Well... I see TTL's new equivalent of the Takbir. "AL MASSIH-U AKBAR!".
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The Scorpion Bite - A VIth century Sassanid/Roman TL with a possible Christian China
- Thread starter fi11222
- Start date
Well... I see TTL's new equivalent of the Takbir. "AL MASSIH-U AKBAR!".
fi11222
Banned
Don't tell me you did not see something like that coming either.
I did my best to drop a couple of one-ton hints over the past few updates ...
What I didn't expect was for them to make it to Palestine unmolested and arrive in Jerusalem. I imagine that's the kind of symbol that's going to resonate in various cultures for ages. It's like a Late Antiquity version of the Exodus, but mixed with apocalyptic overtones.
It's also really fun to contrast our two very different (and both rather plausible, imo) alternate Middle Easts.
It's also really fun to contrast our two very different (and both rather plausible, imo) alternate Middle Easts.
fi11222
Banned
The reason I believe they could do it is that nobody expected something like that to happen. The Romans really only feared the Persians on their eastern borders. Once that threat disappeared, it seems reasonable to assume that they would become complacent (walls of cities in disrepair, only border police kind of troops available, etc.).
Also they had nothing but contempt for the Arabs which they called scenitai (tent dwellers). They considered them utterly incapable of anything more than betty banditry raids for plunder.
Yes. This is exacly what I am going to explore in the next updates.
Eventually, we always arrive at some kind of "apocalyptic" scenario, which is I think only natural. The world was primed for an apocalypse in that era and one way or another it would happen because people expected it. The apocalypse is the ultimate self-fulfilling prophecy.
By the way, what does it tell us about our own time ? And about our own reasons to be interested in late antiquity ? That is food for thought I think ...
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Deleted member 67076
Cant ever do late antiquity without some sort of new faith popping up.
Very excited to see where this goes.
Very excited to see where this goes.
fi11222
Banned
As I said to Lobster about his own thread, the world was primed for it at this time. It had to happen one way or another.Cant ever do late antiquity without some sort of new faith popping up.
fi11222
Banned
SB 14
The Winnowing Fork
When news of Jerusalem's seizure by Moshe Al-ḥajara reach Constantinople in February of 653 AD, there is some concern, but not overly so. After all, these are only Arabs, "tent-dwellers"[1] as they are dismissively called, and it is assumed that they will melt into the desert as usual when confronted by a serious military force. A message is thus dispatched to Timostratus, the Magister Militum per Illyricum, requesting that an army at least 10 000 strong be sent at once to Palestine. However, the Danubian defenses, of which Timostratus is in charge, have been hard pressed for the past couple of years. A new people from the steppes had started appearing in the region, the Bulgars. In the process of being displaced by the Khazars from their former homeland north of the sea of Azov, the Bulgars have started migrating to the south-west. In the plains east of the Carpathians, they regularly clash with the Avars, which they are increasingly displacing to the west. As a result, both the Avars and the newly arrived Bulgars are restless and over the past few years, they have mounted several large scale raids to the south, sometimes jointly, in the hope of finding more land for their herds, and if not, at least some glittering booty to carry home. Most of the troops manning the Danubian forts are local peasant-soldiers from just south of the River who had been settled there under Heraclius I. They are thus defending their own homes and are Chalcedonian Christians. Why would they march ten thousand stadia (1500 km) south to defend Monophysite heretic Syrians? To avoid an outright mutiny, Timostratus has no choice but to let his troops rebel and acclaim him Emperor, much as Julian had done at Lutetia nearly two centuries earlier. However, Timostratus does not move on Constantinople, perhaps in the hope of an eventual reconciliation with the Emperor. Instead, he stays put at his headquarters in Serdica and continues to focus on defending the Danube against the northern barbarians as if nothing had happened. Back in Constantinople, the 22 year old Constans II has no choice but to send word to Syria that no army is forthcoming at the moment and that a fresh one is to be raised locally. But of course, this will take time.
Meanwhile, in Jerusalem, Moshe Al-ḥajara is not idle. Within a few weeks, and still meeting with little resistance, he extends the perimeter he controls from Ioppa (modern Jaffa) in the north to Raphia and Mampsis in the South. News of his appearance on the scene, together with the eschatological message of the Prophet, spread like wildfire among Jewish and Arab communities alike. Soon, volunteers start converging on Jerusalem to enroll under his banner. By the end of March, he has over 10 000 troops at his disposal and in June, 15 000. His first military target is Petra, the capital of the Palaestina Salutaris province and the home base of the Banu Salih tribe. As his army invests it in mid-April, the city is in turmoil. While some of the troops loyal to the governor and the Banu Salih Sheikh attempt to mount some kind of defense on the walls, others have to fight on a daily basis in the streets against rioters who want to join the army of the Messiah. The city's population is overwhelmingly Arabic and Moshe's messianic propaganda has had a huge effect on a sizeable fraction of it. After a week of rioting inside and desultory fighting outside the walls, the siege of Petra ends when the Sheikh of the Banu Salih is killed by one of his nephew who then proceeds, together with a party of troops loyal to him, to open one of the gates to the besiegers. Again, Moshe Al-ḥajara scrupulously avoids any massacre or looting. All those who want to leave are allowed to do so without being molested. They are given 24 hours to gather their belongings and are then escorted to Aelana (modern Aqaba) where they are allowed to hire ships bound for Egypt.
Moshe Al-ḥajara then turns his attention, and his army, to the north. In May, he reaches Caesarea, the capital of Palaestina Prima. Here, the situation is entirely different from what it was in Petra. The population is mostly Greek and has absolutely no appetite for the preaching of Moshe's Prophet. The gates and the walls have been hastily repaired and all defenses are manned by whatever troops could be found. In the four months since the fall of Jerusalem, stockpiles of food have been gathered in the city from the surrounding countryside and a citizen’s militia has been raised both form the city's inhabitants and from the sailors, fishermen and longshoremen of the port. The siege promises to be a long and hard-fought one.
In the meantime, the Roman authorities in northern Syria are feverishly trying to raise an army. The man in charge of the task is Muawiyah[2], one of the closest associates of John, the governor of Osrohene. Son of a rich merchant from Edessa and of an Arabic noblewoman from the Banu Kalb tribe, himself married to a girl from the same family, Muawiyah has made a name for himself among the Roman elite of northern Syria as an estate administrator and sometime tax collector. On numerous occasions, he has ingratiated himself to many a landowner by putting at their disposal a gang of armed thug he has put together in order to extract overdue rent payments and taxes from recalcitrant peasants. The many contacts he has secured this way now prove crucial to the task at hand. Through his relationships with rich landowners, Muawiyah is able to raise money and through his family links with the Arabic tribal milieu he is able to attract soldiers. By early July, he has managed to gather an army of 5000 men which he starts to train in the plains south of Hierapolis under the leadership of mostly Avar mercenary officers he has managed to attract from across the Dipotamian border with enticing salary offers.
Back at Caesarea, Moshe Al-ḥajara takes advantage of the lull enforced on him by the siege to start organizing his new realm. In particular, he sends parties of riders far and wide with orders to set up a rough fiscal apparatus. A few weeks later, he receives worrying reports. Many peasants apparently have no intention of paying taxes to the new Messiah and some are starting to leave, encouraged by the lenient terms awarded to the population of Jerusalem and Petra. Moshe Al-ḥajara is flabbergast and flies into a rage. "Christians love crosses, he hisses between his teeth, we are going to give them some". In the next few weeks a few hundred Palestinian peasants are crucified at important crossroads and near the gates of major towns. The message is well understood and the Messiah's tax collectors have an easy task thereafter. By the end of August, Moshe Al-ḥajara realizes that Caesarea will not fall any time soon. It had ample food stocks to begin with and is now being resupplied by sea without interference as the Messiah's army has no naval arm to speak of. It has no siege engines either nor anyone with the know-how to build any. What it does have, however, is a handful of miners from the Sinai who are put to work at once digging mining galleries under the walls. After two weeks work, a large section of the wall, already weakened by the shoddy renovations performed in haste just before the siege, crumbles on the morning of September 12th 653 AD. This time, Moshe Al-ḥajara urges no restraint on his troops. The city is thoroughly looted and the population is either massacred or taken into slavery. Half of these slaves will die on their march through the desert to Yemen, the survivors being mostly sold in India and a few in Sistan.
As news of these events spread, a wave of apocalyptic horror starts to grip the population of the neighboring provinces in Syria and Egypt. Moshe Al-ḥajara is by now universally viewed as the Antichrist and his appearance and misdeeds have become the mainstay of most sermons delivered from pulpits all over the region. In Antioch, Theodotus Pamphilius, a pupil of Chosroes Chrysorhine, delivers the following sermon in late September:
This kind of sermon, repeated in countless variants, drives the population of Syria into a frenzy of penitential donations which make Muawiyah's task of raising an army much easier. By the end of November, he has ample funds at his disposal and his troops are steadily growing both in quality and numbers. In January 654 AD, he has over 25 000 soldiers at his disposal, about half of which are local levies while the rest are mercenaries from various provenance. During the autumn of 653, Tyre, Scytopolis and Bostra have been surrendered to Moshe Al-ḥajara without a fight and their populations have mostly fled north. In December, the army of the Messiah is before Damascus, which Muawiyah has decided to defend, and another siege begins.
In early 654, Muawiyah reaches Damascus from the north, at the head of a relief army. The besiegers number a little over 17 000 while the garrison of the city numbers around 3000 there are 20 000 fresh soldiers who have just arrived from northern Syria. Religious fervor is strong on both sides. Early in the morning, the besieging army is arranged in neat rows as men stand and prostrate seven times in proskynesis[8] towards Jerusalem. In the Christian camp, the men sing hymns and take communion before combat. Muawiyah, however, keeps a cool head. He has numerical advantage but not by far and, more importantly, he has a secret plan. Thus, for two full weeks, he orders his troops to stay in their fortified camp and only engage in minor skirmishes. Mounted patrols from Moshe Al-ḥajara’s army approach the camp on a regular basis to taunt the Christian soldiers inside. They generally bring crucifixes and icons looted from churches or monasteries and they defecate and urinate on them in full view of the sentries on the camp's palisade. Finally, at dawn on March 25th 654 AD, Muawiyah orders his troops to deploy for an all-out battle. Soon the two armies are facing each other in the plain south of the city. The clergy on the Christian side is singing hymns while the Shofar is being blown by priests on the opposite line. But both songs and trumpets are nearly drowned in the jeers and abuse that both camps are hurling at each other. Suddenly, there is complete silence on the Christian side. A small body of riders emerges from the center of the battle line. They are holding aloft a large object, hidden under a richly embroidered cloth. Suddenly, the cloth is removed and everyone recognizes the object. It is the reliquary of the True Cross. This was Muawiyah's secret plan. when he arrived at Damascus two weeks before, he had sent a party of his best fighters (some of whom were old friends from his rent collecting gang) on a circuitous route through the desert to Jerusalem with orders to sneak into the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and steal the reliquary. The party had met with success and had just returned on the eve of the battle.
When the True Cross is uncovered, the Christian army lets out a huge roar. On the opposite side, there is surprise and hesitation. The Yemeni soldiers do not recognize the object, and neither do Moshe Al-ḥajara. But the nearly two thirds of his army comes from areas which have had long contacts with the Roman Empire. Even if they have cast their lot behind the Messiah, some of them were previously Christian (formally at least) or in any case are well aware of Christian symbols and relics. They are frightened as this is a most sacred object and its sudden appearance seems miraculous. At Muawiyah's signal, the Christian army rushes forward; the foot soldiers running in the center and cavalry galloping on both wings. At the same time, 1500 defenders sally forth from the southern gate of the city on horseback. Moshe Al-ḥajara's army is quickly enveloped from both flanks. In the center, a square formation of elite Yemeni soldiers manages to hold its own against the onslaught of the Christian foot, inflicting heavy losses. The wings however soon start to crumble. On the right in particular, a body of 3000 Banu Salih cavalry manages to extricate itself and starts to flee southward. The disorganization this causes has fatal consequences. In a few minutes, the Messiah's army looses cohesion and the slaughter begins. At noon, the battle ends as none of the sons of Sarah and Hagar are left standing. No prisoners are taken and the wounded are killed on the spot. In total, there are over 18 0000 casualties. Moshe Al-ḥajara manages to flee with a small bodyguard. In the evening, he is caught by a pursuing detachment of Alan light cavalry. Brought back to Muawiyah's camp, he is left to rot in a barrel of human excrement for the whole night and then drawn and quartered the following morning. Finally, his severed head is stored in a casket full of salt an aromatic herbs for conservation and later display.
On April 10th 654, three days before Easter, Muawiyah enters Jerusalem at the head of his army. All that is left of the Yemeni troops and their allies has long fled and some of the population has started to return. The streets are lined with a rejoicing throng and flowers are being thrown from the roofs onto the troops below. All churches are open. Incense and hymns fill the air. After winding through the narrow streets, most of the troops exit the city and return to their camp outside the walls. Meanwhile, Muawiyah and his entourage alight at the Patriarch’s palace, where the victorious hero of Christendom has decided to set up his headquarters. The Patriarch himself took refuge in Antioch the year before and he is not due to come back for another fortnight. As a result, it is Stephen, the bishop of Ascalon, who is the chief officiant for the celebrations of Easter, three days later. On the morning of the feast day, a procession composed of Muawiyah's chief officers, led by the clergy of the Holy City and followed by those of those senior citizens and officials that could be found departs from the Ekklesia Nea and heads for the Basilica of the Holy Apostles, where the Easter Sunday Mass is to be held.
At the end of the ceremony, The bishop of Ascalon climbs again onto the pulpit and declares:
As Muawiyah lifts himself up and faces the crowd, the church explodes with cheers and shouts of joy. The newly crowned Savior of Mankind then walks out of the Church, followed by his entourage, in order to receive the acclamation of his troops gathered outside.
All this was also part of Muawiyah's secret plan.
[1] Scenitai
[2] "Muawiyah" is a Syriac and not an Arabic name and this has prompted many scholars to suspect that although he is described as a "relative of the Prophet Muhammad" and a member of his tribe by official Muslim histories, this is quite likely not the case.
[3] Matt 19:21 "And alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath. For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be."
[4] Rev 17:4 "The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality."
[5] John Chrysostom, "Adversus Judaeos"
[6] Matt. 23:27 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness."
[7] Matt. 3:12, Luke 3:17
[8] Greek term for the kind of posture used in Muslim prayer. Used long before that in ancient times to express submission to kings and Emperors.
The Winnowing Fork
When news of Jerusalem's seizure by Moshe Al-ḥajara reach Constantinople in February of 653 AD, there is some concern, but not overly so. After all, these are only Arabs, "tent-dwellers"[1] as they are dismissively called, and it is assumed that they will melt into the desert as usual when confronted by a serious military force. A message is thus dispatched to Timostratus, the Magister Militum per Illyricum, requesting that an army at least 10 000 strong be sent at once to Palestine. However, the Danubian defenses, of which Timostratus is in charge, have been hard pressed for the past couple of years. A new people from the steppes had started appearing in the region, the Bulgars. In the process of being displaced by the Khazars from their former homeland north of the sea of Azov, the Bulgars have started migrating to the south-west. In the plains east of the Carpathians, they regularly clash with the Avars, which they are increasingly displacing to the west. As a result, both the Avars and the newly arrived Bulgars are restless and over the past few years, they have mounted several large scale raids to the south, sometimes jointly, in the hope of finding more land for their herds, and if not, at least some glittering booty to carry home. Most of the troops manning the Danubian forts are local peasant-soldiers from just south of the River who had been settled there under Heraclius I. They are thus defending their own homes and are Chalcedonian Christians. Why would they march ten thousand stadia (1500 km) south to defend Monophysite heretic Syrians? To avoid an outright mutiny, Timostratus has no choice but to let his troops rebel and acclaim him Emperor, much as Julian had done at Lutetia nearly two centuries earlier. However, Timostratus does not move on Constantinople, perhaps in the hope of an eventual reconciliation with the Emperor. Instead, he stays put at his headquarters in Serdica and continues to focus on defending the Danube against the northern barbarians as if nothing had happened. Back in Constantinople, the 22 year old Constans II has no choice but to send word to Syria that no army is forthcoming at the moment and that a fresh one is to be raised locally. But of course, this will take time.
Meanwhile, in Jerusalem, Moshe Al-ḥajara is not idle. Within a few weeks, and still meeting with little resistance, he extends the perimeter he controls from Ioppa (modern Jaffa) in the north to Raphia and Mampsis in the South. News of his appearance on the scene, together with the eschatological message of the Prophet, spread like wildfire among Jewish and Arab communities alike. Soon, volunteers start converging on Jerusalem to enroll under his banner. By the end of March, he has over 10 000 troops at his disposal and in June, 15 000. His first military target is Petra, the capital of the Palaestina Salutaris province and the home base of the Banu Salih tribe. As his army invests it in mid-April, the city is in turmoil. While some of the troops loyal to the governor and the Banu Salih Sheikh attempt to mount some kind of defense on the walls, others have to fight on a daily basis in the streets against rioters who want to join the army of the Messiah. The city's population is overwhelmingly Arabic and Moshe's messianic propaganda has had a huge effect on a sizeable fraction of it. After a week of rioting inside and desultory fighting outside the walls, the siege of Petra ends when the Sheikh of the Banu Salih is killed by one of his nephew who then proceeds, together with a party of troops loyal to him, to open one of the gates to the besiegers. Again, Moshe Al-ḥajara scrupulously avoids any massacre or looting. All those who want to leave are allowed to do so without being molested. They are given 24 hours to gather their belongings and are then escorted to Aelana (modern Aqaba) where they are allowed to hire ships bound for Egypt.
Moshe Al-ḥajara then turns his attention, and his army, to the north. In May, he reaches Caesarea, the capital of Palaestina Prima. Here, the situation is entirely different from what it was in Petra. The population is mostly Greek and has absolutely no appetite for the preaching of Moshe's Prophet. The gates and the walls have been hastily repaired and all defenses are manned by whatever troops could be found. In the four months since the fall of Jerusalem, stockpiles of food have been gathered in the city from the surrounding countryside and a citizen’s militia has been raised both form the city's inhabitants and from the sailors, fishermen and longshoremen of the port. The siege promises to be a long and hard-fought one.
In the meantime, the Roman authorities in northern Syria are feverishly trying to raise an army. The man in charge of the task is Muawiyah[2], one of the closest associates of John, the governor of Osrohene. Son of a rich merchant from Edessa and of an Arabic noblewoman from the Banu Kalb tribe, himself married to a girl from the same family, Muawiyah has made a name for himself among the Roman elite of northern Syria as an estate administrator and sometime tax collector. On numerous occasions, he has ingratiated himself to many a landowner by putting at their disposal a gang of armed thug he has put together in order to extract overdue rent payments and taxes from recalcitrant peasants. The many contacts he has secured this way now prove crucial to the task at hand. Through his relationships with rich landowners, Muawiyah is able to raise money and through his family links with the Arabic tribal milieu he is able to attract soldiers. By early July, he has managed to gather an army of 5000 men which he starts to train in the plains south of Hierapolis under the leadership of mostly Avar mercenary officers he has managed to attract from across the Dipotamian border with enticing salary offers.
Back at Caesarea, Moshe Al-ḥajara takes advantage of the lull enforced on him by the siege to start organizing his new realm. In particular, he sends parties of riders far and wide with orders to set up a rough fiscal apparatus. A few weeks later, he receives worrying reports. Many peasants apparently have no intention of paying taxes to the new Messiah and some are starting to leave, encouraged by the lenient terms awarded to the population of Jerusalem and Petra. Moshe Al-ḥajara is flabbergast and flies into a rage. "Christians love crosses, he hisses between his teeth, we are going to give them some". In the next few weeks a few hundred Palestinian peasants are crucified at important crossroads and near the gates of major towns. The message is well understood and the Messiah's tax collectors have an easy task thereafter. By the end of August, Moshe Al-ḥajara realizes that Caesarea will not fall any time soon. It had ample food stocks to begin with and is now being resupplied by sea without interference as the Messiah's army has no naval arm to speak of. It has no siege engines either nor anyone with the know-how to build any. What it does have, however, is a handful of miners from the Sinai who are put to work at once digging mining galleries under the walls. After two weeks work, a large section of the wall, already weakened by the shoddy renovations performed in haste just before the siege, crumbles on the morning of September 12th 653 AD. This time, Moshe Al-ḥajara urges no restraint on his troops. The city is thoroughly looted and the population is either massacred or taken into slavery. Half of these slaves will die on their march through the desert to Yemen, the survivors being mostly sold in India and a few in Sistan.
As news of these events spread, a wave of apocalyptic horror starts to grip the population of the neighboring provinces in Syria and Egypt. Moshe Al-ḥajara is by now universally viewed as the Antichrist and his appearance and misdeeds have become the mainstay of most sermons delivered from pulpits all over the region. In Antioch, Theodotus Pamphilius, a pupil of Chosroes Chrysorhine, delivers the following sermon in late September:
Brothers and sisters, the Day of Judgement is upon us.
Woe to the women bearing children and to the sick.
Woe to us all as this is happening at the onset of winter as is written[3].
We have drunk of the cup of the whore of Babylon[4] for far too long and now we stagger like drunkards.
We have wallowed in the blood and the filth of our idolatry.
We have prayed to demons and glorified statues made with hands.
We have decked ourselves in finery, put pearls in our hair, makeup on our face and costly garments on our perishable bodies.
But we have forgotten the faith of our baptism and silenced the Spirit within our souls.
We have prayed for the goods of this world and despised the guidance to the next.
And not only did we sinned like pagans but we also lusted after the whorings of the synagogue.
As our Father John Chrysostom preached in this very church[5], we have crucified our savior once again by fasting like those who killed Him and by celebrating their ungodly feast days.
We have impudently strived for the works of the law as if we had not been redeemed from the law.
We yearned to be Pharisees, whitewashed like tombs on the outside and full of filth and impurity on the inside[6].
And it is thus fitting that our chastisement is coming in the form of a false Jewish Messiah, accursed and bloodstained.
And now the vanity of our works is being exposed by the scourge of the Antichrist.
He is there at our door, with his whip of fire and his yoke of iron.
And God allows him to walk his threshing floor so that he may cast the chaff into the fire[7].
Brothers and sisters, the Judgement of God is upon us and there is little time.
Let us pray earnestly for the forgiveness of the Father and let us commit our souls to the saving hands of Christ.
Amen.
Woe to the women bearing children and to the sick.
Woe to us all as this is happening at the onset of winter as is written[3].
We have drunk of the cup of the whore of Babylon[4] for far too long and now we stagger like drunkards.
We have wallowed in the blood and the filth of our idolatry.
We have prayed to demons and glorified statues made with hands.
We have decked ourselves in finery, put pearls in our hair, makeup on our face and costly garments on our perishable bodies.
But we have forgotten the faith of our baptism and silenced the Spirit within our souls.
We have prayed for the goods of this world and despised the guidance to the next.
And not only did we sinned like pagans but we also lusted after the whorings of the synagogue.
As our Father John Chrysostom preached in this very church[5], we have crucified our savior once again by fasting like those who killed Him and by celebrating their ungodly feast days.
We have impudently strived for the works of the law as if we had not been redeemed from the law.
We yearned to be Pharisees, whitewashed like tombs on the outside and full of filth and impurity on the inside[6].
And it is thus fitting that our chastisement is coming in the form of a false Jewish Messiah, accursed and bloodstained.
And now the vanity of our works is being exposed by the scourge of the Antichrist.
He is there at our door, with his whip of fire and his yoke of iron.
And God allows him to walk his threshing floor so that he may cast the chaff into the fire[7].
Brothers and sisters, the Judgement of God is upon us and there is little time.
Let us pray earnestly for the forgiveness of the Father and let us commit our souls to the saving hands of Christ.
Amen.
This kind of sermon, repeated in countless variants, drives the population of Syria into a frenzy of penitential donations which make Muawiyah's task of raising an army much easier. By the end of November, he has ample funds at his disposal and his troops are steadily growing both in quality and numbers. In January 654 AD, he has over 25 000 soldiers at his disposal, about half of which are local levies while the rest are mercenaries from various provenance. During the autumn of 653, Tyre, Scytopolis and Bostra have been surrendered to Moshe Al-ḥajara without a fight and their populations have mostly fled north. In December, the army of the Messiah is before Damascus, which Muawiyah has decided to defend, and another siege begins.
In early 654, Muawiyah reaches Damascus from the north, at the head of a relief army. The besiegers number a little over 17 000 while the garrison of the city numbers around 3000 there are 20 000 fresh soldiers who have just arrived from northern Syria. Religious fervor is strong on both sides. Early in the morning, the besieging army is arranged in neat rows as men stand and prostrate seven times in proskynesis[8] towards Jerusalem. In the Christian camp, the men sing hymns and take communion before combat. Muawiyah, however, keeps a cool head. He has numerical advantage but not by far and, more importantly, he has a secret plan. Thus, for two full weeks, he orders his troops to stay in their fortified camp and only engage in minor skirmishes. Mounted patrols from Moshe Al-ḥajara’s army approach the camp on a regular basis to taunt the Christian soldiers inside. They generally bring crucifixes and icons looted from churches or monasteries and they defecate and urinate on them in full view of the sentries on the camp's palisade. Finally, at dawn on March 25th 654 AD, Muawiyah orders his troops to deploy for an all-out battle. Soon the two armies are facing each other in the plain south of the city. The clergy on the Christian side is singing hymns while the Shofar is being blown by priests on the opposite line. But both songs and trumpets are nearly drowned in the jeers and abuse that both camps are hurling at each other. Suddenly, there is complete silence on the Christian side. A small body of riders emerges from the center of the battle line. They are holding aloft a large object, hidden under a richly embroidered cloth. Suddenly, the cloth is removed and everyone recognizes the object. It is the reliquary of the True Cross. This was Muawiyah's secret plan. when he arrived at Damascus two weeks before, he had sent a party of his best fighters (some of whom were old friends from his rent collecting gang) on a circuitous route through the desert to Jerusalem with orders to sneak into the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and steal the reliquary. The party had met with success and had just returned on the eve of the battle.
When the True Cross is uncovered, the Christian army lets out a huge roar. On the opposite side, there is surprise and hesitation. The Yemeni soldiers do not recognize the object, and neither do Moshe Al-ḥajara. But the nearly two thirds of his army comes from areas which have had long contacts with the Roman Empire. Even if they have cast their lot behind the Messiah, some of them were previously Christian (formally at least) or in any case are well aware of Christian symbols and relics. They are frightened as this is a most sacred object and its sudden appearance seems miraculous. At Muawiyah's signal, the Christian army rushes forward; the foot soldiers running in the center and cavalry galloping on both wings. At the same time, 1500 defenders sally forth from the southern gate of the city on horseback. Moshe Al-ḥajara's army is quickly enveloped from both flanks. In the center, a square formation of elite Yemeni soldiers manages to hold its own against the onslaught of the Christian foot, inflicting heavy losses. The wings however soon start to crumble. On the right in particular, a body of 3000 Banu Salih cavalry manages to extricate itself and starts to flee southward. The disorganization this causes has fatal consequences. In a few minutes, the Messiah's army looses cohesion and the slaughter begins. At noon, the battle ends as none of the sons of Sarah and Hagar are left standing. No prisoners are taken and the wounded are killed on the spot. In total, there are over 18 0000 casualties. Moshe Al-ḥajara manages to flee with a small bodyguard. In the evening, he is caught by a pursuing detachment of Alan light cavalry. Brought back to Muawiyah's camp, he is left to rot in a barrel of human excrement for the whole night and then drawn and quartered the following morning. Finally, his severed head is stored in a casket full of salt an aromatic herbs for conservation and later display.
On April 10th 654, three days before Easter, Muawiyah enters Jerusalem at the head of his army. All that is left of the Yemeni troops and their allies has long fled and some of the population has started to return. The streets are lined with a rejoicing throng and flowers are being thrown from the roofs onto the troops below. All churches are open. Incense and hymns fill the air. After winding through the narrow streets, most of the troops exit the city and return to their camp outside the walls. Meanwhile, Muawiyah and his entourage alight at the Patriarch’s palace, where the victorious hero of Christendom has decided to set up his headquarters. The Patriarch himself took refuge in Antioch the year before and he is not due to come back for another fortnight. As a result, it is Stephen, the bishop of Ascalon, who is the chief officiant for the celebrations of Easter, three days later. On the morning of the feast day, a procession composed of Muawiyah's chief officers, led by the clergy of the Holy City and followed by those of those senior citizens and officials that could be found departs from the Ekklesia Nea and heads for the Basilica of the Holy Apostles, where the Easter Sunday Mass is to be held.
At the end of the ceremony, The bishop of Ascalon climbs again onto the pulpit and declares:
My dear brothers, God has spoken!
The filthy hordes of the Antichrist have been put to flight.
Satan himself has been brought low.
Let us hear the groanings of the Spirit in our breast.
Let us pay heed to his guidance.
Too long have we allowed heresy to sully our Faith and God has been justly angered with us as a result.
By his mercy, he has shown us that we are to be bold.
Never again shall we tolerate any challenge to the hallowed doctrine of the unity of Christ's single nature.
Never again shall we suffer the Holy Mother of God to be begrudged her rightful title of Theotokos, whether openly or covertly.
Let us gather in unison behind the savior that God has sent us in the flesh.
Bishop Stephen then takes a diadem adorned with bright jewels from the hands of a deacon. While he spoke, Muawiyah has walked to the altar and knelt on the steps. The bishop makes the sign of the cross three times and then places the diadem on Muawiyah's head. He says:The filthy hordes of the Antichrist have been put to flight.
Satan himself has been brought low.
Let us hear the groanings of the Spirit in our breast.
Let us pay heed to his guidance.
Too long have we allowed heresy to sully our Faith and God has been justly angered with us as a result.
By his mercy, he has shown us that we are to be bold.
Never again shall we tolerate any challenge to the hallowed doctrine of the unity of Christ's single nature.
Never again shall we suffer the Holy Mother of God to be begrudged her rightful title of Theotokos, whether openly or covertly.
Let us gather in unison behind the savior that God has sent us in the flesh.
In the name of God I declare you August Emperor of the Romans.
You are the holy savior of mankind by the grace of the Father.
You are the deputy of Christ on Earth according the Heavenly decree,
The son of the Son sent to redeem men from bondage and guide them on the road to life everlasting.
Holy, Holy, Holy. Heaven and Earth are full of your glory.
Amen and Amen.
The Bishop of Ascalon finally smears chrism on Muawiyah's forehead and then sprays holy water all around him with the aspergil.You are the holy savior of mankind by the grace of the Father.
You are the deputy of Christ on Earth according the Heavenly decree,
The son of the Son sent to redeem men from bondage and guide them on the road to life everlasting.
Holy, Holy, Holy. Heaven and Earth are full of your glory.
Amen and Amen.
As Muawiyah lifts himself up and faces the crowd, the church explodes with cheers and shouts of joy. The newly crowned Savior of Mankind then walks out of the Church, followed by his entourage, in order to receive the acclamation of his troops gathered outside.
All this was also part of Muawiyah's secret plan.
[1] Scenitai
[2] "Muawiyah" is a Syriac and not an Arabic name and this has prompted many scholars to suspect that although he is described as a "relative of the Prophet Muhammad" and a member of his tribe by official Muslim histories, this is quite likely not the case.
[3] Matt 19:21 "And alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath. For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be."
[4] Rev 17:4 "The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality."
[5] John Chrysostom, "Adversus Judaeos"
[6] Matt. 23:27 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness."
[7] Matt. 3:12, Luke 3:17
[8] Greek term for the kind of posture used in Muslim prayer. Used long before that in ancient times to express submission to kings and Emperors.
Wouldn't this alt-Muwayiah want to change his name to something more Greek or Roman sounding upon claiming the throne? I believe there would be precedent.
Interesting. I have to say I didn't expect the "Messiah" to be put out of commission so quickly, and I'm surprised by how quickly alt-Muwayiah's career is moving, but I guess he does have a lot of zealous supporters now.
Interesting. I have to say I didn't expect the "Messiah" to be put out of commission so quickly, and I'm surprised by how quickly alt-Muwayiah's career is moving, but I guess he does have a lot of zealous supporters now.
fi11222
Banned
Interesting question. On the one hand, Greek or Greek-sounding names are definitely a marker of status and prestige. On the other hand, Muwayiah is now playing the card of the Monophysite majority against Imperial Chalcedonian orthodoxy and it so happens that the latter has been increasingly identified as the religion of "the Greeks" while Monophysitism is the creed of the non-Greek Syriac-speaking or Coptic-speaking populations of Syria and Egypt. Honestly, I have not decided yet and just call him "Muwayiah" for convenience.
Chosroes Chrysorhine will have more to say about this in a short while ...
fi11222
Banned
SB 15
The Emperor of Jerusalem
In the summer of 654 AD, the ERE has three emperors. In Serdica, Timostratus is still waiting to see how events will develop. In Constantinople, Constans II has just learned of the developments in Jerusalem and he is in a state of sheer panic. But there is nothing he can do since he has few troops at his disposal besides his own body guard and the garrison of the City. Muawiyah, for his part, is on his way to Emesa, where he is set to meet with the sheikhs of the major Arab tribes in the Roman sphere of influence and beyond.
Muawiyah's coup has been well planned and flawlessly executed. While he was raising an army in northern Syria during the latter half of 653, the politically savvy son of a merchant had sent feelers through his extensive network of contacts to gauge the potential support for a Monophysite-leaning regime change. Not surprisingly, the feedback from most of the Syriac-speaking land-owning and mercantile elite had been overwhelmingly positive. Needless to say he had also been assured by the now nearly independent Jacobite Church hierarchy of their full backing. When victory at Damascus had been assured, he had sent word to his supporters to join him in Jerusalem as fast as they could so that his imperial claim could be staked before the Chalcedonian church hierarchy and the civil bureaucracy could regain their footing. He also got a little bit of extra help from the calendar as his arrival in the Holy City had just coincided with the date of Easter, lending a significant aura of religious solemnity to his assumption of the purple.
While on his way to Emesa, Muawiyah had sent troop detachments to the major cities of Palestine in order to install Monophysite bishops and set up an administration loyal to himself. In the rest of Syria, many cities had not even waited for him to send troops. Mobs had taken to the streets, lynched Chalcedonian clergy and imperial bureaucrats alike and installed Monophysite holy men as bishops. Those Chalcedonian churchmen who had managed to flee had gathered in Antioch where a small garrison loyal to Constantinople made them feel somewhat safe.
When Muawiyah reaches Emesa, he is greeted by cheering crowds miles before the city gates. Here also, the Chalcedonian bishop has fled and has been replaced by a Monophysite monk who greets the new Emperor at the first milestone. For his meeting with the Arabic tribal leaders, Muawiyah has decided to emphasize his own Arabic heritage. He has set up a magnificent tent in a garden outside the city, where he greets the sheikhs according to the tradition of the majlis. He is dressed in Arabic-styled robes and is surrounded by his relatives from the Banu Kalb tribe. As each sheikh enters the tent, he is greeted with a kiss of peace and Muawiyah personally seats him on cushions arranged in a semi-circle on the carpet-covered floor. All the sheikhs from the Roman affiliated tribes, except the Banu Salih, have come. But they are not alone. Many sheiks from tribes traditionally affiliated with the Lakhmids of Al-Hirah are there as well. Since Pars has been turned into a duchy within the kingdom of Dipotamia, there are much less opportunities for Arab expansion to the east and Muawiyah has let it be known that he was about to make a worthwhile offer to all those who would come to him in Emesa. The offer is straightforward: "Help me consolidate my throne and you will become the new nobility of the Empire". It is indeed an offer that can hardly be refused and the political phase of the majlis soon concludes in unanimous approval. The rest of the gathering is devoted to refreshments, dances and poetry contests in which Muawiyah himself deigns to participate.
After Emesa, Muawiyah heads with his army, now over 40 000 strong, towards Antioch. When he arrives, he finds the gates locked and the walls manned. Unwilling to spill blood, he has the following proclamation read by heralds posted before each gate:
Muawiyah's imperial propaganda
Once he is master of Antioch, Muawiyah has the top Chalcedonian clergy arrested, including the patriarch of the city and the former patriarch of Jerusalem who had taken refuge north before the arrival of Moshe Al-ḥajara. He has them tonsured and sent to a monastery on the island of Iotabe in the gulf of Aqaba. Once he has made the necessary ecclesiastical and civil appointments to set up a new administration loyal to him, he departs from Antioch and heads north with his army.
Despite the religious angle he is playing, Muawiyah remains the cool-headed realist that he was when he roamed northern Syria with his gang of ruffians collecting taxes and rent. Of course, he is not an unbeliever. Everyone believes in God. But to him, God is power and those who serve Him best are those who wield power most effectively. From then on, Muawiyah's plan is a simple one. He will embark with his army on a tour of Anatolia where he will expropriate and kill the biggest landowners in order to distribute their land to the Arab sheikhs who have sworn loyalty to him. In contrast to Syria, where he has scrupulously avoided bloodshed, he has no interest in showing mercy to Greek lands in the north where he knows that no one will have any reason, religious or otherwise, to pledge allegiance to him willingly. He is determined to leave the Chalcedonian church alone in order to avoid popular unrest but intends to be otherwise ruthless in establishing political control. Beyond Anatolia, he has no plans of conquest for the moment. He lacks a sufficiently powerful navy to challenge the fortifications of Constantinople and he has no intention to take on the responsibility of the Danubian defenses anyway. In the spring of 655 AD, as he reaches Nicomedia with the bulk of his army, he sends a message to Timostratus in which he calls him "my dearest brother" and lets him know that he has no claim on any land beyond the straits and that he leaves the matter of Constans II to him. Upon receiving the message, Timostratus, who was expecting something of this kind, dispatches a cavalry detachment to Constantinople with an offer to spare the last of the Heraclids' life in exchange for abdication and exile. As usual, the former Emperor's nose is cut and he is shipped away to a monastery on the Balearic islands.
By the end of 655, Muawiyah is back in Jerusalem. While he was journeying back, a small army of Arabic cavalry led by one of his Banu Kalb nephews has taken control of Egypt on his behalf. There too, the top clergy has been replaced by Monophysite churchmen and the major Chalcedonian landowners have been expropriated to make room for his Arabic feudatories. Egypt and Syria are peaceful. Anatolia is under the tight control of the Arab warlords who have been granted new domains there and who are in the process of subdividing them to their own followers. In Illyricum, Timostratus seems satisfied as he is now the undisputed master of Constantinople, the Balkans, Greece, Italy and Africa. In Anudagshahr, king Hamazasp has died in 653 and been replaced by his grandson Shushanik. Neither him nor the court is too happy with the developments in the ERE. Having a Monophysite neighbor to the west is not a comfortable situation. However, Muawiyah has made every effort to appease Dipotamian apprehension and it has been agreed that the customary Dipotamian tribute will now be paid to Jerusalem instead of Constantinople.
For the remainder of his reign, which will last until 680, Muawiyah will rarely leave the Holy city. He devotes his spare time to hunting (like the Arabs, he is particularly fond of falcon hunting in the desert), to poetry and, of course, to the company of women. But his life is not all leisure. He keeps a close eye on the administration of the Empire and devotes the best part of his energies to the embellishment of Jerusalem. During his reign, the city becomes a true imperial capital, adorned with magnificent palaces and churches surrounded by lush gardens. The population increases to over 250 000 by the end of the reign; a figure made possible by the water supply system started under Heraclius II and vastly expanded under Muawiyah. As years go by, an increasingly elaborate ritual develops around the person of the Emperor. Here, there is no talk of "Persian Marriages" but it goes without saying that the imperial palace includes a vast harem, guarded by numerous eunuchs. Throughout the year, the liturgical calendar of the Church becomes intertwined with a myriad of imperial ceremonies in which the court, the army and the people are called upon to pay their respects to the ruler according to an elaborate protocol. By the end of his reign, Emperor Muawiyah-Gerodynamos has become, in all but name, a god.
[1] Translation in Greek of one possible meaning of "Muawiyah". γεροδύναμος means "strong arm"
The Emperor of Jerusalem
In the summer of 654 AD, the ERE has three emperors. In Serdica, Timostratus is still waiting to see how events will develop. In Constantinople, Constans II has just learned of the developments in Jerusalem and he is in a state of sheer panic. But there is nothing he can do since he has few troops at his disposal besides his own body guard and the garrison of the City. Muawiyah, for his part, is on his way to Emesa, where he is set to meet with the sheikhs of the major Arab tribes in the Roman sphere of influence and beyond.
Muawiyah's coup has been well planned and flawlessly executed. While he was raising an army in northern Syria during the latter half of 653, the politically savvy son of a merchant had sent feelers through his extensive network of contacts to gauge the potential support for a Monophysite-leaning regime change. Not surprisingly, the feedback from most of the Syriac-speaking land-owning and mercantile elite had been overwhelmingly positive. Needless to say he had also been assured by the now nearly independent Jacobite Church hierarchy of their full backing. When victory at Damascus had been assured, he had sent word to his supporters to join him in Jerusalem as fast as they could so that his imperial claim could be staked before the Chalcedonian church hierarchy and the civil bureaucracy could regain their footing. He also got a little bit of extra help from the calendar as his arrival in the Holy City had just coincided with the date of Easter, lending a significant aura of religious solemnity to his assumption of the purple.
While on his way to Emesa, Muawiyah had sent troop detachments to the major cities of Palestine in order to install Monophysite bishops and set up an administration loyal to himself. In the rest of Syria, many cities had not even waited for him to send troops. Mobs had taken to the streets, lynched Chalcedonian clergy and imperial bureaucrats alike and installed Monophysite holy men as bishops. Those Chalcedonian churchmen who had managed to flee had gathered in Antioch where a small garrison loyal to Constantinople made them feel somewhat safe.
When Muawiyah reaches Emesa, he is greeted by cheering crowds miles before the city gates. Here also, the Chalcedonian bishop has fled and has been replaced by a Monophysite monk who greets the new Emperor at the first milestone. For his meeting with the Arabic tribal leaders, Muawiyah has decided to emphasize his own Arabic heritage. He has set up a magnificent tent in a garden outside the city, where he greets the sheikhs according to the tradition of the majlis. He is dressed in Arabic-styled robes and is surrounded by his relatives from the Banu Kalb tribe. As each sheikh enters the tent, he is greeted with a kiss of peace and Muawiyah personally seats him on cushions arranged in a semi-circle on the carpet-covered floor. All the sheikhs from the Roman affiliated tribes, except the Banu Salih, have come. But they are not alone. Many sheiks from tribes traditionally affiliated with the Lakhmids of Al-Hirah are there as well. Since Pars has been turned into a duchy within the kingdom of Dipotamia, there are much less opportunities for Arab expansion to the east and Muawiyah has let it be known that he was about to make a worthwhile offer to all those who would come to him in Emesa. The offer is straightforward: "Help me consolidate my throne and you will become the new nobility of the Empire". It is indeed an offer that can hardly be refused and the political phase of the majlis soon concludes in unanimous approval. The rest of the gathering is devoted to refreshments, dances and poetry contests in which Muawiyah himself deigns to participate.
After Emesa, Muawiyah heads with his army, now over 40 000 strong, towards Antioch. When he arrives, he finds the gates locked and the walls manned. Unwilling to spill blood, he has the following proclamation read by heralds posted before each gate:
Citizens of Antioch,
I am Gerodynamos[1], Emperor of the Romans by the grace of God,
victorious in battle over the servant of Satan Moshe Al-ḥajara by heavenly decree,
crowned and anointed in Jerusalem as the protector of men.
For too long, the body of the Church has been rent asunder by the obstinacy of bigoted Emperors and churchmen.
It is not my will to continue in this folly but rather to grant every faithful believer in our savior Jesus Christ the protection he needs to pray and worship in peace regardless of what his intimate conviction is about the second person of the Trinity's hypostasis.
Open the gates and no harm will come to you.
Of course, Muawiyah has no intention to extend this policy of toleration to everyone. He just wishes to signal his intention not to embark on wholesale pogroms against the Chalcedonian population. Soon, the declaration has the desired effect. Riots erupt all over the city and the garrison is quickly overwhelmed. Several gates are opened and the besieging troops pour in. Of course, there is no looting or loss of life as such behavior has been strictly forbidden. By this point, Muawiyah's control over his army is absolute due to his personal aura, his skillful use of tribal loyalties and his abundance of funds. Many stories are starting to circulate about him. Some say that the True Cross has been brought to him by angels at the battle of Damascus. Others claim that his mother received the visitation of an angel nine months before his birth. Besides these popular legends, an official propaganda is also being broadcast far and wide. Its central theme is the heavenly mandate to rule given to Emperor Gerodynamos by the miraculous circumstances of his rise to power. In support of this theme, mosaics and paintings are being commissioned in Churches and public buildings all over the territory Muawiyah controls. I am Gerodynamos[1], Emperor of the Romans by the grace of God,
victorious in battle over the servant of Satan Moshe Al-ḥajara by heavenly decree,
crowned and anointed in Jerusalem as the protector of men.
For too long, the body of the Church has been rent asunder by the obstinacy of bigoted Emperors and churchmen.
It is not my will to continue in this folly but rather to grant every faithful believer in our savior Jesus Christ the protection he needs to pray and worship in peace regardless of what his intimate conviction is about the second person of the Trinity's hypostasis.
Open the gates and no harm will come to you.
Muawiyah's imperial propaganda
Once he is master of Antioch, Muawiyah has the top Chalcedonian clergy arrested, including the patriarch of the city and the former patriarch of Jerusalem who had taken refuge north before the arrival of Moshe Al-ḥajara. He has them tonsured and sent to a monastery on the island of Iotabe in the gulf of Aqaba. Once he has made the necessary ecclesiastical and civil appointments to set up a new administration loyal to him, he departs from Antioch and heads north with his army.
Despite the religious angle he is playing, Muawiyah remains the cool-headed realist that he was when he roamed northern Syria with his gang of ruffians collecting taxes and rent. Of course, he is not an unbeliever. Everyone believes in God. But to him, God is power and those who serve Him best are those who wield power most effectively. From then on, Muawiyah's plan is a simple one. He will embark with his army on a tour of Anatolia where he will expropriate and kill the biggest landowners in order to distribute their land to the Arab sheikhs who have sworn loyalty to him. In contrast to Syria, where he has scrupulously avoided bloodshed, he has no interest in showing mercy to Greek lands in the north where he knows that no one will have any reason, religious or otherwise, to pledge allegiance to him willingly. He is determined to leave the Chalcedonian church alone in order to avoid popular unrest but intends to be otherwise ruthless in establishing political control. Beyond Anatolia, he has no plans of conquest for the moment. He lacks a sufficiently powerful navy to challenge the fortifications of Constantinople and he has no intention to take on the responsibility of the Danubian defenses anyway. In the spring of 655 AD, as he reaches Nicomedia with the bulk of his army, he sends a message to Timostratus in which he calls him "my dearest brother" and lets him know that he has no claim on any land beyond the straits and that he leaves the matter of Constans II to him. Upon receiving the message, Timostratus, who was expecting something of this kind, dispatches a cavalry detachment to Constantinople with an offer to spare the last of the Heraclids' life in exchange for abdication and exile. As usual, the former Emperor's nose is cut and he is shipped away to a monastery on the Balearic islands.
By the end of 655, Muawiyah is back in Jerusalem. While he was journeying back, a small army of Arabic cavalry led by one of his Banu Kalb nephews has taken control of Egypt on his behalf. There too, the top clergy has been replaced by Monophysite churchmen and the major Chalcedonian landowners have been expropriated to make room for his Arabic feudatories. Egypt and Syria are peaceful. Anatolia is under the tight control of the Arab warlords who have been granted new domains there and who are in the process of subdividing them to their own followers. In Illyricum, Timostratus seems satisfied as he is now the undisputed master of Constantinople, the Balkans, Greece, Italy and Africa. In Anudagshahr, king Hamazasp has died in 653 and been replaced by his grandson Shushanik. Neither him nor the court is too happy with the developments in the ERE. Having a Monophysite neighbor to the west is not a comfortable situation. However, Muawiyah has made every effort to appease Dipotamian apprehension and it has been agreed that the customary Dipotamian tribute will now be paid to Jerusalem instead of Constantinople.
For the remainder of his reign, which will last until 680, Muawiyah will rarely leave the Holy city. He devotes his spare time to hunting (like the Arabs, he is particularly fond of falcon hunting in the desert), to poetry and, of course, to the company of women. But his life is not all leisure. He keeps a close eye on the administration of the Empire and devotes the best part of his energies to the embellishment of Jerusalem. During his reign, the city becomes a true imperial capital, adorned with magnificent palaces and churches surrounded by lush gardens. The population increases to over 250 000 by the end of the reign; a figure made possible by the water supply system started under Heraclius II and vastly expanded under Muawiyah. As years go by, an increasingly elaborate ritual develops around the person of the Emperor. Here, there is no talk of "Persian Marriages" but it goes without saying that the imperial palace includes a vast harem, guarded by numerous eunuchs. Throughout the year, the liturgical calendar of the Church becomes intertwined with a myriad of imperial ceremonies in which the court, the army and the people are called upon to pay their respects to the ruler according to an elaborate protocol. By the end of his reign, Emperor Muawiyah-Gerodynamos has become, in all but name, a god.
[1] Translation in Greek of one possible meaning of "Muawiyah". γεροδύναμος means "strong arm"
fi11222
Banned
Quite the contrary. Muawiyah now is the ERE.
And Timostratus in Serdica/Constantinople/Rome becomes a sort of WRE ...
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The amount of irony in what this alt-Muawiyah has done is tremendous. And it parallels rather well his path OTL, which is kind of nifty. Assuming they're the same guy (was Muawiyah born before the PoD?)
Muawiyah's pragmatism will definitely help ensure his regime survives, but I expect that he'll have to deal with Timostratus sooner or later, even if it's just Timostratus' heir and Muawiyah's heir.
Muawiyah's pragmatism will definitely help ensure his regime survives, but I expect that he'll have to deal with Timostratus sooner or later, even if it's just Timostratus' heir and Muawiyah's heir.
fi11222
Banned
Muawiyah ITTL is born at the same time as IOTL (a little after 600) and therefore after the POD (which is in 574) I tried to keep him as close as possible from the original. Did you know that he was also crowned in Jerusalem IOTL ?
Indeed.
That's hard to believe.
I can conceive that Muawiyah could well have taken Egypt and Syria due to latent Monophysite separatism and with his momentum penetrate deep into Anatolia.
Still, that de facto Monophysite secession gives the event a strong religious-political signification, ie a strong likeliness of civil war. Even in this context, religious tolerance would be taken for what it is, like ever since Constantine: ''continue to do what you want at home unharmed, but I and my [Monophysite] friends, we keep all powers''.
That situation with an Arab-Roman lord taking over Levant is not without reminding of Odaenathus (took up the defense of Levant against Ssassanids), although that one having remained loyal, it is more relevant to consider Zenobia and her takeover of roughly the same regions Muawiyah is lord of, and we know what happened next.
On Dipotamia, I continue to think that by allowing Armenians to unite the Ssassanid lands, albeit in a decentralized nature (as Parthians did), the Romans made a mistake as, being a big power in its own right, Dipotamia would unavoidably turn on its former ally, or properly to speak of, take the first occasion to affirm its own power. With Muawiyah monophysite secession, you just supplied Dipotamia the perfect pretext; they would oppose him as a mean of affirming total independence from Rhomania by claiming to be only tributary of the legitimate Imperial and Chalcedonian government of Constantinopolis, while at the same time ceasing paying any tribute on grounds of ''technical difficulties''. It's mere geopolitical good sense.
Back in Constantinopolis, I don't see why Constans II couldn't have settled the situation with Timostratus by making him a co-Emperor, which I don't think unprecedented (I remember it happened quite a lot times), and sending him to fight in Anatolia. Reluctance of soldiers to move away from Balkans is less of a problem since the conflict is of religious nature, and soldiers are not only found in Balkans.
I can conceive that Muawiyah could well have taken Egypt and Syria due to latent Monophysite separatism and with his momentum penetrate deep into Anatolia.
Still, that de facto Monophysite secession gives the event a strong religious-political signification, ie a strong likeliness of civil war. Even in this context, religious tolerance would be taken for what it is, like ever since Constantine: ''continue to do what you want at home unharmed, but I and my [Monophysite] friends, we keep all powers''.
That situation with an Arab-Roman lord taking over Levant is not without reminding of Odaenathus (took up the defense of Levant against Ssassanids), although that one having remained loyal, it is more relevant to consider Zenobia and her takeover of roughly the same regions Muawiyah is lord of, and we know what happened next.
On Dipotamia, I continue to think that by allowing Armenians to unite the Ssassanid lands, albeit in a decentralized nature (as Parthians did), the Romans made a mistake as, being a big power in its own right, Dipotamia would unavoidably turn on its former ally, or properly to speak of, take the first occasion to affirm its own power. With Muawiyah monophysite secession, you just supplied Dipotamia the perfect pretext; they would oppose him as a mean of affirming total independence from Rhomania by claiming to be only tributary of the legitimate Imperial and Chalcedonian government of Constantinopolis, while at the same time ceasing paying any tribute on grounds of ''technical difficulties''. It's mere geopolitical good sense.
Back in Constantinopolis, I don't see why Constans II couldn't have settled the situation with Timostratus by making him a co-Emperor, which I don't think unprecedented (I remember it happened quite a lot times), and sending him to fight in Anatolia. Reluctance of soldiers to move away from Balkans is less of a problem since the conflict is of religious nature, and soldiers are not only found in Balkans.
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