So... has anyone else found the strength of the Abbasid completely game-ruining?
I basically stopped playing Charlemagne after my first 4 games on it (one of which I brought to the very end) didn't see a single decadence revolt or successful independence revolt in the entire Caliphate. Also, the Caliphate inevitably crushed the Shias, steamrolled all the way across Northern Africa and the Byzantine Empire, and in one particularly memorable and horrifying case occupy central India as well.
So I moved on to the Old Gods, thinking that with more Muslim states the Caliphate would be weakened. So I start my first Republic game... and am horrified to realize the Abbasids have somehow ate every muslim state between Damascus and Rome and are about to come a knocking for my territories in Sicily.
It's just so bogus. They never, ever seem to suffer any permanent setbacks. They crush almost all other muslim polities (typically the only ones to escape are in Spain). Sunni winds up with 100% moral authority basically all the time since they almost never loose holy wars. The Shia get crushed every time. The Ilkhanate never makes significant headway.
I know that in its glory days, the Abbasid Caliphate was the single most powerful, stable and advanced country on Earth. But this is just too much.