Originally posted by Raphael:
About Irak and Aq Koyunlu, Hartmann, the idea is interesting, but I’m afraid that there is some confusion.
1/ First , about history of Ak Koyunlu Turcomans and Sefevid Persia
In fact, Persian Sefevid was a kind of heir of the Ak Koyunlu, who themselves were heir of the Kara Koyunlu (« Black Sheep »). Ak Koyunlu were turcophon nomads that appeared during c14th in Diyarbakir province (in EU map, correspond approximately to Sivas province). In 1467, they take the whole Kara Koyunlu empire (Eastern Anatolia, Azerbaïdjan, Irak and Western Iran) and added most of eastern Iran. Their capital was installed in Tabriz, Kurdistan province in EU). During late c15th, the Ak Koyunlu began to have internal problems, because their chief tried to suppress the mongol rights that were commonly used by these nomads and replace it by Islam law.
In the middle c15th, the muslim religious order called Sefevid, centered on Ardabil in eastern Azerbaïdjan (in EU approximately located on border between Azerbaïdjan and Kars provinces), became a military order. In 1460, they named themselves Kizil Bach (« Red hats ») because of their special red hat. Relationships between Ak Koyunlu and Kizil Bach were first good, but worsened. In 1488, the Kizil Bach chief, Haydar, was killed in an ambush ; idem for his son in 1494. The second son of Haydar, Ismaïl, take refuge in Ghilan province (coastal part of EU Kars province). Because Ak koyunlu were in civil war in late c15th, Ismaïl came back with an army and conquer Tabriz in 1501, proclaimed himself Shah (the first Sefevid Shah) and establish chi’ism as the official and mandatory religion. The Ak Koyunlu empire ceased to exist at the same time.
Later the 2 most important enemies of Sefevids were Ottomans and Ouzbeks. They beat the second ones and fight against first ones during centuries. But this is not the problem here.
A last point about capitals : Tabriz was Ak Koyunlu's capital until 1501, then Sefevid one from 1501 to 1550. The Sefevids transfer their capital to Qazvin in 1550 (west of EU Kars province) and later in Ispahan (I have no date for this last transfer but it was only a few years later).
So this mean that, in game terms, I thinl that you have the choice between 3 possibilities.
a/ Either consider that Persia is the same as Ak Koyunlu in 1492, probably giving it a –3 stability for civil war and increasing possiblity of regime changement (but I don’t know how the regime changment works in EU and if it's possible to design it).
b/ Or you can design 2 countries, one with most of Persia called Ak Koyunlu in 1492, weak and with –3 stability, and the other called Persia, very strong and with Kars and Azerbaïdjan provinces. But I'm afraid that this last solution would make Persia a too weak power (because of disproportionated number of provinces to Ak Koyunlu) and will probably tend to make it easily disappear.
c/ Or you can consider Persia as Sefevid Persia and completely ignore Ak Koyunlu.
2/ About Irak, this country was designed by Philippe Thibault, original creator of EU boardgame, as the Bagdad caliphate. But Bagdad was under Ak Koyunlu rule in 1492, and later under Sefevid. Maybe he wanted to create a special rule about Caliphate, like the ones he designed about Papacy, but he finally didn't. Btw, both political status were very different.
In game terms, that means that Irak was not an independant state in 1492 and should be included either in Ak Koyunlu whole empire (in the first 2 soultions above) or in Persian one in the 3rd solution). And that’s good news for you because, if you use the 1st or the 3rd solutions for Persia and Ak Koyunlu, that means that you now have a new minor available.
I hope this will help you in your great project. Regards
Raf
