Crazymachines
Banned
love it, but apparently pope benedict X can time travelSo I'm still trying to set up some basic pages, but for those interested, Moonlight does have a wiki now:
https://miajwiki.miraheze.org/wiki/Main_Page
love it, but apparently pope benedict X can time travelSo I'm still trying to set up some basic pages, but for those interested, Moonlight does have a wiki now:
https://miajwiki.miraheze.org/wiki/Main_Page
You saw nothing. e.elove it, but apparently pope benedict X can time travel
Thank you so much! I'll be happy to help with the wiki if need be.So I'm still trying to set up some basic pages, but for those interested, Moonlight does have a wiki now:
https://miajwiki.miraheze.org/wiki/Main_Page
There is absolutely a cosmopolitanization that's taking place. It's becoming more common to walk through an Andalusian port city and encounter not only the locals, but more than a few Wolof merchants, Serer traders, Jewish businesspeople, Somali sailors, Amalfitan fortune-seekers, and even visitors from the Algarves. While Sinophilia is the most notable influence, there has been a gradual leaking-in of outside cultural elements - some elements of Algarvian fashion are being popularized by Muhammad Mahbat's visit, for instance, and the contact with India is resulting in some diffusion of architectural and culinary ideas. (Algarvian food is also having an influence; Andalusians love the chilli pepper.)Thank you so much! I'll be happy to help with the wiki if need be.
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Also, I want to ask some questions on the culture of Al-Andalus during the 1480s. Although your previous posts did provide a lot of insight on what it's like in the Hizamid/Asmarid Empire at the time, I wonder if there's a growth in external influences (aside from Sinophilia), from places like Africa, the Algarves, Christian Europe, or even Persia/Hindustan as the country is growing to become increasingly cosmopolitan.
For example, are there examples of something like West African music leaking into Al-Andalus by way of musicians, mystics, and griots? Perhaps European-styled theater could be possible with the acceptance of depicting secular matters of romance, tragedy, comedy, or political figures like Al-Muntasir in a dramatized manner (Of course, depictions of Muhammad and his companions would be banned, but it seems like OTL Renaissance theater and art was shying away from matters of religion anyways).
It's becoming more common to walk through an Andalusian port city and encounter not only the locals, but more than a few Wolof merchants, Serer traders, Jewish businesspeople, Somali sailors, Amalfitan fortune-seekers, and even visitors from the Algarves. While Sinophilia is the most notable influence, there has been a gradual leaking-in of outside cultural elements - some elements of Algarvian fashion are being popularized by Muhammad Mahbat's visit, for instance, and the contact with India is resulting in some diffusion of architectural and culinary ideas. (Algarvian food is also having an influence; Andalusians love the chilli pepper.)
It's Al-Imbiraturiyyat ar-Rumaniyah / Basileía Rhōmaíōn / Imperium Romanum. The Roman Empire.is the official name of the bataid empire just 'empire of the romans' , or is it more like with the ottomans; 'sublime [DYNASTY NAME] state'
A little correctionSo I'm still trying to set up some basic pages, but for those interested, Moonlight does have a wiki now:
https://miajwiki.miraheze.org/wiki/Main_Page
The weird thing is, I knew that one and I still got it wrong.A little correction
Khalij al-Sayadin = Fishermen's Bay
SUMMARY:
1483: Muhammad Mahbat reaches Mecca and completes the hajj, in the process amazing just about everyone in the Mediterranean, embarrassing the Abbasids and meeting a cat.
what kind of consequences will planting algarvian palms in the old world?THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA, OFF SARDINIA
"Would you lay eyes on that," one of the crewmen said to the other in wonder.
The men from Genoa looked on from the deck of their swift galley at the sight of the flotilla passing by them. The escort ships were splendid, but expected - the typical galley out of Andalusia, armed to the teeth and far too hardened for the Genoese crew to knock over and make off with. They could tackle Moorish merchantmen or fat pilgrims on their way to or from the East, but fighting the Moorish navy would be another matter.
They were more surprised by the ship in the midst of the escort flock. A zepino[1] for sure, but draped in colourful fabric and painted with ornate colours and patterns of a type they'd never seen before. Even from a distance, they could make out men in colourful clothing milling about the deck.
They'd seen the ships of rich men before, but an oceangoing ship in those colours was unique - and with an escort of five ships, it must have been someone of high importance.
"Must be a pretty rich pilgrim," one of the other sailors mused as he leaned on the rail. Some of the men waved from a distance as the Genoese galley slid past the Moors, going in the opposite direction. It was, to be sure, an act of performative innocence - the typical nice-guy act they would pull when they got close enough to realize a target was too hard to actually raid.
The captain nodded with wonder, staring after the ship. "You know, I would wager my eyeteeth that this one came from the Far West somewhere. There are a lot of stories coming back about that place. Lot of men from Iberia hanging out in taverns and talking about the wealth of places over the sea."
"I'd heard about that," one of the men piped in. "Something about the Moors finding a land of gold and spices."
"Yeah, Alasca," another sailor chipped into the conversation. "I heard an Anglishman talking about it once."
"That so?"
"Aye. I hear that you can make a tidy profit as an Anglish sailor just by catching a fat Moor and his ship coming across the Ocean Sea. They've got things with them you can't even imagine. Spices you can't find anywhere else in the world except in the hold of a zepino from the Far West."
The captain scowled as he watched the flotilla bob on past. "They must be pretty rich if they can afford a fancy ship and a big escort like that."
The Genoese men fell silent, nursing growing sparks of greed as they watched the flotilla of Muhammad Mahbat pass them by and sail into the east.
~
MAHDIA, IFRIQIYA
"It's a pretty funny-looking tree," one tradesman said to the other.
"Aye, it is."
The two stood before a relatively small tree, but a curious one - one different from the date palms they'd see every day. This one sprouted from a circle of fresh earth, ringed by polished stones in dazzling white, each one carved neatly with calligraphics praising God and the Prophet. It had been planted a mere day before.
The planter had been someone unlike anyone they'd seen before - a man in florid colours, of a race they didn't recognize, arriving aboard a safina in garish patterns, calling himself Emir of a land they'd never heard of. And yet, he'd professed faith in the Prophet, even coming as it did in a curiously-accented Arabic.
He'd gone on his way before long - but not before planting a single palm in the public garden of Mahdia. This one.[2]
"I wonder if it'll sprout any dates."
"Who knows. He seemed excited to plant it, though."
The first tradesman shrugged. "Maybe palms are different wherever he comes from."
"I have heard it is so. He was from, where, he called it Anawak?"
"Yes, the Gharb al-Aqsa."
The second man's eyebrows came up sharply. "Must be pretty rich over there if he can carry a bunch of trees on his boat."
The first nodded. "Ah well. It'll be a lonely tree here, anyway."
~
ALEXANDRIA
"They've left port," reported the eunuch.
Hunched in his seat, Hasan ibn al-Hakam al-Bayadhi pored over the map that had been delivered to him. "He was an interesting man," he muttered, his mind connecting his visitor of the past week to new possibilities. "And did you notice that he was fluent in his faith? He knew God as any Muslim would. For all his odd accents and fashions, for all his insistence on planting a tree here, he was a Muslim."
And a rich one, he realized with increasing certainty. A powerful one.
He traced a finger over the map to circle the oddly-shaped landmass at its western edge. "We've known for a long time that the Banu Umayya and their people reached a new land. I had thought they had mostly found barbarians, but to see a Muslim Emir coming across the sea to us...."
"The westerners must be more powerful than they appear," mused the eunuch with widening eyes. "Their merchants are rich already. If they have shown the word of the Prophet to people like this Muhammad Mahbat--"
"--then they may be useful to us." Hasan looked up to the ceiling, scratching at his cheek with a crinkling of his nose.
"We need an advantage," he observed. "I don't care how much the descendants of Abbas yell at me. I have no intention of being a puppet of Greeks who translate the Quran."
The eunuch's face twisted in horror. "It's disgraceful, eminence!"
"Is it not?" Hasan nodded grimly before momentarily going silent.
"Muhammad Mahbat spoke Arabic," the lord of Egypt pointed out into the moment of dead air.
The ruler and the eunuch looked at each other in thought.
~
Excerpt: Blackpowder Empires: The Early Modern Age - Guigues Montpelhier, Epic Libropress, AD 1996
As much as historians strive to avoid the fallacy of attributing the course of history too heavily to individual "great men," it is not hyperbole to note that the hajj of Muhammad Mahbat was a seminal event in the history of the world, one which definitively marks the beginning of the Early Modern Period.
Muhammad Mahbat's itinerary took him on a grand tour of the Mediterranean en route to Mecca. His flotilla stopped in Sale, Isbili, Mahdia, Melita, Alexandria and Asqalan before transferring to land. Muhammad Mahbat went from there to Jerusalem, then traveled south to Mecca itself to complete the hajj. His return voyage followed the Sudani route, with stops at Aden, Warsheikh, Kilwa, Marsa ar-Raha, NsiKongo, and Ubinu before crossing the Atlantic and resupplying in Marayu and Malibu en route back to Anawak.
The consequences of his voyage range from the minor to the splendid. One of the less discussed elements was his decision to plant an Algarvian palm in Isbili, Mahdia, Melita, Alexandria and Asqalan as he traveled, an homage to the Umayyad leader Abd ar-Rahman I. Scholars believe that the spread of invasive but mostly harmless Algarvian palms in Ifriqiya and Shams[3] is traceable directly to the palms imported by Muhammad Mahbat.
The social and geopolitical consequences of his visit were more monumental. While knowledge of the existence of the Gharb al-Aqsa was widespread in the Islamic world at the time, most people had never seen an Algarvian before Muhammad Mahbat. His hajj was met with excitement in the places he visited, his ship greeted by huge crowds of curious onlookers interested in seeing the stranger from a faraway land. These visitors - and onlookers who encountered his flotilla at sea - included not just Muslims, but Christian traders from Genoa, Amalfi and Venice, who took away from Muhammad Mahbat's visit a particular impression of the Farthest West as a place of great wealth.
In Al-Andalus and Ifriqiya, Muhammad Mahbat's visit served to lend prestige to the Umayyad Caliphs by demonstrating that Andalusians could not only discover a new land, but bring its wealthy rulers into the faith. Nowhere was this prestige more keenly felt, however, than in Bayadhid Egypt.
With tensions with the Bataid Empire remaining high, Bataid strongman Hasan ibn al-Hakam was in search of allies to help preserve his realm. While he had put out feelers to the Snow Leopard Khan in Persia, the Irbisids were unlikely allies. The visit of Muhammad Mahbat was followed by the opening of diplomatic overtures by the Bayadhids to the Asmarids as the Egyptians began exploring the possibility of acknowledging the Umayyad Caliph, hoping to recruit a powerful ally with a mutual interest in thwarting Bataid control of the eastern Mediterranean.
For the Bataids, meanwhile, Muhammad Mahbat's journey was a blow to their prestige. The Bataid dynasty - of Patzinak extraction, steeped in both Arabic and Hellenic cultural norms - had been accused by Arab opponents of being "too Greek" in their ways. In Muhammad Mahbat, elites in the Bataid realm witnessed a visitor from a new world who spoke Arabic and worshipped as a Muslim did. He was seen by many as an example of properly representing Islam, and the notion of a new world of powerful Muslims over the ocean lent an air of legitimacy to the Umayyad Caliph that the Abbasids lacked (despite both Caliphs being effectively powerless puppets of their respective military rulers).
Bataid resentment of the Umayyad-following world only grew in the ensuing years. People conducting the hajj from Al-Andalus and Ifriqiya were subjected to increasing scrutiny and harassment in the wake of Muhammad Mahbat's journey, though in practice this occurred mainly on the Mediterranean route, with the Hashemite rulers of Mecca continuing to operate more or less autonomously in keeping Mecca universally accessible to all Muslims.
Tensions between the Asmarids and the Bataids, long simmering in the background, were placed on a slow but steady escalation, and Christian interest in the new world newly enkindled, all by Muhammad Mahbat's innocent passage - an example of one man changing the entire character of geopolitics with no intention of doing so.
~
MECCA
The journey had been long, exhausting and illuminating - but it had all come down to this place. The holy city. The site of the Masjid al-Haram itself. The destination he'd pursued all his life.
Muhammad Mahbat's eyes were alight with the sincerity of his faith. Finally, he would complete a duty no ruler of the Otomi before him could complete.
His entourage moved through the city, making their way towards their destination step by step. The beauty and history of the city astounded him beyond words. Everything seemed both old and new at the same time. He could feel his heart thudding in his chest as he gazed around at everything there was to see, then ahead, then down.
Down at the small creature that had walked casually out into his path.
Muhammad Mahbat blinked at the being. The being, small and white and mottled with a tortoiseshell pattern, blinked back, then approached and looked up at him expectantly.
"Cat," Muhammad Mahbat murmured in wonder, crouching before the feline.
The cat mewed at him, practically entreating him for something. A little flustered, Muhammad Mahbat held a hand out, and a servant passed him a scrap of meat - one the cat nipped down eagerly when he offered it up.
In spite of himself, the Emir smiled, unable to be anything but charmed. "If I did not know better, I would think that you have also come here to complete the journey. Is it so, cat?"
The cat just looked up at him.
Gathering the stray in his arms, Muhammad Mahbat rose to his feet and beamed. "Then you shall come with us," he proclaimed. "Come - let us go together!"
[1] The Italian form of safina.
[2] Muhammad Mahbat is planting examples of sabal pumos, the royal palmetto, in cities he visits. Just as Abd ar-Rahman I beheld a palm in ar-Rusafa, Muhammad Mahbat beholds a palm of the west wherever in the east he goes.
[3] The Levant.
With tensions with the Bataid Empire remaining high, Bataid strongman Hasan ibn al-Hakam was in search of allies to help preserve his realm.
For the Bataids, meanwhile, Muhammad Mahbat's journey was a blow to their prestige. The Bataid dynasty - of Patzinak extraction, steeped in both Arabic and Hellenic cultural norms - had been accused by Arab opponents of being "too Greek" in their ways. In Muhammad Mahbat, elites in the Bataid realm witnessed a visitor from a new world who spoke Arabic and worshipped as a Muslim did. He was seen by many as an example of properly representing Islam, and the notion of a new world of powerful Muslims over the ocean lent an air of legitimacy to the Umayyad Caliph that the Abbasids lacked (despite both Caliphs being effectively powerless puppets of their respective military rulers).
Bataid resentment of the Umayyad-following world only grew in the ensuing years. People conducting the hajj from Al-Andalus and Ifriqiya were subjected to increasing scrutiny and harassment in the wake of Muhammad Mahbat's journey, though in practice this occurred mainly on the Mediterranean route, with the Hashemite rulers of Mecca continuing to operate more or less autonomously in keeping Mecca universally accessible to all Muslims.
Tensions between the Asmarids and the Bataids, long simmering in the background, were placed on a slow but steady escalation, and Christian interest in the new world newly enkindled, all by Muhammad Mahbat's innocent passage - an example of one man changing the entire character of geopolitics with no intention of doing so.
We might need a Cat POV in the future at this paceThe cat just looked up at him.
Gathering the stray in his arms, Muhammad Mahbat rose to his feet and beamed. "Then you shall come with us," he proclaimed. "Come - let us go together!"
Umm Nice Catch @Talus I of Dixie what do you think? And yeah as ITTL Brazil is OTL NewfoundlandWondering if Malibu is in alt!Brazil in this timeline.
Wondering if Malibu is in alt!Brazil in this timeline.
Also, the change to an African route brings more changes than just a West African route Mansa Musa took. Every costal part of Africa is visited and thus have stronger trade centuries ahead of otl...
Those are very specific legends might be gone, but again Muslim mythos is based on Djinn, some might be invented or influenced by thatI wonder what MIAJ's version of colonial folktales look like or will look like
perhaps we could wind up with an anglish-alascan version of the headless horseman, or a brasilian rip van winkle
I mean obviously the legends wouldn't be exactly the same, i was just using some famous examplesThose are very specific legends might be gone, but again Muslim mythos is based on Djinn, some might be invented or influenced by that