started a new game as the king of Abyssinia in 867. looks like a bad position, right?
well, now. boy, do I have a story for you...
so, 867. the king of Abyssinia, king Anbas, has married princess Aldonza of house de Cantabria, giving me an alliance with a kingdom I cannot ever realisticly see make the trek all the way to my neck of the woods. doesnt matter, she looked good enough and was highborn enough for my goal.
shortly thereafter, a daughter is born. princess Shinasha. remember this name, as she will shake the very foundations of Christianity and Islam.
872 rolls around, and the Emir of Harer has lost control of his lands to the advancing armies of Abyssinia. the Emir has launched his own invasion of Abyssinia a year earlier, and lost. now the payback is sweet and swift.
king Anbas, however, does not rest. he launches a war for the Emirate of Sanaa shortly after. unfortunatly for him, he dies shortly before the war is won. Shinasha inherits the kingdom.
during her years under regency young Shinasha begins asking her mother questions about God. under the guidance of queen mother Aldonza, queen Shinasha abandons her father's faith and converts to Catholicism. many of her courtiers and vassals follow suit, but not all. her martial, the duke of Harer, remains in his faith. being elavated by her father, and thus having no good feelings towards the queen, he rebels. the civil war is crushed shortly thereafter, and the queen allows the duke to keep both his lands and his titles, in exchange of accepting the Catholic pope over the Coptic one.
another war of agression from the Emir of Oman leads to the queen adopting a more proactive approach. having recently come of age (and accepting her mother's Castillian culture as well), she marries prince Konstantinos of the Byzantine Empire, which grants her an alliance with the most powerfull Christian empire in the world. however, instead of attacking the Emirate of Oman in retaliation, she decides to attack his ally, the Shia Caliph and Emir of Medina.
the Emirate of Medina falls to Abyssinian hands. the holy sites of Mecca and Medina are in Catholic hands. the year is is 890 when the Shia Caliph announces a Jihad against all lands in Arabia held by the Abissynian queen.
the Jihad fails, since the Sultan of Egypt does not join it, and the Caliph only has his own levies and that of the Sultan of Mauritania, which never arrive in time. the following year sees the new Caliph (the last one died of stress, probably by his loss of Mecca and Medina and his following failure to retake them) sees the loss of his lands in Nefund lost as well, and given to a newly arrived Jewish courtier.
Mecca and Medina were given to Konstantinos. in 899 he was also given the douchy of Medina. on the last days of 899, 29th of December, Konstantinos's brother died and Konstantinos ascended the Imperial Throne.
he is married matrimonialy to Shinasha, and they also have a daughter, named Maria. my daughter is the heiress to both the kingdom of Abyssinia and the Byzantine Empire, and the current emperor is also a catholic. all of my vassals are catholic, many are also castillian as well.
what the hell have I done to the middle east?!