The House of Mihran, Blessed by Ormazd; a Late Antiquity TL

Fed

(Note: This is my first ATL in this site, so I'm sorry if it's crappy/ASB/nonsensical. I hope it's not though :). The POD is not very well defined, but it is basically Bahram keeping Khosrau for a few more years as a political tool.)


Excerpt from the start of the Tale of Bahram, the Restorer

The records of Bahram, glorious Chobineh[1] of Aryanam[2], of the great clan of Mihran, is as follows: After the rise of Erdashir the upstart son of Sasan the shepherd, there was in the territory of Aryanam some wealth gained by all in the glorious nation; but that the lands of Iran had grown poor and strained by the reign of crueler men, every time more clueless about the truth of the Bejeweled Land. From Weh-Erdeshir[3] and Stakhr [4] they looked down upon our holy land, slowly rotting form within. Let it be known that Bahram was the scion of the proud House of Mihran of Rayy[5], a house with true blood of Kurus[6] of Pars and Arsaces of Parthia, and not the blood of shepherds and farmers of Stakhr's temples, as the upstart house of Sassan was in truth. And Bahram was employed by the evil king, who dared to inflict the name of Our Lord [7]Ormazd by wearing it as his kingly name.

As Ormazd, the Shah, was absolute and very powerful, it was not right for Bahram to evade his orders, despite the clear madness the voice came from; indeed, Bahram, he who had crushed the Turks was sent west against the invading Roman, the most dangerous of the four enemies that had invaded Aryanam[8], and indeed, outnumbered and purposely abandoned, was defeated. When evil shah Ormazd was brought the news of his defeat, he must have jumped with glee, as he now could punish innocent Bahram for all for which the evil Shah was actually guilty of. Ormazd did put on a show of rage and anger, however; innocent Bahram was placed in the clothes of a maiden in front of the full court at Weh-Erdeshir. This time of insanity was the time when the courtiers of Aryanam at last noticed the cruelness of the evil Shah Ormazd.

After this happened, Bahram became angry and acted thus to save the kingdom of Aryanam; he united troops alligned to him and marched on Rayy, freeing it as the garrison saw their king's sinful moves and surrendered to Bahram, who declared the Shah's son, Khusrau whose descendant was the Thrice-Cursed Narsieh[9], the new Shahanshah, with hope in his heart the house of Sasan was not entirely doomed to sin. His holy cause and his righteousness won him the war; immediatly had he taken Rayy the cruel Shah prepared an army of two gunds[10] to defeat him and took the road to Parthia, expecting this to be but a defiance; yet his soldiers passed to the righteous side and crushed those loyal to betrayers and, after under a year he at last reached the gates of Ctesiphon, which surrendered to him. Cursed Ormazd tried to flee the city, the traitor, and the righteous and true Ormazd punished his evil namesake by having him be caught! Bahram, chivalrous as always, gave the traitor a room the cursed king was unworthy of, and placed him under the guard of his wife's brothers, Bestam and Bendoy.[11]

Bahram, faithful and good-willing, hoped for a redemption of the house of Sasan the Goat Herder, and hoped that as such a young man Khusrau would be able to set his house's thoughts right. He crowned the young man as Shahanshah at the Jashan of Khordad[12]. He himself took position as Lord Regent of the Kingdom despite Khosrau having already seen at least 13 springs, hopefully to control the kingdom to an even larger degree.
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anahita-and-bahram-chobin.jpg

Impression of the declaration of Bahram Chobin as the Protector of the Realm (Chobin in the left)

Bahram Chobin, after placing Khosrau II as the Shah of the Iranian Empire and declaring himself Regent of the Realm for an undefined time, his attention shifted towards the west, where the Rhoman Empire kept on waging a war in the Caucasus that had started twenty years before, in 572; after having secured the loyalty of the nobles in Māhōzē[13] and in Pars, the homeland of the Sassanids, he sent a midling army, well-trained and experienced but somewhat fresh since it had already been three months since the end of Hormizd IV's rule and Bahram Chobin had given them time to rest and some loot from pro-Hormizd nobles arrested in Ctesiphon. They met with Byzantine forces, for the first time, just off the Tigris in the city of Bezabde, being sieged by the Greeks at this time.[14] While outmanned, the Iranian soldiers were better equipped and rested, and, under the great command of Bahram, son of Siavash, a commander of the Iranian empire, loyal to Bahram Chobin and who eventually would become Eran Spahbod under the early years of Bahram, and gain the title Shahrbaraz[15] after his great command fighting the Byzantines and the Blue Horde[16], soundly defeated the Byzantines and crossed to the Tigris, once again setting siege to Martyropolis.

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Bahram Siyavash, or Shahrbaraz' victory over Emperor Maurice's forces

To stop the revolts of Christians and planning to prepare for a resolution to the war, Bahram sent letters to several religious minorities. Letters were sent to the Patriarchs of Armenia and of the Nestorian Church of the East, as well as to the Yamag, or Pope, of the Manichaean Church, the Rišamma of the Mandaics, and several other communities; this seemed to have several intents, with the main being having Iran unify under the Shahanshah instead of being fractured amongst the religious orders; another purpose was to weaken the mainline Zoroastrianist clergy, too powerful in the eyes of Bahram, by strengthening the other churches, and the third seems to have been gaining their allegiance for a future usurpation of Khosrau's throne. Most of the letters seemed to have been identical according to transcripts having been found carved in stone across Persia;


To the Patriarch Moses the Second of Armenia in the glorious city of Dvin, from Shah Khusrau II, Shahnshah of Eran Shahr, and Bahram, Lord Regent, Chobin and Eran Spahbod of Eran Shahr, Shah of Rayy and Lord of Parthia,

Peace be with you, honourable Patriarch! I, your rightful lord Khosrau the Second, through the hand of the Lord Regent Bahram Chobin, do invoke you to renew your allegiance to the Bejeweled Land and send your blessing to the Shah and his Regent in the shining city of Ctesiphon. We offer good will and gifts; Vairya's blessing will come in abundance to the followers of Jesus[17] and they will be given a large church in the streets of Mahoze, in the area of Rumagan, where Romans and Armenians live. The followers of Jesus who think that he is their saviour will be treated with full courtesy, and as long as a descendant of Khosrau is on the throne or one of Bahram in power, no follower of Jesus will be forced to follow the will of the Lord of Fire Ormazd or his prophet Zarathustra. Finally, Bahram Chobin, the Protector of the Realm's eldest son, Shapur, will take a privileged wive from the patriarchies at Ctesiphon and Dvin, while Khosrau shall pledge to do the same. As a final pledge, Simbat Bagriatuni, one of the most pious and trustworthy of the Armenians, shall become a second Eran Spahbod, in order to care for the northwest.
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The generous terms postulated by Bahram Chobin in order to buy the loyalty of the local minorities were gratiously accepted, and soon enough the Byzantines were in no position to negotiate. Chobin sent a messenger west, with the message to the Romansof peace in exchange for all the areas east of the Euphrates still in control by Rome (hence giving up Martyropolis) and a large reduction in the tribute to compensate. Emperor Maurice decided to stop wasting men in the eastern border and agreed to the terms, deciding to focus instead on the Danube and Italy. The war, ended in 594, would lead to a period of truce between the two powers, which would eventually lead to the fall of Khosrau II from power in Persia

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[1] Apparently, general
[2] Iran in Parthian
[3] A part of Ctesiphon
[4] Persepolis
[5] a proud noble Parthian house from Tehran
[6] Cyrus the Great
[7] Hormizd IV
[8] The other three, I believe, are, besides the Rhomans, the Göktürks, the Hephtalites and the Arabs.
[9] That nickname stays. It makes not half as much sense but it still stays.
[10] 20 000 men
[11] This differs a bit from OTL, and besides the very pro-Bahram retelling of the story is kinda the first, minor POD; Hormizd is not killed that quickly by Khosrau, which gives more time for Bahram to convince other nobles to join his side.
[12] The holy day of water, May 25
[13] Ctesiphon, or more specifically the complex of cities of which Ctesiphon, Seleucia, Veh Ardashir, Rumagan and several other cities were part of.
[14] One year before this the Sassanids lost a battle at Martyropolis, which is northwest of Bezabde.
[15] Not the same Shahrbaraz as in OTL; Shahrbaraz litterally means "boar of the kingdom".
[16] Blue Turks comes from Göktürks, which means "Sky Turks".
[17] Vairya was the Zoroastrian angel of sorts for metals. Bahram there is basically promising gold.
 
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Malta

Hmm, the Clergy might be up in arms about relations to the Arsacids coming into power. They had a special hatred for the Parthians who did not live up to their standards at all, no better then the Seleucids (well at least to the faction of Clergy that supported Bahram I).
 

Fed

King of Malta said:
Hmm, the Clergy might be up in arms about relations to the Arsacids coming into power. They had a special hatred for the Parthians who did not live up to their standards at all, no better then the Seleucids (well at least to the faction of Clergy that supported Bahram I).
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Yes, I do believe that Bahram will come to blows with the clergy; but right now I'd rather like to think that since Bahram is not ruling directly but through a young Khosrau (who will be forced to flee soon) the clergy is still barely tolerant of his actions, and since he has support from Christians, Manichaeans, Mandaics and Zoroastrian heresies it's not like their power is also that absolute.

I am planning the clergy to have an important role in Bahram's early years (more precisely, a schism and later a huge division over the thrice-cursed Narsieh Sassanid I mentioned), but they'll weaken as orthodox Zoroastrianism's hold on Persia weakens (there'll be Christians, Zurvanists, a few Mazdakists, Buddhists and even maybe, since the Athens Academy was open in Ctesiphon until a while before the start of the TL, a pagan revival) so that a few decades after the Sassanids are banished from Persia they'll stop being the omnipotent power they used to be.
 

katchen

Banned
Don't forget about Bustanai, the Exilarch of the Jews. He's pretty prominent too around this time and he may also be a player. He's well worth reading up on.
 

Basileus Giorgios

Parthian revival is certainly cool. If you're using "proper" Iranian terms, though, I think it should be "Rûm": I believe the Arabic use of the term comes from the Iranian. In any case, "Byzantines" or "Greeks" should certainly be avoided when discussing the sixth century.

This looks an interesting TL, mind you. Keep it up! :)
 

Fed

Basileus Giorgios said:
Parthian revival is certainly cool. If you're using "proper" Iranian terms, though, I think it should be "Rûm": I believe the Arabic use of the term comes from the Iranian. In any case, "Byzantines" or "Greeks" should certainly be avoided when discussing the sixth century.

This looks an interesting TL, mind you. Keep it up! :)
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Thank you. :)

I am accustomed to saying 'Byzantine' so even when I do a conscious effort eventually it slips in one way or another. But yes, I'll try to avoid it all are costs.



Pururauka said:
Wasn't Bustanai Exilarch much later? Around 640 I believe.
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Did a quick search on wikipedia and it was Bustanai's father Haninai. I did forget the Jews and Samaritans though, which IIRC were very important for the Sassanids in the 602-628 War.
 

Malta

Hmm. Well, if he did he may have a fight on considering all the Little Shahs were related to the Sassanids. It may be wiser for him to play the long game, certainly if he supports the right people and puts down a counter coup the legitimacy of the Sassanids would wither.

If Khosrau converted to Christanity or something. Though remember after Khosrau was ousted something like a dozen members of the House of Sassan claimed power or were puppeted after The Boar was killed. So again it is not just Khosrau.

For example Kavadh II the son of Khosrau allegedly put to death 18 of his brothers after he deposed his father. And some generals even made up their own legitimate claims to the House of Sasan.
 
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Fed

King of Malta said:
Hmm. Well, if he did he may have a fight on considering all the Little Shahs were related to the Sassanids. It may be wiser for him to play the long game, certainly if he supports the right people and puts down a counter coup the legitimacy of the Sassanids would wither.

If Khosrau converted to Christanity or something. Though remember after Khosrau was ousted something like a dozen members of the House of Sassan claimed power or were puppeted after The Boar was killed. So again it is not just Khosrau.

For example Kavadh II the son of Khosrau allegedly put to death 18 of his brothers after he deposed his father. And some generals even made up their own legitimate claims to the House of Sasan.
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I knew that there were a bunch of little puppets after Khosrau's death, but 18 brothers? Agh, too many Sassanids.

Would something like what happened in Francia, with a Mihranid acting as Court Chamberlain (in this case, Protector of the Realm) and slowly usurping power from the house of Sassan work better off?
 

Malta

Well, maybe he could claim himself working in the spirit of Mithra as Guardian and Law Keeper but, it would take a few generations before his descendant could usurp power and he would still have to fight Pretenders and other factions. More the. Likely it will end in some sort of civil war.

Though it would mean a much more easier fight and stable transition that would not destroy Iran.
 
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Fed

King of Malta said:
Well, maybe he could claim himself working in the spirit of Mithra as Guardian and Law Keeper but, it would take a few generations before his descendant could usurp power and he would still have to fight Pretenders and other factions. More the. Likely it will end in some sort of civil war.

Though it would mean a much more easier fight and stable transition that would not destroy Iran.
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Oh, alright.

Guess I'll have to edit out the 'last Sassanid' tidbits then.
 

Pururauka

Fedelede said:
Did a quick search on wikipedia and it was Bustanai's father Haninai. I did forget the Jews and Samaritans though, which IIRC were very important for the Sassanids in the 602-628 War.
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Exactly. After Haninai was executed in 590, apparently during Bahram's usurpation OTL, his brother Hushiel became Exilarch, and it'd be Hushiel's son Nehemiah who would rally the Jews to fight for the Sassanians in the war of 602-628.

ITTL however, maybe Haninai isn't killed, due to how the coup turned out?
 

Fed

Pururauka said:
Exactly. After Haninai was executed in 590, apparently during Bahram's usurpation OTL, his brother Hushiel became Exilarch, and it'd be Hushiel's son Nehemiah who would rally the Jews to fight for the Sassanians in the war of 602-628.

ITTL however, maybe Haninai isn't killed, due to how the coup turned out?
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I guess that would be the case, since ITTL Bahram did end up buying minorities' loyalty and that would not go well if he started killing Exiliarchs.

I'd say it's very possible Byzantium has a few problems in the future thanks to Bahram's letters. It's not like the Mihranids will have it easy either, especially when they finally take the throne from the Sassanids. Brainstorming out loud while planning my next update is fun.

King of Malta said:
I'm kind of curious in that picture why the Mobad (Priest) is so much darker then everyone else.
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I kinda wondered that too, but the page I got it from is mostly about women in ancient Iran, and says nothing about it.
 

Fed

(Argh, sorry for the delay. There's been a bunch of stuff recently. Here's a somewhat smallish update)
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Excerpt from Encyclopædia Iranica

By the Roman year of 593, Bahram Choobineh's reign was nearly undisputed by any in Eran Shahr, and most revolts in favour of Ormazd IV, and, after his death in late 592, against the Parthians; Khosrau seemed to rule in amicable and cordial relations with the Protector, the generals had all swore loyalty to Khosrau and Bahram. Religiously, most of the peoples were loyal towards Bahram. Of the Seven Houses of Parthava, the great source of power on the area and from where Bahram Choobineh hailed, only Suren and Eshpahpet were more loyal to the young King than to the Protector, as seen in letters of the time where the Protector begins to go before the King himself in formal adresses of the time. However, by this time Khosrau had grown to be fifteen, so that he would now, by most standards of royalty to be fit for rule. He was not blind to this fact, and, at least according to the later Shahnameh, demanded to be crowned. Bahram gratiously agreed and stepped down as Regent, but retained a king's power by the title of Protector of the Realm, now indefinitely. This act is widely regarded as the beginning of the age of diarchy in Aryanam. Khosrau's rule was not strong enough to contend with the hugely popular Bahram.

The house of Sasan's situation further worsened, as Bahram i-Mihran decided to move more quickly than Khosrau, and mustered groups of Savaran[1] and light cavalry in Merv. Another, smaller group joined in Balkh under the command of Bahram Siyavash. He marched northwards, and soon, after only a few days of hard-worked march, took Samarkand, that was not ready for attack. Samarkand was saved from sacking by heavy gifting from the local Khan, of which Bahram only kept for himself an amulet of gold with a single emerald, who would later become one of the signs of the King and be attributed magical powers[2]. Siyavash's troops, at the same time, were surrounded in mid-Tokharistan by a hostile group of Blue Turks. However, Bahram's superior command and weaponry crushed the turks. This gave him the title of Shahrbaraz eventually. Siyavash again marched west, joining up with Chobin in Samarkand before they took Bukhara, again saved by repartition of gifts. The Khagan in Ordu Baliq, with his country already falling apart, could have done nothing. In the spring of 594, much of Transoxiana was annexed by Aryanam and Bahram Chobin, more popular than before and having blocked one of Khosrau's big plans for his weakening, returned to Māhozē.

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Bahram Chobin receives the surrender of the Khan of Samarkand.

Another major weakening of the Sassanids came the year afterwards, with another rebellion occurring in Armenia. Khosrau's situation, already precarious per se, was further worsened by the fact that by 595 only the Zoroastrian clergy was directly loyal to Khosrau himself. The fact that there were three Eran Spahbod, one of them Chobin and the other one Bahram Siyavash, the Shahrbaraz, who was directly loyal to Chobin, and the third, Simbat Bagriationi, was almost a rogue card, only Eran Spahbod to calm the Exilarch and the two Patriarchs. Khosrau seeked to murder him. When Simbat found out, he raised the banners of the north and west in revolt, in favour of Khosrau's five-year old son Shiroye[3]. This was the start of a long and grueling war, which would eventually spell the ending for the Sassanids.

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While Chobin's wars of prestige continued in the east, Emperor Maurice decided not to focus on the recently-lost fortress of Martyropolis and the contesting over the few remaining parts of Mesopotamia that had risen after the war, but instead in compensating for that in the West, especially against the Lombards and especially in Tuscia, so to improve the position of the Patriarch at Rome, and also to a lesser degree against the Slavenkoi and the Avars. He shipped troops off to Ravenna and Rome, and marched from bith sides, hoping to destroy the Lombards. The duke of Tuscia reacted too slowly and when he sent troops, badly armed and trained, against Maurice's forces, he was soundly defeated. Tuscia was annexed soundly and Petrus, the brother of Maurice, was given honours and made Magrave of Tuscia, under the command of the Exarch of Ravenna.

The annexation of Tuscia in 594 proved to be a huge relief to the western half of the Empire (destined to Tiberius), as Rome was now partly safe to the north. While Maurice still hoped that he might regain more land, his troops were largelt useless, rendered in pacifying the areas and fortifying the Padanus, as well as holding off the Slavenkoi and the Avars in the shore of the Danube. The annexation of Tuscia was also extremely important for the Lombard chieftains. They lost so much land so quickly that all legitimacy was lost and Benevento and Salerno split apart definitely from the Lombard kingdom in Pavia. The regaining of power in Tuscia was the first of the steps for the Byzantines for the collapse of the Byzantines and the rise of the Rhoman Kingdom of Italy.

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[1] Heay cavalry including cataphacts, at the top of the Sassanid caste system in the army.
[2] Yay Amulet of Samarkand reference
 
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