u/SijilmasanGoldTrader

I have confirmed that this only happens when touching any of the 'crusade target weights', I just don't understand why this is happening. I remember being able to change them years ago without any issue. Also, certain mods in the workshop make changes to crusade target weights and they work fine, but if I then go and any changes to the landed titles file in that same mod (even just a colour change), save it, and load it, this exact glitch will happen again. i just don’t understand what’s going on. Very weird.

In honour of Silk & Silver, I would like to present to you the fascinating story of a man who, out of anyone in history, may have lived THE prototypical CK3 life. From religious and cultural conversions, to a life of commerce and adventure, to employment at the courts of great kings, to founding new cities, to being sentenced to death and escaping prison, and to ruling a realm of his own before losing it all. He is Abu Abdullah Muhammed ibn Abdal-Rahman ibn al-Baعbaع al-Saʾigh al-Andalusi. If you play with the Muslim Enhancements mod, ibn al-Baعbaع emerges as the ruler of Palermo shortly after the 1066 start date, following the Zirid Emir of Ifriqiya's inevitable loss in his 'Sicilian intervention' war against Robert Guiscard (a unique M.E starting date war for historical flavour).

This is the mod which introduced me to him. I was quite intrigued to find that he had a Sephardic grandfather when looking though his family tree and this prompted me to look deeper into his life story, and what an incredible story it is. I will be drawing primarily from the Cairo Geniza documents, particularly the Judaeo-Arabic correspondence of Mediterranean merchants who personally dealt with Ibn al-Baعbaع, as well as medieval Arabic sources such as Ibn al-Athir and Yaqut al-Hamawi, and the Latin Norman accounts of writers such as Geoffrey Malaterra.

The 'Al-Ṣāʾigh' part of his name is important. Literally it means a jeweller or goldsmith, and in his case it appears to have originated as the occupation or designation of an ancestor rather than necessarily describing his own profession. The historian Moshe Gil concluded that Ibn al-Baعbaع's grandfather was the jeweller. 'Al-Andalusi' is also significant. His family apparently originated in al-Andalus rather than Sicily. Moshe Gil argued from the Geniza evidence that Ibn al-Baعbaع belonged to a family originally from al-Andalus and that his grandfather was probably a Jew who converted to Islam. The Princeton Geniza Project summaries Gil's conclusion by saying that the family were probably Jewish converts to Islam and may have migrated from al-Andalus to Sicily. Gil goes further and identifies the grandfather as Khalaf the jeweller, describing him as a Spanish/Andalusi Jew who converted to Islam.

Before he was a ruler, he was a shipping merchant. He belonged to the wealthy commercial maritime elite of the 11th-century Mediterranean. The Cairo Geniza contains dozens of references to him and his ships. Princeton currently associates around 30 documents with him. His commercial network connected places include Palermo, Mazara, Ifriqiya, Alexandria, Egypt/Fustaṭ, with connections extending into the wider Mediterranean trading system. By about 1055, a letter from Palermo already refers to the ship of Ibn al-Baعbaع. That letter concerns the movement of Egyptian flax into Palermo and Sicilian silk and lead back toward Egypt. By 1056 he apparently possessed multiple ships. A letter written from Palermo on 18 August 1056 explicitly refers to the numerous ships of Abu Abdalluh Ibn al-Baعbaع .

Geniza documents connected with his vessels mention things such as: silk flax/linen, almonds, pepper, cinnamon, money and gold/dinars letters commercial documents various textiles and other merchandise. For example, a 1060 letter records shelled almonds and lasin silk being shipped from Sicily aboard Ibn al-Baعbaع's vessel, while pepper was being traded in the opposite commercial network. Another 1065 document mentions cinnamon, silk and linen in the commercial context surrounding his ship. He also transported other people's capital and merchandise. An account from 1065 records merchandise belonging to a Jewish judge being carried by Ibn al-Baعbaع .

Ibn al-Baعbaع had close business relations with the Jewish merchant network surrounding Nahray Ibn Nissim, one of the best-documented merchants of the Cairo Geniza. He carried their goods, money, letters and financial instructions. A June 1056 letter even refers to a letter being sent directly to Ibn al-Baعbaع while discussing financial instruments and a pouch containing 83 and a half dinars. The evidence indicates that Ibn al-Baعbaع himself travelled around the Mediterranean. Around 1066, Abraham Ibn Faraḥ wrote from Alexandria and specifically mentioned that Ibn al-Baعbaع had visited him in Alexandria. Another letter records him travelling overland to Mazara, presumably from Palermo.

According to Ibn al-Athir’s al-Kamil fi al-Taʾrikh, during the 1060s, Ibn al-Baعbaع entered the service Tamim ibn al-Muʿizz the Emir of Ifriqiya. North Africa was divided between two related Ṣanhajan dynasties, the Zirids of Ifriqiya ruled by Tamim and the Hammadids ruled by al-Nasir ibn ʿAlnas. The two were major rivals. According to Ibn al-Athir, Tamim's advisers recommended Ibn al-Baعbaع for an important diplomatic mission precisely because he was an outsider who had benefited greatly from Tamim's patronage. The source quotes an advisor of the Emir as saying: 'this is a foreign man whom you have treated well and who has acquired wealth and property from you.' Tamim consequently gave him money, animals, servants/slaves and sent him as his representative to al-Nasir ibn ʿAlnas to negotiate a reconciliation.

On one journey to al-Nasir's court, Ibn al-Baعbaع passed through the site of what became Bejaïa. At the time it was not yet the great medieval city it would become. According to the Arabic account, he examined the location and immediately recognised its strategic possibilities. He believed it would make for an excellent coastal trading city with a harbour and naval shipyard. When he reached al-Nasir, he proposed developing the site. The detailed account says Ibn al-Baعbaع actually showed al-Nasir where to place the city, harbour, dar al-sinaʿa and palace. Al-Nasir immediately ordered construction to begin. Thus Ibn al-Baعbaع can reasonably be regarded as one of the people directly responsible for the establishment of medieval Bejaïa as a major urban and naval centre.

Then he betrayed Tamim. Ibn al-Baعbaع was not only advising al-Nasir about urban planning, but apparently also decided to defect. According to the Arabic account, he privately told al-Nasir about weaknesses within Tamim's regime and proposed helping him seize Ifriqiya. He allegedly promised: "I will move to you with my family and administer your state." Al-Nasir was sufficiently impressed that he promised Ibn al-Baعbaع the vizierate if he defected. He also rewarded him with 1000 dinars, four concubines and four mules before sending him back.

When Ibn al-Baعbaع returned to Mahdia, Tamim immediately became suspicious because the construction of Bejaïa had begun directly after his mission. Tamim asked him about it. Ibn al-Baʿbāʿ denied knowing anything saying, "My lord, I know nothing about it. I am a stranger." Tamim did not believe him and secretly placed Ibn al-Baعbaع under surveillance. Meanwhile Ibn al-Baعbaع attempted to arrange his escape from Mahdia and continued corresponding secretly with al-Nasir. Unfortunately for him, one of al-Nasir's own ministers was actually sympathetic to Tamim. The minister intercepted and copied Ibn al-Baعbaع's correspondence and forwarded the material to Tamim. Ibn al-Baعbaع was summoned before Tamim. While approaching the palace, a messenger arrived carrying letters from al-Nasir's allies.

When Ibn al-Baعbaع saw Tamim, the letters fell from his hands. One was addressed from al-Nasir, and Tamim picked it up and read it. Ibn al-Baʿbāʿ reportedly pleaded: "al-ʿafwa ya mawlay, al-'afwa" ("Mercy my lord, mercy!") Tamim responded: "la ʿafa Allahu ʿank" ("May God not pardon you") before ordeing for him to be executed. According to Ibn al-Athir, Ibn al-Baʿbāʿ was beheaded and his corpse thrown into the water. However, Moshe Gil demonstrated that the execution story cannot be correct because contemporary documents continue to record Ibn al-Baعbaع afterwards. Gil concludes that Ibn al-Baعbaع escaped Tamim and fled to Egypt. A Geniza letter of 25 August 1068 reports a rumour that Ibn al-Baعbaع had reached Alexandria aboard a ghurab, apparently having escaped from Tamim.

Within around a year following this unlikely escape, Ibn al-Baعbaع became the ruler of Palermo. Princeton places his rise to power in the late 1060s. By this point Muslim Sicily had fragmented badly. The old Kalbid emirate had collapsed into competing local powers. Zirid intervention had failed. Norman conquest was advancing steadily across the island. Palermo needed leadership and the man they chose for the task was Ibn al-Baعbaع. His power seems to have rested upon his wealth, sizeable arsenal of ships, commercial connections, local urban elites, military resources and perhaps Fatimid backing. Gil even suggested that the Jewish community may have helped finance his regime under nominal Fatimid authority.

His relationship with Palermo's Jews continued after he became ruler is quite interesting. One of his associates was Zakkar Ibn Ammar. Ibn al-Baعbaع appointed him nagid, essentially leader of Palermo's Jewish community. Princeton associates this event with Ibn al-Baعbaع's rise to power. Zakkar was apparently not merely a communal religious representative. He was involved in supplying Ibn al-Baعbaع and his army. This indicates a close political-economic relationship between Ibn al-Baعbaع's regime and Palermo's Jewish merchant elite, probably oweing to Ibn al-Baعbaع's Jewish family background. By the late 1060s, the Normans under Robert Guiscard and Roger of Hauteville were closing in on Palermo. It was an existential crisis for the city’s leadership. Palermo was besieged in 1071–72. The Norman operation was both on land and at sea. After several months, the city fell in January 1072.

Sibt Ibn al-Jawzi in in Mirʾat al-Zaman makes a shocking accusation. According to him, the ruler of Egypt demanded a sum of money that he was owed by Ibn al-Baعbaع. Unable to satisfy this demand, Ibn al-Baعbaع supposedly contacted the Normans, opened Palermo's gates to them, and was then killed by them on the spot. The Latin Norman accounts however make no mention of this. According to Geoffrey Malaterra, Robert Guiscard deliberately attacked a more weakly defended part of Palermo. Norman troops used ladders to scale the fortifications, got inside, and opened the gates themselves so that the rest of their force could enter. After the Normans penetrated this section of Palermo, the remaining Palermans realised that further resistance was hopeless. Malaterra says that representatives of the city then approached Robert and negotiated surrender. Whatever the truth is, after the Norman capture of Palermo in January 1072, Ibn al-Baعbaع essentially vanishes from the historical record.

Seriously, who on earth wants to stare at all these deformed old farts all over their family tree? When people remember those who have died, they mostly use pictures of them from when they were young and in their prime! Currently I never want to open the family tree anymore. It's repulsive Also, removing 'infirm' type traits would be nice too.