Events of Caliphate of Alqistantinia

This page lists all the events that play out in the Caliphate of Alqistantinia

## Reign of Al-Jawad I

704 AD
Alharis Alaskndnafia -- The Northener Guard In the Caliphate of Alqistantinia, encounters with norse traders and raiders have become more common. To stop these warriors from sitting idle and raiding the caliphate's lands, a top advisor suggests forming a mercenary guard and employing the able norsemen to fight for the caliphate instead. The Alharis Alaskndafia is formed, and an arabic-speaking northener is designated its leader. They are put to the task of subduing a small peasants revolt in the Vlach regions of Thrace, which they are succeed in. The Northener Guard is regarded as a success.

710 AD
Al-Jawad the first, the caliph of Alqistantinia, has reached 20 years of age, and he has finally wrestled control of his caliphate from the advisors that have practically ruled the country since he was a child. To establish himself as a capable ruler, he decides that an expansion of the caliphate would be in order.

Crete and its surrounding islands are rules as a greek principality, with alliances to various other greek principalities, kingdoms and city states. The caliphate, while initially behind in naval power, has expanded its navy with dromon galleys of Greek design, and the longships of the warriors in the Northener Guard. The island of Karpathos, close to Rhodes, is loyal to Crete in name but it is barely defended. It is quickly taken over by greek muslim soldiers and their arab commanders, without a declaration of war. As the news spread to the prince in crete they barely have time to prepare their defence as viking longboats and greek galleys arrive on the cretian shores.

The allies of Crete do their best to send soldiers to aid them in their struggle, but with no major allies most of the island becomes occupied. A few castles hold out under seige for a couple of months but to no avail. Al-Jawad is celebrated for turning adding an additional land to the realm of Islam.

722 AD
News of a plague, originating from Francia, have reached the governor of Crete. By that point it was already too late. The governor falls ill and dies, and the following missmanagement would eventually result in an extreme toll on the island. But the plague has yet to reach the capital of Alqistantinia.

723 AD
The plague has reached the mainland, and Alqistantinia. Mass death comes quickly and the caliph Al-Jawad I does his best to hinder the disease. He tries to find unpoluted water sources, hires plague doctors and stops trading ships from exposing the country to more disease.

Members of the caliph's family get infected but not the caliph himself, sparing him.

Some christian groups says that the plague is a punisment from god, and they try to find someone to blame. The muslim arab rulers are to blame says some, decreasing their popular opinion. Others claim that it is the iconophiles of the orthodox church, giving rise to the iconoclasm heresy in the caliphate.

726 AD
Al-Jawad, the caliph of Alqistantinia, has survived the plague and he is sure it is because god favors him. Having become quite the zealous person after reaching his 30s it bothers him that the holy cities of arabia, have a sovereign other than him. He will make it his life's mission to prove himself to god in this way.

728 AD
**Becoming the suzerain of Mecca**
After a few military campaigns in the north of Hejaz to conquer the city of Tabuk, Al-Jawad I has approached the Sharif of Mecca with an offer to vassalize him. Respecting the Alqistantinian military, they have decided to accept the offer. A big win at home for Al-Jawad, it however has a chance of angering the local Emirate of Cairo.

737 AD
**Announcing the Alqistantinian-Morean Alliance**
The emisarry from Alqistantinia bows before the Emir of Morea. It is a special feeling, such an important person acknowledging his inferiority. "The faithful of Greece must stand united." the emissary says. He is happy that the diplomatic visit has gone so smoothly. It is no doubt because of the prestige from being sent by the Caliph himself. It is soon common knowledge that the Caliph is allied with the Emir of Morea.

738 AD
The trade agreement between Alqistantinia and Sardinia has been fulfilled. The caliphate's navy now boasts twenty naval vessels of Sardinian design.

**Overreliance on Mercenaries**
The Alqistantinian military has long relied on mercenaries, especially the Northener's Guard, to fill the ranks of their armies. However, after the heir to the Svitjodan throne left the guard it has grown smaller and smaller. Al-Jawad rather spends his time building mosques and furthering religous matters instead of building their army. And this military decline has not passed by unnoticed.

The Emirate of Cairo is the Caliphate's rival to the south. Their Emir tried himself to become the suzerain of Mecca but failed, leaving Al-Jawad to benefit from the legitemacy it gave him to his claim to the title of Caliph.

In 738, the Emir of Cairo launched an invasion of the holy land. This took the Caliph by surprise, as he concidered his relation to Egypt to be mostly friendly. He was slow to gather his army, but fortuneatly the Emir's generals was bickering about where to head next after having occupied the holy land. The armies met at Dimashq, which ended up in an humiliating defeat for the Caliphate's armies. Scrambeling for options, the Caliph might have to call for his allies if he is to succeed in this war.

739 AD
The Emir of Morea has graciously come to the aid of the Caliph, sending their navy and some armies. While a new combined Alqistantinian-Morean army is gathering in Antakiyyah, their navies join together and go south to try and knockout the egyptian navy and open for a possible invasion by sea.

The egyptian navy is consists out of old designs, and are poorly maintained. Its leadership have barely even seen a real engagement. The navies meet outside Alexandria, and the alqistantinian navy seems desitined to win. However, a thick fog descends which clouds the vision for both sides. Its nullifies alqistantinia's advantage and the battle ends inconclusively, with both navies sailing home battered and bruised.

The egyptian army has marched straight towards Antakiyyah with the hopes of finishing the alqistantinian army and negotiating a peace, as they are soon running out of the funds needed to support their army which is propped up by mercenaries. The alqistantinians have however set up a defensive position on the Orontes River. After camping outside the city for a week the leader of the egyptian armies decide to attack their encamped enemy. By sheer luck he is struck by an arrow early in the fighting and the leaderless egyptians begin retreat.

An influential mercenary captain, sensing shifting tides is bribed by an Alqistantinian spy and receives a sizeable gold payment out of the Caliph's treasury. He takes his men south but instead of regrouping with the rest of the army, he loots the egyptian heartland and occupies Cairo. A prisoner in his own palace, the emir is forced to make peace.

The Emirate is disbanded and the old Emir is forced into exile. His popular son is made a governor of the new province, a term of the peace treaty. The province is also granted extra autonomy, to seperate it from the other provinces.

740 AD
Arabic has always been the language of the aristocracy. Some converts also learn the language, out of religious reasons or to be accepted by their superiors. However, the people at large stick to speaking Greek, Arameic, Georgian, or whatever other language they grew up speaking. Some members of Al-Jawad's administration are arabic speaking greek muslims, and they are typically very competent ones. There is an untapped resource of skilled Greeks who, if they only started speaking Arabic, could contribute more to the Caliphate. Al-Jawad decides to push for policies which reward Arab speakers, regardless of it they are Christian or not.

741 AD
Taxes have begun to come in from the new province of Egypt which fills the Caliphate's coffers yet again. Al-Jawad uses this money to fund an expansion of the Caliphate's armies, in a move towards a standing army and away from a mercenary based one. Mercenary companies in the area have now become unemployed.

746 AD
Seven years after the war with Egypt, the Caliph's armies have fully recovered after the war against Egypt. The Caliph, together with the Emir of Morea, has drawn up a war plan to end their greek neighbor of the Byzantine rump state, hopefully by killing their emperor Marcian II.

In the spring of 746, Alqistantinian Soldiers march on Thessalonica, the rump empire's capital. Scouts alert Marcian II of this who scrambles to prepare a defence of the city. He realizes that the city wall facing seaward was way too low, and if the Alqistantinian navy would assist their armu the seige would only last days. Marcian's lead commander takes charge of building fortifications but instead of raising the wall he decides to begin building an undersea fence which would thwart any attacking ships. After Marcian realizes this he becomes mad at his commander, orders the abandonment of the fence and the raising of the walls instead. By the time that the army arrived and had time to call in the navy, the fortifications were far from complete. Thessalonica is sacked but the emperor manages to escape by dressing up as a muslim convert.

Morea has successfully occupied central Greece, but is having probelm stopping popular uprisings in many of the Greek cities and the Alqistantinian army has to step in to assist them. Next, news that Marcian had reached the city of Larisa would reach the muslim commanders. He tries to get his vassals to supply him with troops but both the rulers of Durres and Epirus insult him and send diplomats to the Alqistantinians and Moreans instead. The Sporades and Cyclades are also occupied, but the isle of Naxos is left alone by the armies as not to anger the Sicilians.

Instead of raising a standing army Marcian establishes himself in Larisa, taking power from the local governor. He sends his best men to lead the insurrections in central Greece and Macedonia, forcing the muslim armies to deal with them instead of getting after himself.

This stalemate remains until winter.

748-750 AD
After the Wallachian king's travel to Alqistantinia, and visit of the Hagia Sofia mosque, the Caliph accepted to officially vassalize the kingdom. The vlachs would have to pay a sum of their tax to the Caliph, but smaller than the other governors. In 749 news of the old king's death reaches the Caliph, who grieves his newfound friend but finds peace in that he found the true god before his passage to the afterlife.

756 AD
**Memento Mori**
Al-Jawad is 66 years of age. A life in luxary without physical labour has spared his body from breaking down too quickly but it is evident that even the Caliph cannot live forever. Al-Jawad spends most of his days in bed, and is dependent on medicines to cure his everyday pains. The rich and influential talk behind the Caliph's back, wondering who his succesor will be.

764 AD
Al-Jawad, or Al-Jawad the Great as his people will remember him, died peacefully in his sleep at the astounding age of 74. His successor is his grandson Umar, known as Umar ibn al-Jawad or Umar III, was chosen by Jawad in his last years. Al-Jawad's legacy will lead to his dynasty being named the Jawadine dynasty.