Hey, just caught up with your TL and it's not turning out to be the Muslim wank I thought (not that it's a bad thing😁). Just curious a bit. Without Abbasid victory in Talas, wouldn't the use of paper stumble for a few decades? As far as I know, Tang prisoners openeed up the secret of paper making and it later spread across Europe and rest of Asia, ushering the golden age of knowledge after the Greeks. Assalamualaikum.
It's good to see new faces here! Thank you very much for appreciating this piece of copper called Muslim World , about the paper stuff, you'll see, simply because if i say what'll happen i would be spoilering the soon-to-be Abbasid and Chinese chapters
The Amber Road is on since antiquity and was just a fairly bit damned by the migration period. The ERE Civil War will be covered after the next series of updates , i'll be already starting to work on it tomorrow.
It's good to see new faces here! Thank you very much for appreciating this piece of copper called Muslim World , about the paper stuff, you'll see, simply because if i say what'll happen i would be spoilering the soon-to-be Abbasid and Chinese chapters
Just passing here to warn that the next update will be delayed quite a bit due to extensive research being required , in simpler words, i'm having to read through an 384-page article about Estonia, although it seems that it'll be clearly rewarding for this TL, the amount of information that i'm passing through is surprising
With this clarified, do y'all have any [non-spoilery] questions?
Just passing here to warn that the next update will be delayed quite a bit due to extensive research being required , in simpler words, i'm having to read through an 384-page article about Estonia, although it seems that it'll be clearly rewarding for this TL, the amount of information that i'm passing through is surprising
With this clarified, do y'all have any [non-spoilery] questions?
Those seems very good news, yeah delays sucks but seems you will do an amazing chapter because the long wait, after your prussia one, this one will be as good, wonder what influence will have muslim merchants and others in the still pagan Estonia...that much like OTL seems will be the building stones of the nation.
Some Order for updates after this? still waiting to be back Faransa or see the clusterfuck of the Roman Civil War
As i said before, after this update we'll be going to catch up in the East, the Abbasids and the Tang Dynasty, after this i'll make a brief update catching up with everything else and then we'll be back in the ERE.
How far do you see yourself going with this timeline? we haven't had to deal with any divergent Islamic sects at this point, when do you see yourself introducing said sects and therefore some intra-religious conflict.
How far do you see yourself going with this timeline? we haven't had to deal with any divergent Islamic sects at this point, when do you see yourself introducing said sects and therefore some intra-religious conflict.
We did, the netherlands has zaydi shias and once other important stuff are covered a chapter dedicated to other zaydis and ismailis will happen eventually, probably.
How far do you see yourself going with this timeline? we haven't had to deal with any divergent Islamic sects at this point, when do you see yourself introducing said sects and therefore some intra-religious conflict.
We did, the netherlands has zaydi shias and once other important stuff are covered a chapter dedicated to other zaydis and ismailis will happen eventually, probably.
Yeah The Bakhiya are an unique butterfly ITTL and one very big with the influence they would get later on too. I would like to see more and those might come in the future
Just passing here to warn that the next update will be delayed quite a bit due to extensive research being required , in simpler words, i'm having to read through an 384-page article about Estonia, although it seems that it'll be clearly rewarding for this TL, the amount of information that i'm passing through is surprising
With this clarified, do y'all have any [non-spoilery] questions?
oh, this is wonderful.
No seriously, researching for timelines is almost as rewarding as actually posting updates for said timelines. It makes you smarter, makes more things possible in the future, broadens your perspectives and abilities to write other timelines on more subjects, and just helps you become a better alternate history writer. I would know, I am speaking from experience.
Take your time. I look forward to what you put out.
How far do you see yourself going with this timeline? we haven't had to deal with any divergent Islamic sects at this point, when do you see yourself introducing said sects and therefore some intra-religious conflict.
My desire is to drag this well into modern-day, but this could take a while, so don't set your expectatives too high for the time being! We'll go step-by-step , as for intra-religious conflict, the abbasid update(s!) will probably fulfill your desire, especially with Bakhyia being a thing.
oh, this is wonderful.
No seriously, researching for timelines is almost as rewarding as actually posting updates for said timelines. It makes you smarter, makes more things possible in the future, broadens your perspectives and abilities to write other timelines on more subjects, and just helps you become a better alternate history writer. I would know, I am speaking from experience.
Take your time. I look forward to what you put out.
Yes, the best part is that it's immediately rewarding, especially when you come to the unexpected parts of a research, i stopped hating history because of alternate history , and being smarter permits you to help other people and sometimes even when you actually don't have any use for an specific source, you always can keep it in case anyone might need. It's completely rewarding!
My desire is to drag this well into modern-day, but this could take a while, so don't set your expectatives too high for the time being! We'll go step-by-step , as for intra-religious conflict, the abbasid update(s!) will probably fulfill your desire, especially with Bakhyia being a thing.
Hope we're able to get into modern day scenario, your work have been terrific so far and yeah both Bakhyia and the Ukhawias make very unique religions diferences too.
My tesis has been keeping me busy but I finally found some time to write/paste about the shia sects. As I promised long ago. I hope I do so in the next days.
Also I just realiced that the genetics of rulers played a big role in european politics from the late medieval period until the 19th century, thanks to the massive amount of inbreeding in most lineages, specially central european ones. This won't happen in ttl thanks to the harems keeping the genetics of royal families more diverse. So less mad, mentally challenged or infertile rulers, and is almost imposible for a royal line to die out naturally.
Ummm, Something to Consider, With Andalus mostly in control the whole peninsula and Faransa slowly becoming more Muslim(still come christian nobles but those might marry local) and Bakhyia/Batavia in the same situation. that put a massive pressure in the Christian Royalty in Central Europe and Britain too, but again this is before the boom of 'dynastic mariage' will start in 200-300 years later, plus much Royals married locally anyway
Muslim World - The Age of Collapse
Pirates, Traders and Warriors - Adventures on the Eastern Baltic
The Rise of Võitleja (762-764)
Võitleja, the man behind the great raid on Sweden that ended the reign of King Haraldr, was an influential and ambitious chief in Saaremaa, controlling the crucial port of Äswa [1] and the lands surrounding it, with his influence extending to many other minor nobles in the western and southern part of the island, undermining the power of the Elder in Pöiðe [2].
Võitleja initially saw the civil war in the west with hope, since his prestige prospects (mostly by raiding and fighting against the Taanlased [3]) were drastically diminished after the rise of Haraldr, and he didn't lose time to raise an army and pay mercenary service to Sigurðr Hringr together with his long-time curonian allies. But as we know, Haraldr ended up shining at the Battle of Rosköping, slaying much of the treacherous swedish nobility and Sigurðr himself. Võitleja was in the right flank together with his estonian followers and curonian allies, and once reports of the destructive saxon's charge in the other flank arrived, he smartly decided to pull back from the situation and convinced his curonian allies to do so as well, compromising the swedish left flank and resulting in the ultimate defeat of the swedes (although estonian legends say that before he pulled back he managed to defeat the wendish commander of the opposing army [4]).
Võitleja, now effectively commanding both the estonians and curonians, departed rapidly from Sweden by ship, with him and the soldiers happy from the profit (although a considerable amount of the curonians saw him as a greedy coward with fear of battle) going back firstly to the gotlandish colony of Sæborg [5] and capturing it after a brief battle, although the colonists were granted permission to stay after a brief looting of the city. With the capturing of Sæborg, the curonians made their mouths shut, and Võitleja proposed a going back to Sweden with him in the overall command, which he managed to convince the curonians after a brief argument (and subsequently many new curonian and skalvian volunteers joining his ranks).
He then travelled with his new army to his homeland of Saaremaa, where he showed off his new riches to the locals, scared the shit out of Elder Ilu (since he arrived with a army triple the size he went off) and said that it was a pretty good idea to join him in another expedition (probably omitting the fact that he technically lost the battle), resulting in a considerable increase of his estonian contingent and soon his departure to Sweden, while Ilu, who was distrustful of Võitleja's intentions, remained in Saaremaa and decided to check his power by confiscating the many lands possessed by his allies and trying an alliance with the ruler of Lihula across the sea, preparing for the possible (but not actually desirable) return of Võitleja.
With his recruited army, Võitleja managed to rapidly defeat the local unestablished nobles in Sweden, and start a series of plunderings in the region, while King Haraldr obviously went north to stop more damaged, resulting in the decisive Battle of Visirum, where the estonian led his army into a glorious victory against the until-then seemingly undefeatable Haraldr, not just defeating the danes but also killing their great king.
After months of further plundering, with nearly the entirety of Sweden being ravaged by Võitleja's army, the man and his army had enough and, now full of spoils, retired to Saaremaa, with Võitleja proving himself fully after the pull back in Rosköping.
The arrival of his host at Tagalahata Bay [6] amazed the nobles imposed by Ilu, while the nobles in Võitleja's army quickly became furious because of the confiscation of their lands, and after a brief organization of the spoils by Võitleja, the curonians and skalvians went back home, dimishing Võitleja's numbers greatly. The nobles who received the confiscated lands around Tagalahata Bay rapidly surrendered and returned the lands to their previous owners, soon enough Võitleja would be taking his followers' lands in the western part of the island back, until Ilu, supported by auxiliar troops of Armuline of Lihula, went with 3.800 warriors against Võitleja's 5.000, with the armies opposing each other at Arandi [7], although the agressive attitude surprised Võitleja's army, he smartly encircled the whole army and ultimately defeated it, ending in a quite anticlimactic way his opposition in Saaremaa, with him setting himself as the Elder of Saaremaa with quite a great deal of popularity, and a bigger control of the local nobles than any other Elder ever had.
But he wasn't quite finished yet, at first because Lihula remained against him, with Armuline raising up Maguskala, Ilu's eldest son, as claimant to the Eldership of Saaremaa, while trying to gather support from other estonian elders to expel the usurper and ultimately, control the richest region of Estonia with the young Maguskala as a puppet, and also because of the sudden and suspicious arrival of seven misterious ships at the pretty depopulated island of Hiiumaa.
The Arrival of the Minathulatians and the First Läänemaa Campaign (764-767)
Under the leadership of Halim al-Kindī, an exiled ibrahimite arab chief from Faransa, seven ships from Minathulaty disembarked at the Island of Kõrgessaare [8], soon establishing contact and trade with local fishermen [9], soon learning that to the south was the main island that they were searching for, with the fleet soon arriving at the coastal village of Triiki [10], where were minor iron mines, with the local noble allowing al-Kindī to establish a trading post near the village, while the minathulatians awaited the arrival of Võitleja after the noble contacted him.
Reorganizing his army to proceed into his attack on Lihula, the reports of the muslim arrivals didn't go unnoticed by Võitleja, who sent a reply asking the noble to invite al-Kindī to his "court" in Äsva. Together with other twenty men, al-Kindī crossed Saaremaa to Äsva, with his accounts of the travel reporting a quite simple life of the local farmers, and noticing their pagan ways of worship, with a particularly attention to their lack of human sacrifice, with them instead "sacrificing much of their wealth to the gods".
We know from his reports that al-Kindī was quite unimpressed after his arrival in Äsva, especially because of the sparse population that he found in the interior, nonetheless, the arab speaks quite well of Võitleja once he reports the arrival at the "court", with the reception being quite warm although various initial problems of communication are reported [11], the problem was solved soon enough that the arab managed to gain permission to establish an trading post at Hiiumaa after an agreed evacuation of the trading post near Triiki and a payment in gold, especially valuable in Estonia [12].
The arabs soon named their new (and quite small) trading post Ribāṭ al-Ḥūmā [13], with an garrison of 18 men. In economic terms, al-Ḥumā would be exceedingly peripheric, because of the valuable amber trade pushing attention to the south and the ability of the saaremanians to simply out-trade them in the iron game (the whole point of the post, actually), but in local terms, it would have considerable consequences, as the garrison and the merchant population of the post settled inhabitants of mainland Estonia and the island of Gotland into Hiiumaa through free land grants with the objective of having an domestic agricultural production (to feed the trading post), resulting in a constant population in the island and the creation of what was in practice an merchant state in the island (but not a remarkably rich one i must say).
All the while, things weren't as peripherical in the south, although in the pomeranian coast they weren't present until 767, in 764, christian bakhyians from Antwerpan [14] established the trading post of Fēna [15] in Livonia, and in 767 muslims from Urekt established al-Halqa in the mouth of the Vēna River [16], in another deal with the livonians, who were quickly recovering with muslim trade from curonian incursions after the campaigns of Võitleja, although the deals with the Livs resulted in a hostile attitude from the Curonians, who constantly executed piracy against bakhyian ships at the Baltic.
Back to Estonia, after the foreign meeting, Võitleja continued his preparations for the invasion of Läänemaa, and in the end of the next year, was quite ready for the conflict, with an 5.300-strong army leaving Äsva by sea in the end of the early winter in 766, and after less than a week's voyage, landing at Rannaneneemi [17] and marching directly at Lihula.
Elder Armuline was ready though, and had stroke an alliance with Elder Jumalikulita of Soontagana, granting that although outnumbered (he had only around 4.000 soldiers), if he managed to delay Võitleja long enough, he would gain a decisive advantage, so he retreated from Lihula to set a camp in Püsila [18], while Võitleja tried to put the quite fortified [19] settlement of Lihula into siege, being mostly unsuccessful in his attempts for the next months, especially because Armuline kept using his forces to harass the islanders in their siege.
When Võitleja's scouts found Jumalikulita's army coming from the southeast in March of 767, the siege was mostly static, although some supply problems started to affect the defenders, the winter also wasn't particularly merciful to the islanders. Võitleja soon decided to raise the siege and feign retreat back to Saaremaa, resulting in Armuline soon advancing with his army and following the islanders, with Jumalikuta coming near by the southeast, but, more importantly to Võitleja, the two armies were separated, since Jumalikuta rerouted once he discovered that Võitleja retreated.
Jumalikuta was nearer than Armuline, so Võitleja decided to focus on him, suddenly stopping his retreat and charging at the 5.200 Soontaganian warriors at the Battle of Vlasjta [20], catching them by surprise and managing an early breakthrough, which was properly used by the islander cavalry who pushed through the gap and decided the brief battle, resulting in the soontaganians routing, while Jumalikuta tried to regroup his army in the east.
Even with that though, Võitleja had miscalculated, and soon after defeating Jumalikuta at Vlasjta, Armuline was arriving at his rear, and with an tired and bloodied army (especially due to losses from the winter siege), rapidly sent an envoy to Armuline proposing negotiations, who, after having the soontaganian defeat confirmed, accepted the proposal.
The resulting compromise was simple, Armuline would recognize Võitleja as Elder of Saaremaa and give Maguskala back to the island, accordingly, Võitleja was to return back home while Jumalikuta would pay reparations to the islanders, as a way to put the victory in effect. Armuline was hardly amused by the agreement but decided it wasn't worth it to confront Võitleja, while the islander now had destroyed any chance of political instability by having the young Maguskala in his hands. Jumalikuta was who lost the most, and after this war would pass to hate Armuline very hard, thinking that he willingly threw him into defeat.
First Curonian-Bakhyian War and Võitleja's Peace (768-770)
After returning to Saaremaa as a quite prestigious figure among his men, Võitleja turned to more domestic affairs, settling some land disputes among the nobles, improving earthworks and constructing new fortifications, with the establishment of forts in Äsva, Kõrgessare and Linnuse [21] coming in the years following his campaign in Läänemaa.
At the same time, the minathulatians, in war with Bakhyia, took the opportunity to establish a trading post at the now fallen scandinavian colony of Sæborg, making in 767 a deal with the curonian chiefdom of Peimorė [22], gaining the right to build the trading post in the near island of Lėipa [23] in return of help being provided against potential rivals, i.e the Samogitians to the south and Livonians to the north [24], this drew the attention of the curonians' northern neighbour, who in the next year made a daring raid under the leadership of Chief Imme, crossing the Vǟnta River and plundering through the territory of Bandava.
At the same time, the bakhyians based out of Fēna with 23 ships and 6.500 men (the vast majority being livonian warriors and semigallian mercenaries) led by the shi'ite convert Bayrānut al-Rādalystiyy [25], disembarked at Lėiva and put the minathulatian fort into siege, with their fleet nearby being previously destroyed before the bakhyian landing, after four days of siege, the garrison surrendered, with Bayrānut putting the fort for his own use and then crossing overland to Ezerpėles [26], where he faced an army of 4.600 curonian warriors awaiting for him.
The result was a pyrrhic victory for the bakhyian forces, who managed to force the curonians into retreat but at the same time, suffered heavy losses, mainly from the competent curonian cavalry. Although Ezerpėles surrendered to Bayrānut after the battle, the curonians retreated in considerable good order back to Lendāle [27], and after word of the double livo-bakhyian attack spread, the curonians entered in a unified front to stop them, while Bayrānut further fortified Ezerpėles, constructing the Ribāṭ al-Qūrsiyy [28] and recruiting a minor contingent of 400 curonian cavalrymen for himself.
Next year, 5.700 curonians invaded Peninsular (i.e, in what's today Curonia) Livonia in order to avenge last year's raids, but soon discovered that the livonians were ready for them, with Chief Imme commanding 5.100 livonians and oeselian estonian mercenaries at the Battle of Talūsa [29] and defeating the curonians thanks to the advice of the estonian veterans (who had already fought side-by-side with curonian cavalrymen), forcing the raiders to return back home, with the livonians don't retaliating the raid beyond capturing the territories at the eastern coast.
In the south, a coalition of around 10.500 curonian warriors gathered to oppose the bakhyians, who were after the losses last year numbering around 4.200 soldiers, with attempts to draw the samogitians into the conflict failing miserably, while promised reinforcements from Gduńzc [30] were delayed by the developments on the First Prussian War.
With the curonian host advancing, Bāyranut decided to focus in defending Ezerpėles by leaving a garrison under his most trusted subcommander, the al-Fawqūlyn Ibrahim ibn Farīdun al-Baṣriyy [31], while harassing any curonian attempt to besiege Ezerpėles from his base on Lėipa.
The curonians started the siege during the summer, initially managing to push the bakhyians from the main town positions quite easily, but, they soon started having difficulties in overcoming the small but well-defended ribat constructed around the heart of the town. And the harassing tactics of Bāyranut started to take an effect on the curonian forces, and, with autumn arriving and the climate cooling, maintaining the siege started to prove a considerable difficulty, but supplies inside the bakhyian fortifications also were going to low soon.
Around October, Bāyranut found himself in a well-enough position to relieve the siege after his curonian scouts reported that the besiegers were starting to prepare camp to rest during the winter. Soon, he marched his troops through early snow and arrived near the town, already attacking the besiegers from first view, what proved to be an fatal error, once the curonians were totally prepared for his arrival due to some of the curonian scouts betraying the bakhyians, resulting in confusion after Bāyranut's curonians started to attack their fellow troops while the curonians advanced, resulting in an rapid rout of the bakhyian forces, and the following peaceful surrender of al-Baṣriyy under the terms that he and his troops are allowed to return to Lėipa.
During Bāyranut's retreat back to Lėipa, he was frequently harassed by the locals, further diminishing his numbers to around a mere 400 soldiers (plus other 142 coming with al-Baṣriyy soon after), and when he finally arrived at Lėipa, the local curonians had started a uprising, who was brutally supressed with a massacre by the gotlander mercenaries that made up the bakhyian garrison after the curonians started to target the local norse-descent population as scapegoats (because they collaborated with the bakhyian takeover, and don't forget that this region was previously a scandinavian colony so...), what made Bāyranut start to fall depressed by the situation, and just didn't dismiss himself because al-Baṣriyy convinced him to not do so.
But then, Bāyranut quickly repented from not dismissing himself, once the curonians came in the next spring with an fleet of 31 ships and easily blockaded the island, with 2.300 warriors landing and advancing quickly on the bakhyian positions, who retreated to the fort erected by the minathulatians three years before.
Things seemed hopeless for the bakhyians, until 24 quite familiar ships arrived from far, assisted by 6 certainly livonian ships, in that day Bāyranut's hopes went high up, thinking that there was no way for the pagan curonians to defeat the bakhyians at sea. In the next day, battle came, but something else came too, while the curonians and bakhyians were fighting a quite equilibrated battle, 8 familiar ships arrived near from the west, Bāyranut and the whole bakhyian garrison thought this were ally reserves coming to crush the curonians.
But they weren't, in fact, they were a minor minathulatian fleet sent north as soon as news of the fall of their post at Lėipa arrived, the thing is, due to the heavy commitment to the First Prussian War, the fleet remained a eight-ship fiasco not strong enough to do anything in its own, remaining anchored at the friendly curonian harbour of Pėilanka [32] until the arrival of news from the bakhyian defeat at Ezerpėles, when the fleet immediately sailed north to attempt to recover the post in Lėipa, and when the fleet arrived, it was decisive in settling the score against the bakhyians and decisively defeating the fleet.
After the bakhyian fleet was defeated, Bāyranut entered sorrow again, and soon after surrendered the fort, being forced to make peace in behalf of the bakhyians (confirming the recognizement of the minathulatian rights to the post in Lėipa) and soon returning with what remained of his forces to al-Halqa. Where in the next year he would be dismissed after reports arrived in Gduńzc, but the bakhyians wouldn't again try to restart hostilities for quite the time, only helping the livonians to deal with occasional curonian raids.
With the end of major conflicts in the region, bakhyian shipping increased in efficiency since the curonians weren't systematically attacking bakhyian merchant ships in the Baltic, although for all the powers in the baltic, curonian and especially estonian pirates remained a concern for the next decade, resulting in an increase in naval armament by the coasts, in special the coast of Sweden. This war also strengthened considerably the position of the peninsular livonians, with the previous curonian expansion being at least by now, dealt with a huge blow, and parcial prosperity reaching the livonian people for these times.
[1]: Present-day Asva, Estonia. Curious enough the etymology have Proto-Balto-Slavic origins (while the estonians are Balto-Finnic), from *éśwāˀ [e.ɕwa:ˀ] (meaning "mare"), the name's halfway through the OTL change, instead of [as'ʋa] we have [æ'swa], with Proto-Finnic *w not lost yet (this will have some implications later)
[2]: Pöide, Estonia. Pronounced as [pøj'ðe], because IOTL estonian lost *ð due to german influence (i swear this isn't a spoiler!)
[3]: Danes, it ends up at least for now being used for the swedish too, because Sweden is under the King of the Danes
[4]: You'll see that his history don't permits he to have such a bad reputation as one of "shamelessly pulling back from battle after doing literally nothing" among the estonians
[5]: Grobiņa, Latvia, pronounced [sæ:r'borg]
[6]: Tagalaht Bay, pronounced as i think that way you would speak it in english
[7]: The battle happening at March 4, 764
[8]: Today it's not an island, but this is due to land uplift, by the 8th century still is an island, the etymology is literally "High Island", pronounced as [kɤr'ge's:a:'re] (yes there's consonantal lenght)
[9]: Around 90% of the island's population is non-permanent-living fishermen
[10]: Triigi, Estonia, pronounced as [tri:'ki]. Etymology probably associated with iron
[11]: By then the ukhawias were a quite recent arrival at the Baltic, so fleets going with interpreters were rare, but with the estonians the problem is the complete lack of relation between estonian and any language al-Kindī knows
[12]: Estonia lacks really hard precious minerals, but in compensation it's a quite consistent producer of iron (with Saaremaa being the biggest producer)
[13]: "Shelter of Hiumaa", pronounced as [ri'ba:tˤ al'ħu:ma:] in the little cape near present-day Pärna
[14]: Antwerp, Belgium. Pronounced as [ant'verpan]
[15]: Ventspils, Latvia, pronounced as [fe:'na]. The etymology comes from the livonian word "Vēna" (meaning "estuary of the river'') which IOTL gave its name to the Venda River, but as you may have noticed, this isn't the arab name for the place, which is Faynā [faj'na:]
[16]: Oops, yeah this is certainly gonna cause problems, but it is the Daugava River. Y'll have to remember this: Fēna is the settlement (not in the river similarly named), Vēna is the river and al-Halqa is near present-day Riga (i.e on the Vēna River)
[17]: Matsi, Estonia (Pärnu County). Pronounced as [ra'n:a'ne'ne:mi], meaning basically "Beachy Cape"
[18]: Kasari, Estonia. Pronounced as [py'si'la], meaning roughly "place of encampment"
[19]: IOTL Lihula had quite a fort going on so...
[20]: Vlata, Estonia, pronounced as [vla'sj'ta]. Connected with Proto-Balto-Slavic *vlāšta (IINM)
[21]: Same name from present-day village in the Island of Muhu, meaning "Castle-ly [Place]"
[22]: Also know by its Lithuanian name, Piemare (with its curonian name meaning roughly "At sea")
[23]: Time to explain regional rivalries yey, firstly, by here you may had already seen that the curonians don't quite like the livonians at all, but yeah, IOTL by the time of the crusades the curonians had literally displaced the livs from what we know now as Courland, while the samogitians and curonians were described as "bad neighbours" in the livonian chronicles of Henry
[24]: Liepāja, Latvia. Pronounced as [le:j'pa]
[25]: Beranot ("Bearing" in Old Dutch) the Livonian ("Rāndalist" being the old endonym of the livonians, meaning, "coastal people"), receiving this nickname because of living among the natives in al-Halqa and marrying a livonian woman. His complete name in Old Dutch would be Beranot thie Rēdalisit
[26]: Sæborg proper, apparently being the curonian adaptation of Sær (Ezer) + Pėles (Castle, Stronghold, etc). Cognate with "Pólis" btw, pronounced as [ε'zɐr'pe:'les]
[27]: Durbe, Latvia. Pronounced as [len'da:'le]
[28]: "Ribāṭ of the Curonians"
[29]: Talsa, Latvia. Same etymology of the OTL city, with only the retracted vowel changing, pronounced as [ta'lu:'sa]
[30]: Being basically the ~ sort of/not exactly but quite like that ~ "capital" of the minathulatian baltic trading posts
[31]: Firstly, al-Fawqūlun is a term that was initially used by the native old dutch speakers to refer to the shi'ites who emigrated to Bakhyia after the consolidation of the Imamate (Alt Folgoling, "Old Followers"), which the muslim ruling class and the emigrés themselves picked for common use in an arabized form (ironically enough, with the "Alt" being recognized as "al-"). Secondly, Ibrahim came from Iraq, specifically, as his name shows, from Basra, and his father was a zoroastrian convert for anyone wondering why the (probably strange) name
[32]: Palanga, Lithuania. Pronounced as [pe:j'lan'ka], meaning "at the swamp"
Amazing Update buddy well worth the wait for all the details and information on it, seriously this chapter is so well done, literally was like a window to the past to the formation of ITTL Latvia and Estonia, just how incredible in details is. Yeah the Bakhyia got some big setbacks in their colonization of the baltic... but yeah seems the region is so lively.
Amazing Update buddy well worth the wait for all the details and information on it, seriously this chapter is so well done, literally was like a window to the past to the formation of ITTL Latvia and Estonia, just how incredible in details is. Yeah the Bakhyia got some big setbacks in their colonization of the baltic... but yeah seems the region is so lively.
Thanks! Well, to be honest not even me expected it to be so detailed and descriptive before i started to read the papers about the Medieval Baltic i grouped up, so reading it now makes me even more proud of my own work
Although in Prussia things continued evenly because of none of the two sides having a considerable advantage in strength, in the Eastern Baltic is another matter entirely, although the livonians managed to hold their ground with bakhyian support, the curonians are way too strong for the bakhyians to manage to defeat on their own, the campaign just wasn't more disastrous because Minathulaty was way too worried about Prussia and having their capital (Minathulaty...duh?) besieged back home, so any major support for the curonians wasn't provided in the end.
By now we have an stalemate in the Southern Baltic, while the minathulatians have the upper hand in the Eastern Baltic, the Northern Baltic until now wasn't very explored yet because of the lack of incentive to do so (the minathulatians just went to Saaremaa because of the much needed sources of iron).
, about the paper stuff, you'll see, simply because if i say what'll happen i would be spoilering the soon-to-be Abbasid and Chinese chapters 
en.m.wikipedia.org
