The Conflict
Prelude
After the First Crusade, the Church of the Flame recognized places in Tajir, namely Miraca, to be holy places of the Flame. A long standing agreement was made between the Sultanate and the Church of the Flame to allow pilgrims to arrive in Tajir and go on pilgrimage to the holy sites. This agreement is centuries old, however in the year 2338EC, the Tajir Grand Sultan at the time, one Raaid al-Iman, would introduce a tax to foreign pilgrims. This angered the Church, but didn't result in any direct action until the incident of the AL-Zaisha Massacre, in where an apparent dispute between pilgrims and some nomads just outside the city, led to the pilgrims being slaughtered or enslaved. Seeing that the Sultan of Al-Zaisha not only didn't do anything to punish the nomads, but also purchased some of the slaves from said nomads, led to the Church having a great public speech in where they called for vengeance for those killed. Thus the Sixth Crusade was launched.
The Crusader forces would engage in naval battles off the coast of Tajir, before eventually making landfall a Al Hasamah. From there they would spread along the lands and fight from there.
The Tajiran's meanwhile actually were fairly unified at this time and so put up staunch resistance.
Fairly similar to the First Crusade
The fighting was intense, with many sieges and daring field battles fought by both sides. While msot of the fighting was fairly standard for a crusade, with the Holy City of Miraca being taken a year into the fighting, what happened next was not standard as the Tajir would become scattered, but then reorganized under one Saalih al-Jamil, who would prove to be an extremely competent commander. While the Great Sultan was dead, the brave Tajiran fighters united under Saalih and would remarkably, gain many victories under his name. His most famous battle was outside of Miraca itself, where he with a numerically inferior force routed a massive crusader army. After this he would lay siege to Miraca, where eventually after a long time he agreed to massive ransom agreement where he let many of the foreign citizens stay, earning him much respect from friend and foe alike. After this he would lead many more battles that eventually led to the crusader forces to route and return back to Nilush, winning the day for Tajir.
Though a defeat for the Church of the Flame, they would manage to salvage this by parlaying with the newly crowned Great Sultan Saalih al-Jamil, who would guarentee that such taxes on foreign pilgrims would not be levied, and this would ease the sting of defeat for the Church of the Flame.
This battle served to prove Tajir's ability to be a force to be reckoned with and to this day all recognize the power of Tajir's mighty militaries.
