#and tyen following that first Crusade i had to do Something about the Catholics

[loki-zen]

Imagining a 1200s where instead of crusading, Christan rulers from further and further north and west in Europe are sending the Empress of Byzantium (who is also their Head of Faith) letters in Arabic because they're so very proud of having learned the language of Civilised People.

Not only has there has not been an attempted crusade against the Muslims basically ever -

(by the time they started coming, I already controlled Jerusalem and was Head of State of a Christian but Islamic Syncreticist faith considered Hostile by Catholics. The game text basically seemed to think I was the Muslims - referring to them as "infidels" and such. But when I Mended the Schism* the Catholics became pretty toothless, and since I Destroyed the Papacy I've basically not heard from them at all.)

- but what with all the offers to be my vassal I keep getting as the nearby major world power who is famously tolerant of Muslims, and who respects Mohammad as one of God's prophets without feeling the need to take any stance on the identity of his rightful successor, I think at this point I may also have meaningfully reduced the number of inter-Muslim Jihads occurring as well.

The Caliph in Mecca is my vassal! (And she's not even the only Head of Faith that is my vassal - I made the Ecumenical Matriarch independent cuz I was sick of her whining, but I also got the head of Yazidism.)

*an action that requires controlling all 5 Christian holy sites and seems to cause the bulk of the world's Christians outside the Holy Roman Empire to convert to your Faith. Egypt has since regained independence, taking Alexandria with it.