| ||||||||||||
| Capital | Mecca | |||||||||||
| Largest city | Medina | |||||||||||
| Other cities | Jidda | |||||||||||
| Language official |
Arabic | |||||||||||
| others | Greek, Aramaic, Nabatean, Mandaic, Persian, Sabaean, Minaean, Qahtanian, Shehri, Hadhramautic, Mehri, Hobyót, other South Semitic languages | |||||||||||
| Religion main |
Medinan Christianity | |||||||||||
| others | Paganism, Judaism, Nestorianism | |||||||||||
| Ethnic Groups main |
Arab | |||||||||||
| others | Persian, Aramaic | |||||||||||
| Demonym | Antioquian | |||||||||||
| Government | Despotic Monarchy | |||||||||||
| Legislature | Muhammadan royal family | |||||||||||
| Area | area km² | |||||||||||
| Population | ~2,000,000? | |||||||||||
| Currency | Dinar | |||||||||||
The Empire of Mecca (Arabic: امبراطورية مكة المكرمة) was a nation in the Middle East founded by Fatimah I after the War of the Hijaz. Its existence and deeds have historically been controversial and demonised; nowadays, they just seem as the extremist response to secularisation and militarisation of the powers surrounding it.
History
Muhammad ibn Hashem, a prominent trader in pre-Christian Arabia, received a revelation in the year of 610, allegedly b Angel Gabriel, establishing the basis for what would later become Medinan Christianity. However, before getting a large group of followers, Muhammad was assassinated by the Quaraysh tribe. The followers of Muhammad, led by the prophet's own daughter Fatimah, fled to the town of Yathrib (from then on named Medina) where, thanks to Jewish monetary aid, they were able to gain power.
In 618, Fatimah's army was faced with the attack of a heavy Quaraysh contingent. However, the Medinans won near-miraculously and scattered the Pagan army. Fatimah continued seeking converts in Arabia, increasing the number of Arabian troops greatly until, in 620, she finally marched south, meeting yet another army at Yambu' (already scattered by scouts and desert) and once again, scattered it. This left Mecca unprotected, and in January of 621, Fatimah and Ali (her uncle) marched triumphantly on Mecca, declaring the Empire of Mecca and with Fatimah declaring herself Empress.
The war after that transcurred slowly for the next ten years, until at last, the Quaraysh surrendered and fled to Nejd, Mecca, after the devastating War of the Hijaz arose as a new military theocracy, attempting to spread Medinan Christianity across the globe. Fatimah's first proof of wishing to do so came with the Arabian Unification, where she stormed Kinda (Nejd) and the Trucial states, effectively destroying pagan leadership on the peninsula.
Knowing that Nejd and the Trucial Coast would take years to be integrated fully into Mecca, and that the balance of pagans and Christians was tilted towards the pagans, Fatimah decided to stop conquering and consolidate the Empire. This went as far as rejecting several war pleas by her court and clan and an anti-Sassanid army proposed by Byzantium in 632, which might had cost her her life three years later, as her uncle 'Ali, a far more militaristic person, agreed to the offer and attacked Iran, starting the War of Ahuramazda (as it is known in Arabia).
The war was a huge success for Medina. With its competent bedouin army and completely innovative fighting tactics, it was able to take vast swaths of Iranian territory before gaining, in 650, all of Arabia but Saba (given to the Ethiopians), including the Ghassanid and Lakhmid kingdoms. Although foreigners still considered Medina as "a land of nomads and snakes" (in the Sassanid Emperor Yazdegerd III's own words), this marks the ascent to power of Medina.
Medina, a strong proponent of pan-Arabism, began eyeing Ethiopian-held Saba and the northern parts of Arabia. Therefore, it was the main protector and creator of the Treaty of Mecca so to reduce Sassanid-Byzantine power over Arabia. Ali's son Hussayn bint Muhammad, considered an insanely graceful diplomat and an excellent warrior, decides to establish good Sassanid relations amd marries Shahrbanu, Peroz of Persia's sister and notable Christian, and sends his army to fight for the Sassanids in the Persian War of Succession of 667-673. His advance didn't stop even when the Arsacids fled to Parsistan but continued even afterwards in the Arsacid Armenian Collapse, where Hussayn was seen fighting agsinst Armenians.
Medinan troops withdrew to Arabia by 677 and Hussayn's daughter Zainab the Warmonger convinces the Emperor to expulse several Jewish and Pagan tribes to Aram and Ethiopian Saba. Hussayn and Zainab thought that was to become a war and they would be able to crush weak Nestorius II's Aram and Konstantine's Axum. However, they miscalculated two things; the impact of Byzantium on the war and the superiority in seas on Aram's case and in number on Axum's. Initial victories were later met by crushing defeat. Even when Iran intervened in Medina's favour, it was all finished. Aram gained the whole coast of the Aramaic Gulf (Bahrayn and Elam) and Axum gained rich Hadramawt. Upon hearing this news, Hussayn died of a heart attack, and Ali died, assassinated in the way of his coronation to Mecca, after being freed. Muhammad, no more than a kid, is the only surviving heir, and ascends to the throne as Muhammad II.
The Religious Crisis of the VIII Century was in full swing by the 700s after the Great Schism and Medina, somewhat recovered, began eyeing the Levant and its mostly Miaphysite and Jewish population. Muhammad convinced Nestorius II of Aram, "a craven fool with no competence" to grant him military access through Nabatea. Finally, in 703, Byzantium declared war on Aram, Axum and Medina.
The war was fought heavily between two sides. Although Arabia's troops easily freed the Levant, it was not able to penetrate Anatolia or free Tyre from siege for ten to fifteen years. However, when Arsaces of Armenia's and Nestorius' armies intervened, Anatolia was soon occupied and Constantinople taken. Later on, Egypt was also liberated in the continuation of the war, the Copt Revolt.
Mecca's downfall started soon after the War of the Trinity, due to two reasons; the weakening of the state in favour of corruption and struggles, and the rise of prominence by previously-weak Aram. Although the nation's coffers were filled with gold and the culture was on a high peak, the government was filled with huge dynastic plots between the Muhammadids, very nationalistic and remaining angry over the Arabian Wars, and the Ali'ids, who thought of the good done to Arabia during the War of the Trinity and planning further alliances with Aram. Eventually, the dynastic struggles came to blood, with Khadijah's death leading to a purge of almost all Ali'ids. Only faltering at the prospect of killing two-year old Husayn, the Ali'id line was almost extinguished. The Aramaic Empire, after the annexation of the Confederation of the Levant by Aramaic forces after the end of the War of the Seven Kings, Aram started prospects in Arabia. In 775, only three months after the near-extinction of the Ali'id branch, the Arameans demanded the handing over of Husayn as their ward, and Arabia, afraid of another Arabic War, agreed. Muhammad married a Nabatean-Arabic woman, Rania ben Sim'an, in 792. His first child, Khadijah, was born in the same year, and their second one, Abdullah, was born in 795. Khadijah married Afrêm II ben Shimun of the Aramaic Empire, and soon enough he had her crowned as Empress of Arabia in the patriarchal basilica of the Nestorian Church at Ctesiphon. She marched south in the winter of 809, starting the Arabian War of Succession. The Muhammadids were soon expelled to their fortress of Rub al-Khali, almost impregnable with an underground storage of several years' worth of water and food. However, Khadijah became Empress of Arabia and soon enough gave the kingdom to Husayn, who at last annexed it.
List of Arabian Kings
note: Muhammadid kings are bolded, Ali'id kings are underlined
- (de jure) Muhammad (610-615, d.615)
- Fatimah ibn Muhammad (615-621 (de jure), 621-635 (de facto), d.635)
- 'Ali (635-650)
- Zainab ibn Muhammad (650-668)
- Husayn ibn 'Ali (668-685)
- Ali ibn Zainab (695, never crowned Emperor)
- Muhammad ibn Ali (695-735)
- Khadijah ibn Muhammad (735-775)
- 'Umar ibn Khadijah (775-808)
- 'Ali ibn 'Umar' (808-815, never crowned Emperor)
- Khadijah ibn Hussayn (809-819)
Successor States
After the destruction of the Empire of Mecca, the Aramaic Empire under its greatest annexed the area as a few provinces of the nation.
After the rise and fall of the Qallu Empire, the Empire of Mecca's former territories were split into several states:
- The Ali'ids established the Second Empire of Mecca under a descendant of Afrêm II ben Shimun's brother-in-law, Abdullah ibn Muhammad with a capital on Mecca. This is most often considered the main successor state to the first Empire.
- The Muhammadids rose out of the Rub al-Khali and took much of the territory of eastern Arabia. They declared the establishment of the Omani Empire, which soon fell under Sassanid influence, although not as much as Chaldea.
- The Sassanids, however, established powerful client kingdoms in the Kingdom of Bahrayn.
- The junior Nestorids established two South Arabian states, the Kingdom of Saba in the west and the Kingdom of the Hadramaut in the East.