Caliph Yusuf I

Born: August 22, 1772.
Died: 1839.
Position: Caliph of the UCNA.
Preceded by: None (position created.)
Succeeded by: Ilyas [who?]

The fall of Umayyad Seville was a big moment in Andalusada, because it collapsed the Moorish world. The great Mohammedan threat to the West shattered into pieces, never to recover. Out of it rose a number of nations. Above them all, ultimately, rose the Umayyad Caliphate in New Andalusia.

The fact that the UCNA is recognized as the legitimate heir of Seville is due primarily to one man, Yusuf I. This is his story.

Yusuf I's early life

Note: most of this section should probably be part of its own separate page about the Yusufids.

After some botched politics, Yusuf's father [who?] makes khalwa - i.e. "goes to seek enlightenment in a Mexican zawiya while his power base gets purged." Given that the purges could be all too real and deadly in late Seville, Abu Yusuf thoughtfully takes most of his close family members with him, and arrives in the New World in the late 1740s or so. Because France-Outremer had just passed to Moorish control, and (more importantly) the Liturgical War had just been crushed, the body count was high enough that there were plenty of openings to position himself in.

• Abu Yusuf sends his son to Cuba* for a classical education, under the (bitter, hardline, and quite jihadi) scholars of the Masjid al-Fath. The scholars aren't terribly sympathetic; this is when Yusuf is introduced to the dissident political thought that circulated the Moorish world during the twilight of imperial Seville.

1787-[when?]: The fall of Seville and its aftermath

At least a dozen taifas form in the remnants of the Moorish New World when the Caliphate falls. Most of them are vaguely Mahdist, paying lip service to the exiled child caliph who's powerless to help them in their power struggles. Once it becomes clear that the direct-line Umayyads are powerless, Yusuf's family (with no plausible succession claims, but still part of the House of Umayya) starts making a bid for power all their own.

• This is also when Yusuf gets married to a Cuban princess [who?] of some notable family [details?], providing him with family ties that will serve him well later on.
• At some point in the mid-1790s [when?], it also provides him with a specific family tie that causes him no end of grief: his son Sufyan.
• Yusuf's initial empire-building is mostly in the Caribbean, for the perfectly simple reason that he's relying heavily on his Cuban in-laws: toppling a few emirates, stuff like that.
• His mainland expansion, meanwhile, is based on the kinship ties of his siblings and half-siblings, among whom he's managed to claim primacy. This dual basis is why Cuban-Andalusian relationships are so complex ever afterwards. [details?]
• Unlike the Mahdist claimants, Yusuf does tip his hat to the currents of Moorish radicalism he grew up with. He also flips them the bird: while he likes the idea of constitutions and voting, he doesn't like the idea of democracy or majority rule (which is why the UCNA settles on a rather idiosyncratic electoral system.) At heart the man's a Bonapartist, not a Legitimist, and the distinction between the two causes a lot of stress for him - not liberal enough for the reformers, not reactionary enough for the elites.

At some point, shortly after the First Mahdist War ends with most of the direct succession dead, a number of Mahdists turn to Yusuf and offer their allegiance if he claims the Mahdist succession himself. Probably more than any military defeat, what dooms their cause is when he (tied up on the mainland as it is) says no.

1805-1815: the first ten years

On April 5th, 1805, Yusuf promulgates the Charter of the Caliphate of New Andalusia. It consists of the Corsairs of Caribby, second-generation expats with stronger power bases than his own, first-gen expats waving bloody shirts and hoping he'll lead them back into Seville, and loads of Frenchmen to round it all out. His territories sprawl over more places than he can possibly extend his authority, which combine to be much less than the sum of their parts, and which need more finances than he really has to spend on them.

All in all, a pretty good start.

• Around this point, Yusuf I becomes polygynous, marrying a widowed khassa expat [who?]. he also makes arrangements to marry the old khassa families off to his siblings, establishing a continuity of legitimacy among the expatriates (and bringing their family assets into reach.)
• Another early, important friend that he makes isn't with a khassa elite: it's with Abu Musa Cordovero [who?], a Sephardi expat with ties to European finance. Eventually the patriarch gets put in charge of national finance, transforming the Cordovero family into the Cordovero dynasty.
• Early on, he winds up bribing the aboriginal nations to work with him, for the simple reason that they're cheaper than the French. During the later wars for continental supremacy, Yusuf winds up backing them as puppet states, which sets in motion the relatively long process of drawing them into the Moorish sphere.

In 1811, Yusuf's wife [who?] dies.

• On his mother's death, Yusuf's son Sufyan crosses to Port-Royal. There he discovers that not only does he have an extended family, but that they have nothing in common with him. It goes downhill from there.

In 1813, Abu Musa dies from cholera. His 21-year-old son Musa is left to finish up work his father left incomplete. He does a good enough job that he gets conscripted to fill his father's shoes.

1815-1830: Establishing the nation

Yusuf's other problem is that his state is surrounded by a number of more organized, more densely populated states, most of which try to assert their territorial claims into what he considers his.

The southern border: Early on, his biggest rival is Mexico, historically the most populated part of the Moorish New World. In a terribly ironic turn of events, the Güntherite plantations had given rise to a formidable crop of military talent that kicked a lot of Umayyad ass during the Mexican Revolt.

• For most of Yusuf's early career, he makes a point of trying to conduct his negotiations not through Oskar Sansinger (one of os Baltos) but through his wife, Teresa Maria. He's quite willing to buy a fair bit of peace, which is usually read as both a demonstration of her saintliness and of his (very real) vulnerability at the time.
• Those years of peace provide the UCNA with a convenient source of warm bodies, in the form of waves of Moros and Saracenos displaced by Reclamation.

Nordpolitik: At this point in time, most of the continent was a mess of conflicting land claims, often bolstered by dubiously accurate maps. Yusuf's monumental, game-changing act was a grand survey of the territories formally ceded by France nearly a century prior; it was an endeavor as big as the Lewis and Clark expedition, and as significant to the UCNA's history.

• In particular, some of the very earliest reports from the expedition were used to start planning what would later become New Toleto, future capital of the UCNA.

In 1825, two very big things happen:

• A major Mississippi flood devastates Port-Royal. Yusuf survives it, of course, but it's a tipping point. Prior to this, he was floating the idea of moving the capital; after seeing the flood damage, he was determined to.
• An ocean away, the Second Mahdist War began. Some Andalusians went across the waters to join it. Yusuf didn't, and sent some vaguely-worded platitudinous statements instead. It was a good move; late in the evening of April 5th, 1826, al-Mahdi was killed in Almeria.

1830-1839: the last ten years

By the 1830s, Yusuf is getting old, and starts wrapping up his career...

• At this point in time, uncertain about his successors, Yusuf also starts organizing his fairly motley retinue into the organized Caliphal Household.
• In 1833, the Grand Princess dies, and Mexico passes to "Oscar I" as the regent for his young son; this marks a notable turn away from os Baltos.
• Yusuf seriously gears up for war. When the Prussian Clique revolts, the UCNA quite happily throws its support behind Axamalla as both a buffer state and dumping ground for the UCNA's own republicans.

The legacy of Yusuf I

Yusuf I was the House of Umayya's first great leader; even in life he was hailed, at home and abroad, as the best since al-Mujadid 150 years earlier. After his death, sober historians demoted al-Mujadid, and fifty years of weak caliphs have highlighted just how remarkable Yusuf I really was. As of 1930, approaching the centennial of his death, historians rank him in loftier company, alongside Abd al-Rahman I, first Umayyad ruler of al-Andalus so many centuries ago.

• Yusuf I establishes Moorish scientific culture. If the UCNA is an Islamic Empire of Brazil, Yusuf I is an Islamic Dom Pedro II.
• Establishing the Cordovero dynasty. Don Musa is a formidable political player in his own right, and establishing 

And still more to come, because this work is still in progress.