HISTORY CRAFTER - THE REAL AND SIMULATED HISTORY

  'MEETING' (Copyright 2020 Salvatore Puleio) ARABS AND CHRISTIANITY IN THE LATE ANTIQUITY   During the IV and V centuries of the Vulgar Era, the Arabs came to a close contact with the Empire of the Romans; this way, the immense territory of Syria and Mesopotamia met a religious tradition which was strictly linked to the political issues of power and control. In fact, the ‘throne and the altar’ have always been connected; after Constantine, however, Christianity shaped and influenced in a significant way the history of the Empire of the Caesars. The religious sphere pervaded thus every issue of the public life, in Constantinople as well as in the periphery; as a matter of fact, Christianity was used as a tool to subject people to the imperial ideology. Although framed as a religious discourse, it came to be a process of cultural assimilation; however powerful, this mechanism was not always so easy to perform. In fact, we have to bear in mind the particularities of the religions

  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 the previous post, I gave account of the elect

PERSIAN EMPIRE IN 790'S CE: ZOROASTRIANISM EXPANDS FURTHER IN THE ARABIC PENISULA!!! Welcome back to our adventure with the Persian Empire in Crusader Kings II; Zoroastrians expanded their reach, as you can see in the map below, around 790 CE.   Compared to 756 CE, the changing is significant, as you can see from the picture below. It seems that our politics of conversion is beginning to work, although slowly, as it is reasonable to expect, both in reality and in the simulation as well.   Interestingly, the two Holy Cities of Islam surrendered to Zoroastrianism, and abandoned their former beliefs; let’s see if this event will enrage and encourage the Muslims to get back their lands and restore the Islamic faith.   As you can see, Makkah is no longer Muslim and this is a very powerful blow to the Islamic forces and rulers; there are some provinces that were formerly Zoroastrian and now embraced some heresies in the same religious group. The Sunni tradition, on the other hand, is a m

RELIGION IN CRUSADER KINGS II   One of the most intriguing aspects of Crusader Kings II is surely the incorporation of real religious traditions in the simulation; alternatively, one can opt for new ones or reform the pagan religions and make a new one. This can prove controversial, since religion is a very sensitive topic; for this reason, it should be clear that religion is no matter to play with. It makes sense to include it in the simulation, though, as it get more realistic and enjoyable; on this matter, the same general considerations of this projects can be applied. In particular, we should remember that we are here to play a game and make historical hypothesis, and this does not mean in any way to disrespect any religion or culture. Looking at the picture above, we see that the Arian religion is widespread in Italy in 756 CE, in our scenario; but, who was Arius and who were the Arians? That’s what we’re gonna try to find out in this post.   ARIUS AND COSTANTINE: UNITY AND DIVIS