1444, Byzantium Resurrects

Chapter 154 Religious Decrees and Serfdom
The army marched, flags covered the sky, Isaac sat upright on his horse, and the white holy city in front of him was looming.

Since the siege of Kairouan, the Grand Mufti has used his religious authority to call on jihadist warriors to defend the holy city, and has also given the nominal title of caliph to Ebenz. This has indeed had a certain effect, successfully forcing Isaac to be cautious and in exchange for half a year of peace.

Objectively speaking, the selfish behavior of the Grand Mufti not only failed to curb the pace of the Crusaders, but also caused the most important city of Tunis to lose precious reinforcements, providing a lot of help to Isaac.

With the demise of the Hafsid Dynasty and the disruption of the Zayanid Dynasty, Kairouan was the only isolated city left in the Muslim territory east of the Atlas Mountains. The army blocked the escape routes of the Kairouan defenders from three directions, leaving only the pass leading to the Atlas Mountains in the west.

During the past six months, more and more jihadist fighters have gathered around Kairouan. With the arrival of summer, food and water have become increasingly difficult to supply. The defenders are poorly equipped and their morale has plummeted. Having lost their old nest and their eldest son, Ebni has no desire to fight and is on the verge of collapse.

After Isaac arrived with his army, a fierce quarrel broke out in the city. Ebenz no longer obeyed the orders of the Grand Mufti. He took his remaining thousands of soldiers, looted all the supplies in the city, fled westward, and disappeared deep in the Atlas Mountains.

This turmoil completely crushed the morale of the defenders in the city. After discussion, the Grand Mufti decided to send envoys to the new ruler of Carthage for negotiations.

"Your Majesty, the delegation from Kairouan has arrived at our camp and is awaiting your arrival."

In front of the military camp gate, Isaac nodded, dismounted, threw the reins to his personal soldiers, and headed straight for his own camp.

"Let them come to see me!"

After a while, Isaac met the envoy from Kairouan in the central camp.

They all wear religious robes, beards and turbans, typical Sunni Ulema images.

"Sit down, coffee, pastry."

The personal guards handed the prepared drinks to several envoys. They sat upright, looking straight ahead, motionless, and occasionally glancing at the old man in the front.

Isaac was too lazy to care about them. He just ate and drank by himself to relieve the fatigue of a busy day.

After a while, the camp was completely silent except for the sounds of Isaac chewing and sipping.

Suddenly, Isaac seemed to remember something and stood up, startling the envoys.

"Yergubai."

"exist!"

The captain of the personal guards pushed the door open, stood with a sword in hand, and stared at the envoy with a fierce look.

"We have fought for so long, and everyone is tired. Go tell the quartermaster to give the soldiers something good tonight and share the date cakes, mead, and wine sent by the King of Aragon."

After Yergubai left, cheers were heard outside the camp soon.

Isaac continued to sit and eat and drink, and the envoys looked at each other in confusion.

What? Are you 100% confident of victory and don't take them seriously at all?

When Isaac reached out for the third piece of honey cake, the old man in the front row finally could not sit still anymore.

"May God grant you peace and good health, venerable Roman Emperor, Master of Cyrenaica, Surt and Tunisia, Isaac of the House of Palaiologos."

The old man's voice was low and vicissitudes, distant and ethereal.

"Thank you, and may the Holy Father grant you health and longevity."

Seeing that Isaac was unmoved, the old man had no choice but to reveal his identity.

"I am the current religious leader of Kairouan, the Grand Mufti of the holy city."

"Oh, welcome."

"Although we have different positions, I must admit that you are a very powerful character. Your strategic vision is unmatched and far ahead of your time. Every move you make is a killer move."

"Just say what you have to say."

Isaac interrupted the Grand Mufti's meaningless compliments.

"Then I'll tell you straight."

"I hope that you can convert to the embrace of God. I will lead the people to support your rule. Your fame will spread across the Maghreb, and countless jihad warriors will serve you."

"With your military and political skills, the countries in the Maghreb region will be unstoppable. In the future, you can lead your troops eastward, occupy Cairo, and march to Baghdad. Perhaps you can become the next Saladin and Baibars."

Isaac smiled contemptuously.

"This is impossible."

"Saladin was a vassal of the Abbasid dynasty all his life. No matter how powerful Baibars was, he could not change his status as a Turkic slave."

"And I am the Roman Emperor, ruler of three continents and five seas, defender of Constantinople, Rome, Antioch, Jerusalem and Alexandria, and a believer in Jesus Christ."

"As for the places you mentioned, they were originally my territories. I will take them back one by one in the future."

"Even if the Holy Father doesn't give me enough days, I still have equally wise children and grandchildren."

Isaac stood up, and his guardsmen struck their halberds to the ground.

"If this is why you came, please go back. I will launch the general attack tomorrow morning."

Seeing that Isaac was about to send the guests away, several ulemas suddenly panicked.

"Grand Mufti, you..."

The Grand Mufti raised his right hand and sighed softly.

"So, Emperor of Constantinople, what are you going to do with us?"

"You have caused a lot of killing, but as a monarch, killing cannot bring you any substantial benefits. It will only deepen hatred and make your territory unstable."

Isaac remained silent. The Grand Mufti's words were very pertinent and pointed out Isaac's biggest dilemma at the moment.

Religious issues.

Compared with Europe, the Berbers in North Africa, who mainly live in a tribal system, have a weaker sense of nationality, or even no concept of nation at all.

Since a long time ago, they have lived under the oppression of outsiders. Powers such as Carthage and Rome successively occupied the fertile land along the coast and squeezed the Berbers into the Atlas Mountains. Although the Roman Empire converted to Christianity during the reign of Constantine the Great, it did not carry out large-scale religious enlightenment for them.

After the rise of Islam, the Maghreb and Egypt quickly fell, and their rulers were replaced by Arabs who believed in Islam.

Objectively speaking, the Arabs did not take the initiative to carry out missionary activities among them, but the relatively advanced Islamic civilization assimilated most of the Berbers in the following hundreds of years and gradually evolved into their current state.

Islam has a profound impact on the world. It can blend the originally complex cultures of a place and form a new nation with religious identity as its core.

Arabs, Berbers, and even some ethnic minorities in later Celestial Empire are all such religious ethnic groups.

At a time when the universal values ​​of the Roman Empire were collapsing, Isaac had been using this set of religious and national concepts, in addition to his own prestige, to maintain the centripetal force of his territory.

Replacing national identity with religious identity, vigorously promoting Orthodoxy in the territory, and reuniting them under the cross are also what Isaac has been doing.

At present, the situation seems to be good. Over the past ten years, the Berbers and Bedouins who were the first to convert to Orthodoxy have integrated to a certain extent with the Greeks and Slavs who migrated here, and are incompatible with the traditional Berbers in the west.

However, unlike Surt and Cyrenaica, which are sparsely populated, the coastal areas of Africa are heavily populated. Even after Isaac's conquest and expulsion, there are still a considerable number of Muslim residents. If the original coercive means are still used, there will inevitably be a strong backlash, leading to war in the territory.

This was inconsistent with Isaac's original intention of occupying the city of Carthage.

Therefore, it is very necessary to appropriately give up some religious interests and adopt some conciliatory policies.

"You and I have different beliefs, but as long as you are willing to pledge allegiance to me and obey my orders, you can still live on my land and accept my protection."

"But let me make it clear, if you disobey, you will be severely punished and will not be tolerated!"

Isaac said seriously.

"So, how do you plan to implement this policy?"

The Grand Mufti was obviously not satisfied with Isaac's verbal assurance and continued to ask.

"First, as the religious leader of Kairouan, you must stabilize the situation in the city, open the city gates, and lead the people to pledge allegiance to me. Those who are unwilling to pledge allegiance can leave directly and head to the mountains in the west. I will not stop them." "If your conditions are suitable, I will comply."

Isaac nodded and considered it for a moment.

"I hope you can reorganize the church organization and establish a new school."

The Grand Mufti was stunned for a moment, and Isaac continued.

"I don't know which school you belong to now, Shafi'i? Hanafi? Malik? It doesn't matter."

"The important thing is, I don't want my people to collude with foreign forces. You have to cut off ties with them."

The Grand Mufti was silent.

"It seems you know us quite well."

"Most European monarchs would just call us Saracens and would not bother to examine the differences between us."

Isaac smiled noncommittally.

In a broad sense, Islam can be divided into Sunni and Shia. In addition to the two major sects, there are also smaller sects such as Ibadi and Khariji. The Emir of Mzab in the southern border region is a believer of the Ibadi sect.

This division is very general. Sunnis and Shias are each divided into numerous factions and sects, and they will fight to the death over some minor religious differences.

"Creating one's own school is something only masters are qualified to do. You think too highly of me."

"I wiped out the most stubborn jihadists during my conquests, and many tribes were driven into the mountains. Those who remained were a group of cowards who were afraid of death and were honest and stupid."

Isaac said coldly without caring about the Grand Mufti's feelings.

"Now is the best time for religious reshaping. If you don't want to, I can replace you with someone else."

"So, how do you define this new genre?"

"Develop academics, encourage business, weaken religious concepts and jihadist ideas, and serve my rule."

In fact, Isaac had been thinking about this matter for a long time, and the idea of ​​reforming Islam was not groundless. Someone had already set a precedent.

Among the three Abrahamic religions, Islam was the latest to be formed and is the most open-minded. Many Islamic monarchs even have dual religious identities.

The first Khans of the Mongol Empire retained a considerable amount of Tengri shamanism beliefs while accepting Islam. The most recent King Timur was both the Great Sultan of the Muslims and the Great Khan of the Mongols.

The most outstanding among them was the Rum Sultanate. Baba Ishak, a Sufi scholar from the Komnenos family, even tried to integrate Islam and Christianity and achieved considerable success. The leader of the Rum Sultanate, Kayqubad I, had the dual identities of a Muslim and a Christian.

Neither Isaac nor the Grand Mufti in front of him has such ability, but it is still possible to make slight modifications to the Sunni doctrines, weaken their rebellious spirit, promote loyalty to the emperor and patriotism, and advocate specialization in academics and industry and commerce.

Even if it fails, it can mess up the Sunni religious ideas of the believers, making it easier for subsequent missionary activities.

"My cardinal is on the way. I still need to discuss the specific regulations with him."

"I will only give you one night. If you don't open the city and surrender tomorrow morning, I will burn Kairouan and you will become a sinner in the Islamic world."

Isaac waved his hand, signaling the guards to take the distraught Grand Mufti away.

……

On the morning of July 1456, 7, the gates of Kairouan were opened, and the Grand Mufti led the soldiers and civilians in the city to surrender and pledge allegiance to Isaac.

The next day, Cardinal Isidore hurried over and led some priests of the Greek Orthodox Church to participate in the religious negotiations hosted by Isaac.

In addition to the Greek Orthodox Church, other Christian churches such as the Armenian Apostolic Church and the Coptic Orthodox Church were also allowed to attend the hearings.

After ten days of quarreling and compromise, Isaac's first "Religious Decree" was officially released.

The decree stipulated that Greek Orthodoxy was the official religion of the Roman Empire, that the emperor and the heir to the throne must be Greek Orthodox Christians, and that the coronation ceremony of the Roman Empire must be presided over by the Patriarch of Constantinople.

The Grand Mufti founded the Kairouan sect in the holy city, stipulating that the Roman emperor and his legitimate successors are the only monarchs and all believers must swear allegiance to them until death.

Because of their previous usurpation, the followers of the Kairouan sect were required to pay double taxes, and every couple had to hand over their firstborn boy to the emperor, known as the blood tax, for a period of fifteen years.

In addition to the Greek Orthodox Church, the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Coptic Orthodox Church, the Syriac Church of the East and the Kairouan Sect are all legal churches in the Roman Empire, enjoying the right to preach within a specific scope and having their own seats in the Imperial Parliament.

The decree stipulates that all former Muslims must choose to convert to one of the legal religions. It is illegal to engage in Sunni religious activities without permission. Once discovered, they will be demoted to slavery.

In addition, Isaac organized industrialists and businessmen in coastal towns such as Carthage, and formed the Carthaginian Merchant Corps, modeled after the Akh Brotherhood of the Ottoman Empire, to guide industrial and commercial activities in the new territory.

Merchants are probably the group with the weakest religious consciousness. Their natural pursuit of profit makes it impossible for them to have pure faith. They are Isaac's best allies in the new territory.

One of Isaac's plans was to raise the status of merchants to counter religious forces.

As soon as the decree was issued, there was an uproar. The Sunni ulema in the new territories accused the Grand Mufti of betraying God and began to incite an uprising, but not many people responded.

Isaac ordered his army to attack everywhere, beheaded the rebel leaders in public, and demoted the rest to slavery, thus aborting the uprising.

Including the captives captured in the war, the number of slaves in Isaac's hands was close to 30,000, distributed in various cities, engaged in heavy work such as building fortresses.

On this basis, Isaac issued a call to places such as Surt and Cyrenaica, stating that all Christians could go to the new territories in the west. The imperial government would sell land and serfs at extremely low prices and cultivate the fertile coastal land.

From now on, serfdom will be the main agricultural model in Africa.

In the following months, Isaac traveled throughout Africa, suppressing uprisings, setting up administrative agencies, distributing land and serfs, and organizing autumn ploughing.

During this period, the turbulent situation in Africa gradually subsided, and the former Muslims who were unwilling to accept the Kairouan sect either fled westward and hid in the Atlas Mountains, or were captured as slaves and sold all over the world.

In just half a year, the Muslim population in the new territory was lost by one-third.

At the same time, a large number of Christians came from the East, bought serfs, cultivated the land, and filled the interest vacuum left after the population loss.

Isaac's new policy drew reference from the Ottoman Empire's dhimmy system, the Russian Tsarist Empire's serfdom, and the westward movement of the United States of America, and he used his absolute military force to ensure the smooth implementation of the policy.

At the end of 1456, Isaac, who had finally put an end to the chaos, withdrew his troops to the north and announced that the center of rule would be moved to Carthage. He allocated ducats from the funds obtained from the sale of slaves and the confiscation of Hafs' treasury to be used for the relocation and resettlement of administrative personnel and military families.

With nearly 20,000 loyal fans as his base, Isaac could sleep peacefully in the Carthaginian palace.

……

In the Balkan Mountains, a large army is advancing, with a large number of people and covering the entire mountain range.

Under the golden-red star-and-crescent flag, in the gorgeous tent, Mehmed II poked his head out.

The continuous battles and the gradually colder temperature made him feel a little uncomfortable, and he was forced to give up riding and lie down in the carriage instead.

Despite months of preparation, Mehmed II was still not satisfied. His opponent was a strong rival, not a fool like Grand Duke Durand who had high aspirations but low skills.

But there is no time left.

The war in North Africa has basically ended, and the young monarch, who is about the same age as him, will soon be able to return to the Balkans.

The defeat three years ago was still vivid in his mind. Mehmed II knew very well that if he could not completely defeat Hunyadi in the west, he would not be able to withdraw all his troops and attack Constantinople without distraction.

The Eastern Roman Empire was busy in North Africa, and the Kingdom of Hungary was in internal turmoil. This was his best chance and also his last chance.

If he failed to defeat Hunyadi this time, he might never be able to take Constantinople in his lifetime.

This time, Mehmed II once again gambled everything and summoned a large army, determined to teach those troublemakers in the Balkans a lesson.

"Where are you?"

Mehmed II asked.

"Your Majesty the Sultan, we have arrived in Belgrade!"

Volume 4: The Land of Sunset, End
Stay tuned for Volume 5: The Balkan Tiger

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(End of this chapter)