Mamluk Caliphate (Varna)

If you're looking for the country in the Cumania Minecraft Server, see Mamluk Caliphate (Cumania).
The Mamluk Caliphate is one of the two protagonists of Season 1 of Brazilian Mapping's Alternate History of Europe series, alongside Venice.
== Foundation ==
In 1474, just as Poland declared war on the dying Golden Horde (Great Russian War), the Mamluk Sultanate recognised themself as the strongest Islamic nation, and declares that a new Caliphate is born.
"The Rashiduns, the Umayyads, the Abbasids, the Fatimids and the Almohads... all names that went into history. And now, the name of the sixth caliphate shall follow them... the Mamluk Caliphate." 
- Mamluk Caliphate, 1474.
The Caliphate celebrated this reform by invading the remainder of the Upper Nile, and defeating the Hawwara tribes occupying the area. The Mamluks planned to invade Cyprus at the same time, but a Rumi-Byzantine army had already captured the Cypriot coasts, so the island was split between Rum and Byzantium.
== Rise ==
On November 9th, 1478, the Mamluks signed a Treaty in Tunis, forming the Maghrebi League. 
1487 saw a third War of Conquest by the Mamluks, against Yemen and Ethiopia. A Mamluk victory allowed for the annexation of Yemen and the Ethiopian coast. With total control over the Red Sea, they began blocking the spice trade between Europe and Asia from July 1488 onwards.
"Who needs morals? I own both Mecca and Medina, therefore I get to decide what is moral for Islam or not, you undersized cockroach." 
- Mamluk Caliphate to Yemen, 1487
The Fourth War of Conquest took place in mid-October 1495. The Mamluks spearheaded their Armenian vassal's invasion of the South Caucasus. Armenia took over Georgia, Shirvan, and a few other Azeri states.
== Tensions with Europe ==
Qaitbay I died in 1500, and his son Qaitbay II replaced him. Generally described as a very intelligent leader, he had a different approach to expansion from his predecessor: the Caliphate itself didn't expand in size, instead building two large armies (one stationed in Sirt and the other stationed in Cairo), as well as influencing neighbours, notably Morocco. In 1503, Morocco discovered smugglers hired by the Iberians and Italians, and kicked them out. Rumours began to float among the Maghrebi League that the Iberians had found a new route to India, so the Mamluks pushed Morocco to investigate. In the meantime, Armenia partitioned Circassia with the Great Horde. When Morocco attempted to discover the Iberian spice route to India, their fleet was sunk by pirates. Venice had funded them, but the Mamluks suspected Castile instead.
During the Three Rebellions of 1506, Sardinia was busy helping Naples to consolidate control over Provence and Sicily, so the Mamluks fund a Tlemceni uprising in Algiers, which took over most of the Sardinian colony before reinforcements arrive to put down the rebellion.
Sometime in 1508, a Mamluk delegation goes to Malta, controlled by Naples at the time, to meet the king, Ferrante I di Sancarlo. The two sides sign the Malta Agreement, whereby Naples would pull out of decisive battles and provide military information to the Mamluks. This agreement seemed explicitly advantageous to the Mamluks, but it was all part of Ferrante's grand plan...
November 8th, 1509 was a pivotal moment in the series. This was the day when the Mamluks began their "surprise" invasion against Byzantium, after years of planning. Rum immediately joined the Byzantine side, and the Mamluks called in the Maghrebi League to go to war. Castile, Portugalicia and the Italian League then declared war, and the Great Mediterranean War began.
== Dissolution ==
The Caliphate met its end in September 1517, when King Ferrante I of the newly formed Italic Union killed Sayf ad-Din Qaitbay II in a duel. The written accounts of 1529 by Milanese writer Giovanni Morosini record the occurrence of a civil war before the aforementioned duel.
As the Ayyubids returned to power in Egypt, they later discovered that the surviving armies of the Caliphate were terrorising the Nile River.
== Personality ==
The Mamluk Caliphate has been described by Brazilian as "extremely arrogant and sarcastic at times", once telling Yemen that "he didn't need morals, as he owned Mecca and Medina", the two holy cities of Islam.
The Caliphate, notably under Qaitbay I and II, has appeared to be very good at the art of diplomacy, forming the Maghrebi League, having a stable network of vassals and having cooperated with both the Great Horde and the Nerasid Dynasty of Persia.
Category:Varna Countries