alternatehistory.com

A working TL, with a tenative PoD in the mid-10th century. It begins in Hispania, in the midst of the now-restarted Reconquista. It's a bit random at times, but focuses attention on one area over a span of many years.
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1066, Malaqah, al-Andalus

The Caliphate of Cordoba had breathed its last 12 years before, and this meeting, this gathering, was born of the corpse of the unified al-Andalus. Malaqah, and much of the southern coast, had always been different than the rest of Andalus- primarily Ibadi in faith, and Muladi in culture, speaking the Arab-Latin mix known as Mozarabic, even in the law courts (but not, of course, in the mosques).

The Umayyads had fled, once more, into the lands of the Fatimids, and then to Aksum, in their own Hijra. From there, the patricians of the city could only speculate as to where the last son of the last Caliph had fled with his loyal entourage. Some say he went to Hind, others to Zanj-e-bar, and the most reliable sources had him somewhere beyond that, in the far east, serving in some court as a general and scholar.

The patricians were here, of course, for greater things, meeting in this hallowed mosque. Today, Malaqah would be free- the Emir in Cordoba had died, and the south of Andalus was consumed in utter chaos. Today, the Republic of Malaga, as the Muladi and Mozarabs called it, was formed.

The imams had argued, of course, for a clerical state- the most extreme called for a holy jihad, to spread the true interpretation of the One Prophet to all of Andalus. The rural barons wanted a decentralized Emirate. But the merchants and middle class people, the scholars and artisans, had voted in something different. Men of Italy spoke of the now-fallen Venice and Genoa as "mercantile republics"; some of these Venetians, like his captured mother, converted out of expediency (indeed, an infidel merchant knew no true faith but gold), had settled in Malaga, and Genoans had fled to Lisboa and Mursiya. Some in Lisboa had even kept their faith, but Tewfiq ibn Tutali was... skeptical of their spiritual bearings. He was a scholar and a mercenary- he had fought across the entire world, from his time as a young man. He had fought first in Timbuktu, and then to Kanem, and then into the lands of Hind, where he had, with a small bit of his money, bought Rana, his wife.

But now, a grown man he had returned to his beloved Malaga, married to his beloved Rana, and settled, a rich and well respected man, in Malaga. With him came his entire company of mercenaries, comrades worn by years of war and inspired equally by Allah- they brought much wisdom and cultural wealth into his city.

And it was now, that Tewfiq ibn Tutali, a Muladi, was now brought up as a possible leader of Malaga. Of course, Tewfiq did not think himself a Caesar, and, in this long conclave of the important men of Malaga, had already refused himself the title of Consul three times.

But now, as he had pondered over the beautiful calligraphy of the mosque, they had voted without him. And so it was- al-Hajj Tewfiq ibn Tutali, friend to Muslims and dhimmi, traveler across the world, knower of the Quran and leader of soldiers, was First Consul of the Republic of Malaga.

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The Saracen Athens: A History of the Early Malagan Republic, by Farkas Szeless

Malaga the state was founded in the middle of the Taifa period- after the Caliphate had fallen, and after the large Emirate of Cordoba collapsed under its own weight. The first leader of Malaga was appropriately a man accustomed to war- the legendary Tewfiq ibn Tutali was a mercenary known across the peripheries of the Muslim world, from the sands of Timbuktu to farthest Asia.

The city, compared to the rest of al-Andalus, and even the rest of southern Andalus, was based heavily on an Ibadi, Arabized Latin population, replete with Maghrebi Arabs and the various peoples who followed mercenaries like Tewfiq into the city. Tewfiq, the son of a Maghrebi Arab merchant and a converted Venetian mother, was well educated in the Western classics- the republic, from the beginning, had classical and Muslim influences. He himself took the title of Consul, a title which, from him, would wax and wane with power over time.

In those early years, the military prowess of Tewfiq and other commanders, including Mossa of Djenne, Suleyman of Qandahar, and Yahya the Sicilian, would expand the borders of Malaga to cover much of the southern coast of Andalus, all the way to Mursiya (after the infamous razing of Cartagena). In his last (major) and greatest victory in 1092, the aging Tewfiq captured Qurtubah the Great, and went back to Malaga a proud and victorious man. He would go on to live another 19 years, dying at the ripe old age of 84 in his last victory, right outside Cordobab (Battle of Cordoba, 1111). He died a father of his nation, and a beloved hero whos influence reverberates in the region to this day. Beloved by all the people in his expanding Republic, he is best noted for his military expansion and the strong administrative structure he set up, a rarity in the decentralized feudal mess of Taifa al-Andalus.

After his death, he was succeded by Jafar ibn Ijaz Javed Mulla, whose scholastic background and cultural interests brought the Republic into an age of cultural blossoming and solidarity. It is Jafar who wrote the first dictionary of the Mozarabic dialect used in Malaga- that particular dialect, already divergent from the primarily Christian language that pervaded the rest of Andalus, would become the modern day of Andalusian.

After Jafar, two minor Consuls reigned in Malaga, Hakim Hadda and Idris Yorassem, both of whom accomplished little but stability in their short reigns. They were followed by the last "Early Period" Consul- Morteza al-Qutiyya. Morteza would be a military man, in the vein of Tewfiq. He raided Castillian-held Tulaytulah, raided through much of al-Mansha, and built the fortifications on the Baytis river that would halt any prospective Lusitanian or Aragonese expansion. It is his slaying of Alfonso of Castille in the Battle of Almuradiel that led to the 40 Years War in the north of Hispania, and allowed the great raids to attack much of the towns in Castille and Aragon.

His other achievements came in subduing Algiers and the Balearics, both of which fell quickly to Malagan forces. The capture of Algiers allowed for the Malagans to offset the Christian capture of others ports, especially the Lusitanian control of the tip of Morocco (including Tangiers and Ceuta) and the city of Oran.

Morteza would die in the year 1212, bringing the end of the "Early Period" in Malagan history. He would be followed by the Middle Period, a time of cultural and mercantile flowering...
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