Saturday, May 12, 2012

The Sufyanid families

Sufyan b. Yusuf was never going to be the heir of his father. He had some kind of mental illness, and while it was only very mild the medical science of the day left no good way to treat it except alcohol. He was a drunk, and often a brooding one. His politics perpetually clashed with his father's, by turns liberal and Mahdist, and he had neither his father's sharp mind nor his golden tongue. For a nascent state that wanted stability afterwards, Sufyan simply wasn't a good role model.

But the biggest reason Sufyan was never going to be Sufyan I was the succession crisis that would follow him, because Sufyan was a real sex machine. Over the course of his life, Sufyan had eight (or possibly nine) wives, four or five mistresses, a few assorted bastard children, and one pair of identical twins that he adopted simply because he wouldn't be surprised if he did father them before they were abandoned at his doorstep.

There is one thing that could be said in his defense, though: Sufyan ibn Yusuf took his duties seriously. Almost none of his children had much quality time with him, but he did make a point of arranging a proper education for them, and through some string-pulling saw most of them into service posts within midcentury New Andalusia. From this came the several families that bear his name.

The Banu Sufyan

Sufyan's legitimate children (and a few others, like those twins) were raised within the house of his family, and were acculturated Umayyads, speaking Arabic and Moorish at home. These descendants are collectively and commonly the Banu Sufyan, and they represent the only collateral line to the Yusufid succession.

In the event of the Yusufids dying out in the male line, the next caliph of the UCNA would be elected from amongst Sufyan's descendants - an astonishing number of whom are public figures. Especially because (in the past) a Sufyanid [who?] has been involved in conspiracy against the caliph [details?], paying attention to the dozens of squabbling Sufyanids is an important part of New Andalusian politics.

The Sufianiz families

Not all of Sufyan's children were raised Moorish, though. At least one of Sufyan's wives [who?] was a Farrellite widower, for instance, and he adopted her children on marrying her. He also didn't acknowledge all the bastards that were claimed to be his, and most of them were raised by their mothers in the faith of their mothers. These families, for the most part, refer to themselves as Sufianiz (or some equivalent spelling), and represent the unique Christian branches of the Umayyad family tree.
  • The Sufyaniz Farrellites: While they were passed over historically, the Sufianiz Farrellites did go into politics. (Their success forced the Farrellite factions that didn't agree with them into the arms of the Believers.)

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