drjest2000
Prince
I started this topic in the original thread, but I'll branch it off so it doesn't become lost:
Now for more about the Khazars...
Also another article on HistoryToday (LINK)
Now for the really hateful part... Religion.
At the start of the M:C scenario, historically there were actually five major versions of Christianity in wide practice:
Arianism - no Pope, no Trinity, Jesus is just a man - this would be version of Christianity adopted by the Vandals, Ostrogoths, and Visigoths
Celtic - no Pope, no bishops, Abbots are the top dog in a limited area, but has a Trinity, Jesus is more than a man, but not God Incarnate - this would be the version in Britain, France, and the Lowlands until Charlemagne saw the purchasing power of becoming the "Roman Emperor".
Catholic - has a Pope who is top dog and has a Trinity and Jesus is God Incarnate
Donatism - Strongly anti-Pope, strongly anti-bishop, but has a Trinity, Jesus is more than a man, but not God Incarnate - this is the version of Christianity practiced by the Berbers until the Muslim conquest, even then, it held out so that there are Donatists still extant in North Africa today.
Orthodoxy - no Pope, but has a Trinity and Jesus is God Incarnate, the Byzantine Emperor controls the Church, the Bulghars and the Slavs adopt this version of Christianity
Lesser versions of the NO POPE variety that occur are:
Coptic - similar to Orthodoxy, largely limited to Egypt
Ethiopian - similar to Orthodoxy, largely limited to Abyssinia/Ethiopia
Syrian - similar to Orthodoxy, largely limited to Syria, Iraq, and Iran
Nestorianism - kind of similar to Orthodoxy, largely limited to the Eastern Mediterranean region, but its influence on the rest of Christianity leads to the cult of Mary as the Mother of God, you can still find this form of Christianity in the Marsh Arab region of Iraq.
Saint Thomas Christians in all along the Silk Route, India and even in China during the medieval period, your guess is as good as mine, but I know they were not in the Pope's or the Byzantine Emperor's pockets.
Until about 1200 AD, the Popes were absolutely not in a position to threaten anyone and most usually were kissing anyone's ass that would keep them from being slaughtered by whichever of the invaders was at the gates of Rome this week. So, from a real, historical perspective, until the Crusades, there are as many as ten "flavours" of Christianity in practice. Only late in the Medieval period is Rome the only contender left standing in Europe, but that only sets the stage for the Protestant movement.
So, honestly, the Popes were not "all that" until very late in the Medieval period. The Catholic monks write it differently of course, but it's just not true. "The physical evidence is contrary to the propaganda", as my old History of Pre-Modern Europe professor used to say. I mean, you have things like the Pornocracy of Marozia and all the Anti-popes before and after. From 867 until 1049, being "elected" Pope was a lot like contracting a disease with a rapid onset and low chance of survival.
So my contention is that the Pope shouldn't even pop up as a menace to the player until some time after 1050, but after that, he should be on the player like a bad rash.
Then there is the Jewish state of the Khazars.... That one caused all manner of problems for the boys in Rome and Constantinople
Now for more about the Khazars...
Wikipedia said:The Khazars were a semi-nomadic Turkic people who created one of the largest states of medieval Eurasia, Khazaria, with its capital at Atil. Astride one of the major arteries of commerce between northern Europe and southwestern Asia, Khazaria commanded the western marches of the Silk Road and played a key commercial role as a crossroad between China, the Middle East, and Europe.
Khazaria served as a buffer state between Europe and the rising tide of Islamic conquest and enjoyed a strategic entente with the Christian Byzantine empire throughout the period of the ArabKhazar Wars. The Khazars successfully staved off attempts by armies of the Umayyad Caliphate, beginning in 642, to penetrate north of the Caucasus. Beginning in the 8th century, the Khazar royalty and much of the aristocracy are reported to have converted to Judaism, though the populace remained multiconfessional and polyethnic. Between 965 and 969, the Khazar state was conquered by the Kievan Rus under Sviatoslav I of Kiev, who conquered Atil in 967.
Wikipedia said:Bulan was a Khazar king who led the conversion of the Khazars to Judaism. His name means "elk" in Old Turkic. In modern Turkish, it means The one who finds (Bul + an). The date of his reign is unknown, as the date of the conversion is hotly disputed, though it is certain that Bulan reigned some time between the mid-700s and the mid-800s. Nor is it settled whether Bulan was the Bek or the Khagan of the Khazars.
D. M. Dunlop was certain that Bulan was a Khagan; however, more recent works, such as The Jews of Khazaria by Kevin Brook, assume that he was the Bek due to references to him leading military campaigns. Khazar tradition held that before his own conversion, Bulan was religiously unaffiliated. In his quest to discover which of the three Abrahamic religions would shape his own religious beliefs, he invited representatives from each to explain their fundamental tenets. In the end, he chose Judaism.
In the Khazar Correspondence, King Joseph traces his lineage back to Bulan. He refers to the reforming Khazar ruler Obadiah as being one of "the sons of the sons of Bulan". While Brook assumes this makes Obadiah Bulan's grandson, the Hebrew phrase is less definitive and may allude to a more remote descent. The royal descendants of Bulan are referred to by Khazar researchers as Bulanids, though their self-designation is unknown.
The name Sabriel is given in the Schechter Letter (roughly contemporaneous with King Joseph's letter) for the Khazar king who led the conversion to Judaism. The Schechter Letter also gives Sabriel at least a partial Jewish/Israelite ancestry. Sabriel is described as having waged successful campaigns in the Caucasus and Iranian Azerbaijan, possibly as part of the Khazar-Arab wars.
His wife, Serakh, is described as a Jew and as encouraging him to study and adopt Judaism. The Schechter Letter is silent on the issue of whether Sabriel was in fact Bulan; in fact, the name Bulan does not appear in that document.
Khazar scholars sometimes refer to the king who led the Khazar conversion to Judaism as "Bulan Sabriel", though it is conceivable that they may have been different people. In The History of the Jewish Khazars, for instance, D. M. Dunlop examined (and ultimately rejected) the theory of other scholars that Sabriel in fact referred to Obadiah.
Also another article on HistoryToday (LINK)