Kurdish Empire

An idea where the Kurds rose to dominate the Middle East instead of the Arabs.

Starting in the mid 5th century, two Kurdish Governors, one in the Eastern Roman Empire, the other in the the Sassanian Empire, started to plot together. The two started to conquer fellow governors in a very Feudal fashion, and eventually by 480, the two Governors were able declare independence from their respective empires, and waged war against for their independence, where they won due to the Sassanians being distracted in a war in their East, and Kurds were able to defeat the Byzantines.

Upon the peace, the Kurdish Empire was ruled jointly, the way Rome was suppose to be ruled, from the two Governors (Now Kings) ruling in Mosul in the Palace of Twins, although both Kings had their own personal capitals in different parts of the empire.

The Empire was ruled this way for 200 years, growing slowly, and the two Kings always agreed to help each other, no matter their personal issues, thus keeping the empire from descending into civil war.

But in 711, the King of the East, Sivan, received a vision from a God he called the Zranbrazer, which he said was the same God of the Christians and Jews. The Zranbrazer told King Sivan that he needed to unite the Kurdish empire under one man, the Zranbrazapash, and to bring the world back on the true path. Sivan agreed, and he marched on Mosul, capturing the King of the West and executing him.

He was able under his lifetime, doubling the size of the Kurdish Empire, from the Crimea to Sind and from Tajikistan to Tripoli, severely weakening the the Byzantine Empire and eradicating any remnants of the Sassanians. But along with being an expert conqueror, he was also a superb administrator and quite tolerant. He was the one that welcomed the Jews and Phoenicians to their old home, and gave rights to the old religions, but still convincing many of them to convert. In Arabia, the entire populace converted to Zranbrazism, only people in the inner regions kept their old religion, but even then it was few. Same with the Khazars.

Sivan's son, Zranbrazapash Dilsad, took the throne in 752, but was less tolerant then his father. He divided the provinces specifically to pit cultures against each other (with the exception of the Kurds of course). He himself did nothing to the people, but rather had the governors of the provinces be the bad guys, and often their would be revolts against the governors, but not the Zranbrazapash.

Their position in Khazaria put them in direct conflict with the Nomads, thus Dilsad would be forced to start building the Kurd Fort, or the Great Wall of Khazaria, keeping the Hordes from entering Khazaria.

In other news, because the Arabs and Justinian never rose, the Vandals and Visigoths never fell, and were able to keep a foothold over the former Roman Empire, the Visigoth King being declared Roman Emperor in the same year that Sivan marched on Mosul.