First try at "Sultan" although it's really monarch, since we're all Orthodox, no?
Build capital 1W, and Ani 3 NW. Build granaries and switch to settler as soon as pop hits 5. Manazkert is founded and becomes military center/great artist generator.
3 Orthodox Churches needed for a cathedral which was built in Manzikert.
Befriend Byzantines and Georgia, and eventually the latter will vassalize to you. I even got the Principality of Antioch to vassalize and was friendly to the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
Civics: Religious law and Aristocracy--don't choose castes, it'll decrease great people, and you can easily get artists by building racing tracks.
Bahgrati Cathedral, Narekavank are only Orthodox wonders I built.
It's actually good to have other religions spread to you--build a missionary and spread it back to capital. I built several wonders for other religions (like Krak des Chevaliers, Mevlana's Tomb, Al-Azhar, Tomb of Al-Khalid, Minaret of Jam, Kutlag-Timur).
The culture part is a piece of cake (I had 3 great artists and something like 40000 culture near the end). The hard parts were to
1. Survive the Mongols and the various DOW by Islamic cultures like Zengi and Seljuks (who called a Holy War on me and even involved my great friend and benefactor the Byzantine Emperor)
2. Expansion of territory which will increase instability (I was close to collapsing near the end, with my empire stretch from north of Antioch to Georgia).