The Sultanate of Rumistan: An Alternate Anatolia

[marsworms]

A 17th century depiction of Sultan Mahmoud Shah, probably around the age of 40 or 50
Part 16: Sultan Mahmoud Shah, Lion of Islam​

Even as the salah prayer was recited at his father’s funeral in 1349 (749), the newly crowned 30 year old Sultan Mahmoud Shah had to contend with the ongoing effects of the Pestilence that engulfed Anatolia, trying his hardest to help his people cope with the massive loss of life from the disease. Taking a cue from the lives of past sultans, Mahmoud Shah reinstated the grain redistribution of Sultan Kilij Arslan IV, though diversifying it to rely primarily on food produced in cities due to the mass migration of farmers into cities. Partnering with the largest masjids in cities from Iconium to Nicomedia, Mahmoud Shah began a program designed to feed the starving populace as best as he could, with extra funds being provided by zakat and jizya taxes in order to provide the widows and orphans of deceased farmers and craftsmen with an income. In 1356 (756), noticing the migration of Kurds further north in the eastern regions of his holdings, Mahmoud Shah struck a deal with a number of Kurdish tribes that would give them political autonomy in exchange for a cut of the produce of their herding, namely wool and mutton. At first this may seem like a poor deal, but the location of the Kurds on the border with the Ilkhanate gave these dealings an additional significance, with autonomous Kurdish bands able to better defend their borderland homes, as a buffer against potential Mongol aggression.

However, Mahmoud Shah’s attentions would be diverted back to the west with the Alexionite Uprising of Theodoros, depriving the reinvigorated grain redistribution program of the fertile produce of western Anatolia as well as resulting in the deaths of thousands of citydwellers and formerly agrarian refugees. The period of Alexionite control of western Anatolia caused a spike in the number of deaths in Anatolia, even when ignoring the deaths from the fighting itself. The lull in the food redistribution program was absolutely devastating, and if Mahmoud Shah wanted to get back to helping his people, he would have to respond to the rebellion as quickly as possible.

Initially, Sultan Mahmoud Shah believed that the rebels were fully backed by Basileos Alexios VI Palaiologos, and so an envoy was sent to Constantinople to demand an end to support for the rebels and a return to amicable relations between the two states. The envoy was imprisoned and presumably died in prison. So Mahmoud Shah reached out to two increasingly important factions within his state: the iqta of Orhan son of Osman, and the nomadic Kurds. The Alexionite Uprising had begun within the iqta of Orhan, but the young noble had been experiencing difficulties defend his domains from the efforts of Theodoros. Mahmoud Shah sent him a letter in 1354 (755), describing the sultan’s plans to defeat the rebels: he would use nomadic Kurdish warriors from eastern Anatolia to supplement the struggling troops of the sultanate, providing a unified bulwark against the Alexionites that would be able to defeat them with ease. Orhan son of Osman was intrigued by the idea, and agreed. Now, Mahmoud Shah had only to communicate with the prominent Kurdish tribes, and these dealings were not too difficult. By 1357 (758), a force of mixed Kurdish and Turcoman soldiers was moving out of Iconium to regroup with the forces of Orhan at Nicomedia.

Ultimately, the strategy of a combination of nomadic warriors and traditional infantry and cavalry paid off, with the Alexionite rebels routed and exiled to the Eastern Roman Empire by 1372 (772). A few Kurdish bands which had accompanied Sultan Mahmoud Shah settled down in the recaptured territories of western Anatolia, shaping pockets of Iranian nomadism in the fertile fields and valleys of the Aegean plain, and providing a bulwark against Roman incursion. Many of these Kurdish bands were almost fanatical in their adherence to the faith, and the Sultan used them to his advantage in suppressing the rebellious Dimashqi Sufis as well as the Alexionites that remained in Anatolia, though there were documented instances where Kurdish mercenaries would attack state-sanctioned Sufis (namely Mevlevis) for their supposed heresy and drunkenness.

With the victory over the Alexionites pushing the way, Sultan Mahmoud Shah experienced a period of great popularity, increasing the efficiency of the food redistribution system as well as building a few notable masjids and sufi lodges, most importantly the Mevlevi lodge in Prusa, which was constructed in 1378 (779) with the help of dirhams from the Sultan’s treasury. For his defeat of the Alexionites and patronage of religious institutions, Mahmoud Shah was termed the Lion of Islam, or Islam Arslani. When he went on hajj in 1379 (779), he took with him an entourage of servants and attendants, but left his wife behind in Iconium. She would die while he was away, succumbing to the Pestilence as many of her subjects did as well. His wife, a scion of a notable family of Turcomen, was named Sayar, and she was instrumental in the restructuring and re-esablishing of the food redistribution system in Rum. She proposed the division of the state into districts with state-appointed representatives, in the Roman style, which would oversee the distribution of the food and work with local masjids in a way which the Sultan simply could not. She was also known to be a skilled huntress, even riding alongside her husband in the Anatolian countryside. Upon hearing of her death, Sultan Mahmoud Shah is said to have spent a whole year grieving in Damascus, but it is possible that this is a fabrication. Mahmoud Shah returned to Iconium from the hajj in 1381 (782), now 62 years old.

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Hundredth post in this thread! Sorry for a bit of a short one: I sort of thought that this one and the last one had to go together, so I decided to post them back to back like this.

 

[Al-numbers]

The Pestilence and subsequent uprising of the Alexionites remind me a bit of Egyptian Sudan in the 19th century, though with the religion flipped. Given the severity of the radicals, I wonder if their exploits would become legend in both Anatolia and Thrace; certainly their exploits would make good fodder for children's imagination. The Alexionite immigration is also interesting, because I dimly remember reading somewhere that some pre-Protestant heretical movements originated from the Balkans and spread across Europe several times before being stamped out by Papal authorities. I can see accounts of these people being discussed and debated across Italy or Germany, which would influence other wild firebrands.

Also find it interesting how the towns all keep their Roman and Greek names, and that Mahmoud Shah's wife Sayar proposed a land division similar to that of the Romans. Orhan though... wonder if his dad taught him to become more than just landing an iqta.

 

[EmperorBuaya]

At this rate, perhaps Rumistan might become the new Roman Empire in place of OTL Ottomans. Hmm, an Islamic-Roman may sounds interesting.

Anyway, darn pestilence.

 

[Imperial Inkstand-filler]

Do we know where the Abbasid Caliphs have relocated to ITTL? I imagine it’s probably Cairo like OTL but since TTL has both Rum and the Mamelukes decisively checking Mongol expansion...

 

[marsworms]

The Pestilence and subsequent uprising of the Alexionites remind me a bit of Egyptian Sudan in the 19th century, though with the religion flipped. Given the severity of the radicals, I wonder if their exploits would become legend in both Anatolia and Thrace; certainly their exploits would make good fodder for children's imagination. The Alexionite immigration is also interesting, because I dimly remember reading somewhere that some pre-Protestant heretical movements originated from the Balkans and spread across Europe several times before being stamped out by Papal authorities. I can see accounts of these people being discussed and debated across Italy or Germany, which would influence other wild firebrands.

Also find it interesting how the towns all keep their Roman and Greek names, and that Mahmoud Shah's wife Sayar proposed a land division similar to that of the Romans. Orhan though... wonder if his dad taught him to become more than just landing an iqta.

Oh, that mention of Balkan heretics influencing stuff in western Europe sounds fascinating! I would love to read about that sometime. Also, there are multiple reasons for the cities keeping their Roman names: chief among these are that the ruling elite (i.e. the Sultan and nobility) use Turcish forms of the names that are closer to the Roman forms (for example, the elite form of the city name Iconium is Ikonyan, rather than the lower class Konya), and that the Roman names are more commonly used in western European texts than the Turcoman forms.

Do we know where the Abbasid Caliphs have relocated to ITTL? I imagine it’s probably Cairo like OTL but since TTL has both Rum and the Mamelukes decisively checking Mongol expansion...

They fled to Cairo as in OTL!

 

[Al-numbers]

Oh, that mention of Balkan heretics influencing stuff in western Europe sounds fascinating! I would love to read about that sometime.

Well, I ain't a religious scholar but from what I can scrounge from Wikipedia (I know) there were two religious movements from the Balkans that influenced Europe during the pre-Reformation: Bogomilism and Catharism.

I ain't gonna pretend I understand them, but it seemed these movements were popularized mostly as a reaction to feudalism and the secular/ecclesiastical order of the day (with some kingly politics involved). I wonder if the Alexionites could also influence Europe so, calling for Christian purification and rejection of Papal authority.

 

[marsworms]

Well, I ain't a religious scholar but from what I can scrounge from Wikipedia (I know) there were two religious movements from the Balkans that influenced Europe during the pre-Reformation: Bogomilism and Catharism.

I ain't gonna pretend I understand them, but it seemed these movements were popularized mostly as a reaction to feudalism and the secular/ecclesiastical order of the day (with some kingly politics involved). I wonder if the Alexionites could also influence Europe so, calling for Christian purification and rejection of Papal authority.

Ah I knew about those! I guess I was just unaware of their effects on western Europe. Speaking of bogomilism, they will actually come up in the TL not too far in the future! Specifically the Bogomilists of the Bosnian Church that is. It would be very interesting to explore how the upstart Alexionites and the older Bogomilists interact too.

 

[Al-numbers]

At this rate, perhaps Rumistan might become the new Roman Empire in place of OTL Ottomans. Hmm, an Islamic-Roman may sounds interesting.

Well, it ain't Islamic-Roman till we get clan names like the Banu Angelino of Al-Andalus. Perhaps there may be a Banu Kaysar or Hanedanı Kostantin?

 

[marsworms]

It's my birthday tomorrow, so I will be giving you all a bit of a birthday present too! I don't want to spoil the contents of tomorrow's update, but we will be returning to the Pontic-Caspian Steppe to see what happened while Sultan Mahmoud Shah was dealing with the Alexionites and the Pestilence. When he comes back from his hajj, there will be a new challenge coming in from the north... Hope you all have a great day!

 

[marsworms]

A statue of Burilgi the Blind, built and dedicated in Sarai, mid-20th century

Part 17: Burilgi the Conqueror, the Iron-Willed and Indomitable​

In 1330 (730), only two years before the death of Oz Beg Khan and the complete dissolution of his khanate, a boy would be born to parents in land of the Bashkirs, a product of the union of local Turk and foreign Mongol, a true representative of the effect that the Tatars had on Central Asia and the Steppes. His name was Burilgi, and though he was born to obscure and unknown parents of a herder background, he would rise to prominence and define a whole century with blood and conquest. Little is known of his upbringing, other than that he lived as a goatherd in the foothills of the Ural mountains, that he claimed his mother was descended from one of the sons of Chinghis Khan himself, and that he lost his right eye in an accident with a bow and arrow around the age of 11. For this iconic injury, he was known as Burilgi the Blind, or, in his native tongue of Baskhort, Khukir Burilgi. He was raised as a Muslim, although he lived in a community that was predominately sky-worshiping, and based on certain aspects of his life and career it would appear that he truly practiced a somewhat syncretistic form of Islam, albeit one ultimately based in the Sunni tradition.

Burilgi the Blind took part in the bloody wars of the Manghit Khanate against the smaller successor states to the east, rising in the ranks of Babak Temur Khan’s armies during his conquests of Sarai and wars with neighboring hordes. Burilgi claimed to have been present at the siege of Sarai, though his role in the battle could not have been incredibly important: he would have only been 18 at the time of the capture of the city. While his presence at such early events is somewhat contested, his involvement in the wars between the Manghits and the Crimean Khanate are well documented, for it is in these wars, over the course of the 1350s-1360s (750s-760s), that Burilgi the Blind was appointed as a commander, capturing numerous cities in the eastern hinterlands of the Khanate of Crimea and distracting Borgu Khan from his expansion in Moldavia. Babak Temur Khan was unable to conquer the lands of Borgu Khan, but during the series of short wars and skirmishes that Burilgi took part in on the Crimean borderlands, he rose through the ranks, eventually becoming the head of the armies of Babak Temur Khan in the West, eyeing the border with the Crimeans and the Kievans, and leading raids into many of the neighboring states to the west. It is during this period of his life that Burilgi the Blind had an audience with Khan Komek of the Kipchaks and with Babak Temur Khan of the Manghits, and led the conquest of the Neo-Khazar Confederacy that toppled the supposedly Jewish Khan of the Caucasus and shattered the northern Caucasus into innumerable squabbling tiny statelets. By the 1370s (770s), Burilgi the Blind had brought much glory to the Manghit Horde, and Babak Temur was glad for it.

In 1371 (771), Babak Temur Khan died in his sleep. The official texts from the time after Burilgi’s rise to power say that he succumbed to the Pestilence, but there are no contemporary texts that indicate Babak Temur even had the Pestilence in the first place. Most scholars assume that he succumbed to old age, though there are a contingent that believe he was assassinated at the orders of a powerful general in his employ. Babak Temur Khan lacked an heir: his oldest son was only 10 years of age, and a group of aspirant generals vied to divide the extensive territory of the Manghit Horde amongst themselves, undoing the work that Babak Temur had done since the death of Oz Beg Khan. The exact series of events after the death of Babak Temur Khan are uncertain: the only narrative form of events is that which was written at the orders of Burilgi’s sons after his death.

A modern depiction of Burilgi the Blind defending the Manghit Khanate from the Turcomen (concept art for a film based on his life)​

According to the official history written after Burilgi’s death, Burilgi the Blind was able to take hold of the Manghit Horde at the request of the lake Babak Temur Khan’s wife Khurgesh, the mother of his young son, who worried for the safety of herself and her children in a Manghit horde shattered by greedy generals. Burilgi, acting only in the interest of Khurgesh, began a campaign of assassination and mutilation of the conspiring generals in question, ending with the death of Jurchi Batu, one of the older generals of Babak Temur, in 1375 (776). This also coincided with an invasion of the Manghit Horde by Turcomen in the service of the Ilkhanate, who, upon hearing news of the death of Babak Temur Khan, desired to destabilize the region further and leave Turkestan open to the political machinations of Ilkhan Ali, son of the Great Ilkhan Abu Said. Burilgi the Blind personally led the charge against the raiding Turcomen, decapitating their (unnamed) general and dragging his headless body behind his black horse. Whether this is the true course of events is hard to determine, though it is likely that it is nothing but propaganda, for Khurgesh, the supposed favorite wife of Babak Temur Khan, disappears from the historical record after the 1370s (770s).

Following his rise to power over the course of the 1370s (770s), Burilgi the Blind was granted the title of Amir by Khan Erdashir son of Babak Temur, the ten year old Khan that Burilgi supposedly fought to protect. He also pushed for his younger brother, named Ruslan Arslan, to receive the title as well, and got Ruslan a good diplomatic position in Sarai, the royal seat of the young Khan Erdashir. Ruslan had little experience on the battlefield, unlike his brother, but it would seem that Burilgi’s efforts to award him a cushy diplomatic job was to make sure that Ruslan could not challenge his power in the Manghit Horde. While Burilgi’s power would only grow in the Manghit Horde, he (at least initially) always placed himself in deference to the Khan of the Manghits, only their servant, general, and amir. The fact that Khan Erdashir had little to no power in the Manghit Horde was easily ignored by those who valued their life in a state increasingly dominated by the figure of Burilgi.

Following the defeat of the Turcomen in 1376 (777), Burilgi the Blind turned his eye northward, to push into his homeland of Bashkortostan, in the foothills of the Ural mountains. The Bashkirs had established an independent state south of the Urals, led by a loose alliance of primarily Muslim warlords and a sky-worshiping spiritual elite that gave the Islamic political leadership a legitimacy in the eyes of the primarily pagan populace. Burilgi’s family was forced out of Bashkortostan during a time of famine for their Muslim faith, scapegoated by the local populace and forced out for supposedly offending the great sky-god Tengri, while the Muslim Bashkir overlords turned a blind eye. With his newfound political power, Burilgi was able to appease his slight vendetta against the Bashkir lords, and began an invasion of Bashkortostan in 1377 (777). Using a tactic of sudden massive cavalry-based war (Kinyet Sugisch in the Tatar Turcish language), the independent Bashkortostan was completely overrun within a year and a half. Burilgi mutilated the Bashkir lords, slicing off their ears and noses, and forcing the people of Ufa to watch as he executed them and slung up their bodies on the walls of the city. He also killed several sky-worshiper priest-shamans, though the exact number is unknown. He attended prayers in the small mosque of Ufa, and although he killed the lords of Bashkortostan and most of the Tengri-worshiping shamans, he left the population of Bashkortostan relatively untouched. He also visited several kurgans in Bashkortostan, including a number associated with sky-worship in the region.

A depiction of one of the soldiers in the employ of Burilgi the Blind, from a historical tabletop wargame​

Burilgi the Blind received a letter from Khan Komek of the Kipchaks during his invasion of Bashkortostan, requesting assistance in a war that the Kipchak Khanate had begun against the Western Oirats. It would seem that Khan Komek believed that, as the newest prominent general in the Manghit Horde, Burilgi would honor the alliance between the Kipchak and Manghit Khanates. Instead, Burilgi turned his forces to the west and began another Kinyet Sugisch against Khan Komek: he made a deal with the Oirats to divide the Kipchak territory between the two states. The eastern borderland of the Kipchak Khanate was entirely undefended after decades of relative peace between the Kipchaks and Manghits, and the great mass of the thousands of soldiers of Burilgi the Blind overwhelmed the Kipchak Khanate, while the Oirat infantry and cavalry poured over the collapsed northern border of the Kipchaks. Khan Komek was pinned between two enemy forces, and took his own life during the siege of his newer capital Kazan. When Burilgi’s forces pushed through the siege of 1382 (782), he completely sacked the city, burning it down to nothing but a husk of its former self and executing hundreds of its people. Kazan was surrounded by the wails of its inhabitants and the piles of stacked skulls that Burilgi’s forces built at his orders. In 1385 (785), Burilgi the Blind began construction on a new citadel and mosque in the city, rebuilding it in his image. He gave himself the title of Khan of the Kipchaks, albeit retaining the symbolic relationship with his supposed overlord Khan Erdashir of the Manghits. The former Golden Horde would be shaped in his image.

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Since today is a major milestone for me in my real life (I turn 18 today and am preparing to go to college to get a degree in history), I thought it was only fitting for there to be a milestone even more major for this TL. Burilgi the Blind is the true result of the death of Oz Beg Khan in 1332, and he is the dominant figure of the 14th century for most in this TL. His campaigns and rapid expansion will be detailed over the course of the next few updates, with this one serving primarily to introduce him and get the ball rolling. Thank you all so so much for reading this timeline, and for supporting me as it has been going on, I really hope that as more and more updates come out you can really appreciate and explore it!

 

[Aghstadian]

Well happy birthday and good luck for you.

Burilgi sound like a Timur of this tl. Now the question is will his empire survive beyond him? Or his successor will pull a Babur.

 

[Al-numbers]

Agree with Aghstadian. This khan sounds a lot like Timur, though perhaps with a lesser emphasis on transferring artistic value. May the Golden Horde be merciful to the innocent.

And happy birthday!

 

[EmperorBuaya]

Agreed with them both above. Burilgi Khan sounds awful like Timur. This certainly changed some dynamics in Russian and the Turco-Mongolian world, comparing to OTL.

Anyway, happy belated birthday!

 

[marsworms]

Agree with Aghstadian. This khan sounds a lot like Timur, though perhaps with a lesser emphasis on transferring artistic value. May the Golden Horde be merciful to the innocent.

And happy birthday!

Agreed with them both above. Burilgi Khan sounds awful like Timur. This certainly changed some dynamics in Russian and the Turco-Mongolian world, comparing to OTL.

Anyway, happy belated birthday!

Thank you both! And yes, if it wasn't even more obvious from my use of a statue of Timur at the top of the post, Khukir Burilgi is more or less the Timur of this TL... And, while he may not be all that involved in art in these earlier periods of his career, he does take a great interest in some artistic and scientific concepts from many of the lands he conquers... Though of course I don't want to reveal too much just yet! Additionally, Buaya is correct: the rise of Burilgi the Blind completely redefines Russian and Turco-Mongol history... I've already mentioned before that Muscovy and the city of Moscow itself never really rise to prominence, but Burilgi's upcoming push west (which will be explored in a future update) completely shifts the lands of the Rus'. Additionally, after we see Burilgi's extensive conquests, I will be planning on writing a special update all about how different people groups interact with or are affected by the Burilgid Empire... The world is still defined by what goes on in the nomadic lands of Central Asia!

 

[LunazimHawk]

Happy Birthday. Once Burilgi turns his eyes eastward, I can expect it to be like Timurs invasion of Delhi, particularly the carnage.

 

[marsworms]

The Burning of Crimea by Burilgi the Blind
Part 18: The Black Horse and the White Eagle​

With the subjugation of the lands of the Bashkirs and the Kipchaks, Khan Khukir Burilgi the Conqueror rode on to the west, consolidating his power through shows of strength and force at every stop along the way. His army grew to a staggering number, especially given the still lingering effects of the Pestilence in Tartary: the numbers vary, but they all describe forces of cavalry and marching infantry upwards of a hundred thousand, made up a wide variety of ethnic groups and religious groups. These immense numbers can be readily chalked up to the regular exaggeration that Medieval authors were prone to, but even when compared to other likely inflated numbers this is still impressive: see, for example, the 50,000 soldiers under the command of Sultan Kaykhusraw II at the Battle of Kose Dag. According to Russian and Polish sources, these were a “daemonic host”, made up of all faiths dedicated to “the destruction of Christendom”: it was said that in Burilgi’s army encampments, one could hear the prayers of Muslims, the swaying chants of Jews, and the deep-throated songs of the sky-worshipers just as readily as one another. Although the Rus’ and Poles wanted to present the armies of Burilgi the Blind as entirely non-Christian, this was very likely not the case. It is known that, following the death of Oz Beg Khan in 1332 (732), the ban on Christians traveling through the border between the Golden Horde and the Russian principalities was completely lifted, leading to a large movement of Russians (especially mobile peasants and aspects of the merchant classes) into the rapidly depopulated east. Invariably, Russian Christians must have served in Burilgi’s armies, and archaeology verifies this: a number of pieces of armor in Russian style have been found at the sites of notable battles, and, most famously, a large wooden cross that was likely carried by a contingent of Christian soldiers in the service of Burilgi in his war with the Crimean Khanate. This wooden cross is now in the Museum of the Russian Nation in Novgorod.

The mention of this significant cross comes not a moment too soon, for in 1384 (784), only two years after the sacking of the Kipchak capital, Burilgi made a move onto the Crimean Horde of Mahmet Khan, son of Borgu Khan, the loamy soil of the fertile land stained red by the steady tide of Burilgi’s horses and soldiers. Mahmet Khan put up a good fight: although isolated from most of his neighbors by the actions of his father in Kiev and Moldavia, his large population and fertile fields gave him a slight advantage over Burilgi and his armies shaped entirely by fear and power. In response, Burilgi began to burn every field and village he came across. The sky was turned black by the smoke of peasant villages burning to a crisp, the air filled with the acrid scent of flaming thatch and charred flesh. In Hungarian records, the winds brought the smoke to the west and blocked out the sun for days. Mahmet began a sort of fortress strategy: he holed up in Eski Kirim and provided stronger garrisons to many of the cities he still held onto. On the morning of the 20th of Rajab 1387 (787), Mahmet Khan awoke with no sunrise. The city was encircled by billowing smoke. All of the fields around were ablaze: the screams of the rural peasantry being burned alive filled his ears. There was no siege of Eski Kirim: Mahmet Khan gave in. Burilgi entered the city gates on the first of Muharram 1388 (788), publically decapitating Khan Mahmet and all of the garrison of the city. He gave the throne in Eski Kirim to a weak brother of Mahmet Khan, turning the Crimean Khanate into a state under as much direct control by him as the young and vascillating Khan in Sarai.

Following the victory against Mahmet Khan of Crimea (and numerous lesser victories which brought the northern Caucasus under his control, at least on paper (controlling the lands of Chechnya and Circassia is by far easier said than done)), Burilgi the Blind turned his eye to the west, to begin a conquest of the chaotic Russian principalities, the rich fields and easily defensible mountains of Poland and Carpathia. Burilgi saw himself as a true successor to the mantle of the Golden Horde and of its great Khans, even as he may not have truly held descent from Chinghis himself. As such, he in effect desired to recreate the sphere of influence of the Golden Horde, to undo the violent aftermath of Oz Beg’s death. In another example of Kunyet Sugisch, the pitch-black horse of Burilgi led the charge into the land of Kiev and the land of Ryazan, overwhelming the meager defenses already worn down by decades of war. The Crimean Khanate oiled the gears for Burilgi: it was just that the Bashkir-Mongol finally pulled the lever. Kiev fell in 1389 (789): its walls were all but destroyed, and the only defenses were a peasant conscript garrison meant to defend the church and the kremlin of the city. The Kiev kremlin was dismantled following the capture of the city, and the heads of the peasant garrison were stacked up in rows along the walls. As a symbolic gesture, Burilgi brought the gold and silver relics stolen from the city by the Crimeans in regular raids, only to melt them down in the middle of the town square in front of a crowd of fearful Slavs. At the same time, his forces were overrunning Ryazan and Smolensk, and assisting the Oirats in pushes into Vladimir and Novgorod. It would seem that Rus’ would fall to the Mongols once again, with Burilgi’s forces pushing past the Dnieper and almost to the Carpathian mountains. This would only change with another invasion, an invasion that would be the first in Burilgi’s career to fail.

A contemporary Polish depiction of a minor scene in a Benedictine monastery in eastern Poland​

In 1391 (791), Burilgi attempted an invasion of Poland, but to his surprise the state once mired in civil war and conflict between rival noble houses put up a stalwart defense, orchestrated primarily by the man who would later become known as the Polish Caesar: Zdislaw Czapla. Zdislaw was elected following the death of Valentinus Corvinus in 1383 (784), from the clan of Kurowie of Mazovia. He was primarily a militaristic leader: his position on the border of Poland gave him and his clan first action in raids of the pagan Lithuanians and the crusading Teutons, and he himself was even present at the official baptism of King Solomon (his name chosen upon his baptism) of the Samogitians into the Western Rite in 1379 (779). In a time of such conflict and fear, a choice from a clan so reliable for defense made sense to most of the nobles in the Sejm. His skill in defending Poland came to the forefront when Burilgi made his advances on the fledgling state.

Zdislaw had already stationed large numbers of troops on the eastern borderlands of Poland, and even extended into some of the less stable Russian principalities as well. When Burilgi attempted to pour over the border like he did in Kiev, he met staunch resistance. Years of peace following the civil war had given Poland time to rebuild and train soldiers: they may not have been the best soldiers in Polish history, but they were by far better than the infantry and peasant conscripts in Kiev and Smolensk. Burilgi and Zdislaw were held up on the eastern Polish borderlands for two years, with little to no progress (and Burilgi even leaving to go lead forces in the east), but by 1394 (794), Zdislaw made progress. For the better part of a decade, the black horse of Burilgi the Conqueror dominated Rus’, but now it would be the white eagle banner of Poland that would fly over cities along the Carpathian foothills and the rivers of Halych. While most of the early conquests of Burilgi would remain in his hands, especially those in the east of Rus’, much of the western regions would be taken in one fell swoop by the Catholic Krol Zdislaw of Poland and the Pagan Chief of Lithuania. The remaining independent Russian principalities became increasingly reliant on one or the other power, and eventually would be snuffed out of existence in their entirety.

Novgorod was involved some in these wars as well, but they were by far more preoccupied with the activities of the Western Oirats in Vladimir and in their own land than they were with the conquests of Burilgi in the south. The city wished to maintain the independence of the Russian principalities, and it truly is the actions of Novgorod which kept principalities like Smolensk independent while Lithuania, Poland, and Burilgi all vied for their control. But ultimately, Novgorod was powerless to do anything.

 

[Al-numbers]

Interesting. It seems the Burilgi's adventures are forcing the Polish lords to band together to stave off the eastern threat, while the Russian principalities are still too disunited to form any cohesive opposition. Might this lead to a Polish and Tatar-dominated eastern Europe?

 

[marsworms]

I'm really quite sorry with the bit of a hiatus I've been on... I've just been quite busy over the course of the last week and a half or so! I promise that at the start of next week, a series of posts detailing the remainder of Burilgi's expansions and conquests will revive the timeline, and will allow us to move into the next century... Thank you all so much!

 

[Al-numbers]

Take your time!

 

[marsworms]

Part 19: Turkestan Falls​

In 1392 (794), with much of his forces held up on the borderland of Poland, Burilgi the Blind turned his eye east and left a lesser general in charge of his european armies, leaving to conquer the vast expanses of the steppes and deserts. He already held a significant portion of the northern Kirghiz steppes as his inheritance from the Manghit horde before him, but much of the eastern and southern regions of Central Asia, including the land of Transoxiana and the homelands of the Uyghurs and the Oghuz Turcomen. By the end of the century, his forces would race on the grasslands and wind-blasted deserts of the whole of Turkestan, and the lands of Central Asia would form the central part of the Burilgid state.

East of the empire of Burilgi, a weak Kirghiz khanate held much of the space between the Manghit horde and the ailing Yuan dynasty of the Great Khan, currently struggling with ethnic Chinese friction and strife, centered especially on the south of China, which had begun in the late 1370s (770s) led by the Black Vest uprising of Guangzhou. He met with an emissary of the Great Khan on the borderland between them, wherein Burilgi the Blind bent the knee in a symbolic sign of vassalage to the increasingly weak and unimportant Great Khan of the whole Mongol Empire. Burilgi made no claim to be usurping the position of Khan, and quickly turned his eyes to the south: the semi-independent city-states of the Tarim basin were ripe for the taking from the small and mountainous Chagatai Khanate.

The first to fall was Turfan, with the city’s walls crumbling to Burilgi’s onslaught in 1395 (797), the Chagatai governor of the city decapitated and sent to the Chagatai capital at Karshi. Following the rivers and oases on the edges of the Tianshan and the Taklamakan, Burilgi captured oasis city after oasis city, dismantling their walls and sending their governor’s corpses to Karshi every step along the way. The city of Kashgar, nestled among the mountains, resisted his attack, its garrison sacrificing their lives so that their city would not befall the fate of those Burilgi captured to the north. When the walls finally fell, hundreds of Kashgaris had their heads stacked in pyramids outside the city walls. But, it was in Kashgar that Burilgi encountered something which would enrapture his imagination, something which he would bring with him back to Sarai: the printing press.

In early 1396 (797), Burilgi kidnapped a contingent of Kashgari intellectuals who had in their possession a few printing presses, massive machines originally developed in China to print money and the occasional official edict, converted to writing in the vertical Uyghur script that was the lingua franca of the Tarim basin. This fascinated him: although he never learned how to read, his life in the courts of Sarai had exposed him to written language, namely the Tatar tongue transcribed in an Arabic script that was the norm in the former Golden Horde, and to its power for culture and politics. He brought one of the clunky printing presses with him when he captured the cities of Yarkand and Khotan, pulled along in a unique cart by camels. When his forces cross the Tianshan range and conquered the regions of Transoxiana under the Chagatai Khan he painstakingly and carefully brought the printing press with him, but, upon realizing how difficult travel with the machine would be, he ordered the Kashgari scholars and an entourage of soldiers to travel back to Sarai, in order to develop a form of the printing press that would be suited to printing in the Arabic script. Burilgi would die before he could return to Sarai and see the product.

Burilgi reached the city of Karshi in 1398 (800), beginning a siege that would finally bring to an end the invasion of Chagatai, from Turfan to Transoxiana, issuing an ultimatum to the Khan there: let Burilgi enter the city’s gates and keep your position within these walls; if you block his entrance into the city, there will be nothing left of the city but for its masjid. Initially, there was resistance. But, as lauded in a propagandistic text dedicated to Burilgi’s career in Transoxiana, this only lasted five days, and, “like Adam, the first man, his glorious magnificence Burilgi the beloved by God was first to enter the city, as Adam entered the gates of Paradise on the sixth day of creation”. Burilgi spread very little death and destruction in Transoxiana: the mix of Turks and Persians who lived in the region were instead patronized by a Burilgi who some theorized was growing soft as he grew older. When the Chagatai Khanate bent the knee to Burilgi, he was 68 years old. But, when he crossed the Oxus and entered the land of Khurasan, this was very much shown to be untrue.

To the Turcomen, Burilgi was nothing but a devil. According to a folk tale set around this time, Burilgi “killed children, women, and beggars. The waters of the Oxus flowed red with blood, and the skies darkened for years at a time”. These lands were under the suzerainty of Ilkhan Ali, enemy of Burilgi who had sent mercenaries to capture the Manghit horde’s lands only 20 years prior. Seemingly in a fit of revenge and rage, Burilgi killed just about every Turcoman he came across, sacking cities and decapitating whole companies of Turcish mercenaries sent against him. He had brought with him Persian poets from Transoxiana to write of his conquests and spread them into the land of Iran, either as rumor or as song, in an attempt at a sort of mental warfare. He wanted to destroy the people who had attacked him. He desired not only Ilkhan Ali’s life, not only his head, but his life in the hereafter. He wanted to feed him to dogs, to leave him out to be eaten upon by vultures and beasts in a pagan burial. Burilgi despised Ilkhan Ali. And it was around this time, in the year 1401 (804), that Burilgi received a letter from Ilkhan Ali’s younger brother, a certain Uthman ibn Abu Said, angered at the preferential treatment his older brother received. Growing older by the day, the aged Burilgi the Blind entered Iran.

The eastern regions of Burilgi's empire in 1398, on the cusp of his conquest of Khurasan​