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Chapter 128: Of Unrest in Persia, Parbod and the Guardians of Fire
Demise of the Ilkhans
The Ilkhanate, ruling over a vast empire stretching from Khyber Pass in the east to the banks of the Eastern Mediterranean in the west has become overstretched to such a degree, that effective governance of their empire has become a pipe-dream. A variant of the feudal system which is in place may be effective for a bold and capable ruler, however in case of a weak khan, the Armenian, Turkic and Lurish clans are almost impossible to be brought into the fold.
The early 14th century has seen a decade without a competent or undisputed ruler, with the succession crisis resulting in a minor being put on the throne, and a regency council being established. This decade of absence of exercise of political authority saw various vassals of the Ilkhanate assert their independence in a gradual, quiet manner. Many outer parts of the empire were thus quick to reassert their own independence – from Anatolia in the west through Caucasus in the north to Khorasan in the east.
Once prince Taraqay (1) came of age he sought to restore his rule over the entirety of the Ilkhanate rather energetically. His aim of bringing the various vassals and warlords under his fold appears to be rather distant, as his authority is respected largely only in a region stretching from the Araxes Valley to Hormuz, on the eastern foothills of the Zagros and inland roughly to Rayy and Ispahan. Taraqay´s authority in the east, in Herat was defied, however by the Qartid dynasty, nominally their vassals, ruling over Herat. Thus Taraqay set out east to bring down the rebellious warlords. What he did not know was an imminent danger arising in the south.
Qartids and Pakhtuns
The eastern end of the Iranian Plateau has come under the rule of two major dynasties. Based in Herat and controlling Khorasan was the Qartid dynasty, an Iranian-descended dynasty having embraced Denawari Manichaeism, while Makran and Zabulistan were ruled by the Bettani dynasty.
The Qartids were known to be fielding a formidable cavalry, largely composed of both local and Naiman-descended Qaraunas clans, as well as heavy pikemen. Their geographic position has taught them to become some of the hardiest fighters in Asia, and now the Qartid prince Pattokh was ready to turn away any of the Ilkhan´s attempted invasion forces.
The Qartids are remembered throughout Khorasan for having dotted the landscape with magnificent palaces and gardens. For quite some time, they have been ruling their own little fiefdom with little or no interference from the Ilkhans, and commands from the capital had been regularly ignored. However, in 1339, Ilkhan Taraqay demanded the tax revenue and bannermen from Pattokh. The Qartid prince, while formally acknowledging his suzerainty, did not fulfil his promises. Unlike his predecessors, Taraqay did not buy this and set march upon Herat.
The Bettani are a Pakhtun dynasty, ruling over both Makran and Zabulistan. However, actual control over different parts of this corner of the world is held firmly by the chiefs of the individual clans, who recognize some level of Bettani control over them. Each of the clans , based in a fortified location called a qalat , enjoys considerable autonomy.
The city of Jaguda, the seat of the Bettani dynasty, was an outstanding city in contrast to generally the rural character of their realm. Many architectural monuments, in forms of palace complexes or Manichean temples can be witnessed even today.
A rather mysterious population are the Brahui peoples in the south. Their origin remains a mystery, as well as their history throughout the centuries – however by the 14th centuries their presence is noted, as “to the east of Makran there are clans who speak a tongue different from all the tongues of Iran and India, unrelated to Persian or Sanskrit.” The geographer went on to say that these people were Buddhists.
While Buddhism certainly was a thing in the more remote and mountainous parts of both the Baloch lands and in the mountains of Hindukush, the coastal regions and the broad valley of Zabulistan were Manichean in religion, with traces of the original sun-cult still present among the Pakhtun people. The popular manifestation of Manichean religion generally exhibited many Indian influences, while folk Buddhism in the mountains has also greatly diverged from what would have been considered standard in India.
The Guardians of Fire and the Rebellion of Parbod
The Guardians of the Fire were an underground organization, fighting the Ilkhanate regime in a low-level insurgency as one would label it using modern terms. The Guardians of Fire have been existing roughly since mid-13th century, and were operating largely in south-eastern Persia, making Carmania a difficult province to administer. While numerous retaliatory raids against Persian villages were made by Turkic horsemen, the Guardians of Fire were gaining more and more sympathy amongst the Persian villagers.
Their aim was to kick out the foreign horse-lords once and for all from Persia, and re-establish a true Persian Shahdom, something that has not been present in the country sicne the arrival of the Seljuqs. The Guardians of Fire were using a golden cauldron of fire upon a red background, with a scimitar and bow and arrow beneath it.
The man leading the Guardians of Fire in the 1340s was a native from Kerman named Parbod. He has gradually risen up the ranks and command structure of his organization and with the previous commander Mehrbad dead, Parbod decided that the moment has come to spark the flames of open rebellion. After all, he realized that the time to rise from the shadows into the open has come. Khan Taraqay has set campaign eastwards with almost all of his force, and the other warlords, fearing Taraqay may rob them of their autonomy were willing to do little to support him.
In 1341, two days before the feat of Sadeh, the mid-winter festival of Zoroastrianism, which is connected symbolically with lighting the fire to scare of the winter, Parbod and his twenty companions enter the city of Kerman to “light the flames of this land bring about the flame of hope to the land of Persia”. There, in Kerman, thus Parbod declared his rebellion and called for all Persians to flock to his banner.
Unsurprisingly, information was already given to some in the city guard who were known to be trusted, and those were the one present at the ceremony who swore their oath to Parbod, while those deemed as unlikely to be won over were already locked up in the city dungeon.
In spring, on the festival of Khordad Sal (3), Parbod enters the city of Yazd, leading already a host of five thousand men. Taraqay, amidst a field campaign in Khorasan has to return, and deal with this revolt, before it comes out of control.
The Qartids have followed the retreating force of Taraqay, looting Semnan, while Taraqay retreated to Rayy to regroup his forces, leaving his troops in the city and taking command of fresh Rajji (4) troops. He set march upon Ispahan, which he hoped to use as his base from where he would crush this revolting pretender.
He was surprised on march, as Parbod and his men have set up a trap, and once having finished that days march and setting up camp, the exhausted men were assaulted by a surprise attack, resulting in severe casualties for the Ilkhanate troops. Taraqay then sought to Hamadan and Maragheh.
After the victory at Ispahan, Parbod turned southwards to the province of Pars, the ancient heartland of the Achaemenid Dynasty. This province had been held by the Qashqai´s a Turkic nomadic clan, which had arrived already during the conquests of the Seljuqs. Twice, the Qashqais had defeated his forces, ultimately, however, Parbod prevailed. After defeating the Qashqai forces a second time, the Qashqai bey surrendered and swore fealty to Parbod, lying down in prostration. The Qashqai nomads were sent to guard the passes of Zagros and defend the southwest borders of the domains of Parbod, who turned northwards, back to the cities beneath the Elborz
Mazandaran, the Garden of Iran
Squeezed between the Caspian Sea and the Elborz Mountains, this narrow strip of land full of lush vegetation has always been a bastion of the Zoroastrian religion. Even under the Ilkhanate, it has never been fully subdued, as the local marzpans had surrendered to the Ilkhans.
The Bavandids ruling over Taberestan were also patiently waiting for Taraqay to make some major mistakes. Marzpan Rostam VI. , spahbed of the north, has been waiting for the right moment to cross the Elborz passes himself and proclaim himself Shah of Persia. The defeat at Ispahan was just the time. Rostam had Zanjan, Qazvin, Rayy and Goman (5) besieged. Each of the cities, especially Rayy, had a large garrison, and their inhabitants, while not very fond of the Ilkhans, weren’t sympathetic to the cause of Rostam either. Eventually, all but Rayy surrendered.
A Clash of Shahs
However the siege of Rayy had to be interrupted, as Rostam VI. saw the armies of Parbod approach from the south. He sent his nephew, Piroz, to bring him the offer of becoming his darigbed, practically equivalent to the Rhomaic kouroplates and the Frankish majordomo, and Parbod´s heir the title of the Spahbed of the South (6). Such an offer can be described as a generous attempt to unite the two forces. However, Parbod did not agree to this offer and called Rostam to acknowledge him as the shah, and offering the Bavandids the same titles they intended to offer him.
Adarbaigan
The Ilkhans had fled to the plains of Maragheh and Urmia, the region of their capital. These regions had already had a Turkic majority by the year 1300, and has thus become the last vestige of the Ilkhanate, as all of their fiefdoms and bannermen have broken away. Nevertheless, the Ilkhanids continued to field a formidable cavalry force, and are determined to regain their lost territories.
Armenia
In the Armenian Highlands, we can see the various petty lords come together and choose the new Armenian king, Sempad of Taron, marking the rise of the Taronid dynasty in Armenia. The Armenians nobles recognized the need to act united in face of serious threats, yet they wanted to keep a say in the royal decisions. It was the Declaration of Van that established a form of constitutional monarchy, defining the prerogatives of the king, while also declaring the rights and privileges of the nobles and bishops.
Pastoral Tribes of the Zagros Mountains
Some scholars claim that Lurish culture best reflects the nomadic traditions of the ancient Iranian tribes, with a high authority of the tribal chieftains. Typical Lurish products remain wool, cloth and weaven carpets, which was the traditional domain of the women, while the men were busy herding the flock in the mountainous terrain.
As the authority of the Ilkhans was collapsing, bands of Lurish bandits frequently attacked and robbed caravans crossing the Zagros Mountains. However, gradually loot was scarcer, as fewer merchants would dare to cross the perilous passes, and soon the Lurs decided that robbing caravans was not the way to go, as caravans would stop passing through their territory, going rather through Urmia or Georgia. This has also made a contribution to the decline in Mesopotamia.
Later, the Lurish chiefs offered safe passage through the Zagros in exchange for tolls, with companies of Lurish men accompanying the caravans across the mountains. This sort of protection racket enacted upon the Silk Road was something that was a thorn in the eye of the merchantsin both Persia and Mesopotamia – however with Persia proper in a state of civil war, it was left solely on the beys in Mesopotamia to deal with this issue.
Mesopotamia
The 14th-century Mesopotamia was very different from the land it was a few centuries earlier. The proportion of urban dwellers had shrunken considerably, and the overwhelming majority of Mesopotamians were living in the countryside.
The decline of urban culture meant firstly the shrinking of the Jewish population in Nehardea. Some Jews have bought land in the vicinity of the Euphrates River and became petty landowners, while others moved out of Mesopotamia altogether.
The Gnostic Mandean community living in small towns and villages of Maisan and Characene have retreated to the safety of the marshlands and to the more inaccessible parts of the country.
Northern Mesopotamia had come to be ruled by the Jalayrid Dynasty, sitting at Karka d Beth Slokh (7), while central Mesopotamia remained as a church land since the Donations of Toghrul, as the demesne of the Catholicos of Qtespon. Southern Mesopotamia was in the hands of the Qepasian dynasty, ruled by the heirs of a certain Cephas of Kaskar, of Assyrian origin.
The Jalayrid dynasty were outraged as trade was declining. Not that they as a Turkic dynasty were specifically concerned by the worries and complaints of the townsfolk. However, what they understood was that trade and manufacturing went hand in hand. And that meant more taxes. The Jalayrids sent numerous punitive expeditions against the Lurs, however most of them ended in defeat, as the Lurish tribesmen were in home territory, and were able to use ambush tactics.
The Turkish beys of Anatolia
In the central Anatalian Plateau, we can see the rise of the Eretnids, a dynasty of Uyghur Turkic origin that seized power to the east of the Halys River (8), while its western banks were domains to the Salghurid dynasty (9)
The Eretnids were quick to embrace the Paulician faith, and have declared it to be their religion of choice. Embracing Paulicianism was an attempt to win over an important part of their Armenian subjects. The Eretnids were rather fast in assimilating into the culture of their subjects, with a lasting legacy of bringing the elite cavalry traditions to that part of the world.
The Salghurid dynasty had established their capital in Ikonium, they named Konya. The steppe environment of Central Anatolia has allowed the Turkic peoples to retain their traditional way of life, making assimilation not happen, unlike in the Eretnid state. Within the Salghurid beylik, it were rather the Armenians who assimilate into the Turkic society, not the other way round, as was the case in the Eretnid lands.
The Ilkhanate, ruling over a vast empire stretching from Khyber Pass in the east to the banks of the Eastern Mediterranean in the west has become overstretched to such a degree, that effective governance of their empire has become a pipe-dream. A variant of the feudal system which is in place may be effective for a bold and capable ruler, however in case of a weak khan, the Armenian, Turkic and Lurish clans are almost impossible to be brought into the fold.
The early 14th century has seen a decade without a competent or undisputed ruler, with the succession crisis resulting in a minor being put on the throne, and a regency council being established. This decade of absence of exercise of political authority saw various vassals of the Ilkhanate assert their independence in a gradual, quiet manner. Many outer parts of the empire were thus quick to reassert their own independence – from Anatolia in the west through Caucasus in the north to Khorasan in the east.
Once prince Taraqay (1) came of age he sought to restore his rule over the entirety of the Ilkhanate rather energetically. His aim of bringing the various vassals and warlords under his fold appears to be rather distant, as his authority is respected largely only in a region stretching from the Araxes Valley to Hormuz, on the eastern foothills of the Zagros and inland roughly to Rayy and Ispahan. Taraqay´s authority in the east, in Herat was defied, however by the Qartid dynasty, nominally their vassals, ruling over Herat. Thus Taraqay set out east to bring down the rebellious warlords. What he did not know was an imminent danger arising in the south.
Qartids and Pakhtuns
The eastern end of the Iranian Plateau has come under the rule of two major dynasties. Based in Herat and controlling Khorasan was the Qartid dynasty, an Iranian-descended dynasty having embraced Denawari Manichaeism, while Makran and Zabulistan were ruled by the Bettani dynasty.
View attachment 570590
Religion in mid-14th century Iranian Plateau
Religion in mid-14th century Iranian Plateau
The Qartids were known to be fielding a formidable cavalry, largely composed of both local and Naiman-descended Qaraunas clans, as well as heavy pikemen. Their geographic position has taught them to become some of the hardiest fighters in Asia, and now the Qartid prince Pattokh was ready to turn away any of the Ilkhan´s attempted invasion forces.
The Qartids are remembered throughout Khorasan for having dotted the landscape with magnificent palaces and gardens. For quite some time, they have been ruling their own little fiefdom with little or no interference from the Ilkhans, and commands from the capital had been regularly ignored. However, in 1339, Ilkhan Taraqay demanded the tax revenue and bannermen from Pattokh. The Qartid prince, while formally acknowledging his suzerainty, did not fulfil his promises. Unlike his predecessors, Taraqay did not buy this and set march upon Herat.
The Bettani are a Pakhtun dynasty, ruling over both Makran and Zabulistan. However, actual control over different parts of this corner of the world is held firmly by the chiefs of the individual clans, who recognize some level of Bettani control over them. Each of the clans , based in a fortified location called a qalat , enjoys considerable autonomy.
View attachment 570593
The city of Jaguda, on a later painting
The city of Jaguda, on a later painting
The city of Jaguda, the seat of the Bettani dynasty, was an outstanding city in contrast to generally the rural character of their realm. Many architectural monuments, in forms of palace complexes or Manichean temples can be witnessed even today.
A rather mysterious population are the Brahui peoples in the south. Their origin remains a mystery, as well as their history throughout the centuries – however by the 14th centuries their presence is noted, as “to the east of Makran there are clans who speak a tongue different from all the tongues of Iran and India, unrelated to Persian or Sanskrit.” The geographer went on to say that these people were Buddhists.
View attachment 570588
Languages of the Iranian Plateau in the mid-14th century
Languages of the Iranian Plateau in the mid-14th century
While Buddhism certainly was a thing in the more remote and mountainous parts of both the Baloch lands and in the mountains of Hindukush, the coastal regions and the broad valley of Zabulistan were Manichean in religion, with traces of the original sun-cult still present among the Pakhtun people. The popular manifestation of Manichean religion generally exhibited many Indian influences, while folk Buddhism in the mountains has also greatly diverged from what would have been considered standard in India.
The Guardians of Fire and the Rebellion of Parbod
The Guardians of the Fire were an underground organization, fighting the Ilkhanate regime in a low-level insurgency as one would label it using modern terms. The Guardians of Fire have been existing roughly since mid-13th century, and were operating largely in south-eastern Persia, making Carmania a difficult province to administer. While numerous retaliatory raids against Persian villages were made by Turkic horsemen, the Guardians of Fire were gaining more and more sympathy amongst the Persian villagers.
View attachment 570594
The cauldron of fire, an important liturgical object in Zoroastrianism has become the symbol of the Persian resistance fighters
The cauldron of fire, an important liturgical object in Zoroastrianism has become the symbol of the Persian resistance fighters
Their aim was to kick out the foreign horse-lords once and for all from Persia, and re-establish a true Persian Shahdom, something that has not been present in the country sicne the arrival of the Seljuqs. The Guardians of Fire were using a golden cauldron of fire upon a red background, with a scimitar and bow and arrow beneath it.
The man leading the Guardians of Fire in the 1340s was a native from Kerman named Parbod. He has gradually risen up the ranks and command structure of his organization and with the previous commander Mehrbad dead, Parbod decided that the moment has come to spark the flames of open rebellion. After all, he realized that the time to rise from the shadows into the open has come. Khan Taraqay has set campaign eastwards with almost all of his force, and the other warlords, fearing Taraqay may rob them of their autonomy were willing to do little to support him.
View attachment 570595
The festival of Sadeh is a mid-winter festival in Zoroastrianism tied to lighting of fire. This festival was the opportunity to announce the beginning of the revolt
The festival of Sadeh is a mid-winter festival in Zoroastrianism tied to lighting of fire. This festival was the opportunity to announce the beginning of the revolt
In 1341, two days before the feat of Sadeh, the mid-winter festival of Zoroastrianism, which is connected symbolically with lighting the fire to scare of the winter, Parbod and his twenty companions enter the city of Kerman to “light the flames of this land bring about the flame of hope to the land of Persia”. There, in Kerman, thus Parbod declared his rebellion and called for all Persians to flock to his banner.
Unsurprisingly, information was already given to some in the city guard who were known to be trusted, and those were the one present at the ceremony who swore their oath to Parbod, while those deemed as unlikely to be won over were already locked up in the city dungeon.
In spring, on the festival of Khordad Sal (3), Parbod enters the city of Yazd, leading already a host of five thousand men. Taraqay, amidst a field campaign in Khorasan has to return, and deal with this revolt, before it comes out of control.
The Qartids have followed the retreating force of Taraqay, looting Semnan, while Taraqay retreated to Rayy to regroup his forces, leaving his troops in the city and taking command of fresh Rajji (4) troops. He set march upon Ispahan, which he hoped to use as his base from where he would crush this revolting pretender.
He was surprised on march, as Parbod and his men have set up a trap, and once having finished that days march and setting up camp, the exhausted men were assaulted by a surprise attack, resulting in severe casualties for the Ilkhanate troops. Taraqay then sought to Hamadan and Maragheh.
After the victory at Ispahan, Parbod turned southwards to the province of Pars, the ancient heartland of the Achaemenid Dynasty. This province had been held by the Qashqai´s a Turkic nomadic clan, which had arrived already during the conquests of the Seljuqs. Twice, the Qashqais had defeated his forces, ultimately, however, Parbod prevailed. After defeating the Qashqai forces a second time, the Qashqai bey surrendered and swore fealty to Parbod, lying down in prostration. The Qashqai nomads were sent to guard the passes of Zagros and defend the southwest borders of the domains of Parbod, who turned northwards, back to the cities beneath the Elborz
Mazandaran, the Garden of Iran
Squeezed between the Caspian Sea and the Elborz Mountains, this narrow strip of land full of lush vegetation has always been a bastion of the Zoroastrian religion. Even under the Ilkhanate, it has never been fully subdued, as the local marzpans had surrendered to the Ilkhans.
View attachment 570596
Tabarestan is covered in lush vegetation
Tabarestan is covered in lush vegetation
The Bavandids ruling over Taberestan were also patiently waiting for Taraqay to make some major mistakes. Marzpan Rostam VI. , spahbed of the north, has been waiting for the right moment to cross the Elborz passes himself and proclaim himself Shah of Persia. The defeat at Ispahan was just the time. Rostam had Zanjan, Qazvin, Rayy and Goman (5) besieged. Each of the cities, especially Rayy, had a large garrison, and their inhabitants, while not very fond of the Ilkhans, weren’t sympathetic to the cause of Rostam either. Eventually, all but Rayy surrendered.
A Clash of Shahs
However the siege of Rayy had to be interrupted, as Rostam VI. saw the armies of Parbod approach from the south. He sent his nephew, Piroz, to bring him the offer of becoming his darigbed, practically equivalent to the Rhomaic kouroplates and the Frankish majordomo, and Parbod´s heir the title of the Spahbed of the South (6). Such an offer can be described as a generous attempt to unite the two forces. However, Parbod did not agree to this offer and called Rostam to acknowledge him as the shah, and offering the Bavandids the same titles they intended to offer him.
Adarbaigan
The Ilkhans had fled to the plains of Maragheh and Urmia, the region of their capital. These regions had already had a Turkic majority by the year 1300, and has thus become the last vestige of the Ilkhanate, as all of their fiefdoms and bannermen have broken away. Nevertheless, the Ilkhanids continued to field a formidable cavalry force, and are determined to regain their lost territories.
Armenia
In the Armenian Highlands, we can see the various petty lords come together and choose the new Armenian king, Sempad of Taron, marking the rise of the Taronid dynasty in Armenia. The Armenians nobles recognized the need to act united in face of serious threats, yet they wanted to keep a say in the royal decisions. It was the Declaration of Van that established a form of constitutional monarchy, defining the prerogatives of the king, while also declaring the rights and privileges of the nobles and bishops.
Pastoral Tribes of the Zagros Mountains
View attachment 570592
A political map of mid-14th century Iranian plateau. Note that Syria and Qatriye is not updated
The Lurish tribes living in the Zagros mountains retreated to their own isolation in the mountains, seeking to be out of the way during the havock brought to the Iranian Plateau in this period. This attitude of waiting the storm out has not unheard of . While much of the country was suffering in wars, the Lurish tribes spread northwest and southeast along the Zagros mountains, repopulating abandoned valley and herding goats, sheep, horses and cattle.A political map of mid-14th century Iranian plateau. Note that Syria and Qatriye is not updated
Some scholars claim that Lurish culture best reflects the nomadic traditions of the ancient Iranian tribes, with a high authority of the tribal chieftains. Typical Lurish products remain wool, cloth and weaven carpets, which was the traditional domain of the women, while the men were busy herding the flock in the mountainous terrain.
As the authority of the Ilkhans was collapsing, bands of Lurish bandits frequently attacked and robbed caravans crossing the Zagros Mountains. However, gradually loot was scarcer, as fewer merchants would dare to cross the perilous passes, and soon the Lurs decided that robbing caravans was not the way to go, as caravans would stop passing through their territory, going rather through Urmia or Georgia. This has also made a contribution to the decline in Mesopotamia.
Later, the Lurish chiefs offered safe passage through the Zagros in exchange for tolls, with companies of Lurish men accompanying the caravans across the mountains. This sort of protection racket enacted upon the Silk Road was something that was a thorn in the eye of the merchantsin both Persia and Mesopotamia – however with Persia proper in a state of civil war, it was left solely on the beys in Mesopotamia to deal with this issue.
Mesopotamia
The 14th-century Mesopotamia was very different from the land it was a few centuries earlier. The proportion of urban dwellers had shrunken considerably, and the overwhelming majority of Mesopotamians were living in the countryside.
The decline of urban culture meant firstly the shrinking of the Jewish population in Nehardea. Some Jews have bought land in the vicinity of the Euphrates River and became petty landowners, while others moved out of Mesopotamia altogether.
The Gnostic Mandean community living in small towns and villages of Maisan and Characene have retreated to the safety of the marshlands and to the more inaccessible parts of the country.
Northern Mesopotamia had come to be ruled by the Jalayrid Dynasty, sitting at Karka d Beth Slokh (7), while central Mesopotamia remained as a church land since the Donations of Toghrul, as the demesne of the Catholicos of Qtespon. Southern Mesopotamia was in the hands of the Qepasian dynasty, ruled by the heirs of a certain Cephas of Kaskar, of Assyrian origin.
The Jalayrid dynasty were outraged as trade was declining. Not that they as a Turkic dynasty were specifically concerned by the worries and complaints of the townsfolk. However, what they understood was that trade and manufacturing went hand in hand. And that meant more taxes. The Jalayrids sent numerous punitive expeditions against the Lurs, however most of them ended in defeat, as the Lurish tribesmen were in home territory, and were able to use ambush tactics.
The Turkish beys of Anatolia
In the central Anatalian Plateau, we can see the rise of the Eretnids, a dynasty of Uyghur Turkic origin that seized power to the east of the Halys River (8), while its western banks were domains to the Salghurid dynasty (9)
The Eretnids were quick to embrace the Paulician faith, and have declared it to be their religion of choice. Embracing Paulicianism was an attempt to win over an important part of their Armenian subjects. The Eretnids were rather fast in assimilating into the culture of their subjects, with a lasting legacy of bringing the elite cavalry traditions to that part of the world.
The Salghurid dynasty had established their capital in Ikonium, they named Konya. The steppe environment of Central Anatolia has allowed the Turkic peoples to retain their traditional way of life, making assimilation not happen, unlike in the Eretnid state. Within the Salghurid beylik, it were rather the Armenians who assimilate into the Turkic society, not the other way round, as was the case in the Eretnid lands.
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- Apart from the name, this man is not based on any historical figure.
- Ghazni
- March 26th. This festival is known to commemorate the birthday of prophet Zoroaster
- In the previous Iranian update, we have learnt that a separate Rajji identity has developed in the cities along the Silk Road – mostly Christians speaking a dialect of Persian with strong Turkic, Khorasani, and Aramaic influences.
- The city of Qom, as it was known in Old Persian
- Kirkuk
- The title of the Spahbed may be equated to the magister militum in the Roman Empire. In the late Sassanid empire, there were four Spahbeds, each responsible for a different cardinal direction. The Bavandid dynasty in Tabarestan has been passing down the title of the Spahbed for generations, even when there was now Shahanshah
- The Kizilirmak
- The Karamanids. The word Karamanid dodid not sound propoer to me, but I have found that they were from the Salghur clan of the Oghuz Turks.
- Tomislav Addai
- Word Count: 2.7k