HISTORY CRAFTER - THE REAL AND SIMULATED HISTORY

THE BATTLES FOUGHT BY ABU BAKR   Volume XI of the History of Al-Tabari reports in great detail the events unfolding during the Caliphate of Abu Bakr Al-Siddiq and his successor. In fact, the period taken into consideration goes from 633 to 635 CE; following the Muslim calendar, the years are from 12 to 13 AH.   The events taking place in this period are thus covered in great detail, more than in other books of Al-Tabari and the reason is simple. In fact, it is in this brief period that the Caliphate truly becomes an Empire, going well beyond the borders of the Arabic Peninsula.   Of particular importance, then, are two battles, the one fought in Al-Madhar and the one which took place in Al-Walajah.   THE CHARACTER OF ABU BAKR AND MUSLIMS DURING WARS   In the previous post, we saw the intent of the Caliph to come to terms with the traitors who rebelled against his rule. Now, we want to see another aspect, not very known, of his character; in fact, he dictated the...

  A PICTURE OF ABU BAKR AL SIDDIQ FROM AL-TABARI   Who was Al-Tabari?   Al-Tabari was an influential scholar and he was the muslim who compiled a huge work on early Islamic history. He was born in Tabaristan, modern Iran around 839 CE and died in Bagdad, Iraq, in 923 CE. To him, we owe a tafsir too, namely an exegesis of the Quranic verses. Every historian nowadays quote him when it comes to the Islamic early history; his work is really immense and precise and from his account we can have an internal point of view on what happened in the first centuries of the Caliphate. For this reason, I’ll use many volumes, and in particular: - the 5 th  volume, on Sasanids, Byzantines, and Lakmids - the 10 th  volume, on the conquest of Arabia, the Riddah wars, 632-633 CE - the 11 th  volume, on the challenge to the empires (633-635 CE)   As I don’t know Arabic, I’ll use the english translation.   A LETTER OF ABU BAKR AL SIDDIQ TO THE APOSTATES   In th...

THE BEGINNINGS: THE UNIFICATION OF ARABIAN PENINSULA (633-635 CE)   Welcome to a new series of alternate history with Crusader Kings II !!!   We are currently playing with Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, the leader and successor of the Arabic Sultanate and Caliph of the Muslims.   The first mission entrusted is the liberation of the Arabian Duchy, which, in 633 CE, when the game starts, is held by a vassal of the Persian (Sasanid) Empire. In the alternate history I create, the war to conquer the last part of the Arabian Sultanate began in 633 CE.   On April 3, 633 CE, the war began, and our troops are ready to fight to expand the borders of the nascent Caliphate,  and the contested  territories will be ours very soon, as you can see from the picture below. Some months later, in September, as you can see from the picture below, our troops begin to occupy the Arabian lands still held by the Persian Emperor. The main battle takes place in the province of Al-Ula, and is a ...

The Caliphate in history: Abu Bakr Al-Siddiq, a trustworthy Muslim and Leader   In this and the next posts, we will begin to discover how events unfolded in real history; at first glance, we can present a rough timeline with the main events from 630, when Makkah was conquered by Islamic forces, and 661, the end of the rule of Ali, the 4 th  Caliph.   In the picture below, you can see the historical timeline:     As you can see, there have been 4 Caliphs in 34 years, and this period coincided with the first expansion of Islam and the Caliphate. As a matter of fact, Islam has been tied to the Caliphate from the very beginning; furthermore, it is a feature that will mark Islam forever, until our time. It seems impossible, in fact, to conceive Islam without, at least, the aspiration to the Caliphate. In other words, there is and there never will be a purely spiritual Islam, or a purely secular Islam, as the two ‘institutions’, the State and the True Religion are one...