Jihad Tips

I am currently playing my first Muslim campaign - GA, Hard, High Almos - and progress can be seen in Pics and History thread.
I have secured the Iberian Peninsula and have just expanded into France. I took a couple of provinces, then retreated before the French counter attack as an opportunity to launch the 3 Jihad markers I had stored up. The Jihads all have at least 6 Gulams in plus some bits and bobs.
The question is - how do I make best use of the Jihads? - do I move them at a leasurely pace to gather troops?, any tips on quickly raising zeal in their path?, what about mercs? all comments gratefully recieved. Getting about 15- 18 units of gulams for free is not to be sniffed at - but I am greedy!!!
One final point - I raised these in Cordoba - would Algeria have been better? - more provinces to travel trough etc.:2thumbsup:

If the zeal along the route is low, the long route is pointless. To raise the zeal you need imams. Which means you need to build a grand mosque. At present your best approach would be to create the jihad, add extra troops to it, and get it to the target as quickly as possible. When the Jihad gains the province and is a success your faction leader will gain influence and piety. Also you'll be paying the upkeep of all of those units that were in the Jihad, which is worth bearing in mind. If it fails, the faction leader loses influence and the loyalty of the generals. When this occurs civil war is a real possibility. Sending two or more jihads at the same province is a tactic commonly referred to as "jihad spamming". You can quite easily create a lot of jihad markers and send them to recapture 1 province, boosting your leader's influence massively in the process. This is a very cheesy tactic and best avoided, as it can make the game unchallenging and boring.

Caravel's already covered the basics, so I will simply emphasize one of the points he made: Imams, imams, imams--you can never have too many. ~D

Station them everywhere along your possible Jihad path(s), and whip the populace into a religious frenzy! They're as effective as Inquisitors in this regard, but without the nasty side effect of burning everyone in sight for heresy.

As for mercenaries, I don't bother with them. I personally refrain from hiring mercs for an Islamic "struggle for faith", as doing so just feels wrong to me. I go with whatever units the Jihad gives me, and then add however many regular troops as I see fit.