Preview: Dar al-Islam, revealing the Islamic world

[Stark1]

Landil and I have done a lot of research to make playing as the Byzantines and Rum Turks a very different experience from what you may have been expecting.

I wonder what will be the difference. The only thing I can remember is that Romans usually start completely ousted out of Anatolia (except for Nikeia sometimes), and I think I read somewhere that they actually controlled large parts of it at the ascension of Alexios, and they lost it in the following years.

Now I wonder who will the starting emperor even be, if the game starts at 1080 Nikephoros Botaneiates should rule, but that would deprive us of Komnenids, and people love them. So, can we know please?

[Giorgios]

Now I wonder who will the starting emperor even be, if the game starts at 1080 Nikephoros Botaneiates should rule, but that would deprive us of Komnenids, and people love them. So, can we know please?

Yeah, you'll have the Komnenoi as your starting dynasty. There was no way we could accurately portray the family tree as it actually stood in 1080 within the way M2TW family trees work, so we decided to skip forward about nine months in terms of Byzantium. The Byzantine player will begin, if you like, on the day of Aleksios' accession.

[Enarec]

First time I'm here and I have to say that these previews are marvelous. I love Ancient and Medieval Middle East and it is nice to see it being represented so well in this mod. The textures are also fabulous.

As my primary interest is Iran, I hope it will be previewed next after Anatolia. Central Asia too.

[Landil]

First time I'm here and I have to say that these previews are marvelous. I love Ancient and Medieval Middle East and it is nice to see it being represented so well in this mod. The textures are also fabulous.

As my primary interest is Iran, I hope it will be previewed next after Anatolia. Central Asia too.

Yes, Iran will be coming soon. I'm excited to do it, because it's my favourite region as well.

As for Central Asia, unfortunately we could not fit in Transoxiana, so the only part of Central Asia in the mod is Khwarazm. Of course that will be previewed here as well.

[Petroniu]

This mod is just... too much to cope with! I mean, only the previews are like: "This is not TW, this is like nothing you've ever played before!". Just... speechless!

[Enarec]

Yes, Iran will be coming soon. I'm excited to do it, because it's my favourite region as well.

As for Central Asia, unfortunately we could not fit in Transoxiana, so the only part of Central Asia in the mod is Khwarazm. Of course that will be previewed here as well.

Very glad to hear that, I'm eagerly waiting for Iran now. I don't mind Transoxiana being in that much due to map limitations, since Khwarazm is in and that is the part of Central Asia that interests me more.

[Charlatan]

I've really enjoyed these, may be a while before I see good old England previewed but yeah keep them coming, cheers.

[JoeCool_1952]

Aleppo, or Halab in Arabian, ...

Antioch, Antiok in Armenian or Antakya in Arabian, ...

Damascus, or Dimashq in Arabian, ...

Jerusalem, known by many names, but one in particular, al-Quds: the Holy. ...
Landil

Just to clarify, this means the settlements will change names depending on which culture controls them - right?

[Landil]

Yes, settlement names will change due to certain triggers such as which faction is controlling the settlement.

[Leaf-Fan-Forever]

Hey Landil,
Will some of the PSF's, like Acre or Tripoli, appear on the battle map as difficult cities to take or will they be relatively simplistic forts/settlements?

[Diglytron]

Hey Landil,
Will some of the PSF's, like Acre or Tripoli, appear on the battle map as difficult cities to take or will they be relatively simplistic forts/settlements?

Same question. Acre or Akko was quite important after the fall of Jerusalem, tough not sure if the mod comes that far

[Vipman]

I think that PSF's will use the settlement models, some will be towns, other cities, other castles, and other (probably like Acre) fortresses. I could be wrong though...

[Landil]

PSFs will be allocated different battle maps depending on their historical fortifications or lack thereof. Many smaller towns didn't have walls at all, so these will have open terrain as battle maps. Fortresses and compact walled cities such as Acre will use castle maps, while larger cities will use city maps (both of varying tiers). We also aim to have custom made battle maps, but this project is at an infant stage and mostly depends on help from the public, and might not be in our first release, Hammer & Anvil.

[atheniandp]

Personally, I'm not bothered by the colors for the Syrian faction, but of course I can't speak for others. If we get many complaints about it, we might change it, but otherwise it is up to people to deal with it themselves.

I didn't notice it until he pointed it out, but I'd have to agree. The faction colours (at least that of the Syrians) do stand out a bit in terms of their brightness. However I don't think this is something that should be addressed in the first release.

[Karaman Beyi]

Great work

So you guys going to work on Anatolia next ? just a small notice, people generally mistaking the "yellowish" parts of central anatolia with desert, those are not desert, indeed not green but neither desert those are generally crop etc. fields and the parts with no plantation are rocky and has little flora, few scattered trees generally, but the surroundings of the rivers and lakes are of course greener, some places also naturally greener then other places
there is also a problem with color tones in google maps, check the aegean region to see that.

If you get any problem , you can pm me.

As Tureki said, if you do have any question, you can always ask me about Anatolia!,
Because i'm Turk and know my country well.

[Slaytaninc]

I realize the cities were far larger than those seen in Europe, my question is how did the overall population balance out. I'm assuming a larger percentage of people in the Islamic world lived in cities than Europe.

[spanish_emperor]

Germanikeia

?

[Landil]

I realize the cities were far larger than those seen in Europe, my question is how did the overall population balance out. I'm assuming a larger percentage of people in the Islamic world lived in cities than Europe.

Personally, I think for our start date of 1080, about 30 million for the Dar al-Islam (including North Africa and Central Asia as well as the Middle East) and 35 million for Europe. By the end of our mod's timeline, Europe would be back to near its pre-Black Death figure of 75 million, while the Dar al-Islam would be at 35 million. In comparison, China went from approximately 110 million to 160 million in the same period of time.

There are three main reasons for the fact that Europe grew a lot faster and bigger than the Dar al-Islam. These are land use, technology level and urbanisation. The Islamic world is notable for its large amount of arid land, restricting the amount of land available for agricultural purposes. This means that, from the onset of agricultural civilisation, people here have had to live close together. This in turn, caused the level of urbanisation to rise, and this in turn increased the innovation rate. This economic climate is only possible however, when there is a sufficient amount of centralisation. In both Europe and (what would become) the Dar al-Islam, the central authority had long been the Roman Empire. When the Western Roman Empire descended into chaos, there was almost total decentralisation in Europe, which caused cities to depopulate and population growth to stagnate. In the Dar al-Islam however, the 'Eastern' Roman Empire kept the region strongly centralised, and the ascension of the Islamic Caliphate didn't change this (instead of total disintegration of central authority, it simply passes from one faction to the next). The problem with the Dar al-Islam was, as I mentioned, the limited amount of arable land. This meant that even though the urbanisation and technology levels were high, population growth was low because it was entirely dependant on how effective the arable land was used. Europe didn't have this problem, it in fact had it the other way around. It had a lot of unexploited land, but not the sufficient centralisation to bring it into cultivation on a large scale. During the Middle Ages, and especially from the 13th century onwards, this changed rapidly, with the various Christian states becoming more and more organised (one of the reasons being the introduction of technology from the Dar al-Islam). The result was unprecedented population growth, and it was something that even the devastating Black Death could not revert.

?

Germanikeia is right here: 37°35'10.59"N, 36°55'39.84"E (that being the centre of the medieval city with the citadel). It was named after Germanicus Julius Caesar.

[Diglytron]

The result was unprecedented population growth, and it was something that even the devastating Black Death could not revert.

To bad crappy-overpopulated Europe. Some more black death would have done us well.

[The Kybrothilian]

To bad crappy-overpopulated Europe. Some more black death would have done us well.

Or rather save the rest of the world from us.