As-Sayf wal-Qalam
Rule al-Andalus through letters that ride the roads, news that arrives according to what time permits, and a legitimacy earned according to correct application of Shari'ah.
A full atlas of the Iberian peninsula and al-Maghrib, with true terrain and authentic settlements.
A living parchment atlas. Real geography, terrain-effects, authentic distances, and the day turning by the true position of the sun.
There is no omniscient map. Every report & information you know rode the roads to reach you, age-stamped, and carried by someone. Either a trusted ʿAdl, a Fasiq, or even a Dhimmi, in whatever form they may come. Be it a group of merchants, an army, a royal courier, or even Tawatur, all are judged by Shar'i rules.
The Information Game · Isnād
At the Desk you write letters by hand, to an Amir, a Wazir, a frontier Qaʾid, a 'Alim, or to whoever it may be. You choose who carries them, either the swift Barīd post, a slow envoy, a caravan, or a messenger who moves only by night. Each with their own realistic speed and reliability.
The Desk · Letter-Borne Orders
You are a ruler over a land with many beliefs and peoples. You rule over the Arab nobility, Berber & Saqaliba troops, Muwalladūn and Dhimmī quarters, and groups of Madhahib and sects. Their opinions on you weigh your legitimacy by its own measure.
See the world by Madhhab, people, terrain, disease, and loyalty. The map is a dozen maps.
Diverse islamic world · diverse opinions
Sulṭah, ʿAdāla, Qiyāda, Authority, Justice, Command. Not stats you assign, but a ledger of real deeds that decay with time, where a loss weighs twice a gain, and a slow build collapses fast.
Deed Ledgers · Perceived vs Actual
A Hijri clock and real solar astronomy drive the world. The Islamic day begins at Maghrib, a faint Adhan sounds at Fajr and Maghrib, the moon sighting is reported, and the dark is not decoration, instead night degrades what your scouts can see and how fast your couriers can travel.
Prayer-Time World · Hijri Clock
Built from true elevation data, not stylised hills. Ṭulayṭula, Balansiya, Mārida, Qurṭuba, each settlement and rivers named in their original Andalusi Arabic. Distances are measured in Farsakh and Mīl, the way a man of the age would reckon the road.
Hand-Atlas CartographyMany deep systems, all feeding one another through a single network of roads, rivers, sea-lanes and relay stations.
Reports are late, partial, and sometimes wrong. Intelligence has an Isnād and a reliability. Every possible information in the game depends on this core system. And historic men have a Tarjamah (biography) integrated.
Battles depend on numbers, morale, terrain, discipline, religious valour, the Qa'id's strategy, the weather, season, and dozens of more factors. The resolve of war is fully Shar'i-based. With authentic resolve choices, and precise spoil division.
Diplomacy depends on the chosen Madhhab, with felt consequences from opposing groups. The game does not praise difference or false opinions, it merely shows how religious sects would historically act and shape the Caliphate.
Legitimacy is who swore to you and how firmly their loyalty is towards you, based on your application of Shar'i rule, successful governance, and firm grip on warfare and defense.
The communal wealth guarded by the Caliphate, and a living economy. Settlement by settlement, quarters and suburbs, harvest and famine, goods and floating prices, Zakah and spoils, all matter.
Appoint officials with ʿAhd mandates. They are simulated men who may exceed their orders, embezzle, build a power base, or obey as commanded.
Disease spreads along the same graph as trade and news, worsened by overcrowding, answered by a Diwan responsible for its extermination.
There are no images of living beings whatsoever, in any part of the game in totality.
Arab, Berber and Muwallad do not love one another by default. Old loyalties, blood ties and rivalries shape who answers your call and who waits to see you fall.
In the year 316, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān III casts off the old title and declares himself Khalīfa, the Commander of the Faithful in al-Andalus. The Caliphate of Qurṭuba is born at its zenith, and already the cracks that will become the Fitnah are spreading.
You have a hundred years. Hold the Khilāfah together, or watch it shatter into the Ta'ifah states.
Be among the first called to the Majlis. Leave your name, and if you wish, write an idea you would see in the game.
You are on the list. When the campaign opens, word will reach you, inshāʾAllāh, by a faster courier than the game allows.
As-Sayf wal-Qalam is built slowly and precisely, outside the studios, with every Shar'i information being carefully and accurately researched manually by devoted students of the Deen of Allah. If the work has earned your trust, a contribution carries it further. The sources researched, the systems written, and the long road still ahead, whatever you give, small or great, is received with gratitude and is a Sadaqah that will benefit the Muslims who want to experience a new form of entertainment that combines between seeking knowledge and recreation.
A Sadaqah toward its completion, so that we can continue our scrutinous efforts and leave out falsehood.