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Chapter 130: Unification of Persia and Rise of the Turkomans
Unification of Persia
Thus, we have to rival claimants to the crown of Persia: Rostam VI. Bavandid, controlling Mazandaran and the cities along the Silk Road and Parbod, leading the insurgents controlling Karmania in the south. The two men could not be more different: Rostam can claim descent by a bloodline lasting for centuries, tracing his descent to the noble houses of the Sassanid Empire. He is a skilled ruler, well-educated in diplomacy and courtly manners.
Parbod, on the other hand has made it up the ladder of the ranks of the secret organization called the Guardians of Fire. He was of humble birth, and has risen up due to his strategic talent and organization skills. Motivated by religious zeal and ardent nationalist fervour, it is easy to imagine that a Persia ruled by Parbod would become a Persia that would be fervent in terms of religion, a Persia that would rather close itself to the outside world.
The two leaders refuse to make concessions to one another, and each claims to be the rightful Shah of Persia himself, making the other the ultimate rival. Rostam has survived three attempts of assassination plotted by the Guardians of Fire. This was not to be tolerated. Parbod was to be removed, as well as his closest counsellors. After that, the remaining insurgents will be quick to flock to his banner, and stop posing trouble, as he would have fulfilled all the goals of the insurgency anyway.
The small party sent out by Rostam to murder Parbod has failed as well, mainly due to the secretive and suspicious nature of the Guardians of Fire. Rostam in times of need, sought alliance with the Pattokh, ruling in Herat, and the Lurish tribesmen in the Zagros. Even the Taraqay, the Ilkhan considered Rostam to be less of a threat than Parbod, and thus did not attack the Bavandid realm from the west.
View attachment 577164
14th century Persian warrior
The encounter between the two rival forces happened near Dizijan (1). The battle of Dizijan resulted in roughly five thousand dead on both sides, with the Bavandid cataphracts annihilating much of Parbod´s light infantry, before being effectively countered by the pikemen. While Bavandid forces were better armed, Parbod ´s troops were composed largely of poorly-armed, but more mobile skirmishers. Some of these skirmishers have attacked the position of Rostam himself, who was severely injured in the battle. His regalia were seized by Parbod, who continued his march northwards. There, however he found himself facing a determined enemy, barricaded in the cities of Rayy, Zanjan, Qazvin and Goman. The city watches and the militias were composed to a great extent of Christian Rajjis, determined to defend their homes from the fire-worshipping zealots.
Parbod suffered a defeat outside the city of Rayy, where his forces met with the Qartid army, before being attacked by the city watch from behind. Parbod and his most loyal followers managed to escape, and in the autumn of 1347 he returns to Sepahan, which is declared as his capital. Regrouping his forces, in the springtime he makes peace with the Lurish clans and attacks the Bavandids from the west, conquering Zanjan and Qazvin. The third battle of the Persian civil war takes place outside of Karaj (2). In this battle, the Bavandid forces are ultimately defeated, being sandwiched from three sides by the armies commanded by Parbod. Following this victory, the city of Rayy is besieged, with many inhabitants fleeing eastwards on the road to Semnan and to the Qartid domains once they saw Parbod´s forces approaching.
After two weeks, the archbishop of Rajj along with the city prefect agreed to surrender the city, open the gates and put ten wagons full of treasures in front of the gates as loot, as to prevent full looting and destruction of the city. While such measures did help prevent major damages, chroniclers still did report some minor incidents.
The fall of Rajj meant a factual unification of the Persian heartland, with Parbod becoming Shah. Continuing with the march eastwards, Parbod seized the city of Semnan from the Qartids, thus establishing the Dasht-e-Kevir Desert as a frontier between his realm and the Qartids.
Persian Nation-Building
Parbod has reigned over a unified Persia for ten years, until his death in 1358. He sought to reign peacefully until the next generation of recruits would grow up, to launch further campaigns to push the borders further in all directions. Before that, he however sought to build an effective body of bureaucracy and administration.
Until now, the only functioning organization with a hierarchical command structure was the secret military organization of the Guardians of Fire, whose members and commanders have been left in charge of entire cities and provinces (3). Loyalty of these brothers-in-arms was not in question, yet Parbod realized it is not possible to run the entire state like a secret liberation army, realizing that with time these commanders would become selfish satraps answerable to nobody.
Parbod thus, listening to his darigbed or chancellor Behnam devised a complex system of state bureaucracy, having inspectors at every level, so as to prevent fraud and personal enrichment. Records of every action were to be kept under surveillance. Government officials were to be appointed based on merit and competence, not heritage, in an atmosphere of constant competition and rivalry.
The provinces themselves were put under the authority of individual Marzpans , who were to collect taxes and use them within their own marzpanate, while providing levies if called upon. Of course, the actions of the marzpans were also reported and double-checked, and numerous had their hands cut off for stealing gold from the coffers.
This system made the administration more flexible, as the bureaucrats were not merely carrying out orders, but were encouraged to act independently to achieve the common goal. Once the state administration was in place, Parbod set out on his campaign of “purifying Persia”.
View attachment 577163
The Faravahar is the most common symbol of Zoroastrianism
The “Purifying” was carried out mostly by fire (4) and Parbod sought to purify Persia of intruders. First of all, many new atashkadas or fire temples were built, while numerous Manichean and Nestorian sites were desecrated, demolished or repurposed as fire temples.
Individuals were encouraged to convert to Zoroastrianism by putting on the symbolic belt at a fire temples. For some men, allowed polygamy was another incentive. New converts were encouraged by reduced taxes and social promotion, while in minor cities, pogroms against Manicheans and Christians were carried out.
The Nestorian monasteries of the Order of Mar Addai, which were already fortified multifunctional complexes composed of inns, hospitals, libraries as well as churches. During the chaotic years of the fall of the Ilkhanate, a new calling for Nestorian monks of the Order of Mar Addai has been authorized: the Companions of Mar Qardakh. These were to be “men of able body and physical strength, ready to give their last to protect the sheep of the Lord´s flock”. Mar Qardakh was 4th century Nestorian martyr, originally a Sassanid military noble, who converted to Christianity and once persecuted, he and a group of followers were able to repulse numerous waves of persecutors. Thus, the Companions of Mar Qardakh had effectively become a military order, sworn to protect Nestorian congregations should need be, wherever they are.
The Companions of Mar Qardakh no less that twelve years since their establishment were able to be a force to be reckoned with, turning many of the monasteries into heavily fortified refuges for Christians from the greater area. Within the first year of Parbod´s campaign, out of thirty targeted monasteries, twenty-four were able to stand firm and repulse the attackers.
Many of the Companions were of Rajji descent, while a significant proportion were of Turkic descent, while ethnic Assyrians were negligible. Parbod did not expect such a heavy resistance from Christians and feared an open rebellion from the Order of Mar Addai. The Christians however would not compare their chances to the might of the Persian state, and were exhausted, rather than planning any insurgency
The Campaigns of Behruz I. Parbodid
Behruz I. succeeded his uncle Parbod as the Shah of Persia. Unlike his father, who was driven by religious and nationalist zeal and grew to become more and more paranoid as time went on, Behruz was a more moderate ruler, seeking prosperity. In his first year, he issued orders to rebuild the irrigation canals across the entire realm, and to build new ones. These instructions were to be carried out, while he set on a series of campaign against his neighbours.
View attachment 577167
Late medieval Persian archer
His first campaign was directed against the mercantile state of Ormuz. This campaign was a relatively short one, and resulted in a quick victory, seizing Ormusian possessions on the Persian mainland. Behruz did not, however, attempt to lay siege upon the island-city of Ormus, as he lacked a capable fleet.
The second campaign of Behruz was directed eastwards, against the Qartid-controlled Khorasan. The Qartids have lost a war to Parbod a decade ago and had to abandon Semnan and the surrounding oases. Khorasan and Qohestan on the other hand, were much more populous regions, populated by Christian and Manichean Khorasanis, who had thus their distinct religious and linguistic identity.
View attachment 577166
Horse archers formed a large portion of Qartid forces
The Qartid forces consisted largely of traditional heavy cavalry – the cataphracts, and Naiman introduced elite light cavalry skirmishers. The infantry units of the Qartids comprised of both Hillman clans as well as city patrols, usually pikemen. Behruz´s forces consisted of a much larger share of infantry compared to the Qartids, with both heavy and light infantry formations, as well as cavalry. The encounter at Beihagh (5) was won by Persians, as they managed to make more effective use of their infantry, after the Qartid pikemen countered their cavalry forces.
Following the victory at Beihagh, the Persians besieged and conquered Nishapur, before moving towards Mashhad, where they won a lesser skirmish outside the city gates. The Persian campaign against the Qartids ended in an overall victory, with almost all their lands eventually being added to the Persian state, with two exceptions- one being the mountainous Ghor region (6) which came to be ruled by the Buddhist Second Dynasty of Ghur and the second the area surrounding Faryab, which was added to Sughd.
After returning from the victorious eastern campaign, Behruz returns to Sepahan, where he left an astonishing architectural legacy, in the forms of palaces, new fire temples and generally the size of city increased threefold during Behruz´s reign.
Behruz´s Reforms in Religion
The reign of Behruz also saw a reorganization of the Zoroastrian religion. The ancient fire temples of Adur Farnbag in coastal Persia and Adur Burzen-Mihr in Khorasan were rebuilt into impressive religious complexes, while the site of Adur Gushnasp, historically located to the southeast of Lake Urmia lay in Turkoman lands.
The third Great Fire had been described as the Fire of the Stallion, and was connected to the warrior class. Behruz decided that the new fire temple built in Sepahan (the name of which means literally “gathering of the army” ) should symbolically replace it.
Behruz also gathered the Zoroastrian clerics from within his borders and abroad – this being chiefly from Mazandaran, to make clarification in religious doctrine. The Council of Sepahan condemned the beliefs of Zurvanism, which had been particularly prevalent during the Sassanid era, especially in the western parts of the realm as heretical and declared “good thoughts, good words, good deeds” to be the creed and motto of every believer.
The second issue to be dealt with were the mystical “brotherhoods” or schools operating across Persia. Truly enough, the Guardians of Fire who had sparked the rebellion against the Ilkhanate belonged to one such mystical brotherhood. The clergy however were worried, for these brotherhoods not only discarded their authority, but had turned the message of Zoroaster upside down and back to front.
View attachment 577162
Religion in Iran. What can be seen are inroads of Zoroastrianism into Khorasan, while Media is thoroughly Nestorian
A territorially organized religious hierarchy was established, similar to the organization of the Christian churches. The highest rank is the Mobadan Mobad (Priest of Priests) seated at Sepahan. Below the Mobadan Mobad were high-ranking clerics called Mobads, in charge of a city and its surroundings, on par with a Christian bishop. Each individual temple had its own priest called Herbad , who was a respected figure in the village, also taking the role of a judge and arbiter.
The Fall of the Ilkhans and the Rise of the Turkomans
View attachment 577160
A linguistic map of Iran
The defeated Ilkhan Taraqay was left with only Atropatene or Adarbaigan as his last provinces together with Aghbania. After dying under suspicious circumstances in 1351, he left a handful of rather weak claimants to succession. The rump Ilkhanate was abolished in 1353 when Qara Yusif (“Black Joseph”), a chief of one of the Turkoman clans deposed the Ilkhans and established their own rule, with their capital in Tabriz. This formation entered the history books under the name of Qara Qoyunlu, or Black Sheep Turkomans. The tribal confederation of – that it was – no more has soon accepted the Christian Lorestani people living in the Zagros Mountains, anxious of a subsequent Persian campaign to subdue them.
View attachment 577156
The banner of the Qara Qoyunlu, art by Xumarov on DeviantArt
The Jalayrid dynasty of Upper Mesopotamia was also challenged by the Qara Qoyunlu. Unfortunately for the Jalayrids, by the late 14th century they had grown comfortable and decadent, and when an aging, but experienced Qara Yusuf called the Lurish tribes for help to conquer Upper Mesopotamia, leaving command in the hands of his son Adbeșan (7). The Lurish mountaineers were more than happy to retaliate for the Jalayrid punitive raids of their villages and valleys; the Jalayrids surrendered to the Turkoman prince swiftly after being defeated near Shahrezor.
The northernmost domains of the Jalayrids were not seized however, by Adbeșan, for they were already in the hands of another Turkoman confederation – the White Sheep Turkomans. The Aq Qoyunlu, as they were know in their native language, rose to power in eastern Anatolia, breaking free from the Eretnids and subsequently seized the regions of Mardin, TurAbdin and Nisibis, and finally taking over the Euphrates Valley in Syria.
View attachment 577155
The emblem of the Aq Qoyunlu
The Qepasian dynasty ruling from Kaskar over southern Mesopotamia was rather hasty in acknowledging the suzerainty of the Qara Qoyunlu Turkomans, while the Patriarchal State of Qtespon had to give the north-eastern parts of their domains, reaching almost to the city gates, to the Turkomans. The resulting empire was thus spanning from the Persian Gulf to the Caspian Sea, controlling all passes through the Zagros, and able to effectively tax all trade along the Silk Road.
Devastation of Armenia
The Taronid Kingdom of Armenia found itself placed between the two Turkoman tribal confederations of Aq Qoyunlu and Qara Qoyunlu. Unfortunately for the Armenians, they failed to make peace with the Turkic hordes, and in the 1380s, the Armenian Kingdom was attacked Turkoman horseman, looting burning and pillaging, laying waste to many castles, churches and towns. The southern parts of the Armenian kingdom, in the region of Vaspurakan, were directly annexed by Qara Qoyunlu, as well as the city of Nakhichevan, while the region of Artsakh, Syunik and Ararat and Vanand (8). It is presumed that between one fifth and one quarter of Armenians died during this campaign of destruction carried out by the Turkoman tribes. Chroniclers also reported that the raiding armies returned home with a great loot, so large that they, even with the stolen cattle and horses were unable to carry it back, and on the way back they had raided surrounding villages for captives to help them take the loot home.
The bulk of the Armenian army had been defeated at the Battle of Khoy by the more mobile Turkoman horse archers. After that, Armenian resistance relied primarily on the mountainous terrain, with many hiding behind the walls of great castles and cities such as Van or Khlat, or retreating to the inaccessible mountainous regions.
After three years of looting, the Turkomans left Armenia, mainly because there was nothing else left to loot. Northern Armenia, Syunik and Artsakh have managed to escape the worst and in 1358 the existence of the Taronid Kingdom of Armenia ended, when King Grigor pledged fealty to the king of Georgia, thus establishing the Dual Kingdom of Georgia-Armenia with its capital at Tbilisi.
Conquest of Media
Towards the end of the 14th century, after the death of Behruz and ascension Manuchir I. Parbodid another major war in western Persia broke out. Adbeșan now in his early fifties invades Media, seizing Zanjan and Qazvin, stopping just outside Goman. Further Turkoman attacks conquered the cities of Rayy, Saveh (9) and Goman. However, subsequent attacks of Manuchir have repulsed the Turkoman forces from the three mentioned cities, and many Christians left along the retreating Turkoman army.
View attachment 577157
A political map of Iran in the late 14th century, with Qara Qoyunlu shown in orange and Parbodid Persia in blue
Interestingly, during the war against Persia, the Turkomans were aided by the Companions of Mar Qardakh , who in return were granted the city of Qazvin and surroundings as their new headquarters.
View attachment 577159
A map of political systems in Iran. This new golden colour represents Iranian bureaucracy
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Thus, we have to rival claimants to the crown of Persia: Rostam VI. Bavandid, controlling Mazandaran and the cities along the Silk Road and Parbod, leading the insurgents controlling Karmania in the south. The two men could not be more different: Rostam can claim descent by a bloodline lasting for centuries, tracing his descent to the noble houses of the Sassanid Empire. He is a skilled ruler, well-educated in diplomacy and courtly manners.
Parbod, on the other hand has made it up the ladder of the ranks of the secret organization called the Guardians of Fire. He was of humble birth, and has risen up due to his strategic talent and organization skills. Motivated by religious zeal and ardent nationalist fervour, it is easy to imagine that a Persia ruled by Parbod would become a Persia that would be fervent in terms of religion, a Persia that would rather close itself to the outside world.
The two leaders refuse to make concessions to one another, and each claims to be the rightful Shah of Persia himself, making the other the ultimate rival. Rostam has survived three attempts of assassination plotted by the Guardians of Fire. This was not to be tolerated. Parbod was to be removed, as well as his closest counsellors. After that, the remaining insurgents will be quick to flock to his banner, and stop posing trouble, as he would have fulfilled all the goals of the insurgency anyway.
The small party sent out by Rostam to murder Parbod has failed as well, mainly due to the secretive and suspicious nature of the Guardians of Fire. Rostam in times of need, sought alliance with the Pattokh, ruling in Herat, and the Lurish tribesmen in the Zagros. Even the Taraqay, the Ilkhan considered Rostam to be less of a threat than Parbod, and thus did not attack the Bavandid realm from the west.
View attachment 577164
14th century Persian warrior
The encounter between the two rival forces happened near Dizijan (1). The battle of Dizijan resulted in roughly five thousand dead on both sides, with the Bavandid cataphracts annihilating much of Parbod´s light infantry, before being effectively countered by the pikemen. While Bavandid forces were better armed, Parbod ´s troops were composed largely of poorly-armed, but more mobile skirmishers. Some of these skirmishers have attacked the position of Rostam himself, who was severely injured in the battle. His regalia were seized by Parbod, who continued his march northwards. There, however he found himself facing a determined enemy, barricaded in the cities of Rayy, Zanjan, Qazvin and Goman. The city watches and the militias were composed to a great extent of Christian Rajjis, determined to defend their homes from the fire-worshipping zealots.
Parbod suffered a defeat outside the city of Rayy, where his forces met with the Qartid army, before being attacked by the city watch from behind. Parbod and his most loyal followers managed to escape, and in the autumn of 1347 he returns to Sepahan, which is declared as his capital. Regrouping his forces, in the springtime he makes peace with the Lurish clans and attacks the Bavandids from the west, conquering Zanjan and Qazvin. The third battle of the Persian civil war takes place outside of Karaj (2). In this battle, the Bavandid forces are ultimately defeated, being sandwiched from three sides by the armies commanded by Parbod. Following this victory, the city of Rayy is besieged, with many inhabitants fleeing eastwards on the road to Semnan and to the Qartid domains once they saw Parbod´s forces approaching.
After two weeks, the archbishop of Rajj along with the city prefect agreed to surrender the city, open the gates and put ten wagons full of treasures in front of the gates as loot, as to prevent full looting and destruction of the city. While such measures did help prevent major damages, chroniclers still did report some minor incidents.
The fall of Rajj meant a factual unification of the Persian heartland, with Parbod becoming Shah. Continuing with the march eastwards, Parbod seized the city of Semnan from the Qartids, thus establishing the Dasht-e-Kevir Desert as a frontier between his realm and the Qartids.
Persian Nation-Building
Parbod has reigned over a unified Persia for ten years, until his death in 1358. He sought to reign peacefully until the next generation of recruits would grow up, to launch further campaigns to push the borders further in all directions. Before that, he however sought to build an effective body of bureaucracy and administration.
Until now, the only functioning organization with a hierarchical command structure was the secret military organization of the Guardians of Fire, whose members and commanders have been left in charge of entire cities and provinces (3). Loyalty of these brothers-in-arms was not in question, yet Parbod realized it is not possible to run the entire state like a secret liberation army, realizing that with time these commanders would become selfish satraps answerable to nobody.
Parbod thus, listening to his darigbed or chancellor Behnam devised a complex system of state bureaucracy, having inspectors at every level, so as to prevent fraud and personal enrichment. Records of every action were to be kept under surveillance. Government officials were to be appointed based on merit and competence, not heritage, in an atmosphere of constant competition and rivalry.
The provinces themselves were put under the authority of individual Marzpans , who were to collect taxes and use them within their own marzpanate, while providing levies if called upon. Of course, the actions of the marzpans were also reported and double-checked, and numerous had their hands cut off for stealing gold from the coffers.
This system made the administration more flexible, as the bureaucrats were not merely carrying out orders, but were encouraged to act independently to achieve the common goal. Once the state administration was in place, Parbod set out on his campaign of “purifying Persia”.
View attachment 577163
The Faravahar is the most common symbol of Zoroastrianism
The “Purifying” was carried out mostly by fire (4) and Parbod sought to purify Persia of intruders. First of all, many new atashkadas or fire temples were built, while numerous Manichean and Nestorian sites were desecrated, demolished or repurposed as fire temples.
Individuals were encouraged to convert to Zoroastrianism by putting on the symbolic belt at a fire temples. For some men, allowed polygamy was another incentive. New converts were encouraged by reduced taxes and social promotion, while in minor cities, pogroms against Manicheans and Christians were carried out.
The Nestorian monasteries of the Order of Mar Addai, which were already fortified multifunctional complexes composed of inns, hospitals, libraries as well as churches. During the chaotic years of the fall of the Ilkhanate, a new calling for Nestorian monks of the Order of Mar Addai has been authorized: the Companions of Mar Qardakh. These were to be “men of able body and physical strength, ready to give their last to protect the sheep of the Lord´s flock”. Mar Qardakh was 4th century Nestorian martyr, originally a Sassanid military noble, who converted to Christianity and once persecuted, he and a group of followers were able to repulse numerous waves of persecutors. Thus, the Companions of Mar Qardakh had effectively become a military order, sworn to protect Nestorian congregations should need be, wherever they are.
The Companions of Mar Qardakh no less that twelve years since their establishment were able to be a force to be reckoned with, turning many of the monasteries into heavily fortified refuges for Christians from the greater area. Within the first year of Parbod´s campaign, out of thirty targeted monasteries, twenty-four were able to stand firm and repulse the attackers.
Many of the Companions were of Rajji descent, while a significant proportion were of Turkic descent, while ethnic Assyrians were negligible. Parbod did not expect such a heavy resistance from Christians and feared an open rebellion from the Order of Mar Addai. The Christians however would not compare their chances to the might of the Persian state, and were exhausted, rather than planning any insurgency
The Campaigns of Behruz I. Parbodid
Behruz I. succeeded his uncle Parbod as the Shah of Persia. Unlike his father, who was driven by religious and nationalist zeal and grew to become more and more paranoid as time went on, Behruz was a more moderate ruler, seeking prosperity. In his first year, he issued orders to rebuild the irrigation canals across the entire realm, and to build new ones. These instructions were to be carried out, while he set on a series of campaign against his neighbours.
View attachment 577167
Late medieval Persian archer
His first campaign was directed against the mercantile state of Ormuz. This campaign was a relatively short one, and resulted in a quick victory, seizing Ormusian possessions on the Persian mainland. Behruz did not, however, attempt to lay siege upon the island-city of Ormus, as he lacked a capable fleet.
The second campaign of Behruz was directed eastwards, against the Qartid-controlled Khorasan. The Qartids have lost a war to Parbod a decade ago and had to abandon Semnan and the surrounding oases. Khorasan and Qohestan on the other hand, were much more populous regions, populated by Christian and Manichean Khorasanis, who had thus their distinct religious and linguistic identity.
View attachment 577166
Horse archers formed a large portion of Qartid forces
The Qartid forces consisted largely of traditional heavy cavalry – the cataphracts, and Naiman introduced elite light cavalry skirmishers. The infantry units of the Qartids comprised of both Hillman clans as well as city patrols, usually pikemen. Behruz´s forces consisted of a much larger share of infantry compared to the Qartids, with both heavy and light infantry formations, as well as cavalry. The encounter at Beihagh (5) was won by Persians, as they managed to make more effective use of their infantry, after the Qartid pikemen countered their cavalry forces.
Following the victory at Beihagh, the Persians besieged and conquered Nishapur, before moving towards Mashhad, where they won a lesser skirmish outside the city gates. The Persian campaign against the Qartids ended in an overall victory, with almost all their lands eventually being added to the Persian state, with two exceptions- one being the mountainous Ghor region (6) which came to be ruled by the Buddhist Second Dynasty of Ghur and the second the area surrounding Faryab, which was added to Sughd.
After returning from the victorious eastern campaign, Behruz returns to Sepahan, where he left an astonishing architectural legacy, in the forms of palaces, new fire temples and generally the size of city increased threefold during Behruz´s reign.
Behruz´s Reforms in Religion
The reign of Behruz also saw a reorganization of the Zoroastrian religion. The ancient fire temples of Adur Farnbag in coastal Persia and Adur Burzen-Mihr in Khorasan were rebuilt into impressive religious complexes, while the site of Adur Gushnasp, historically located to the southeast of Lake Urmia lay in Turkoman lands.
The third Great Fire had been described as the Fire of the Stallion, and was connected to the warrior class. Behruz decided that the new fire temple built in Sepahan (the name of which means literally “gathering of the army” ) should symbolically replace it.
Behruz also gathered the Zoroastrian clerics from within his borders and abroad – this being chiefly from Mazandaran, to make clarification in religious doctrine. The Council of Sepahan condemned the beliefs of Zurvanism, which had been particularly prevalent during the Sassanid era, especially in the western parts of the realm as heretical and declared “good thoughts, good words, good deeds” to be the creed and motto of every believer.
The second issue to be dealt with were the mystical “brotherhoods” or schools operating across Persia. Truly enough, the Guardians of Fire who had sparked the rebellion against the Ilkhanate belonged to one such mystical brotherhood. The clergy however were worried, for these brotherhoods not only discarded their authority, but had turned the message of Zoroaster upside down and back to front.
View attachment 577162
Religion in Iran. What can be seen are inroads of Zoroastrianism into Khorasan, while Media is thoroughly Nestorian
A territorially organized religious hierarchy was established, similar to the organization of the Christian churches. The highest rank is the Mobadan Mobad (Priest of Priests) seated at Sepahan. Below the Mobadan Mobad were high-ranking clerics called Mobads, in charge of a city and its surroundings, on par with a Christian bishop. Each individual temple had its own priest called Herbad , who was a respected figure in the village, also taking the role of a judge and arbiter.
The Fall of the Ilkhans and the Rise of the Turkomans
View attachment 577160
A linguistic map of Iran
The defeated Ilkhan Taraqay was left with only Atropatene or Adarbaigan as his last provinces together with Aghbania. After dying under suspicious circumstances in 1351, he left a handful of rather weak claimants to succession. The rump Ilkhanate was abolished in 1353 when Qara Yusif (“Black Joseph”), a chief of one of the Turkoman clans deposed the Ilkhans and established their own rule, with their capital in Tabriz. This formation entered the history books under the name of Qara Qoyunlu, or Black Sheep Turkomans. The tribal confederation of – that it was – no more has soon accepted the Christian Lorestani people living in the Zagros Mountains, anxious of a subsequent Persian campaign to subdue them.
View attachment 577156
The banner of the Qara Qoyunlu, art by Xumarov on DeviantArt
The Jalayrid dynasty of Upper Mesopotamia was also challenged by the Qara Qoyunlu. Unfortunately for the Jalayrids, by the late 14th century they had grown comfortable and decadent, and when an aging, but experienced Qara Yusuf called the Lurish tribes for help to conquer Upper Mesopotamia, leaving command in the hands of his son Adbeșan (7). The Lurish mountaineers were more than happy to retaliate for the Jalayrid punitive raids of their villages and valleys; the Jalayrids surrendered to the Turkoman prince swiftly after being defeated near Shahrezor.
The northernmost domains of the Jalayrids were not seized however, by Adbeșan, for they were already in the hands of another Turkoman confederation – the White Sheep Turkomans. The Aq Qoyunlu, as they were know in their native language, rose to power in eastern Anatolia, breaking free from the Eretnids and subsequently seized the regions of Mardin, TurAbdin and Nisibis, and finally taking over the Euphrates Valley in Syria.
View attachment 577155
The emblem of the Aq Qoyunlu
The Qepasian dynasty ruling from Kaskar over southern Mesopotamia was rather hasty in acknowledging the suzerainty of the Qara Qoyunlu Turkomans, while the Patriarchal State of Qtespon had to give the north-eastern parts of their domains, reaching almost to the city gates, to the Turkomans. The resulting empire was thus spanning from the Persian Gulf to the Caspian Sea, controlling all passes through the Zagros, and able to effectively tax all trade along the Silk Road.
Devastation of Armenia
The Taronid Kingdom of Armenia found itself placed between the two Turkoman tribal confederations of Aq Qoyunlu and Qara Qoyunlu. Unfortunately for the Armenians, they failed to make peace with the Turkic hordes, and in the 1380s, the Armenian Kingdom was attacked Turkoman horseman, looting burning and pillaging, laying waste to many castles, churches and towns. The southern parts of the Armenian kingdom, in the region of Vaspurakan, were directly annexed by Qara Qoyunlu, as well as the city of Nakhichevan, while the region of Artsakh, Syunik and Ararat and Vanand (8). It is presumed that between one fifth and one quarter of Armenians died during this campaign of destruction carried out by the Turkoman tribes. Chroniclers also reported that the raiding armies returned home with a great loot, so large that they, even with the stolen cattle and horses were unable to carry it back, and on the way back they had raided surrounding villages for captives to help them take the loot home.
The bulk of the Armenian army had been defeated at the Battle of Khoy by the more mobile Turkoman horse archers. After that, Armenian resistance relied primarily on the mountainous terrain, with many hiding behind the walls of great castles and cities such as Van or Khlat, or retreating to the inaccessible mountainous regions.
After three years of looting, the Turkomans left Armenia, mainly because there was nothing else left to loot. Northern Armenia, Syunik and Artsakh have managed to escape the worst and in 1358 the existence of the Taronid Kingdom of Armenia ended, when King Grigor pledged fealty to the king of Georgia, thus establishing the Dual Kingdom of Georgia-Armenia with its capital at Tbilisi.
Conquest of Media
Towards the end of the 14th century, after the death of Behruz and ascension Manuchir I. Parbodid another major war in western Persia broke out. Adbeșan now in his early fifties invades Media, seizing Zanjan and Qazvin, stopping just outside Goman. Further Turkoman attacks conquered the cities of Rayy, Saveh (9) and Goman. However, subsequent attacks of Manuchir have repulsed the Turkoman forces from the three mentioned cities, and many Christians left along the retreating Turkoman army.
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A political map of Iran in the late 14th century, with Qara Qoyunlu shown in orange and Parbodid Persia in blue
Interestingly, during the war against Persia, the Turkomans were aided by the Companions of Mar Qardakh , who in return were granted the city of Qazvin and surroundings as their new headquarters.
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A map of political systems in Iran. This new golden colour represents Iranian bureaucracy
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- A village outside Qom.
- In Alborz province, to the west of Tehran.
- Is it just me, or are we beginning to feel a slight touch of some totalitarian single-party dictatorship?
- Melisandra approves, for the night is dark and full of terrors
- Sabzevar, Razavi Khorasan Province.
- Cognate with Slavic “Gora/hora” meaning mountain, located in central Afghanistan
- My experiment with an Azerbaijani variant of Assyrian name Abdišo
- Kars Province of Turkey
- In Markazi Province
- Tomislav Addai
- Word Count: 3k