Arab Republic (Fidem Pacis)

The Arab Republic was a confederation of Arab clans and tribes established to govern the Arabian peninsula after the downfall of the Umayyad Caliphate.

Background
After the death of the Prophet Muhammad, the leadership of the Islamic community was entrusted to his cousin and son-in-law, Ali ibn Abu Talib. However, Ali's rule was soon threatened by the governor of Bahrain, Muawiyah ibn Abu Sufyan, who had distinguished himself in the war against the Persians and thereby gained much support among many clans. Ali was assassinated in 661, and Muawiyah seized power by force, thus establishing the Umayyad Caliphate. Ali's eldest son and heir, Hassan, acepted the situation in order to avoid more bloodshed, but was seemingly poisoned when it became clear that Muawiyah intended to pass the caliphate on to his own son Yazid.

This act ignited much anger against the unjust rule of the Umayyads. When Muawiyah died in 680, Ali's second son Hussein refused to pledge allegiance to Yazid and instead fled to Kufa, in Roman Mesopotamia, to gather support. He was however intercepted and attacked en route at a place called Karbala, where Hussein and almost all his family were executed in cold blood.

When the news reached the wider world there was outrage among devout Muslims everywhere. King Germa Safar of Axum called for a jihad to topple the Umayyads, joined by the Emperor Constantine IV and by the remaining supporters of the family of Ali. In 681 the Axumite army landed in Yemen and began marching north to Mecca, while a small Roman contingent crossed into the northern border regions where Ali had always had much support. Within weeks all Arabia was in open revolt, and Yazid and his court had been forced to flee to his family's old stronghold in Bahrain, where he thought himself untouchable.

However, in November of that year, a small Roman special forces unit infiltrated Yazid's citadel and abducted him without any of his guards realising. In January Yazid was publically tried and executed in the main square of Mecca, thus bringing an end to the Umayyad dynasty.

It was in the interests of everyone to keep Arabia united. The ideal solution would have been to install Hussein's sole remaining son, Ali al-Asghar, as caliph, but unfortunately he was still an infant at the time. It was decided therefore to create the Arab Republic to rule Arabia until al-Asghar came of age...