The Shield of Islam

[The Dutchman]

I'm going to be playing as the Moors in Dawon of Civilization v1.16. Game Speed: Marathon. Difficulty: Regent.

Our present world is divided between those who see the truth, and the heretics. Many years ago, a righteous man named Isa was murdered for his faith. His apostle, Paul, convinced the world that he is Allah. His blasphemy is what the Roman Empire is built on. Now, the Arabic nomads fight him for the truth. We are not Arabs, however.

We are Moors. Many years ago, our ancestors worshipped the god Ba'al. The Arabs showed us Muhammad's truth, but we have parted ways. Our people have entered the continent of Europe and built their capitol there. My name is Said al-Andalusi. I am the one tasked with recording the deeds of our empire, founded by Musa ibn Nusayr. It was he who conquered the Visigoths. Those he conquered became his slaves. In those days, Carthage rose up and joined us and became Muslims.

Carthage is our greatest asset, though we had an uneasy relationship with them. They still have such pride in their heritage that a statue of their false god, El, whom the Greeks called Zeus, sits in their city. But regardless, they were important to the empire, so we were compelled let them keep it. Perhaps their pride in their ancestry may be of use. It was their ancestor, Hannibal, who nearly defeated Rome in its infancy.

Three decades into our great nation, the Iberians united against us. It became clear through only a few negotiations that they would never willingly share the peninsula with us, so we were forced to levy an army against us. We also met with a strange race of blonde haired, blue-eyed people in the North. They are not Christians, but worship a pantheon of war gods, one who wields a hammer. It wasn't clear at the time if they were friend or foe, but they lived too far away for that to be a concern.

In those days, we also feared raids from the berber tribes in the east, so our despot, Uqba ibn al-Hajjaj, sent an army to subdue them.

 

[The Dutchman]

After years of fearing them, we subdued the Berber tribes and plundered their lands. The city lay in ruins while its inhabitants scattered to go back to the nomadic lifestyle from whence they came.

After years of hurling insults at each other, the Castillans decided to invade our lands. We were confident, however, that the walls would hold against them.

 

[The Dutchman]

The walls held them off and we were able to defeat their weakened army in the field.

When the Castilian threat was neutralized, our country entered a revolution. The slavers rose up and took control of the government.

We took slaves from the Berbers and the Tuaregs of the northern Sahara and sent them to Marrakus.

In the 10th Century, the Vikings began to attack us. Not wanting to fight two fronts of war, we signed a treaty with Castile and made them pay us tribute.

During this time, we also took the Island of Sicily and their wine orchards. For a time, we were able to sell it to the Abbasids for a profit.

But the Ostrogoths pushed us from that land. They claimed the winefields until they were conquered by the Carolingian Empire. In the chaos that followed, we retook the wine and began a trade network across the Mediterranian sea.

 

[Plains-Cow]

Hope that you continue this sometime.

 

[The Dutchman]

It's time to continue. I've been away from this game for a while, but I'm back.

 

[The Dutchman]

Over the next two decades, the Emperor of the Romans, Constantine VII, had an ambition to recreate the glory of the primal Roman Empire. From this came conflict among the Christians. The Castillan queen decided to sue for peace to defend her own lands against potential Christian invasions. Likewise, the Frankish Carolingians have asked for our help in their struggle against these Hellenic Christians. We respectfully declined, not being prepared to fight alongside Europeans, but we did begin a trading relationship with them.

 

[The Dutchman]

The end of the 4th Century, by our reckoning, saw an uprising of the Tuaregs, whom were enslaved and used by the Emir to build an iron mine in the Jibal-al-Atlas. This gift from the earth kept us safe during the next crisis, the Rus from the North. The Rus are called Vikings by the Europeans. They have the lightest skin anyone has ever seen. Even their other features, their hair and their eyes are light. It is said that they live on top of floating caps of ice, only eating fish. I do not know how accurate that is, only that they don't only eat fish, for they have been seen taking our grain in their raids. It does appear, however, that they live in boats, for they never seem interested in taking our land, only the food that grows on it.