The Persian Eagle: A Saljuqid Empire TL

So the Gallic TL and Bosporan TL seemed to die very quickly and I have no idea if anyone is still reading my Raphia TL so I'm going to take a break from all of them and do something I have been wanting to do for a while a TL of the Saljuqid Empire. So, enjoy. Also in my description of the Sunni/Shia split and the old Caliphates I'm sorry if I am massively off.
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Malik Shah I of the Saljuqid Empire (often called the Seljuk Empire) came to the throne in 1072 at the age of only 17 having been born on 8th August 1055. Upon ascension to the throne he was immediately met with resistance from his uncle Qavurt who claimed the throne. His reign would be full of near constant warfare as he expanded the borders of the Saljuqid Empire to their greatest extent by 1092. However back home Malik held only nominal power as the majority of power rested in his vizier Nizam al-Mulk.

1092

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The Saljuqid Empire in 1092 AD
In 1092 Malik Shah I returned to Isfahan within the Iranian plateau which, in 1092, was the capital of the Saljuqid Empire. Over the past 20 years he had been heavily campaigning throughout the Middle East and expanding the borders of the empire especially in the East and North-East. His campaigning had allowed him to subdue various enemies and strengthen the borders of the empire as a whole.

But back home Malik Shah was not in a good position politically and socially, the state itself was largely run by his vizier Nizam al-Mulk. Not just that but his relations with the Caliph had been steadily breaking down especially as he had ambitions to establish his grandson as Caliph. Therefore he was, politically, surrounded by enemies who would conspire against him and were strong and powerful.

Primarily the main threat came from his vizier Nizam. Nizam was powerful and ambitious and it would have been political suicide to try and remove him from office as the man held enough influence in the court to stage a coup in retaliation. As it was Malik knew that the worst thing that could happen was his death or removal from the throne as his eldest son was only 4 in 1092 and his ascension would have torn the empire apart. But as it was Malik was under constant threat of Nizam simply turning to usurp his throne anyway. Therefore he began making preparations to remove Nizam. Ultimately his decision came down to assassination which was the only way that Nizam could reasonably be removed. The perfect time for such an assassination would come in October 1092 when he began the trip from Isfahan to Baghdad to meet with the Caliph. While no declaration had been made it was likely that the Caliph knew of Malik's intentions to remove him and was potentially conspiring with Nizam to remove Malik. Therefore what may have been disguised as an innocent trip could have been to meet with his co-conspirator, al-Muqtadir, the Caliph. However he would never make it as he was ambushed on the road shortly after leaving by members of the Hashashins and murdered. The assassination was ultimately staged to look like a bandit raid so as to cover suspicion away from Malik himself. While the cover of banditry would work initially with the majority of people, some of Nizam's more staunch supporters soon began to suspect treachery on Malik's part.

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The assassination of Nizam al-Mulk

At this point we need to establish the Hashashins who, by 1092, played a very major part in politics. The Hashashins or Assassins were a secret order of assassins who formed a sect of the Islamic faith known as the Nizarite sect. Their name in the West popularised the term "assassin" and came from their habit of smoking a type of drug known in the West as hashash which they were said to have smoked prior to assassinations. While they were granted land by leaders, they held no army and focused on protection of states and sultans while they focused on espionage and murder. By 1092 they had become powerful political tools owing to their extraordinary ability for assassinations. By this point they could be called upon to assassinate leaders of states and rarely failed. Their infamy would even make them a feared force in the West at later dates and they would soon become intertwined massively with Seljuk and Islamic politics. Their ability to assassinate would mean that eventually the very nature of power for a sultan and his ability to remain in power would heavily depend on the Hashashins. However the events of the next few years would define their rise heavily. With Nizam dead Malik Shah set up a new vizier in his place by the name of Taj al-Mulk Abu'l Ghana'im. Ultimately Taj's skill in the position came second to his lack of ambition and influence although he would be relatively skilled in the position itself.

Now Malik Shah finally turned his attention to steadily gaining further political control throughout the empire and abroad by establishing his control over one of the most important parts of life in 1092: Religion. To this extent he had designs on completely controlling the Sunni caliphate by removing the current caliph. Success in replacing the Caliph would have granted him almost unparalleled spiritual influence however such a move would have been near impossible to successfully pull off peacefully. Ultimately Sunni Muslims and Shia Muslims believed various different things in regards to the caliphate at the time. Within Shia the idea was that the Caliph should be a descendant of Muhammad himself while the Sunni believed that the Caliph should be elected by Muslims themselves. In 1092 the Saljuqid Sultanate was Sunni and theoretically the Caliph should have been in an elected position which would have been hard to prove as invalid. However the position had become a largely hereditary position by this point and Malik knew that he could use this to claim that the entire position itself was invalid due to the Caliph having arisen to the position in an invalid way. However the very idea within the Sunni faith that the Caliph was to be removed from his position appointed by God and the Islamic faith would be a major problem for Malik in attempting to remove him. Ultimately he knew that any attempts to remove him would have met with resistance when, in November, Malik sent a message to the Caliph demanding he leave Baghdad and retire to another part of the empire.

Effectively Malik was demanding al-Muqtadir step down from his position as Caliph in the hope that he could establish his grandson, Ja'far as the new Caliph. However al-Muqtadir had no intention of complying as he had made preparations for Malik Shah's death. Later that month, while out hunting, Malik Shah I was poisoned by the Caliph and supporters of Nizam al-Mulk. However the poison would fail in it's job of killing Malik. However the poison did do the job of stalling Malik who grew ill and was confined to his chamber in Isfahan for 3 months following the incident.

1093

The 3 months in which Malik was bedridden would be hugely important for the Caliph as he began quickly building up support to challenge the shah should he make another attempt to take the Caliphate from him. Effectively this was less building up support for if Malik made such a move but for when he made it. Officially he had already delivered the ultimatum but his illness prevented him from following it through until early February 1093 when he finally had recovered enough to deliver the ultimatum again.

For about two months, al-Muqtadir and his diplomats stalled for time to try and build up further support from within the state and for these two months it worked. However in May 1093 BC Malik finally grew tired of the stalling and demanded an answer of he would take the position by force. By this point he had fully recovered and had even began preparations for a fight against the Caliph. With no time left al-Muqtadir sent out missives to the various nobles and governors he had managed to gain the support of, informing them of the development. On 22nd May 1093 al-Muqtadir refused Malik's ultimatum thus beginning the Saljuqid civil war.

Once the war began news spread quickly of what had happened. Soon the people had begun to turn against Malik for having the audacity to try and remove the caliph from his spiritual position. Initially this manifested in protests and strikes but by June 1093 this had manifested by full scale riots and rebellions. Meanwhile the Saljuqid Empire was ripped in two by the civil war itself.

Moving quickly, Malik descended on Baghdad itself at the head of 40,000 soldiers and proceeded to besiege the city itself. However the response to his move was rapid and in early July 1093, Malik was forced to retreat in the face of a massive army of Muslims who had risen to defend the Caliph from attack. Beset by a huge army of 60,000, Malik had little choice but to retreat and break the siege of Baghdad.

With the siege broken, al-Muqtadir proceeded to bring his spiritual might to bear by declaring Malik an enemy of Islam. He then called for spiritual aid to defend the Caliphate and crush the Shah's forces. The response was huge and came in the form of a further 30,000 who rose up from the Eastern territories to defend him. Not wanting to risk losing his influence in the East, Malik moved quickly to defeat this second army and tore across the Iranian Plateau to defend his position. On the way he made attempts to reinforce his army but found little support from the peasantry some of whom even attacked his army en route to defeat the supporters of the Caliph.

En route Malik was even attacked by the peasantry in hit and run attacks as he attempted to move quickly. This ultimately slowed his journey down by months between Ardakan and Naysabur until November 1093. Finally in October 1093 Malik came face to face with the Eastern rebels who had swollen from 30,000 to 45,000.

The Battle of Naysabur would ultimately be a tactical victory for the Saljuqid Empire in which Malik succeeded in defeating the rebels and forcing a retreat of their army East. However by no means did he inflict heavy casualties due to increasing pressure in the West where the rebels had reached Isfahan itself and were heavily besieging the city itself. The threat to the capital was enough to prevent Malik from pursuing his enemies and forced his own retreat from Naysabur back to relieve his capital.
 
Your other TLs were doing just fine. Don't lose hope just because not many people show up at first. It's accumulative over time. Just keep posting updates like no tomorrow. ;)
 
Your other TLs were doing just fine. Don't lose hope just because not many people show up at first. It's accumulative over time. Just keep posting updates like no tomorrow. ;)

Thanks. Yeah, my Raphia one is continuing and the Gallic one as well. The Bosporan one I kindoff lost interest pretty quickly for it. But thankyou for the words of wisdom.
 
27th February 1094- The Battle of Isfahan

“And so they shall know from Paris to Constantinople,
From Cairo to London and Baghdad to Beijing,
That those who suffered such terrible wrath for their religion on the fields of Isfahan,
Shall watch and wait ‘till eternity comes,
And lie here forevermore in such eternal slumber,
And watch and wait ‘till eternity comes.”
-‘Till eternity comes’​

A drop of sweat snaked across Malik’s face as he stared out across the battlefield at the rebels. They seemed as if they were just one big mass of men lining up for battle in opposition to him, ‘Surely they must realize that they wont leave this place alive, even with 60,000 soldiers’ he thought to himself for a minute. News had only just arrived of further riots and rebellions across the empire itself in reaction to his attempts to remove the Caliph. As he thought about the entire situation, anger swelled up within Malik as he turned away from the rebel army to address his own army and clenched his fists in fury.

“These rebels believe they have a righteous and just cause in defending al-Muqtadir and his rebellious and treasonous cause. He believes he is the rightful Caliph of Baghdad but I say he is naught but a fraud and a liar! His entire position has become invalid and corrupt and must be purged. I intend to purge the position and return it to what it should rightfully be and this is what I will do! But today we fight for none of that, today we fight for your families and friends inside of Isfahan, today we fight for the empire, our deeds today will decide what the fate of the empire is and I promise you that the Seljuk Empire will not fall today!”

For the next few hours the two armies made some minor skirmishes in preparation for the battle itself while both commanders searched for some opportunity to gain an advantage. With his smaller numbers of men but superior cavalry, Malik chose to try and keep the battle at a distance to wear down the enemy army. Occasionally his cavalry would make a feint to draw some rebel soldiers away and then surround them and crush them.

As the morning wore on the two armies became more and more exhausted and Malik finally saw his opportunity, a chink in the armour on the left flank of the rebel army where there was a relatively major disruption in their lines. Sensing an opportunity, Malik ordered an attack on the left flank by his cavalry force.

The Seljuk cavalry swarmed forward, the horse archers leading the charge with their arrows. As they closed in, the horse archers managed to bring down further enemy soldiers before, when they came close, wheeling away to allow the melee and shock cavalry to complete it’s charge and hit the enemy line.

The cavalry punched through the enemy infantry splitting the formation in half and allowing them to begin enveloping the enemy formation. Seeing this, Malik ordered a general advance of his army to attack. However success on the left flank was not repeated on the right flank where the cavalry found themselves quickly cut down by the rebel infantry spears. In the centre, the fighting was desperate as neither side could gain an advantage until one of the flanks was broken. Then the rebel cavalry arrived.

The rebel cavalry swept around the flanks themselves and smashed into the Seljuk cavalry on both flanks. On the right flank it became a massacre as the Seljuk cavalry was crushed between the rebel cavalry and infantry. However on the left flank the Seljuk horse archers succeeded in driving the rebel cavalry away and relieving the Seljuk cavalry from it’s entrapment. But the right flank was crumbling fast and the rebel soldiers were already wheeling around to flank Malik’s infantry, The main problem was that the rebellion was made up of various nobles who raised their personal retinues to fight and so had efficient soldiers.

Realising the battle was turning against him and that the left flank wouldn’t crumble in time, Malik turned to try and regroup his forces. In desperation to preserve his forces, Malik finally gave the order for a general retreat. However sensing a chance to crush Malik once and for all, the rebels began a general pursuit of Malik’s forces. The rebels advanced and began to cut down Malik’s retreating forces and soon the ordered retreat turned to into a panicked stampede to escape a slaughter.

“The Turks fled in their thousands from the advancing soldiers of the rebellion, men knocked one another down and trampled them. Soldiers even threw their weapons and armour down in an attempt to escape. In comparison the rebels advanced slowly and methodically slaughtering everyone in their path.”- ‘The Great Seljuk Empire’ 1800

However just as it seemed that Malik’s forces were to be slaughtered to a man a salvation arrived in the form of the cavalry. What remained of the Seljuk cavalry charged in firing arrows into the rebel forces from either side. Suddenly under heavy fire the advance halted while the melee cavalry swept down on the rebel cavalry which had gotten separated from the main infantry during the pursuit. Forced into a direct confrontation with the Seljuk cavalry, the rebel cavalry was quickly cut down. Without cavalry support the rebels were forced to abandon the pursuit at the risk of being torn to shreds by the Seljuk cavalry.

However despite the last minute salvation of his army, Malik had lost a significant portion of his army.

6:00 PM- 27th February

Finally after hours of bloodshed and violence, Malik Shah stepped into his dark tent with a sigh. Officially the battle wasn’t quite over yet and the fighting or skirmishing would commence the next day but there was no way he could really think that he could defeat the rebels. Initially he had thought that the rebels were mostly untrained militia but the battle had proven otherwise and now he was in a worse position. The final count had just come through and he was now down to about 30,000 of his original 40,000 soldiers against an army twice his size.

News of the defeat would soon spread and Malik knew it would only bring ever more rebellions and enemies. Feeling the anger well up within him again, Malik screamed in fury and kicked his table over spilling the various items onto the ground, maps, candles and various food items tumbled down and rolled along the ground.

‘Dammit!’ Malik thought to himself as he sat down on his bed with a sigh ‘I can see the soldiers, they’re watching me, doubting me. I need to gain a victory tomorrow or they’ll undoubtedly turn against me.’

He sat for a moment in the dark staring at the sliver of moonlight which was pushing through the folds of the tent illuminating the mess he had made. For the first time in a long time he felt so lost with no idea what to do, his empire was turning against him en masse and his army was too small to restore order across the entire empire. The empire was on the verge of collapse and Malik had no idea what he could do to stop it. For a good few minutes, Malik Shah I sat in utter deafening silence contemplating his seemingly impossible position trying to find a way out.

Ultimately the entire short term dilemma of the battle of Isfahan came down to two choices, retreat or fight. To retreat could preserve the army but Isfahan would surely lose and his situation in regards to the soldiers could deteriorate to such a point at which the soldiers might turn against him. To fight would risk defeat and the same outcome in regards to reputation among the soldiers but could also raise his battered reputation and relieve Isfahan should he win.

After only a few minutes Malik came to a decision as to what he should do in regards to his position. To him one of the key things was repairing his reputation so that further rebellions would not break out and the ones which had might lose more and more support. As it was he needed something to counter the news of his initial defeat before it reached other cities and regions. Therefore in the moonlight Malik Shah stood and began picking his things up and placing them back on the table. Then he lit a candle bathing the tent in a soft orange glow and began formulating a plan.

28th February 1094​

It was another blazing day as Malik made his preparations for battle, the ground was dry and cracked beneath his boots and sweat lined his forehead. Around him the army stood in the blazing heat in preparation for the battle itself, after the battle yesterday morale was low and Malik was worried that they may rout at the slightest pressure. It was about noon and Malik knew that the rebels would be expecting a retreat or for him to give battle.

Malik’s heart was pounding and his stomach felt as though it was squirming inside him as he stared out across the field studying the heat haze at the edge of his vision. Everything was staked upon this battle and it was likely that his entire empire would depend on the outcome of the battle. As it was his soldiers had their plans and knew exactly what to do upon the commencement of battle.

Late the previous night Malik had made a spectacle of moving his camp from it’s position on the fields East of the city to a different position on the Northern bank of the Zayanderud river which snaked past the city. Then, early in the morning, he had marched his army to the Southern bank and hid them in the trees on either side of the road leading South. Next he had deployed scouts and his horse archers to the camp itself to wait for the enemy.

His army had been waiting in position for about 6 hours now as they waited for the enemy to make their move. Finally at 1pm a soldier spotted a scout hurrying along the road to report that the enemy army had sent some soldiers to check the camp. ‘No worries’ Malik thought calmly, his horse archers had orders not to engage scouting forces and to wait for the rebel army itself to arrive.

At about 2pm a wind began to pick up from the East and the trees themselves began to rustle with the wind. The added wind brought some slight relief to the army and soldiers roasting within their armour in the Sun. By this point the soldiers had become quite lax in their positions when another scout arrived to announce that the rebels had made their move to seize the seemingly empty camp. It was time.

Malik began giving hurried and panicked instructions to his commanders to get the soldiers into their formations in preparation for the battle. The soldiers jumped to their feet and hurriedly began rushing around to get themselves into formation in preparation for the battle. Soldiers ran around grabbing their weapons and even stray bits of armour to prepare themselves. No sooner had the army reformed itself than they began hearing the sound of galloping from a distance. Only a few minutes later the horse archers came thundering past turning occasionally to fire back at their pursuers.

The entire army seemed to hold it’s breath along with Malik in the few minutes before the enemies arrived. Then the first rebel soldiers began appearing and passing by the army. The Seljuk soldiers seemed to bristle with anticipation as soldiers stared piercingly out of the shadows at the enemies. No one spoke as the only noises came from soldiers re-adjusting their weapons and shields and the enemies marching by in their hurry to capture the horse archers.

“NOW!” Malik screamed, breaking the silence. Suddenly the rebel army ground to a halt as the Seljuk horse archers swung around and resumed heavy fire into the rebel ranks. From the flanks the Seljuk foot archers lit their arrows on fire and began raining heavy fire down upon their enemies. Flaming arrows pounded down upon the tightly formed rebel soldiers breaking their formations and inflicting casualties. This deadly hail was followed shortly after by the sound of trumpets blaring along the line and the crashing sound of the Seljuk infantry jumping into action. The Seljuks tore down on both flanks towards the rebels closing them in on two fronts and taking advantage of the momentary surprise of the rebel forces.

The Seljuk infantry soon flooded around to completely surround the rebel forces on three fronts with the fourth being the front with the horse archers and began pushing them in. While long, the rebel column was thin and easily broken especially at the centre which soon snapped. With the rebel army divided into two groups, they were soon cut down in their hundreds. Very few had any chance to escape as the rebels were slaughtered by the steadily tightening Seljuk army. A few tried to rout but were soon cut down by the Seljuk melee cavalry which prowled around on the field of battle hunting down those who tried to flee.

Malik sighed in relief at the success of the battle as the rebel captives were paraded in chains back towards the Seljuk camp. All around Malik lay thousands of dead soldiers, mostly rebels, which carpeted the road. Seljuk soldiers prowled across the battlefield kicking over bodies to search for and kill any dead bodies which weren’t dead. Dropping his blood-caked sword, Malik began to wipe the sweat and blood off his head. By now the wind had picked up and was providing some serious relief to Malik and his roasting army.

With a victory gained and the siege of Isfahan broken Malik returned to camp to begin the inspection of the rebel captives from the battle. There he found that during the battle the Seljuk forces had succeeded in capturing about 15,000 rebel soldiers out of the original 60,000. While normally Malik would have had them executed on the spot for their treason, his precarious position instead made him cautious. Instead Malik gave the regular soldiers beneath a certain rank the option of returning home or being conscripted into his army. Most chose to go home but a few, about 3000, instead chose to remain with him and these he ordered to be provided tents and lodgings. However the leaders and officers were generally executed for treason against the king himself.

1094​

Malik’s victory would allow him to finally relieve the city of Isfahan and march to Baghdad. However the entire situation had forced his hand far too far in regards to the political and diplomatic problems with the empire. He had already seen that there would be huge resistance to any attempts to remove the Caliph and in all likelihood he would be unable to remove him without there being further rebellions in his rear. Instead Malik chose ultimately to end the war peacefully.

Leaving the majority of his army at Isfahan, Malik began to make the journey to Baghdad with only a small personal guard to protect against bandits or assassins. Effectively this was a propaganda stunt to show how he had been humbled by the experience and show that he was sorry. The situation had shown that he couldn’t remove the caliph so instead he was going for the next best thing, appealing to the Caliph for mercy.

What exactly happened at Baghdad in March 1094 is largely unknown except that he refused to enter before he bathed to wash away sins and then demanded to walk through the city barefoot. However once he reached the center of the city he met the Caliph and performed some unknown ritual deep inside the city. Malik would then stay within the city for about 10 days before leaving on a pilgrimage to Mecca to help rebuild his reputation. Malik would be gone until July 1094 when he would finally return to Isfahan. His return to Isfahan would then be marked by the construction of a huge series of mosques throughout the Seljuk Empire.

Despite having been absent for 4 months, the Seljuk’s hadn’t been idle. The pilgrimage itself did a huge amount to rebuild his reputation and the display of piety had helped as well. Meanwhile his primary commanders had been hard at work re-establishing order and crushing the various rebellions and riots. However despite this Malik would spend large portions of 1094 campaigning heavily to end the rebellions and riots to help re-unite his empire. During this time Malik saw a series of successes against the mostly untrained rebels and inflicted crushing defeats on them across the empire. Slowly but surely over the course of the year, Malik managed to restore order. Notably Malik would gain decisive victories over the rebels at Ma’an, Dimasq, Quniyah, Amul, Rayy and Dandanqan. After each victory Malik would offer the same choice he had offered to the captives of the battle of Isfahan. Finally Malik Shah would return to Isfahan in December 1094 BC with the empire re-united and his position secure in the short term.


1095​

By 1095 a storm was brewing in the West, the Byzantine Emperor Alexios Komnemos had sent a letter West to Pope Urban asking for him to send some soldiers to help against the Seljuk Empire. This letter was asking mostly for a few thousand Flemish mercenaries but it would eventually change the Christian world forever.

Meanwhile Malik was blissfully unaware of what was to come and instead set about making some changes to the Seljuk Empire. After the previous rebellion he set about reducing the power of the nobles and instead strengthening his own retinue. However the problem was that the nobles were the tool through which the emperor could levy soldiers and so to try and reduce their power would have been suicide. Instead Malik chose a more radical solution, a professional army.

To say that this was unprecedented was false, the Romans had had a professional army and the Byzantines had a largely professional army. Not only that but the Seljuks had a powerful nobility and had grown quickly, it was similar to the old Parthian empire in which the nobles were incredibly powerful and could more or less control the state. To reduce their power Malik was aware that he would need to reduce their influence in the process of raising armies and reduce their ability to access large armies. Therefore he chose to turn to the idea of a professional army in which the soldiers would sign up with the army. However unlike the armies of old soldiers wouldn’t fight for the nobles they would fight for the Shah. By doing this Malik effectively helped take control of the army so as to weaken the nobles and reduce their ability to raise a large rebellion against him. Effectively this was to prevent a repeat of the disaster at Isfahan.

Through this reform Malik changed the way the administrative districts worked. As it was the Seljuk Empire was split into various sections which made up the entire empire as of 1095 these were:

Rum
‘Awasim
Arminyah
Gurjistan
Arran
Adarbayjan
Jazirah
Sam
Hijaz
‘Iraq
Jilan
Jibal
Huzistan
Tabaristan
Jurjan
Qumis
Fars
Kirman
Quhistan
Sijistan
Nimruz
Hurasan
Juzjan
Tuharistan
Ma Wara Al-Nahir
Hwarazm
Farganah


These 27 provinces made up the entire empire as of 1095. Malik’s reforms effectively assigned these all their own provincial capital. Then they were all divided up into a number of counties which were then divided into districts. Each level of administration had different types of governors in charge. The provinces themselves at Provincial Governors, the counties had Counts and the districts had mayors. Out of the total 27 provinces about 10 of them had armies assigned to them. These armies were then made up of various divisions (approximately 10 divisions within the infantry and 5 within the cavalry) the divisions contained a certain number of soldiers from all over the province. The divisions contained about 2000 soldiers each making about 30,000 soldiers within each army. Each division had its own commander and second-in command but the army itself was led by a general. However the overall commands came from Isfahan itself and the Shah. Effectively this took the control of the army out of the hands of the provincial governors. In total the Seljuk army would have been 300,000 at this time but only 5 armies would realistically have been in action at one time while the others were idle. The soldiers were trained and equipped by the state itself and paid a decent wage in return for their military service and were expected to, once they signed up, serve for a minimum of 10 years.

Now knowing Malik Shah’s personality, it’s highly unlikely that he would have designed this reform by himself and probably the entire thing was designed by his courtiers and viziers to be directly put into action requiring little help from Malik himself. Due to the efficiency of Malik and his courtiers however, the reforms moved quickly throughout 1095 and, by November they were well underway to being complete.

However in November 1095 Pope Urban II called a council at Clermont and began preaching a new type of war. A holy war. A Crusade.

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The Council at Clermont
 
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