that I could pause and flip away from if I heard something I didn't know. I never played action games that would require me to move quickly, or fighters that would require reflexes - it was always games that were more like simulators, or RPGs that played out as choices of menus, and always games I could easily just pause. The other side of it is that I always had a really strong memory - not quite photographic, but pretty close - and could multitask between playing games while my ears soaked up a lecture. I wrote a lot of stuff on tests that I never took notes on, but that I just remembered.

 

[haider najib]

Got a question it was the normans who ended slavery in the england, because they didn't come slavery should be alive and well, so how is it. Also on a more broader sense how is slavery doing outside of Andalusia?

 

[Somebody-Someone]

I found the phrases “kitteh caliphate “ and “wow send some sufis” on sufficientvelocity. I hope you’re proud of yourself.

EDIT: I also found the “pope kittius” image.

 

[Yama951]

I found the phrases “kitteh caliphate “ and “wow send some sufis” on sufficientvelocity. I hope you’re proud of yourself.

EDIT: I also found the “pope kittius” image.

Now I'm curious where you found those lines on SV.

 

[Somebody-Someone]

Now I'm curious where you found those lines on SV.

Kitteh Caliphate : https://forums.sufficientvelocity.c...es-and-spectrums.43093/page-277#post-13306975
forgot the actual locations of the other two, pretty sure the Pope Kittius image showed up in the same thread though.

 

[Planet of Hats]

I found the phrases “kitteh caliphate “ and “wow send some sufis” on sufficientvelocity. I hope you’re proud of yourself.

EDIT: I also found the “pope kittius” image.

Memes in a Jar

I've been slowed down a bit on the next chapter due to, basically, the aforementioned family crisis knocking the wheels out from under things a little bit. Hoping to get back to things in the next few days.

 

[haider najib]

Got a question can you give us some facts on how much england is in the nordic cultural orbit one of my problems personally i don't see ot being possible to for the Danes to scandevian england that much or that quickly. So can i get some details on it is like english culture is now culturally close ie, Swedish, Norwegian, danish and english are all clamped to togather. Or is it more like finland every thinks they are the same but there are some major differences.

 

[Planet of Hats]

Got a question can you give us some facts on how much england is in the nordic cultural orbit one of my problems personally i don't see ot being possible to for the Danes to scandevian england that much or that quickly. So can i get some details on it is like english culture is now culturally close ie, Swedish, Norwegian, danish and english are all clamped to togather. Or is it more like finland every thinks they are the same but there are some major differences.

It is the latter: Anglish culture is not uniformly Scandinavian at all, but their ruling class tends to have close marital and cultural ties to Denmark and Norway and their power base is in the old Danelaw, where the culture is somewhat more Nordic-influenced.

Angland is a little more Nordicized than OTL England, but a lot of the same influences have crept in, in different ways. The language spoken around London and in the south of England is basically English due to the influence of trade ties with the mainland. The language spoken in the power centre, around Grimsby and the Humbermouth, is sort of a more Scandinavian influenced version of English. More Anglo-Saxon terms have survived thus far. I feel like some of the vocabulary from the Anglish conlang might creep in - e.g. they'll call the Holy Roman Empire the Holy Romish Overrike, and they tend to pick a lot of Germanic terms for some things. That is, an Anglish person in the Danelaw would refer to a town or city as a borough, a language as a tunge, a ship as a skip and an ocean as a mere. You could go to Grimsby and hear someone telling you they astaken a skip out of the borough to overfare the Westmere. (That is, they embarked a ship in town to cross the Atlantic Ocean.)

The Germanic influence on the language has been moderated somewhat by both war and trade with France, and by intermarriage with the mainland. There are basically two main commercial hubs. Grimsby is the capital and does a lot of business with the northern HRE, Denmark, Norway and Sweden, with ships coming from as far away as Poland and Russia. London, meanwhile, does more business with Normandy, Aquitaine, Santiago and the Low Countries.

 

[haider najib]

It is the latter: Anglish culture is not uniformly Scandinavian at all, but their ruling class tends to have close marital and cultural ties to Denmark and Norway and their power base is in the old Danelaw, where the culture is somewhat more Nordic-influenced.

Angland is a little more Nordicized than OTL England, but a lot of the same influences have crept in, in different ways. The language spoken around London and in the south of England is basically English due to the influence of trade ties with the mainland. The language spoken in the power centre, around Grimsby and the Humbermouth, is sort of a more Scandinavian influenced version of English. More Anglo-Saxon terms have survived thus far. I feel like some of the vocabulary from the Anglish conlang might creep in - e.g. they'll call the Holy Roman Empire the Holy Romish Overrike, and they tend to pick a lot of Germanic terms for some things. That is, an Anglish person in the Danelaw would refer to a town or city as a borough, a language as a tunge, a ship as a skip and an ocean as a mere. You could go to Grimsby and hear someone telling you they astaken a skip out of the borough to overfare the Westmere. (That is, they embarked a ship in town to cross the Atlantic Ocean.)

The Germanic influence on the language has been moderated somewhat by both war and trade with France, and by intermarriage with the mainland. There are basically two main commercial hubs. Grimsby is the capital and does a lot of business with the northern HRE, Denmark, Norway and Sweden, with ships coming from as far away as Poland and Russia. London, meanwhile, does more business with Normandy, Aquitaine, Santiago and the Low Countries.

It seems to be possible for england to be balkanised, the south and london favouring france and latins while north aligned with germany. Where ever the big church war happens, could england explode?

 

[Nivek]

It seems to be possible for england to be balkanised, the south and london favouring france and latins while north aligned with germany. Where ever the big church war happens, could england explode?

It could happen, the heptarchy was not that long and would be something butterflies would allow...but that is up @Planet of Hats analysis

 

[LostInNewDelhi]

It seems to be possible for england to be balkanised, the south and london favouring france and latins while north aligned with germany. Where ever the big church war happens, could england explode?

I like this idea a lot, and it seems realistic. If the Reformed authorities in Grimsby prefer warring with France over trading with it (or vice versa) the south may have something to say about that. Of course the common north/south interest in the New World could eclipse the importance of Scandinavia and France, to the point where even if London's merchants are mad about losing continental links, Bristol's merchants feel more common cause with Liverpool than London.

There may not be a hard geographic border but that never stopped a lot of states from existing. Be interesting how the two Englands interact in the age of nationalism-- maybe pan-English agitation becomes a flashpoint in the North Sea, or the languages have mutated so much that separation is just accepted, or even more states have split off by then (Wales gets tired of being a battlefield for the North and South, goes its own way and takes some English ports with it?)

 

[Planet of Hats]

Excerpt: The Complete History of Andalusia, the Maghreb and Ifriqiya - Gharsiya al-Mahzuzi, Falconbird Press, AD 1980


Coming to power in his 50s, Al-Mansur ibn Abd al-Rahman came in hoping to make the most of his later years and reign for at least a while longer.

He wouldn't truly get the chance, and his reign is mostly remembered as that of a placeholder. Al-Mansur's primary contribution to the historical record was the construction of the splendid Al-Mansur Mosque in Barshiluna, replacing an older structure damaged in the Pyrenean Earthquake of 1428.[1] Most of the devastation was further inland, decimating several communities in Urgell and in the eastern Pyrenean epicentre along the border between Andalusia and Provencia.

By and large, Al-Mansur experienced a quiet few years of rule beyond a few expected raids by Provencal knights and Genoese freebooters. But those years ended in 1437, when Al-Mansur died in his sleep.

Succession passed to Al-Mansur's 31-year-old son, also named Abd ar-Rahman. This state of affairs lasted all of six months before Abd ar-Rahman died suddenly. His death was presented as accidental, but it appears he was assassinated by enemies at court, who swiftly replaced him with his cousin, Suleyman, son to one of Abd ar-Rahman the Seafarer's younger sons. This coup appears to have been backed by the merchant families and the Black Guard.

The younger Abd ar-Rahman gets a mixed treatment in contemporary sources. Three primary documents address his life - two histories by well-placed court functionaries and a third by 'Amr ibn Khiminu, a juror in Isbili. While the court histories vaguely describe Abd ar-Rahman as abrasive, insulting and cruel to his inferiors, Ibn Khiminu describes him as a young man of high integrity who chafed at the power of the merchant class. The juror's telling suggests that the younger Abd ar-Rahman sought to try and push back against the Banu Angelino in particular in the hopes of restoring Hizamid influence. The merchant class preferred Suleyman, who was seen as more favourable to their interests.

For his part, Suleyman is remembered by history as a weak hajib whose power did not extend far beyond Isbili and Qurtubah. Overseas trade and settlement in this period were dominated by individual efforts of powerful families. The trading settlement at Marayu rapidly expanded into a number of camps along the coastline, logging for banambuku wood[2] and growing sugar for export back hope. These settlements increasingly came to employ slaves imported from the lower Sudan, many of them purchased from Binu and the Zadazir areas.[3] Public investments slowed down as local lords withheld shares of their earnings, fudging records and counting on the weakness of the hajibs to avoid tax collectors. Suleyman, for his part, seems to have been more interested in personal affairs than those of state: Ibn Khiminu describes the Alcazar under Suleyman as a hub of decadence, complete with dancing girls and free-flowing wine.

Suleyman's foreign engagements similarly accomplished little. After a Genoese attack in 1442 burned the port of Balansiyyah, Suleyman sent a flotilla to attack their holdings in Corsica, but the small group of galleys was quickly defeated and sunk off the island's coast in a humiliating loss of life. With it went Suleyman's brother, Muhammad - his heir apparent at the time, as his sons hadn't yet reached adulthood.

While historians try to look critically at sources, it seems unquestionable that Suleyman was one of the worst rulers in Andalusian history, despite the steady expansion of Andalusian economic wealth and overseas presence. Events following his death bear it out. He is often held up by cultural historians as an example of the phenomenon of dynastic decadence, in which a dynasty comes to power with bold ideas but eventually succumbs to the privileges of its own position.

The reign of Suleyman was cut short in July of 1447. The young hajib, in his mid-30s at the time, succumbed to an illness that physicians attempted to treat with mercury. This left his office to the next candidate in line: Suleyman's son Abu-Bakr, a boy of just 10 years old. With no uncles in a position to stand as his regent, the office fell to Suleyman's confidant and supporter, Haidar ibn Abi 'Aziz ibn Gharsiya al-Anjylynu.

Abi 'Aziz's position was hotly resented by more than a few families in Andalusi trading cities. A major son of the Banu Angelino and a prosperous merchant with a huge chunk of the spice trade at his command, Abi 'Aziz stood to gain immensely from his control of the hajib's office. Almost immediately, several emirs refused to recognize Abu-Bakr as the legitimate hajib unless Abi 'Aziz was removed from the regency office. The emir of Denia went so far as to recognize a different hajib in the person of Abd ar-Rahman the Seafarer's youngest son, Muhammad al-Mujahid - though even he was an older man at this point, far from his days as a marginally competent young soldier.

With Abi 'Aziz pulling the strings, forces were dispatched to try and retake Denia. The crisis deepened, however, when Abi 'Aziz traveled with Abu-Bakr to visit supporters in Batalyaws. While the regent and the hajib were on the road, a rivla merchant family gathered sufficient mercenaries to overcome the palace guard, seize the Alcazar and install a distant Hizamid cousin, Abd al-Qadir al-Siddiq, as the rightful hajib.

The situation in 1448 saw Al-Siddiq was ensconced in the Alcazar, Abu-Bakr squatting in Batalyaws with Abi 'Aziz and Al-Mujahid set up in Denia, with various merchant families hiring mercenaries and drawing up sides. Al-Andalus appeared poised to explode into a destructive fitna that could well have annihilated it as a coherent force. However, all sides in the conflict had overlooked an important dynamic: The structure of the economy and the last dangling element of the old Umayyad military-economic machine.

*​

For centuries, Andalusian rulers had simply treated the Maghreb as a source of manpower, with Al-Andalus proper being the economic and monetary centre from which the economy resonated. It was in the interests of the Andalusians to keep the Maghreb divided up between feuding tribal powers, a process facilitated by mountainous geography and the inland-oriented gold trade.

With the advent of sea-based trade, this state of affairs changed. No longer were inland Berber clans the central power in the Maghreb. The breakdown of the Blue Army saw inland centres like Sijilmasa decline and nomadic clans splinter and disperse as economic activity moved from inland valleys and riverbeds to cosmopolitan coastal ports, where a more Andalusian-influenced upper class predominated. The population of Fes declined from 1200 to 1450 as migration shifted towards Sale - the new regional capital - and ports such as Tanja, Mehdia, Araich, Anfa, Asfi and Tetouane. Increasingly, the Asmarid dynasty was able to exercise control over the Maghreb, and while they had until that point acknowledged the Hizamids as their superiors, the Asmarid realm had quietly become by far the most powerful domain under the Andalusian umbrella.

While not as wealthy as Iberian Al-Andalus, the Asmarids had a key advantage: Control over a large manpower pool. The population of the Maghreb in 1450 was actually higher than that of Iberian Al-Andalus, though its economy was smaller and reliant on trade of goods through, to and from the Iberian cities.

The turmoil in Iberia, in other words, represented an economic danger to the Moroccan emir, Abu Yusuf Amessan ibn Al-Mu'izz Al-Azmari al-Nasr - one he could solve with his realm's strength.

Al-Nasr, about 41 years old at the time of the burgeoning fitna, declined to choose a side in the internecine merchant conflict. However, as a series of running battles broke out across the south of Iberia, he received an emissary from the court of the then-current Umayyad Caliph, Al-Mustamsik. The missive, carried by a commander of the Black Guard (who had also remained neutral and acted mainly to safeguard Isbili), expressed the opinion that the Hizamid line had grown too decadent to carry out their duties to the Umayyad family, and invited the Asmarids to replace them in Isbili.

While the Missive of Al-Mustamsik was at one point dismissed as propaganda, subsequent scholarship confirms its legitimacy and explains its utility. The letter was something of a power play by Al-Mustamsik, who viewed an alliance with the Asmarids as not only a means to stabilize Andalusia, but to establish a line of hajibs more amenable to listening to the Caliph than to the merchants. In any case, it did its job: Al-Nasr began to mobilize a fleet and an army, and he sent emissaries north to the Duero Valley, where most of the new landholders there were of Berber extraction.

Thus equipped, Al-Nasr sailed north in late 1448, bringing with him an immense army of mounted Berbers, Andalusi mercenaries and Sudani ghilman. He would rapidly link up with both the northern lords and the Black Guard to form a military machine none of the rogue merchant families or Hizamid pretenders could hope to stand against. Isbili was delivered to Al-Nasr without a fight, Al-Siddiq was thrown in prison, and Al-Nasr was proclaimed the new hajib by Al-Mustamsik himself, with missives sent out far and wide demanding obeisance to him.

This missive - dated February 1449 - is traditionally recorded as the founding date of the unification of Al-Andalus and the Maghreb as the Asmarid Empire. Al-Nasr and his allies would be required to rein in the merchant families and finish stamping out the supporters of Abu-Bakr and Al-Mujahid, but the sheer manpower of the Maghreb would make that only a matter of time.[4]


[1] This is a historical quake: The Candlemas Quake of 1428. Climatic PODs may change due to butterflies, but geological ones will not. Earthquakes and eruptions will happen on schedule.
[2] Pernambuco - brazilwood.
[3] A number of those being sold over the Pacific - not in huge numbers yet - are of Congo-area Bantu cultures, e.g. the Mongo and the northern Mbundu, or Chamba people from OTL Cameroon.
[4] It's been said in a few places that the likeliest way for Al-Andalus to survive would be as the northern element of a greater Berber Empire. You now have that empire. The centre of power in the Asmarid Empire will remain the south of Al-Andalus, but the societal changes in the Maghreb have come home to roost: The Berber ruling class has grown less tribal and more cosmopolitan, Maghrebi society has grown more maritime and centralized, and Andalusi and Berber merchants and families have grown more interwoven. Really, Berbers and Andalusis are considered to be two related "Moorish" ethnic groups in this world.

1437: Hajib Al-Mansur dies in his sleep.
1437: Abd ar-Rahman the Younger succeeds his father as Hajib. His attempt to rein in the power of the merchants ends at knifepoint, and he is replaced by his decadent cousin, Suleyman.
1447: Hajib Suleyman dies after someone tries to treat his gonorrhea with mercury. A succession struggle breaks out following his death.
Feb. 1449: The Asmarid ruler Al-Nasr, at the invitation of the Umayyad Caliph is declared hajib in Isbili. The greater Asmarid Empire of Andalusia and the Maghreb is established.

 

[Pralaya]

A day to be proud of, at least for all members of the ALMURABITUN GANG.
ALMOHAD GANG is welcome as well.

Amazing update, as usual, which will surely lead to a more exciting future for the TL. Can't wait to see how exactly the Maghreb and al-Andalus are going to be integrated into one singular empire!

 

[Nivek]

4] It's been said in a few places that the likeliest way for Al-Andalus to survive would be as the northern element of a greater Berber Empire. You now have that empire. The centre of power in the Asmarid Empire will remain the south of Al-Andalus, but the societal changes in the Maghreb have come home to roost: The Berber ruling class has grown less tribal and more cosmopolitan, Maghrebi society has grown more maritime and centralized, and Andalusi and Berber merchants and families have grown more interwoven. Really, Berbers and Andalusis are considered to be two related "Moorish" ethnic groups in this world.

This changes things massively but as you say unify both groups into one and with that population..the new lands in the new world become ripe if andalusia is getting too crowed(but again figthing against santiago terrorist and french might keep it stable) but seems we got a bigger 'europe ends in the pyrrenes' feeling now

 

[Zireael]

Climatic PODs may change due to butterflies,

How can your butterflies change climate?
United, Maghreb and Andalus are going to be a powerhouse!

 

[Nivek]

How can your butterflies change climate?

Because we human with our actions we did change the weather, maybe now is more notorious, but a different battle means more CO2 or deadbodies in place should have not been and that is how the dominoes goes forward

 

[Pralaya]

How can your butterflies change climate?
United, Maghreb and Andalus are going to be a powerhouse!

The perfect example of such climatic butterflies ITTL were the shorter medieval warm period due to a larger reforestated area after an early Great Plague has killed a large amount of people who would have used that wood IOTL.