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

Thread, 'Bahram is the villain?' in asosaw.wwn, the Song of Sand and Wind Discussion Thread


FaravaharOfGombroon said: 'Alright, as we all know, the prequel seven books to George Shim'un Severus bet Matay’s main series (yes, newbies; the Song of Sand and Wind is huge) are based on Iran's succession struggles at the start of Zoroaster's second millenium, especially around the fall of Khusro Sassani at the hands of the Parthian Alliance. These books, however, seem to show 'Peroz Chalba'in', lord of the Rock of Cyrus, as one of the most evil characters of the story, in an entirely antagonic structure. Real life's Bahram Mihrani is one of the best characters in the time, so why the villanisation?'


Ioannes52 said: 'Well you do have to remember that Peroz Chalba'in did not have any POV chapters in the first five books of the prequels, so that's the most likely reason ge has a negative perspective'.


CYRUS-EMPIRE-STRONK (banned user) said: 'but bahram was of idiot.he allowed for christian to live and led to revolts later.also yuo write khosrau great name wrong.”


E-Ra said: Ugh, troll. Anyways, yes, Peroz is to blame for a lot of stuff, especially the Feast of Pestilence, but I do believe that if you read it in a sort of way bet Matay wrote it so that it’d seem that Simbat brought it on himself by angering the gods, and that, while Peroz did join with him, it was only to do the best for the Three Regions, and he did exact justice upon the Great Conspiracists. ...All seven of them. Of course, it's not like Bahram was entirely innocent IRL.


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Map of Iran at the beginning of the war, after Bahram Mihrani joined the war in Arshak's favour.

Bahram Chobin’s joining of the Parthian side early after the fall of Gombroon to Arshak’s forces was the final nail on Khosrau’s tomb. Ray’s troops were relatively fresh and extremely strong, almost of an equal level in relation to those of the Shahanshah. Furthermore, Rayy and the other territories of the House of Mihran had amongst the bravest soldiers of Parthia, as well as most of the big generals, like Shahrbaraz Bahram Siyavashan and Bahram Chobin. With the joining of the House of Mihran with Arshak's revolt, six of seven Parthian clans were fighting against Khosrau, and the Persians were nearly hopelessly outnumbered. To make this even worse for the Sassanids, Bahram managed to convince many of Khosrau's allies away from support; the two Patriarchs, the Exilarch, the Yamag, the Rišamma and other heads of the religions called out. Christians and Manichaeans rebelled against Khosrau, and refused to join his armies.

Arshak decided to capitalise upon his newfound advantage as quickly as possible. He sent Shahin, the Falcon of Suren, together with Shahrbaraz Bahram Siyavashan, south to take Persis. Kawuz Bavani and Ashot Bagriatoni were commanded to 'purge Asorestan of the evil king's forces' and block the House of Karen from acting in Pahlav while most Parthian generals were in the southwest. Arshak himself joined up with Bahram Chobin and marched for Māhozē.

The war, due to the Persians' huge disadvantages in numbers, arms and leadership, quickly was won by the Parthian forces; however, it went very differently for every front. The simplest and quickest front was the one in Parthia; after all, it was the land that started the revolt, so the House of Karen could not gather nearly enough manpower nor enough support at home to start a new front in the East. The Black Hawk of Karen, Kardarigan[1], fled to the west to help Khosrau and left Rostam Kareni for the defense of Nahavand. The Siege of Nahavand, led by Kawuz Bavani himself against the Kareni forces, was long and tedious, but very little loses were sustained by the Parthian armies and Bavand surrendered, being imprisoned and sent to Ray in early 609, to be taken care of by Shapur, Bahram’s eldest son.

The war in the west was not as easy, but also ended quickly. Khosrau started with a mild advantage over the Parthians at the beginning, since he was able to beat a large Assyrian army off Dura Europus in early autumn of 608, as they had not waited for Ashot Bagrati’s forces and thus were not organised nor large enough. However, after the winter solstice Bahram and Arshak’s army burst out of the Zagros into mid-Mesopotamia, and quickly marched and laid siege to Ctesiphon, taking everyone in the city by surprise. Khosrau was barely able to call his army into the city gates before the siege started, and, when he noticed he barely had any chances against the Parthian armies, since Karen had already fallen in all places except the host that Kardarigan had taken west and was stationed in the city, so that it was nearly the entirety of the country except for Mahoze against Khosrau himself. Noticing the writing in the wall, in the dark of night he smuggled out his wives and children with loyal merchants, who later hid them in bags of dates until they left for India first, and later the Sui Chinese, who had just defeated the eastern part of the Blue Horde[2] and were stronger than ever. Only a few months after this he surged out with an army of maybe 25,000, intent on breaking the siege against an army of over 40,000 Parthian men. Khosrau’s army fought bravely to the last man, but in the end they were overwhelmed. Kardarigan was imprisoned in the battle and taken to Arshak’s court, while Khosrau disappeared into the fray of battle, his body only to be found nearly a week afterwards.

The war in Persia was the most brutal of them all. Commanded by a man named Ardashir, who claimed to be Khosrau’s cousin and, after his death, the true heir of the Sassanid Empire, he warred against Bahram Siyavashan and Shahin Sureni ruthlessly. Historians said of him that “He did not yield a mile of land without it being covered in three thousand men’s worth of blood”. While this is certainly an exaggeration, we know today that he kept on warring for nearly 15 years after Khosrau’s death in early spring of 609, although most of the war subsided everywhere else. Indeed, by 610 Shahin bloodlessly took Istakhr, and, when Shiraz refused to surrender and was only taken after a breach of the walls in Maidyarem Gahambar in June 21 he burned the city to the ground, possibly killing as many as 100,000 people in the conflict. This act of brutality shocked Bahram, but every other Parthian noble commended it. By 613, only a small array of bandits remained of Ardashir’s great army, and, while he was never completely caught or destroyed (and his claimed descendants were at one point made Lords of Estakhr) the bloody war in Persia was over.

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Persian artwork, similar to a previous hunting scene, that shows Vestahm destroying "the Persian beasts", representing Khosrau and his armies. Dated 612, Yazd.


At this time Bahram was extremely offended at the Parthian side, as he seemed to believe that he betrayed a honourable foe for a band of assassins and backstabbers. This opinion seemed to rise first after the Sack of Shiraz, and continued when, despite protests by the Zoroastrian clergy, who had submitted to Arshak shortly after the death of Khosrau, the King of Kings was not taken to a dakhma for over two months, as Arshak deemed him “the most impure demon of them all”. After that he was further humilliated by placing his remains with the women’s bodies in the inside, which seemed to Bahram childish and unnecessary. Furthermore, Bahram felt appalled at the fact that Arshak broke his vow of keeping Kardarigan as a hostage in court, and instead executed him the day of his coronation in 614.

It might be these feelings that led to the Feast of Blood, although it is still shrouded in mystery. Traditional Persian storytelling states that Bahram was invited to a wedding feast by Arshak shortly after a second coronation in Istakhr in 615. In it, Arshak conspired with the lords of Suren, Dahae and Sohae, who attempted to serve him human flesh and poison his wine, but Bahram was warned by a beautiful Persian maid who was working in the kitchen. Bahram paid heed and confronted Arshak, who admitted to his treacherous ways and attacked him with a sword, aided by most of the Parthian lords in the room. Bahram was able to hold them off with aid from his namesake deity himself before the servants rose up, declared Bahram their one and only lord in Earth, and helped get rid of the treacherous Parthian rulers. While this story is obviously exaggerated, it has a kernel of truth to it; modern historians believe that Bahram did indeed host a coronation party for Arshak that somehow went sour (maybe because direct attack by Arshak, maybe by a scheme of Baham himself), and through either poison or help from Bahram's servants four Parthian lords and the Emperor Arshak were assassinated and Bahram claimed the title of Shahanshah[3] for himself.

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Modified copy of Persian image attributed to Bahram I, which shows a young Bahram Mihrani with royal gear. Attributed to circa 625, Rayy

Unlike the bloody transition from Khosrau to Arshak, this one was mostly peaceful, as the people were tired of war and destruction. Bahram had himself crowned thrice, in Ray, Estakhr and Ctesiphon, to declare control over the Persians, the Northerners (Parthians, Azers and Ossetes, as well as Tokharians, Hyrcanians and Turks) and the Christians (Arabs, Assyrians and Armenians). He decided to simply reign as Bahram VI, although he did adopt Arshak's tecnique of calling his dynasty 'Mihran Pahlavi' amongst other things. In 614 Bahram returned to the high command of the Iranian army once more, and took over the courts of the Seven Parthian clans before they could survive.

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Coin, showing Bahram crushing "beasts of the North", representing Vistahm and the rebelling Parthians. Allegorical art, referencing Shapur II and Vistahm's inscriptions across eastern Parthia. Attributed 615, Ctesiphon University (unknown origin)

It was at this period that at last, the Mihranid took power, and while they suffered several threats (the destruction of several Iranian fields and several Arab raids onto Saba and Himyar, quickly losing population), Bahram was fairly confident he could beat these struggles.
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[1] I was not able to find information about Kadarigan. He's a Karen in this storyline, though I can't assure this was the case IOTL.
[2]The weakened position of the Gökturks in this led to the Sui to take over the west rather than the Koreans, which means that they'll survive for longer, but I don't know for how much.
[3] Bahram's title was "Bahram VI Mihran Pahlavi, Shahanshah of Parthava, Persis and all other realms of Iran and non-Iran".

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At the beginning of his reign as Basileius of Rome, Theodosius did not have much threats to his succession. The people were happy, the lords loyal, and the barbarians subdued by his father Maurice, who, even after his death, hugely influenced Rome during Theodosius the purple-born’s reign and even afterwards. Theodosius’ first large act in his reign was fighting against Spania. He wanted for the diocese to grow in order to protect Spartarian Carthage and other such important Iberian cities from the Visigoths, especially as it seemed that the Arian faith and enemity to Rome were quickly growing in Iberia. In early 611, he sent troops west to Carthage, where they sailed to Iberia. He struck the visigoths unprepared, and he was able as reach as far inland as Metellinum[1] and sieged Toletum, after which King Witteric fled to Asturen[2]. Theodosius’ steam, however, seemed to run out after Toletum refused to surrender. The city held out, despite being massively outnumbered and being starved to death, for nearly two years. By 612, when Theodosius thought he would manage to have the Visigoth garrison led by Bishop Sunna of Meritum[3] surrender, Witteric returned with a large army of Astures and Basques to relieve the city of its Roman invaders. Theodosius was beaten back from Toletum, but still signed a peace treaty glorious to the Romans. He got much of southern Spania, as far north as Cortoba and Hispalia [4]. These territories were awarded to the Diocese, subservient of Tiberius, Theodosius’ brother and co-emperor.

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The borders of Spania, in the local Spanic language, after the end of the War of Theodosius in 615.

Ephraim bar Shimun’s Testimony of the Eastern Diocese, attributed to 635 AD, thought to actually have been written in the tenth century
“O Fortuna! After the end of our Virtuous Emperor's war against the evil Arian, It was a good move of our Theodosios the Purple-Born to stay out of that viper’s nest known as Persia, for the lands of Oriens are still plagued with the vile scar of the Persian, and tragedy it would be if more of the land was plagued with the foul pestilence that besmirches the conflicts of the eastern Heathen. It is better for the Men of Persia to battle each other angrily, so the wolves devour each other and leave the Lamb of Christ in peace and plenty for many years to come.

Thus our Great Emperor sent his forces north to vanquish the evil Slavenkoi, and with the help of the brave men of Valachia, newly come to our great Rome but already acquainted with customs and civilisation, the borders of Moesia were fixed in the river. With the massive wealth of our great and civilised land, he built a web of massive forts, and armed the Valachians to shield their lands of the Heathen’s barbaric hand.

But alas, Theodosios was not able to beat the Slavenkoi in all fronts, as the Slavenkoi, of a particular kind who called themselves the Hrvastians and the Sarbi, fell down upon the Illyrians and would have wretched that land away from culture and civilisation’s grasp, had our King not been forced to settle down with them. With a valiant interpreter, a man named Lazar who had come from the Serbian tribe to Constantinople a few years earlier, he agreed to let them rule parts of Illyricum and pick their Governor amongst themselves, as long as they agreed to be subjects of the Byzantine Emperor. Thus 14 different Sarbi and Hrvast tribes joined in Malevilla, renamed Beograd by its inhabitants, chose one of them amongst their ranks and converted to the Faith of Christ. This man, who took the name Stefan of the House of Stefan, and the Duchy of Servia was born.”



Theodosius’ move to allow for peace in the north, effective after the coronation of Stefan Stefanovich in 614, allowed him to disband part of his army for peacetime. For the first time in a long time, the Roman troops were allowed to rest in their homes rather than just rest in southern, civilised areas. This served a good purpose; it bought him the loyalty of the generals angered about the peace deal he had just signed with the Serbs. Furthermore, this gave him a convenient excuse to round up the Slavenkoi who had penetrated Moesia, Makedon and Hellas, and push them northwards into Servia. The Servian realm grew quickly, but, despite fears from Greeks that they “would swamp the border and spread their maddened pagan debauchery across the land”, Servia was, rather than a problem for Greeks, a huge help, as Slavenkoi brought off the Danube by the web of fortifications would either settle in Servia or be expulsed by the strong Slavenkoi troops located in the nation.

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[1] Medellín, Spain
[2] Asturias’ alternate Germanic namex
[3] Mérida
[4] Córdoba and Seville
 
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Why is a man with a Jewish name writing favorably about a Chalcedonian Christian Emperor and using the Norse term 'White Christ'?
 
Why is a man with a Jewish name writing favorably about a Chalcedonian Christian Emperor and using the Norse term 'White Christ'?

Ephraim the Syrian was an Aramean monk, and a Doctor of the Church in the Roman Catholic name. I think it'd be reasonable for a Syriac monk to be named after a saint.
 
Gotcha. But why would a non-Norse pagan monk use the term White Christ? Post-conversion Vikings didn't continue to call him White Christ- why would it be used?

Good to see a Early Medieval Persian TL.
 
Gotcha. But why would a non-Norse pagan monk use the term White Christ? Post-conversion Vikings didn't continue to call him White Christ- why would it be used?

Good to see a Early Medieval Persian TL.

Thanks for pointing that out. I thought White Christ was a term more general to Jesus' name, not just for the Vikings. I'll edit that out.
 
Need any help on anything? I would like to draw several portraits on your historical characters, like Bahram, Khosrau II, Gagik Bagrationi (?), Maurice, the sons of Maurice, Arshak III, Witteric, etc. Can I do some commissions? (PM me for details)
 
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