Truk: Difference between revisions

In the year 1251 an Islamic mystic by the name of [[Sayed Ali Qumi]] arrived by accident on the islands with a few companions after being shipwrecked in a storm. Qumi proceeded to successfully spread Islam to the people of Imarli by recounting the martial prowess of the [[Oduniyyad Caliphate|Oduniyyad]] caliphs As the people of Truk did not have alcohol or pigs, forbbiding their consumption was not an obstacle to conversion. The King of Truk of the day adopted the islamic first name of Akhmat Bagusid to signal his new piety and began to style himself as emir, in imitation of Muslim rulers under Oduniyyad suzerainty. Under the Bagusids, the damage done to the islands during the Jaws of Hunger was undone and a prosperous merchantile society was built up as Truk began building bigger ships capable of ocean exploration. Imarli was known during this period as the Jewel under the Sun and the palaces and masjids of the Bagusids were adorned with fine carpets, mother of pearl and exotic woods and silks. Truk's relative geographical isolation in this early period allowed it to expand at its leisure to nearby islands such as [[Rapa Rapa]], taken under the Emir's protection in 1265. Traditional notions of clan loyalty and kingly veneration were useful tools in the consolidation of the Bagusids and their power; internal upheavals were a rare thing and existential crises only came with the arrival of foreign vessels on the [[Polynesian Sea]].