The Will of the Caliph: A MEM II story

[Golden Fleece]

Late 1054 AD, Jerusalem


Leaving al-Masba raging in the governor's palace, the recently promoted al-Jamal and his entourage met the Fatimid envoy in the courtyard.

"The Grand Vizier of Baghdad will meet you now."

The outcome was clear, but ceremony needed to be respected and so the Representative of Cairo, Ibn li-Din, was shown to a small lodge overlooking an olive grove just outside the city walls.

"It was here that the al-Masīḥ, `Īsā (عيس&#1609 was betrayed by Judas and sold to the Romans. We know that for this terrible deed he has received his divine punishment when Allah, exalted is He, changed Judas' appearance to resemble that of `Īsā, so that the soldiers caught and crucified him."

li-Din sat patiently and waited for the humiliation to run its course. The message was clear: The Fatimid Caliphate had been roundly defeated and chased out of the Holy Land; the Abbasids considered themselves blessed by Allah and were making it clear that the peace arrangement was made on their terms. Should Cairo decide to break the treaty, the Abbasids, in their insufferable pride, would take it upon themselves to administer Allah's punishment on the betrayers. The vizier al-Jahal was conveniently forgetting that it was them, the Abbasids, who had started the war in the first place. Nevermind, Cairo's vengeance would come.

al-Jahal droned on, making fake pleasantries and veiled threats, while li-Din offered the suitable replies under pretense of humility.

After two hours, finally, the charade ended and the terms of truce were laid out. That the royal coffers in Cairo had yielded only a small amount was small consolation in light of the outrageous treaty, which li-Din knew he had to swallow. Little did he know that the Abbasids were at the moment in no position to continue the war, let alone seriously threaten the Fatimid heartland. Indeed, one serious push into the Holy Land would have been enough to evict the Abbasids from Jerusalem and its heartland was precious little defended. To make sure the Fatimid emissaries were suitably impressed al-Jahal had more or less ordered al-Masba to march their troops around the countryside and up and town the city. He did not have pretend to restrain al-Masba to continue marching straight to Cairo itself - the general with the manners of a peasant was ready to do this at the drop of a helmet. It had worked.

---------------------

Our team was able to translate one more document, again written in code and dated 1054 AD. It shows that the truce laid out above the Biblical olive grove between the two rival caliphates had a definite sell-by date:

"To our exalted Caliph al-Qa'im, Lord of Makkah and Medina and Protector of the Spiral Minaret, the Lion of Abbasid: The dogs of the desert have ceded the town of Aqaba (‏العقب&#1577 to our rule, ending the Fatimid presence on the Gulf of Persia. The Representative made a good show today, but we have to expect their retaliation once they've rebuilt their troops. We should continue with our armament and strike before they can! Our ambassadors in Armenia have heard that the Christians are developing some highly fascinating war machines. Imagine! We could threaten the gates of Alexandria themselves! Once that city falls the road to Cairo is wide open!! Our scientists need to delve further into study. Maybe we can persuade the Armenians to help us again, they are certainly very receptive towards Abbasid gold. We need them friendly for now.

I will return to the Golden Gate Palace within the next few weeks. I trust He has continued to bless you with good health. May Allah, whose prophet is Muhammad, keep his protective hand over the one true caliphate. Your faithful servant, al-Jahal."

This ends today's publication of documents. As you can see from the map above the Abbasids had finally pushed the Fatimids out of almost all of Arabia and the Middle East outside Africa, leaving them with rather tenouous hold on Sinai and on the near shore of the Red Sea. [Erm, while I know that Cyprus technically never really belonged to the real Abbasid empire, the historical Harun al-Rashid DID occupy Nicoleia for a short while during his war against Byzantine, giving me a very thin pretext to settle there and still follow my own rules for this game ). Next time we will finally be able to publish what many of our readers which are more versed in Abbasid history will have waited for. Here's a little teaser:

 

[Golden Fleece]

We would like to apologise for the delay in publishing our next batch of documents as we were held up by various circumstances. Here we are, however, with our next instalments.


The 11th c. was, as we know, a relatively quiet time, all things considered. The First War Of The Caliphates had ended with a clear Abbasid victory. The Fatimids had slunk back to Egypt to lick their wounds and prepare a counteroffensive to regain the Holy Sites. Meanwhile, the armouries of the Fertile Crescent were glowing red with forging and the dust in the training grounds all over the empire never settled. The new siege weapons, aquired from the Christian Armenians, were being force-built across the Caliphate, ready to knock down the famed walls of Alexandria and Cairo and beyond.

Our next documents detail events from 1070 AD onwards, at the same time as the founding of The Holy Roman Empire rang throughout Medieval Europe, news of which reached even the Abbasid Empire.

1070 AD, Golden Gate Palace, Baghdad

‏Abū Alī al-Husayn ibn Abdullāh ibn Sīnā (‏ابن سين&#1575, the famed physician of Isfahan, had spent a few happy years as a guest of the Baghdad caliph when worrying news reached his ears. From the south of Rayy there had been reports of a strange disease that had ravaged a few of the more remote towns in the mountains but was steadily creeping north towards the "Northern Gate of the Caliphate", as Rayy was otherwise known.

Ibn Sina, or he was better known in Europe, Avicenna​

He remembered the dreadful time when the Great Death had ravaged Persia and his own affliction, which he had miraculously survived, one of the lucky few. Hoping this specific outbreak would ebb before becoming the same plague that had decimated much of Western Persia, he made a mental note to start classes on the right treatment of the disease and how to protect oneselves while treating the afflicted. Such knowledge may well prove live-saving should the situation get out of hand.

Ibn Sina was walked deep in thought when soldiers rushed past him. Curious, he followed them to the court room. The guards knew him and his status and let him pass.


"My lord, there is a massive uprising originating from Deeper Arabia. Thousands of horsemen amass near Aqaba. The messengers report of heavy fighting in Arabia. Yet they may be here before the decade is out. We must mobilise!"

The Grand Vizier, recently returned from Jerusalem, turned to the caliph.

"Your Exaltedness, most of our army is still concentrated in the Holy Land. It will take long to bring them over, even over the imperial roads and it will massively delay the invasion. Aqaba is defended. Further troops can be gathered from Samarra and Baghdad if need be.

"I know. Strengthen Aqabas defences as much as you can. Try to lure them into the plains south of Tyre. Defend the workers near Samarra. These are my orders. Go!"

The envoy scrambled to his feet and sped off.

"Is this right, vizier?", the caliph said coldly. "I do not wish to put my people at more risk than necessary."

"Trust our troops, your Exaltedness. The barbarians may well turn out to be weakly led. The juicy heartland could turn out to be too much of a lure. Then we can pick them off."

----------------------


No documents in the chronicles detail the events of the next few years, but we know, from other accounts, the course of the barbarian invasion between 1176 and 1182 AD. Riding north towards Tyre, the horde stuck to the mountains, while Tyre was bolstered in it's defences.

East of Tyre the horde split. Most of the army turned west to cross the Lower Zagros Mountains near Samarra. Here they hoped to find slaves in the hunderds of workers building the imperial road that would connect Tyre to the rest of the empire. The governor of Samarra sent 1,000 spearmen to protect them, far too few, as it turned out.

The Northern part of the horde attacked Tyre. Like giant waves of horses and steel they crashed against the shield-wall of the Abbasid Spearmen but superior discipline far outweighed the sheer numbers. Thousands remained dead. With the force decimated the army commanders ordered the attack. Of the barbarian army only a few scattered scouts left alive.

The Southern, bigger part had meanwhile destroyed the fortified Daylami tribesmen and put more than 3,000 workers to the sword, as retribution for the defeat that the survivors had heard about. When hearing about the massacre, the caliph ordered no prisoners to be taken. The barbarians were alreadyx weakened from the losses the Daylami had inflicted to them before succumbing to the onslaught, and now they suffered further. Sortie after sortie picked the horsemen aff, and finally in the fields between Samarra and Baghdad were destroyed from two sides by Abbasids horsemen and spears.

The celebrations, unfortunately, were short-lived. News of a terrible disease that the great physician Ibn Sina had warned about spread throughout the Empire. The Black Death struck, first in Rayy, then spreading to Mosul and, finally, Baghdad.

The Black Death rages in Rayy and Baghdad

 

[Golden Fleece]

Our team has been anticipating this moment excitedly since it's translation. This next batch of documents, which Al-ulī released in several short reports, which describe the build-up and final outbreak of the second war between the Abbasid and Fatimid caliphates.


1092 AD - Courtroom of the Golden Gate Palace. Baghdad


Al-Mustazhir, the 26th Caliph of Baghdad could barely contain his rage. He whirled to his advisers.

"Tell me, vizier, why I shouldn't throw this little worm into the latrine pit, and let him devour the dung of a thousand men before shoving a scimitar down his throat!!!"

"Your Exaltedness, we have heard tales of these Tatars. They armies are numerous, they have ravaged their way through Asia and are challenging the Christians, pressing in on their homelands. Should you deny their request, an invasion _is_ inevitable. We can hold them off, but it will detract us from our imminent campaign. We have patiently built up our forces for the last decades, it is inadvisable to let it go to waste"

"Request?? By Muhammad's beard, this is an outrage! We are the most powerful empire of them all, we can crush them! We..."

al-Khalil, the general responsible for the mobilisation, sighed, while the caliph raged on. He knew that in the end it was what the ruling families and the vizier said which would matter. This explained the vizier's direct tone.

Over the past decades the Exalted's power base had been steadily eroded. With al-Rashid's revolution and the instalment of the Feudalist state, the Grand Viziers had slowly but surely taken the hereditary reins of power into their own hands. In al-Khalil's opinion, this was best for the empire - more than one fool had already occupied the Lion Throne. While the caliphs passed title on to their sons, the viziers were chosen purely by ability.

Paying attention to the proceedings again, al-Khalil saw that the vizier had persuaded the caliph to relent this time and give in to the Mongol emissaries' demand of tributary gold. This of course stung heavily, but it was better to buy the Tatars off than have the Golden Horde one day knocking on the Abbasid gate. al-Khalil had heard the vivid tales of the Mongol army as well as the vizier. One day, the Mongol barbarians would be punished - the Abbasids did not forget - but this day was not it.

1100 AD, Catania, Sicily

Near the town of Catania

Roger I. of Sicily

Count Roger turned to his strange guests.

"We are agreed then. My squires will teach you the secret of Cavalry Tactics and you, using this knowledge, will wage war on my enemies, the Fatimids. As payment, Sicily will receive 1180 gold pieces and a pledge of non-aggression for forty years."

Roger could feel the disapproving stare of the Archibishop of Palermo in his neck. The Muslim infidels, here in Sicily! Yet the gold offered was more than enough to ease his financial troubles. Damn that uptight bishop! The upkeep of his knights was costly and war was brewing. The Florentines and Venetians of the mainland were showing signs of aggression and his foothold in Greece needed to be strengthened, lest the Byzantines forget all agreements. For this he was happy to reveal some of his secrets. Besides, if the Muslims wanted to wring each other's neck, all the better!

1110 AD, Kufah


Honoured Rabbi Yasha, I trust that I find you in excellent health. I have heard interesting news today, which may affect us soon. The Sicilians have made an important trade with our Abbasid rulers, showing them how war horses may be employed using superior tactics. War may soon break out between Baghdad and Cairo once more. I know your son is a renowned physician, despite his young age, so he may be called soon to accompany the army in the campaign against Egypt. Governor al-Qa'rim, whose trusted adviser it is my honour to be and who has always been well-disposed to us, has warned me also that our Jewish community might be 'asked' to provide financial support for this campaign. You were right that the building of the synagogues all over the caliphate served a certain purpose.

al-Qa'rim was also excited about another bit of news. After meeting the Almohads ten years ago, the caliphate has finally discovered where their hated former overlords, the Umayyads, have hidden themselves after ousted from power. It seems that they have established another caliphate, and named it al-Andalus (‏الأندل&#1587.

Please give my respects to your wife Rebekkah and your beautiful children. May God be merciful and continue blessing you with health! Shalom שלום and Peace be unto you, Rabbi Benjamin ben Jesse.

1120 AD, South of Jerusalem

"My lord, we have received word that the new siege machines have been finished and are on their way here. It will take some time, but we have been told their power is formidable; far improved over the old Armenian catapult design. The Aragonese, whom we have received the building plans of, call them...", Ashar stumbled over the foreign word, "... tre...bu... trebuchets."

Ibn Sahal, the great Ansar commander couldn't care less what the Christians north of al-Andalus called their machines, he was only interested in their effectiveness. The two armies were positioned, the Abbasid lion poised. Soon, the storm would rage on the upstarts reign like Allah's punishment itself!

The army mu’aḏḏin (مؤذن ) called. Ashar felt a rush of pride as the great general invited him to kneel in prayer. Both men turned to Makkah.

 

[Golden Fleece]

1120 AD, Faiyum, Sinai


The ululating shouts of the army spread like an otherwordly cacophony of sound, a chilling reminder of more pagan times. The desert was their home; it was here that the Ansar Warriors of the Abbasid Caliphate, which would strike fear into their enemies' hearts for decades to come, had their glorious dawn.

The main army, cumbersome with the great war machines and the host of swordsmen and the fiercely loyal Daylami tribesmen, had set off to great Alexandria, while the old javelinmen and Daylami units that had once conquered Jerusalem were approaching Aswan over the hills.

However, it was the 5,000 Ansar Warriors that were writing legend, crossing the entire Sinai peninsula in just two short weeks; light-footed, graceful and deadly. On the finest Basra horses, carrying over two centuries worth of most careful and skilled breeding in their blood, the Ansar were literally flying over the hot sand. Even now, in the month of Rabi' al-awwal (ربيع الأول ) [editor's note: third month of the Islamic calendar], the sun was baking the Earth, leaving the elite of the Abbasid army entirely unfazed. As the walls of the Fatimid town rang with those otherwordly cries, the Egyptian spearmen cowered in fear from the djinn that had come from the desert.

It was over within one day.

The Run Of The 5,000, as the feat became known, rang throughout the empire. Poems were made, stories written, philosophers and theologians made much of the Ansar steeds riding on angel's wings, blessed by the allmighty Allah to bring retribution to the enemies of Baghdad, scholars and scinetists were inspired. The Golden Age of Islam had begun.

1122 AD, Rabi' al-thani (ربيع الآخر أو ربيع الثان&#1610 [editor's note: fourth month of the Islamic calendar], Aswan


"Those damned Egyptians are tough. How many have we lost already?"

"More than 4,000. Those spearmen are making short work of our javelinmen."

"By Allah! That many? Send this message to Sebuktigim, the Daylami commander. His warriors are to make ready for the attack."

"Yes, lord."

"I wanted this to be an Abbasid victory, but we'll have to use the tribesmen after all. Our javelinmen are getting massacred!" The general punched his fist onto the sword pommel.

"Yes, my lord". The javelinman sped off.

Bilal wished he had those new-fangled war machines - what was that name again? - as well. As it was, his army, equipped with 4th century weaponry [editor's note: again Islamic calendar - the Gregorian century equivalent is the 10th c.], was fighting on almost equal terms with the Fatimids - with that light handicap of HAVING TO SCALE WALLS AND FORTIFICATIONS!

Frustrated, he watched as another wave of javelinmen was hacked down. Where were those damned Daylami?

--------


Bilal ibn Abdul, bloodstained and exhausted, accepted the surrender of the Fatimid emir. The siege, which had finally ended the day before had cost the Abbasids more than 6,500 men, and while Aswan was finally under Baghdad's rule, Bilal's army had been diminished too far to continue on to the last Fatimid city on Arab soil, Hama. The Crescent campaign in the south, at least, had been stalled.

1026 AD, Gates of Alexandria

'I see the Abbasid host numbering in the thousands, machines of war raining thunder on the walls, and tremble. /
I hear the enemies' ululating cries, and wonder if Allah has abandoned us. /
I remember Faiyum's fall, and see the djinn horsemen appear from the desert, and our soldiers run in terror. /
I taste my fear, and wait in anguish for the lion's claw tearing my flesh. /
I feel the cold, although the day is hot, and hark the enemy break the gates. /
I smell the smoke, and watch the fire burning in the city. /

I am as sand in the desert, blown away by Eastern winds. I am the Conquered.'

'The Conquered Sand', by an unknown contemporary Alexandrian poet.
[editor's note: Unfortunately, much is lost in translation. We have tried to keep to the text as faithfully as possible.]​

 

[DJ Bonebraker]

Fatmids are going down hard!

BTW, how do religious buildings/techs work in this mod? I know that in the Middle Ages conquest, when I was playing as the Abbasids, I researched "The Western Church" as well as "Byzantine Ingenuity" so that I could get access to Aqueducts, Collisieums, Churches and Monastaries as well as Mosques and all the Muslim buildings.... I had the most religiously tolerant Islamic empire in history (which made sense, due to the fact that the "grand vizier" a.k.a. me, was Christian).

 

[Golden Fleece]

@ hirako: Works quite differently in this mod. The various civs are divided into 'Christian' and 'Muslim' cultural groups (Christians are further subdivided, but tech/religious-wise this is mostly cosmetic, with a few exceptions). Many techs such as Engineering, Cavalry Tactis etc. can be researched by all, but there are some culture-specific techs that can only be researched by the Muslim culture group (Assassination is one example). Furthermore, many techs yield different improvements and wonders for Christians and Muslims which nevertheless have the same effect. Theology for instance allows the building of cathedrals for the Christians and mosques for the Muslims. The same is true for techs that allow science improvements and wonders, eg. the Christians get to build libraries and Sorbonne (as a wonder), the Muslims madrasahs and the House of Wisdom (IIRC).

Overall, a vast improvement over the original Conquests scenario. That's not even counting the UU's for each civ and the dozens of flavoured units.

 

[DJ Bonebraker]

Hmmm... Does this mod have the various Viking factions (or, for that matter A Viking faction) available... I've always wanted to pillage and plunder northwestern Europe while building up my own "Gardariki" in the East.

...Actually, that's the main plan I'm going to use when AoI IV comes out and I play my big, fat Scandinavian game. XD

 

[Golden Fleece]

hirako,

it has both the vikings and the swedes, both sporting beserkers and longboats. for you i'd recommend playing the swedes; their starting place is so crappy, you'd have right field day.

edit:the danes, not the vikings.

 

[Golden Fleece]

I have to retract what I said about the Swedes and their crappy starting place. I checked it out again last night, and their start is actually pretty splendid. In fact, the game is so balanced that there is really no such thing as a bad starting place in this mod, if you're playing the Europe map. Also, last time's powerhouse may be this time's early loser and vice-versa. There are a few trends, although I've only played 6 games so these trends may not mean much. Anyhow, I can only again highly recommend this mod.

 

[DJ Bonebraker]

I just downloaded it last night, but hanged if I know when I'll be able to play.....

 

[Arexander]

I'm playing as the Sicilians as we speak. I've already conquered Italy (nation) and Venetians are already going down.

 

[Golden Fleece]

@ Arexander: Interesting postion, the Sicilians. What level are you playing?

@ Hirako: Nice one! Though, I imagine you're still busy with the Boers campaign?...

@ readers: Bear with me! Update is on Sunday, there's lots to tell (girlfriend time until then ). It seems nothing can stand in the way of the Abbasid juggernaut...

 

[Arexander]

The easiest as I haven't being playing CivIII for that long.

 

[Golden Fleece]

Arexander, you might try second-easiest or the one after that. They're still easy but the AI isn't as passive as on Chieftain.

 

[DJ Bonebraker]

Yeah, I'm still trying to finish up the Boer story... I've taken care of France (the rate at which I overran France makes the German Invasion in WWII look positively slow).

 

[IvanDolvich2]

Very nice story. I've downloaded the scenario and will try it out after my first 20k game. Keep up the good work!

 

[Golden Fleece]

Thanks, Ivan.

Further updates are on the way, however, Dr. Fleece, the head of the research team on the Al-uli chronicles, has been evry busy over the past couple of weeks; this will in all likelyhood continue until this weekend. The story has not been abandoned. Big things have been unearthed!

 

[DJ Bonebraker]

Golden FLeece:

I decided to play a quick test game as the Teutonic Knights in the 13th century scen, just to get a feel for the game....

One thing I have to say is DAMN! The tech rate in this game is ********! I have to put my research rate up to close to 100% to get anything LESS than the absolute maximum research time!

Thankfully there are other ways of winning even if one is a bit behind technologically:

Spoiler :

....Thanks to my warmongering (I've been using a scaled-down version of my Artillery Barrages of Doom^tm to great effect), along with some good ol' fashioned horse trading, I'm less than 5000 points from a VP victory and am almost 10000 points ahead of my closest competitor... Thanks to having 5 cities with gold in their radius, local sources of amber, salt, wool and honey as well as imports of Olive oil, Dyes, Fur and silks, I've been getting a fairly steady stream of shipments in I predict that I should win in about two dozen turns or so... I've just come out of anarchy into a Constitutional Monarchy and have just "vassalized" Hungary, Poland and Lithuania, so my corruption and waste just dropped through the floor, and I'm gearing up (almost complete, really) to attack Venice, who, for some reason, decided to go to war with everybody and their second cousins....

If I still haven't won after taking out Venice's "terrafirma" cities (I don't care about their islands, and I might be able to extort some techs out of them for peace), I'm going to take those two French cities that are convieniently asking to be picked off...

Other things of Note: Germany and France split Burgundy (Germany got the lion's, or should I say eagle's share of that deal, grabbing the Franche Compte (Bescanon) and ALL of Benelux), Germany has taken over ALMOST all of Sicily, and Portugal has taken over the Papal States, although, IIRC, Germany and Portugal are at war with each other, so Portugal will most likely be losing that, meaning that GERMANY will control almost all of Italy (and therefore REALLY be the Holy Roman Empire). Russia took over most of Ruthenia, but I managed to snag Lviv (Lemberg) before they could gobble up all of it, same deal with the Golden Horde and Lithuania... They got most of Lithuania, but I got the capitol, which allowed me to become "Grand Duke of Lithuania" when I changed governments. The Mamlukes pwned the Ilkhanate, and England is currently whomping Scotland while holding off French attacks on their outpost in Bordeaux.

One final note: all the cities in that screenshot that have either (a) German versions of their names or (b)Germanized names have either a majority of the citizens assimilated into my empire or ALL of them... As a matter of fact, just about all the Polish cities, including Krakau, are 100% German now.

 

[Arexander]

Nice.

At this point my Sicilian campaign against Venice has ended and my next target is Germany. I won't let it grow that big than you in the 13th century. My empire consists of all of Italy (Italia), Sicily (Sicilia), Malta and Sardinia (Sardigna). In the ()s are the Sicilian names. I also own the little one-tile island of Pantelleria (Pantiddiria) between Sicily and Tunisia. So, my elimination (which is quite impossible if my difficulty level is taken into account) would be hard as they would need marineunits and I think there aren't ones. Even if there are they're probably very far up the techtree.

 

[vmxa]

Golden Fleece, great job of reporting. I think this will be my next scenario. I had down loaded it a while back and been trying to get up the ambition to play it. I was looking for some one to put up some screen shots, thanks.