Qedar

The **Marinid Kingdom of Qedar** is a Sabaic Ummagite monarchy situated in the far western fringes of Cyrenaica. After the Great 7 Year War, it is going through a radical modernisation process, which creates some tensions inside the country, coming especially from deeply conservative Ash'ari Ummahites. Since the war, Qedar has been dominated by a very pragmatic foreign policy, and it cooperated with many nations which might have usually been incompatible ideologically with it.

## History

Prehistory and Antiquity: Butri tribes are the ancestral people of the western coasts of Cyrenaica. They create a series of kingdoms and found cities like Ma'rib in Qedar and Rizda in Ha'il. At some point during the Classical Age, a people from the northern coast of Azania migrates to Cyrenaica, those creating the proto-Sabaic cultures.

Early Middle Ages: The Sabaic Kingdom unites much of today's Qedar. They continue to keep the ancient Butri and Sabaic religions, but the conversion of the Adrari Kingdoms in the east to Christianity, drives an Abrahamic fervor in Qedar too, which leads to the conversion of the Sabeans to Judaism under King Abu Kariba. This influence still exists to this day in Kedar in the large number of Jewish followers. A series of wars with the Adrari Kingdoms weaken the Sabaic Kingdom.

700s: The events in Mecca and Medina end with the creation of a Sabaic Caliphate and the creation of the Islamic faith. The Caliphate conquers the weakened Sabaic Kingdom, northern Orashi and much of Cyrenaica, with the exception of the Adrari Highlands, spreading Sabaic influence and Islamic religion.

11th Century: The Caliphate collapses and many successor states begin fighting each other for dominance.

14th Century: The Banu Kanz, a Sabaic tribe from southern Qedar begins its conquest and take over modern day Qedar, Adrar, the northern Cyrenaican coast, and northern Orashi. The new Kunuz Empire popularizes the Mutazila School of thought in Islamic Jurisprudence, creating a rationalist environment where arts and science are sponsored, while a lot of tolerance is shown to other religions. The Adrari Sabaeans, which remained Christian, had their faith protected by the paying of the Jizya tax.

17th century: After a century of decline and decadence, while the Mutazila school was still popular in Qedar, in today's southern Orashi, the Muslim Hassana people begin to return to a more traditionalist approach, represented by the Ash'ari School of Theology, wanting to return to the days of the first Caliphate. They rise against the Kunuz Empire and conquer much of it, replacing it with the Hassanid Caliphate. They manage to take over most of the Kunuz Empire, with the exception of the Christian kingdoms of far eastern Adrar.

Early 19th century: As the Hassanid Caliphate was stagnating and declining, the Banu Marin, together with the Iznaten Butri kin group from modern day Qedar, manage to rise up and stage a palace coup, which makes the Hassanid Caliph a puppet of the Grand Vizier, which becomes the most important and powerful office to held in the country.

1910-1920: The centrifugal forces of nationalism and reform break down and destroy the Hassanid Caliphate. In the process, Qedar is taken over by the Banu Marin kin group and reformed into the Marinid Kingdom of Qedar, while the Adrari kingdoms reach the present day borders. Orashi turns to anachy for two more decades until becomes a state of the Socialist World Republic. Ha'il becomes an independent Sharifate.

1940s: The Syndicalist Revolution erupts in Adrar and the revolutionaries try to take over Ha'il too, which starts the 7 Year War, from 1941 to 1948, after which Qedar intervenes to keep Ha'il an independent Muslim monarchy.

Present Day: The events in the war show how much the Qedari armed forces and society needs to modernise and develop. The discovery of oil in the mid 1950s in the Sea of Fire Desert, with huge reserves that go into Ha'il, Adrar and northern Orashi, sponsor this development of the country.

## Politics

### Malik

The Malik is the head of state of Qedar. The title, meaning King in Sabaic has a very long history going as far as the prehistoric and ancient Butri tribal confederations. Up until a generation ago, Qedar was an absolute monarchy, but the modernisation process was also a constitutional one, and now the Grand Vizier has much more influence and power than the King. The current Malik of Qedar is Adil Ibn Faisal al-Marini.