The Jewel of the World - A Muslim Andalusia AAR

[Zesty_Taco]

Prologue:​

In 1031, the Umayyad Caliphate in al-Andalus finally disintegrated after a quarter century of fitna, civil war. The nobles of Qurtubah (Cordoba) declared the position of the caliph defunct and established an independent republic in the city and surrounding countryside. In the rest of the former caliphate various independent kingdoms broke off and local nobles took things into their own hands. These kingdoms, each called a taifa, saw themselves as carrying the legacy and cultural heritage of al-Andalus and strove to uphold it through the arts, religion, and territorial aims. Despite facing encroachment from the north by the Iberian kingdoms and from the south by the ambitions of the Almoravid Caliphate the tawa’if fought among themselves to claim the former glory of al-Andalus.

This story begins in the taifa of Seville, called Ishbiliyya in Arabic. In the years preceding 1066 the kingdom was established by Abu al-Qasim ibn Abbad who was the chief qadi, judge of Islamic law, of the city. A lover of poetry and ambitious, Abu al-Qasim was keen to expand his influence to the other smaller tawa’if surrounding his kingdom. Through the military campaigns of himself and his son, Abbad al-Mu’tadid, the small kingdom soon dominated south-western Andalusia. The dynasty they founded, the Abbadids, was to be short-lived however.

In a horrific incident in 1053 Abbad al-Mu’tadid invited several minor nobles and princes from the southern reaches of the taifa to his palace in Ishbiliyya. After treating them to a meal and some of his own fine Andalusi poetry, the emir invited the princes to a steam bath. As they entered the room the emir ordered the doors shut and locked, leaving the princes to suffocate in an agonizing fashion.

Shocked and in horror by this event the nobles of Ishbiliyya gathered and decided to remove the Abbadids from power and nominated the wazir of the taifa to take the reins. This man, Haytham, was of noble Arab extraction, one of many minor nobles that populated the city and was well-educated in Arab values of poetry and furusiyya; Arab equestrianism. Like his contemporaries he valued the shared heritage of al-Andalus and sought preeminence in the region. To increase Haytham’s cultural power he nominated the poet Muhammad ibn Ammar, of growing renown, to his former post of wazir and finished the Abbadid conquest of lower Andalusia.

Haytham was an elder statesman however and after 13 years of rule he passed, leaving the growing taifa in the hands of his 29 year old son, Tariq ibn Haytham Wazirid. Tariq had grown close as a friend to Ibn Ammar (some argue they were lovers) and he was also a well-versed poet however Tariq’s eyes were drawn more-so to the trappings of power. Tariq had grown up on his father’s heels before his ascension to the throne and excelled in skullduggery. He found the constraints of his faith to be limiting and had a noted stubborn streak.

Tariq knew that al-Andalus was within his grasp, all he had to do was reach out and seize it.

 

[Zesty_Taco]

Chapter 1, 1066-1078:​

In 1066 there were three other tawa’if jostling for position as the preeminent power in al-Andalus: Batliyus (Badajoz), Tulaytulah (Toledo), and Gharnatah (Granada); each led by a powerful ruler and each keen to establish dominance.

Qurtubah itself was established as a quasi-republic decades earlier with a “custodian” at its head instead of an emir. Despite these trappings of rule by the people the current custodian, Abd al-Malik, was a ruthless man capable of flying into a wild rage at a moment’s notice. Abd al-Malik had attained power through a feud with his brother where he stripped much of the power from the nobles in order to strengthen his position. He kept the ministers in check who desperately sought to extricate themselves from the situation; a situation which led them to invite one Tariq of Ishbiliyya in to rectify it.

Tariq’s greatest obstacle at this point was the overtures of the Emir of Tulaytulah to the people of Qurtubah. Emir Yahya Dhunnunid offered protection to the Qurtubans from both the Christian kingdoms of the north and from the custodian himself and reasoned that he stood a better chance of keeping the peace than Tariq due to Yahya’s great military prowess.

Sensing his position was not yet strong enough, Tariq instead turned his eyes to the independent sheikhdom of Qadis (Cadiz). Tariq knew in order to shore up his image as an equally powerful protector he would need a few military victories of his own.

Soon after Tariq’s invasion of Qadis the burgeoning kingdom of the Almoravids in the Maghreb began storming into al-Andalus seeking to establish their own empire; an empire that crossed continents. As news reached Tariq of this invasion he knew that he had very little time to solidify his grasp on the other tawa’if before the Almoravids turned their eyes towards his small emirate.

Meanwhile the Christian Kingdom of Leon began its own invasion towards Batliyus; despite Tariq’s desire to eventually dominate that taifa as well he made the difficult decision to support his coreligionist against invasion. He reasoned that it would be easier to conquer one emirate than to risk war with all of Iberian Christendom. He resolved to lead his men north after his siege of Qadis concluded.

Knowing that his strength was not in leading his army from the center, Tariq decided to master the art of flanking to provide his more superior commanders with the support they needed to win battles. Taking this newfound knowledge with him, Tariq led his army to Caceres where the men of Batliyus were being badly pushed back by the Leonese.

Arriving just in time Tariq was able to rout the Christians and led his army towards a smaller force outside of Coria. However it was during this battle that Tariq learned that the Qadisis had retaken their city; enraged he wheeled his army back south again, determined to crush the small sheikhdom for good. And crush them he did, bringing the sheikhdom under his protection and forcing the sheikh to submit to vassalization.

Once again leading his men to victory against the Christians Tariq found himself amidst a skirmish and then found a blade glinting in front of his eye. In one expert poke, Tariq screamed in anguish as his eye was removed from its socket.

Tariq’s great sacrifice, however, was not in vain as the Muslims successfully held back the Christian advance. Sensing that Allah was perhaps not on his side despite his pious defense of the faith, Tariq took it upon himself to make the long journey to Mecca to humble himself before taking his army to Qurtubah.

During his hajj Tariq felt the presence of Allah with him and although he was skeptical he knew that something guided his journey; in reinforcement of this fact the wounds around his lost eye healed soon after his first rotation around the Kaaba.

Upon returning Tariq learned that the armies of Qurtubah were out campaigning against the faltering taifa of Gharnatah in a desperate letter from the nobles of the great city. Seeing his great victories, against both the Qadisis and the Christians simultaneously, bolstered the nobles’ confidence in Tariq. Meanwhile the Dhunnunid emir struggled in an offensive war against Castille. Clearly Tariq was the favored one in the eyes of the nobles. Their letter reinforced their invitation to Tariq to take the city and protect them from non-Muslim control.

Tariq gathered his troops and surged into the countryside around Qurtubah, securing treaties with each village along the way before finally arriving at the gates of the once great city. Although much of the city had fallen into disrepair including the vast palace complex of the Umayyads, Medinat az-Zahra, Tariq could feel the history that was made there. He desired to emulate that history and bring similar glory to Ishbiliyya.
After standing in awe for a moment Tariq gathered his commanders around him. Together they came upon a strategy to take the city with ease:

The main aqueducts that once provided the city with water were falling apart and in some areas had collapsed. Mubashir, Tariq’s leading commander, concluded that he could lead a small group of elite soldiers up onto one of the collapsed aqueducts and sneak into the city at night, kill the guards silently and open the gates for Tariq’s fursan, knights, to ride straight to the Medina to claim the city.

The plan worked masterfully and soon Tariq was able to declare himself the custodian of Qurtubah. Moving quickly, Tariq disbanded the quasi-republic, removed former Jawharid ministers from power, and declared himself the new Emir.

In the next few years Tariq continued to consolidate his power but after the failure of the Dhunnunids a new threat established itself: the new Sultanate of Batliyus. Abu Bakr of the Aftasids took the step to declare himself the new protector of the Andalusi people after his great victory in defending them against the Leonese. Abu Bakr was clearly challenging the temporal authority of Tariq and in order to once again prove himself he declared war on Galicia to take their southern provinces.

As Tariq continued to gather strength he received news from the far north: a man named Ordono was collecting support from various monarchs to launch a conquest of the Muslim lands, something the Christians were calling a reconquista; a reconquest of Iberia for Christ. It seemed the Christians were starting small with the sheikhdom of Larida on the outskirts of Barcelona.

Ordono won handily and established himself an independent duchy in Larida and held a sizable army, aimed at the Dhunnunids of Tulaytulah.

In the middle of a preemptive war against the Dhunnunids Tariq’s first son was born, named Haytham after Tariq’s illustrious father.

In 1076, far in the east, one of the great Seljuk Turks solidified his conquest of Anatolia from the Byzantine Empire. Ilyas led his troops out of the Seljuk heartland in Persia, conquered a base in Armenia and quickly set to work on the Romans, vanquishing their armies in great rains of arrow fire from the Turkish horse archers. Only time will tell if Ilyas will be able to maintain his grasp on the Greeks.

Late in 1078, the Pope sent out a request to all pious leaders of Christendom to take up arms against the Muslim invaders. Yet, despite Sunni advances in Anatolia, the Pope in his infinite wisdom decided to call for a Crusade against Egypt. If the Fatimids are able to hold strong, there might be hope for Islam to prevail but it is unlikely they will receive any help from their Sunni brethren to the east...

 

[Zesty_Taco]

Chapter 2: Glories and Triumphs, Sadness and Defeats: 1078-1086
The knights of Christendom flooded into Egypt in droves, spurred into action by the Pope’s call to arms. At the head of the Crusader armies were the Kings of Denmark and France who had met ahead of time to devise their strategies. While the Pope himself had begun besieging Alexandria, keen to take back the bastion of Christianity from the Shi’ite Caliph, King Philippe II of France and King Svend of Denmark split their priorities. King Philippe led his armies straight to al-Faiyumiyya to meet the Muslim force head-on, which he promptly demolished. Meanwhile King Svend landed in the Eastern Delta to commence a pincer move on the capital: the Pope would come in from the west while the armies of Denmark cut off any access to the Levant for escaping Egyptian armies.

On November 11th, 1080 the armies of Pope Alexander broke into the keep of al-Faiyumiyya and captured the Fatimid capital. The young Caliph Nuraddin managed to escape with a small cadre of trusted advisors and soldiers to Aswan in Upper Egypt.

Christian troops rode across the desert and through the floodplains of the Nile, sacking town after town and slaughtering Christians and Muslims alike. Crusaders paid special attention to any Jews living in the cities, forcing them to shelter in their synagogues and then setting them alight in a ghastly affair. Days before the final fall of Egypt the body of the Caliph was found with his head dashed against the stone floors of his keep, murdered by a Coptic informer for the Crusaders. When the news spread through the occupied cities of Egypt Copts everywhere rose up in celebration.

Finally, after a year of intense bloodshed, the Pope claimed victory. On February 14th, 1081, Niels of Denmark was crowned King of Egypt and the Muslim world was splintered.

Back in al-Andalus Tariq began his next great offensive on the taifa of Gharnatah. During one fierce battle outside of Yayyan (Jaen), the soldiers of Gharnatah outnumbered Tariq’s forces; Emir Badis took the initiative and charged across his border, directly across a river, hoping to take Tariq by surprise. Quickly the soldiers of Qurtubah rushed in and managed to hold the line as Tariq gathered his forces from Ishbiliyya and the west. The Qurtubis held on bravely until the western troops arrived. The river that Emir Badis boldly crossed ended up being his undoing. As he crossed at a shallow forge a spear pierced his horse’s flank and sent the elderly emir crashing into the river. The soldier scooped up his frail body and delivered him back to Tariq and delivered victory to Ishbiliyya.

Tariq had managed to seize Gharnatah without a fight and the southern pride of al-Andalus happily surrendered itself as Badis had driven the city into the ground allowing a vicious gang of smugglers to control most of the city’s economy.

Under Tariq’s thumb were the three major Andalusi cities: Ishbiliyya, Qurtubah, and now Gharnatah. Very little now stood in his way to reclaim the legacy of al-Andalus. Tariq set about subjugating the rest of the small tawa’if throughout al-Andalus, forcing some sheikhs to submit to vassalization while stripping others of their lands and titles.

While sieging down the coastal city of al-Mariyya (Almeria) Tariq received disturbing news: Christian victory in the Crusade for Egypt had intensified the desire for conquest of more Muslim land. Thousands of battle-hardened German Crusaders stood ready to conquer Balansiyya (Valencia) in the name of the Holy Roman Emperor, Heinrich IV. Again, Tariq took up arms to support his Arab brethren and to keep foreign invaders out of what he knew would be his future kingdom.

The first wave of Germans decided to land in the recently captured city of al-Mariyya to capture a weakened base on the Mediterranean coast. Tariq controlled the largest Muslim army in al-Andalus and quickly wheeled around to stop this first incursion. The battle was won with minimal casualties however more soldiers were soon to arrive. Meanwhile the selfish Sultan of Batliyus declared his vocal support for the defense of Balansiyya but instead led his troops north to capture Portucale in Galicia.

As the Germans poured into Iberia an army of ten thousands bore down on Tariq's men, trapped in the hills of al-Mansaf with reinforcements miles away in Ishbiliyya. They were too late. The Germans forced their way atop the hills and slaughtered Tariq’s men in the hundreds. Three thousand died that day, protecting the integrity of their homeland.

And so, in a matter of a year, Balansiyya fell to the Germans and marked the first time a taifa fell to outside invaders. The Holy Roman Empire now held a significant port in al-Andalus from which to prepare further conquests into the Muslim lands.

Across the Mediterranean in Baghdad the Caliph Muhammad called for a Great Jihad in retribution for Christian incursions into Egypt. The Seljuk Empire was only just recovering from a brutal civil war and Malik Shah was potentially the only Sunni power strong enough to take on the newly minted Kingdom of Egypt.

Tariq, fueled by rage, continued to establish his dominance of the Muslim powers in anticipation of a major showdown with the Kaiser. Now was the time to declare himself the true successor to the Umayyads, the protector of Iberian Muslims, and the ruler of the Jewel of the World: Tariq ibn Haytham, Sultan of al-Andalus.

Sultan Tariq immediately set out to build alliances and shore up his power. First, he betrothed his eldest daughter to the most powerful vassal of the Almoravids: Emir Abu Bakr of Marrakesh. This alliance immediately boosted his potential fighting force. Next, Tariq began cleaning up the rest of the small tawa’if and sheikhdoms left independent between his kingdom and that of Batliyus. The Emir of Mayurqa was forced into vassalization while the perennial thorn in Tariq’s side, the Taifa of Tulaytulah, was peacefully annexed thanks to the threat of both Tariq and the German Kaiser.

The woeful and excommunicated King of Aragon, Sancho, declared his intention to make an attempt at reconquista with a pitiful army. He hoped to gain many others seeking adventure in the south of Iberia. Sancho managed to gather a large force of fortune seekers and declared war on the Hudid Emirate of Saraquista.

Tariq, now the sworn defender of Iberian Muslims, quickly pulled together a force of eleven thousand and rode quickly northward to their defense. The troops of the reconquista met Tariq outside of Bani Razin (Albarracin). Near the plains of Hijar the Andalusis stood firm and drove the Christian soldiers back. Tariq firmly made his newly minted presence as Sultan known among the troops of Aragon that day.

Later that day, Sancho was found murdered in his chambers and all his bluster came to naught as the reconquista dissolved.

On Tariq’s 50th birthday he declared a great display of furusiyya to be put on in his honor and the honor of al-Andalus, putting the final seal on his claim to the great legacy of his forebears.