Sultanate of Tenochtitlan (World of Sultans)

The Sultanate of Tenochtitlan (Spanish: Sultanato de Tenochtitlan) (Almajiado: سعمفشىشفخ يث فثىخؤافهفمشى) (Arabic: سلطنة تينوختيتلان) was a Muslim kingdom in Central America that covered the areas of Lake Texcoco in the Valley of Mexico near the Isthmus between Central and South America. The sultanate was found by Spanish-Mexican converts to Islam that fought against the Spanish conquerers and against their own Catholic counterparts for control of Mexico City and Tenochtitlan. This particular sultanate was the only Muslim kingdom in Latin America and the only other in the Hispanic World other than the Moorish rule in Iberia.

Governer's Conversion to Islam
The colonial governer of Tenochtitlan had close ties with many Spanish soldiers descended from Reconquista veterans and those of Morisco women. Many of his servants were Morisco woman who told him about the religion of Islam and even showed him Arabic texts in secret; the guy already had in the process of staging a rebellion against the Spanish Crown. In the historical city of Tenochtitlan at the site of the ancient temples, the man and his son fell sick until he said, "Allahu-akbar", a phrase tought to him by his Morisco servants and was healed. He changed his name to Saladin Cruz, and further preached Islam to the population. He also married one of his Morisco servants and reverted her to Islam.

War Against Spain
Saladin's preaching of Islam alarmed Spanish soldiers in the region; having just defeated the Moors of Spain. Saladin Cruz had them executed before they could report to the Spanish Crown. Saladin Cruz now knew he could no longer wait, and hastily-prepared an army. Catholic priests fled the Tenochtitlan region to Mexico City, where they reported the new Muslim converts. The Viceroyality of New Spain stationed in Mexico City sent soldiers to oust Saladin out of power, this attempted military coup failed. Saladin Cruz then issued a declaration of soverignty of the Tenochtitlan region and sent militias to hunt down Spanish vicoroys in Tenochtitlan. He later sealed his victory when he conquered Mexico City from Spanish armies and enthroned himself as Sultan of Tenochtitlan. He also converted a large Catholic church in Mexico City, where he converted many practicing Catholics to Islam. After conquering Mexico City, Saladin Cruz made the journey and pilgrimage to Mecca and recorded his visit in the Anales de Saladino. He also made other visits such as Damascus and Mount Lebanon. Muslim historians regard Saladin Cruz's visit to Mecca and establishment of a sultanate from such a tightly-held Spanish Catholic territory with no foreign support as "one of the greatest achievements and miracles from the Muslim World".

Cruz Dynasty
Saladin Cruz and Almira Cruz bore a son and named him Amir Cruz, to be the future sultan of Tenochtitlan. Although Saladin Cruz managed to carve out the borders of his kingdom, he failed to regulate an economy for it. It was Amir Cruz who had to stablize the economies of the new sultanate. Cruz introduced the new silver fils, since Central America was abundant in silver. Jamalul Cruz, the third sultan of the Cruz Dynasty handled social matters within the state. Saladin Cruz was successful in recovering the Arabic language of the Moriscos (which the Spanish worked to eliminate after the Reconquista), and thought his son to speak it along with Spanish. It is Jamalul Cruz who spread the Arabic language, and strengthened its use among the upper classes of the caste system. Many of the native Nahuatl Christians were never taught Arabic except for few who worked in the upper classes, mostly as servants. Jamalul Cruz married a native Nahuatl, and never converted her to Islam, but their son Tapayaxi ibn Cruz was a Muslim. Jamalul also made Nahuatl an official language within the sultanate and renamed Tenochtitlan to Yathrib, the historical name of the city of Medina in Saudi Arabia. As the latter sultan, Tapayaxi ibn Cruz had a much decisive and harsh appraoch in the kingdom and changed his last name to "al-Barrakah", although his reign as sultan was far from a miracle. Sultan Tapayaxi wanted to "undo" and "reverse" the Reconquista. He tried to eliminate the Spanish and Latin influnece in par to how Spain had worked to eliminate all Arabic from the Christianized Moriscos. He forced many to Nahuatl people to convert to Islam and attend mosque prayers every single day. He also destroyed many Catholic churches in Mexico City, and renamed it Alawest which literally means "middle" in Arabic (الأوسط). His son, Huitztecol ibn Mansur rebelled against him and overthrew him from the throne to become the sultan. Ibn Mansur married a Mexican mestizo from what is now Texas. Huitztecol ibn Mansur tried to fix the mess that Tapayaxa had, and provided refugee homes for Christians and allowed them to practice their religious freely.

Dissolution and Mexican Cession
When the Mexican Revolution started, Mohamad ibn Mansur had become the sultan. He battled with Mexican revolutionary forces led by Miguel Hidalgo for control of Mexico City, and was defeated. The sultan was forced to move the state's capital back to Yathrib. The revolutionaries later pushed through the sultanate and battled Mansur's armies in Yathrib/Tenochtitlan, which he won but led another failed invasion of Mexico City although nearly victorious. Hidalgo's armies managed to push Mansur's forcies into Tenochtitlan once more, but was defeated and again unable to sieze the new capital of the sultanate. Mansur later met with Miguel Hidalgo in Mexico City to work out an agreement between the two. Hidalgo wanted Mansur to cede to Mexico and Mansur didn't want another Reconquista-era treatment of Muslims. Therefore Mansur agreed to help the revolutionaries defeat Spain and cede his sultanate to the new nation that would become Mexico as long as Tenochtitlan's Muslim autonomy remained. Ibn Mansur ceded Tenochtitlan to the new country of Mexico and became it's state governer and many of Mexico City's Muslims migrated to Tenochtitltan. Ibn Mansur's title as sultan generally remained socially accepted, even the highest ranking officials of Mexico including Hidalgo himself referred to him as "Sultan Mansur" and even Hidalgo himself referred to him as a sultan.

Religion
Islam was the state religion, and was practiced by 95% of Tenochtitlan's population, the Sunni section of Islam. After Saladin Cruz converted he and his family to Islam, he worked to convert most of the recognizable population to Islam. Most of the sultanate's majority Muslims were of non-native descent, much were of partial or pure Spanish descent or "criollos" and Arab descent, who were the Moriscos and Moros from Spain. The native "indios", or Indians remained Roman Catholics since they never enountered Islam. It is however, under the reign of Jamalul Cruz and Tapayaxa al-Barakah that many Nahuas and other natives encountered Islam and adopted it or if not, adopted practices, such as the non-consumption of pork. These natives (who did convert) followed a form of Folk Islam as they did Folk Catholicism, as Animism and ancient practices remained predominant within the native populations and oftenly held practices and rites that the other Sunni Muslims saw as "shirk".

Language
Spanish remained the predominant language in the sultanate, as it was in the entire Mexican mainland. During Spain's Reconquista period, the Spanish Crown had worked to eliminate the Arabic language in the kingdom and force all Moriscos to adopt to the Christian Spanish and abandon Arabic. Thanks to Saladin Cruz's Morisco servants who still remembered much Arabic, it was widely spoken among the Cruz family. During the reign of Jamalul Cruz, the Arabic language became spoken among the entire upper classes where it remained their language; the Nahautl Catholics were actually never taught Arabic with the exception of few servants to the upper class Muslim converts. Jamalul Cruz also reintroduced the Aljamiado script, the Arabic script used to the write the Spanish language that was banned by the Spanish Crown during the post-Reconquista era. Cruz also worked with Nahuatl Muslim converts to write the Nahuatl in the Aljamiado script, in case they be Muslim. Cruz also made Nahuatl an official language in the state. During Sultan Tapayaxa's rule, the Spanish language faced the endangerment of elimination as he tried to eliminate all Spanish and/or Christianity in the sultanate until his son Huitztecol ibn Mansur overthrew him and became the sultan.