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CK2 - Dev Diary #126 - Muslim Rulers in The Iron Century

Welcome to another Dev Diary! Today we are going to take a look at some of the Muslim rulers you can find in the Iron Century bookmark. (And like yesterday, keep in mind several of these rulers have randomized traits/stats)

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A look at the Muslim world at large.

al-Ikhshid of the Ikhshidid Dynasty: In our bookmark, Al-Ikhshid has recently been granted the governorship of Egypt. Though he wasn’t really supposed to have his title until the year 938, we chose to call him Al-Ikhshid as his dynasty is known as the Ikhshidid dynasty, and that is what he is generally known as. Functionally speaking, he is set up as a Sunni Sultan holding Egypt and huge parts of Syria, with tributaries to his north, south-east and south. He is bordering the Fatimids in the west, and the Jannabid Qarmatians to the east. In many ways, Al-Ikhshid and his dynasty is one of the powerhouses in the bookmark, and will most likely play an important role.

Historically speaking the Ikhshidid dynasty held Egypt for about 35 years, until they were invaded by the Fatimids who made it the capital of their newly founded Caliphate.

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Caliph Ar-Radi of the Abbasid Caliphate: In our two earliest bookmarks (769 and 867), the Abbasid Caliphate is an impenetrable powerhouse, but in 936 they have fallen apart to infighting and lost almost all their importance. As they are barely holding on to their old core lands around Baghdad, they are surrounded by threats who want to take control of the Caliphate and its lands. Ar-Radi is often seen as the last of the real Caliphs, but even his rule was cut short at the age of 31 in the year 940.

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al-Hasan of the Hamdanid dynasty: Both al-Hasan and his brother Ali hold lands in the Al-Jazira region north of the Abbasid Caliphate. They are both Shia rulers, Ali holding the western lands under his brother’s overlordship. Historically speaking al-Hasan played an important role in the politics of the Abbasid Caliphate, while his brother was essential in holding back the Byzantine attacks across the Al-’Awasim in Cilicia. They later received the titles Nasir al-Dawla and Sayf al-Dawla, under which they are better known.

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The Buyid Dynasty: The three Shia brothers of the Buyid dynasty are all playable in the 936 bookmark. Ali holds the Satrapy of Fars, Hasan holds the Satrapy of Jibal while Ahmad holds lands under Ali.


As the first of importance in the dynasty, Ali was a governor and commander under the Ziyarid ruler Mardavij (better known as the last Zoroastrian ruler). After finding out his lord was planning to eliminate him, he took his troops and established the Satrapy of Fars. After Mardavij was assassinated by his own slave troops, the Buyid dynasty was bolstered with troops and started expanding north and eastwards. Later on Ahmad would go on to become a leading figure in the Abbasid Caliphate, and start the Buyid’s century long control of the Caliphate, until they were pushed out by the Seljuks about a hundred years later.

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Vushmgir of the Ziyarid dynasty: Vushmgir is the Sunni brother of Mardavij, better known as the last major Zoroastrian ruler. Vushmgir would go on to embrace Islam, and bring his people properly into the fold. In our start he has inherited the remains of his brother's shortlived kingdom. He has several Zoroastrian vassals, and he is surrounded by greater Muslim nations at all sides. Who's to say you couldn't pick up your brother's legacy properly though, and put an end to the Muslim incursions into Zoroastrian lands.

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Caliph Abd-al-Rahman of the Umayyad dynasty: In far flung Iberia, far from the diminishing authority of the pathetic Abbasid Caliphs in Baghdad, Abd-al-Rahman has established his own Caliphate. Centered around Cordoba, the Iberian Caliph is ready to challenge the Fatimids in Ifriqiya as well the French and León to the north. He would go on to create the The Caliphate of Cordoba would continue for almost a century before it shattered into lots of Taifa Successor kingdoms, which were so well known during the tumultuous times of the Reconquista.

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Hopefully you found this small little look into some of the major Muslim rulers of the bookmark interesting. Tomorrow we will take a look at some of the Pagans rulers that will play an interesting role in the bookmark.

And like always, here's a link to the ongoing AAR: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...century-mini-aar.1179523/page-2#post-25482390
 
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So are the Jannabids a Republic?
 
Not what I meant. I was wondering why it didn't separate and become an independent kingdom like the others upon the decision being taken.

I see now. That actually is a fair point.
 
I see now. That actually is a fair point.
It's a stem duchy thing. Germany was essentially Saxony, Franconia, Swabia, and Bavaria working together. Places like Frisia and Pomerania were client states, not free to do their own thing. Lotharingia was also a stem duchy of Germany, but they took the decision to go their own way anyway.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stem_duchy
 
This looks great, but can we please also get some more attention given to the rather comically large list of bug reports in the subforum that haven't been fixed or even responded to yet, some of which go back months?
 
Does the Caliphs have a casus belli to claim the title of Caliph? If the Umayyads win, that would mean becoming the actual Caliph, and if the Abbasids win, that would mean the Caliph-title the Umayyads hold will be destroyed? Also as long as the Abbasids are the Caliph, that should also mean that the Umayyads won't join their Jihads. Kind of how the Orthodox Christians treats the Catholic crusades.
 
Looks great! Any chance this update will make the Fatimids Ismaili rather than Twelver Shia? It would be pretty cool to see the precursors of the most prominent surviving Imamate and general diversity of Islam better represented!
 
@JosunUrashima
Snow Crystal said that if everything goes according to plan it will be released in a short enough time to make the wait for great works patch seem like an eternity. I'm taking that as "half as long at most". The great works patch arrived about 7 weeks after it was announced, so I expect The Iron Century should come out no more than 4 weeks after it was announced. The announcement was 6 days ago, so it'll likely be released at some point in the first half of June.
 
The Tulunids and Ikhshidids were both Turkish dynasties in real life, why are they Levantine or Bedouin in the game? Plus, while the Ikshidids were assimilated into the local culture the Tulunids preserved their Turkish culture throughout their rule. We even call them Tolunogullari in Turkish meaning "sons of Tolun" the founder of the dynasty. Changing their gfx and/or culture shouldn't be that hard.
 
Where is today's Pagan DD?
 
The Tulunids and Ikhshidids were both Turkish dynasties in real life, why are they Levantine or Bedouin in the game? Plus, while the Ikshidids were assimilated into the local culture the Tulunids preserved their Turkish culture throughout their rule. We even call them Tolunogullari in Turkish meaning "sons of Tolun" the founder of the dynasty. Changing their gfx and/or culture shouldn't be that hard.
Post that in suggestions. They really do listen.
 
The Tulunids and Ikhshidids were both Turkish dynasties in real life, why are they Levantine or Bedouin in the game? Plus, while the Ikshidids were assimilated into the local culture the Tulunids preserved their Turkish culture throughout their rule. We even call them Tolunogullari in Turkish meaning "sons of Tolun" the founder of the dynasty. Changing their gfx and/or culture shouldn't be that hard.

CK2 is pretty bad at representing the pre-Seljuk Turkish Muslim rulers.
 
I wonder how much work a hypothetical 935 bookmark would take. World can't have changed too much all over in one year; perhaps a mod could do it fairly easily.

This whole bookmark was built on the work of a guy called @Damarrocarion who made a 935 bookmark he called the Iranian intermezzo. people were bugging him to update the mod earlier in the year and he kept waffling until he revealed that PDX had tapped him to help build the DLC.

There is no greater praise than for PDX to hijack your mod !

EDIT - Apparently @Damarrocarion has clarified that the new bookmark is all PDXs own work, they just brought him in as consultant. Still, well done that man !


@JosunUrashima
Snow Crystal said that if everything goes according to plan it will be released in a short enough time to make the wait for great works patch seem like an eternity. I'm taking that as "half as long at most". The great works patch arrived about 7 weeks after it was announced, so I expect The Iron Century should come out no more than 4 weeks after it was announced. The announcement was 6 days ago, so it'll likely be released at some point in the first half of June.

Didn't I read somewhere that it is actually coming out tomorrow of am I imagining things ?
 
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Didn't I read somewhere that it is actually coming out tomorrow of am I imagining things ?

It's coming out on Tuesday, but I wrote that a day before the release date was revealed. ;)

I'm still happy enough with my prediction because technically I was off by only 4 days. :D