Sufyan

Born: 1790s. [details?]
Died: 1850s. [details?]

Long ago, before I started this blog, I was writing Andalusada mostly on paper. At some point, I realized that I'd need to know something about the succession of the UCNA. So I drew up a very tenuous outline of the dynasty.

There are a few names that I haven't mentioned yet (Yusuf II and Yusuf III, and some others), but all the key names of the succession survive only in the four-word tag of the UCNA's brief history: "the six weak caliphs." All the names but one: Sufyan.

A few nights ago, after I got out my GURPS book again, I started writing him up, based on what I knew about backbiting and so forth.

Disadvantages: Lecherous [-15]; Sense of Duty (his father) [-2]; Sense of Duty (his children) [-5].
Quirks: Bad with names; Wears his heart on his sleeve; Prudish in public.

Quite a character, no? And this is his story.

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.