Prussian Amazons: Part 56: 1167-1174: Fall of the Fifth Caliphate

Sheik of Bosra, who was vassal of Sunni caliph, who was vassal of Syria, refused revocation, so I had to help him. First time I joined war of vassal of vassal. That did relatively little, as caliph's son inherited it all.

Sultan of Syria saw the weakness, and tried revoke new caliph's lands. I joined that war as well, the caliph lost, Syria revocation spree was nice to watch. And I was plotting really elaborate schemes to remove caliphate by taking Syria apart piece by piece into a collection of Buddhist minors.

Caliphates so far:

• 1st Sunni Caliphate (Arabian Empire then Alger then Africa) - 632.6.8 to 1092.4.19
• 1st Shia Caliphate (wherever that was) - 632.6.8 to 769.1.1
• 2nd Shia Caliphate - 837.12.5 to 1089.5.26
• 2nd Sunni Caliphate (Damascus then Baghdad) - 1092.9.12 to 1113.2.14
• 3rd Sunni Caliphate (Damascus then Syria then Mosul) - 1113.3.23 to 1170.11.23

Nobody created the 6th caliphate yet. Rulers of Muslim kingdoms (Persia, Khiva, Baluchistan, Esfahan) are not sayyids, and minor dukes would have trouble getting 1000 piety. Head of the Sunni holy order fulfilled all criteria, but I don't know if holy orders can create such titles.

Another Shia caliphate revolt could trigger by event in any major Sunni country, but it's a rare event, with mtth getting worse as time progresses, and most such revolts fail, so I'm not terribly worried. I think we might have seen the last jihad.

In a minor setback we lost Basra by inheritance. It a bit bigger setback Medina under Egypt got inherited by a Sunni, and they tried to conquer Mecca, which also demanded my intervention, as holding Mecca and Medina is one alternative route to recreating the caliphate.

Both were sort of reverted as some Buddhist usurped Medina, and I helped Tigris take one of Basra's counties. I wish Egypt made some effort and mass revoked the infidels already like Syria did. Egypt's strongest vassal is merchant republic of Damietta in which 4 of 5 houses are Sunni - and I can't attack them as merchant republics generate no claimants.

I intervened in some war between Muslims and Catholics in Spain on Catholic sides, and got into one of the longest battles I've ever seen. I think it might have lasted 4 months with waves upon waves of reinforcements coming for both sides. Both sides were mostly my tributaries, but emir of Granada was a sayyid with a risk of getting enough piety to create a 6th caliphate.

I managed to turn a few minors Buddhist - Toledo by claimant, Serbia by inviting heir an assassination.

Due to a series of holy wars between local powers most Orthodox converted to attackers' religion, and last they got is OPM duchy Moesia, with a Buddhist heir. They might disappear before the Shia with their OPM in Kartli do.

A while back one of my vassals liberated Yaik, and that was so far into the steppes I really didn't feel like holding that, so I asked local Mongols to convert and granted them independence.

I bethroted my son Galindas (reincarnation of my grandfather) to sultana of Egypt and we became allies. We could get our dynasty to rule over Egypt, but that's just RNG anyway.

We finally got ful control over all 5 Buddhist holy sites, but Delhi, and most vassals and peasants are still Hindu.

Fighting Caliph and attrition

I didn't even move my retinue, as something told me they'd be needed again

This is the last time Caliph led any troops 

This battle lasted ridiculous amount of time, and I had more reinforcements coming 

This was probably an unnecessary intervention.

The game really needs to make Nile, Tigris, and Euphrates navigable as it's pain

I'll probably stop messing with this part of the world unless huge emergency happens