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11 - Kerman (1072 - 1088) Our war to take the city of Mahoyadapuram (and the far larger war between the Wali-Malik and Gujarat) disrupted out trade in the Indian Ocean greatly, many ships were scuttled or crews abandoned ships on shores and took their goods inland to sell rather than lose them at sea. Thankfully with trade back to normal some ships we thought lost are now showing up again in the Muscat harbor, and conveniently the last one to come in was carrying silk and other wares from china (and no perishable food from India) so we still made a profit despite their late arrival.  Muscat Harbor (the harbor itself and now the town surrounding it) have grown immensely in the past two decades. Of the almost twenty-five thousand people that reside in Muscat some three thousand alone call the Harbor district their home. The harbor Al-Hakm started at the dawn of the republic has become Oman's greatest asset and the Bahrid are proud to continue serving as it's stewards.  Increased trade with the east once again means more frequent news and we hear of the Jin Empire's continued expansion. They have established trade posts on the west Indian coast and forced the kingdom of Malwa to become their tributary, driving a wedge in to central India.   Our first son Kamran (a giant at over seven feet tall, but the gentlest soul we've ever known) wishes to travel to the court of the Jurchen and grant us favor with the emperor, we allow him to go and wish him much success on his journey to the east.  On the 24th December 1071 the Abbasids commenced the Third Invasion of France (The first failure at Tours under the Umayyads in 732. The second being Abdul-Qadir of the Abbasids in 1001) But today, the 10th December 1073, the first call to prayer is called out over the streets of Paris, as the Abbasids have found victory against the Christians. The last Karling has been ousted from power and the legacy of Charlemagne has reached it's end. The Pope is reportedly already preparing to call for a new crusade, and the Germans already fight skirmishes along their new "heathen border" with Abbasid raiders. The Sultan of Africa has already secured himself the southern French coast and the Italy city-states have taken a great hit from the disruption to their trade. The Sultan of Iraq, with his lands and people safely secure in the heartlands of the now immense Abbasid empire has taken leave of Baghdad and taken up new residence in a palace a little ways outside of Paris so he can better lead the 'Sultanate of Faransa'. Across much of the Christian world, faith in the Pope and the Catholic cause has wavered significantly, and many have began converting to Orthodoxy, more confident the Greeks can protect them.  Kamran has returned in Muscat, in a remarkably shorter amount of time than our father did when he visited China. Our son brings back good news that he convinced the emperor of the virtues of the Bahrid family and the wealth and prosperity we have brought Oman and the further riches we could bring to China should we trade more extensively. More than news he brings back with him a great many treasure and tale of the East which our scribes scramble to write down while he can still remember it all during the grand banquet we have thrown in his honour.  The Wali-Malik has died and his son Sami has been elected our new ruler.  Not to be outdone by his father the fiery new Wali-Malik immediately declares a second war against the Gujarat to finally push them out of Persia once and for all.  Sami is inexperienced and naive but any attempt to assist him are seen as belittling in his eyes and he is quick in to fly in to fits of rage. He dismisses us outright when we suggest perhaps we can teach him a little more than just Arabic as he constantly fumbles his words when meeting with Hindu, Greek or Ethiopian envoys.   While we were content to sit out the previous war across the Gulf this new one would secure for us one side of the Strait of Hormuz. The Bahrid army crosses the strait and assists the Usfurids in capturing Gombroon (or Bandar Abbas), which we keep secure while the Wali-Malik continues east.  A new emperor has taken the throne in the far east by name of Daozong, thankfully he is just as committed to an open China and he had seemed to take a particular interest in us, we have seen many more Chinese trips and diplomats in the last few months.  Gujarat has a far greater threat to it's existence in the form of the Chinese encroachment from the east than worrying about the lose of their colony in Persia. The Wali-Malik fights only a handful of small skirmishes against the Hindu defenders, who constantly retreat rather than lose anymore of their army lest they need to defend their homeland from the Jin Empire. Holding on to Persia is no longer viable for them and after a century Indian rule of southern Persian comes to an end.   Riding on the success across the Gulf and seeing the expulsion of the infidels from Persia, Wali-Malik Sami has the very next day called for the expulsion of the Ethiopians from Arabia.  Abyssinia is the weakest it has been in centuries. The Copts with assistance from their Egyptian overlords have waged unrelenting war against the Ethiopians for decades, and now the perfect time to reclaim the last piece of Yemen is at hand. Though Sami could have perhaps shown a little more patience and at least waited for our armies to return from Persia.  The united armies of the five patrician families of Muscat convene just south of the city and we march in unison, twenty thousand strong to liberate Arabia once and for all. At the foothills of the Ma'rib mountains we face the army of King Ezana and deliver a crushing blow.  With the Ethiopians shattered and falling back en-mass, three of the patrician armies begin seiging the forts of Yemen while we pursue King Ezana personally.  Ezana escaped our clutches but we still managed to across the Strait of Aden in the process and we begin dismantling and destroying every defense, every fort and castle we can find. All the while 15,000 Sunni mercenaries hired by Sami from central Arabia have crossed the Red Sea in to northern Abyssinia.  The mercenary army marched straight for the capital of Gondar, but King Ezana was not to be found there. He had raced with his retinue east to Tadjoura, to meet with us. The very army that had been trying to capture him just weeks earlier. The Ethiopian king recognizes when he has been beat and we hold him comfortable captivity until he meets with Sami. The king throws himself at the Wali-Malik's feet in a very pantomimed display and begs for mercy. Sami orders the King released and the safe passage of any Ethiopian warrior that wishes to return home, for their control of Yemen has at last come to an end in 1081.  In India the Gujarat were right to pull their armies back to defend their homeland, though it ultimately proved futile for they are now a subject state of the Jin Empire.  Celebrations over Abyssinia's defeat in newly liberated Taizz are soured as we get into a feud with Sami. We accuse him of being ego-driven and dragging the republic in to conflicts it needn't fight. He comes back that he has taken the Ibadi to a height of greatness no one in Oman a century ago would have thought possible and derides us and the Bahrid family for having an ego only surpassed by the exorbitant wealth we've 'hoarded'.  The Wali-Malik disparages the Bahrids for our close association with the Greeks and is about to insult our wife Nikoletta when we silence him with the drawing of our sword. Our verbal confrontation becomes a physical one and before all the eyes of the other patrician-family leaders and commanders of the Oman armies as we duel in the courtyard of the Taizz citadel. While in the streets of the city soldiers of the Bahrid and Usfarid families clash, as the other three families desperately try to keep order.  Despite being twice Sami's age we gain the upper hand in our duel, even when defeat seems certain for him he still struggles on with gritted teeth and a bloodied face. His spirit is stronger than his body however and he soon collapses, we are not exactly sure what would have done next would there be no interruption. Our bodyguards were holding the other patricians back lest they interfere and soldiers and courtiers of all the families were shouting in support or disapproval, but when a messenger burst in to the courtyard on horseback with a booming voice that seemed to overpower all others the commotion ceased immediately.  Across the Gulf to the north the Hindus under a charismatic military commander of the old Gujarat armies by name of Rana had rallied the other Rajput-Persian nobles to rise up against Oman rule.  Sami orders all the armies present to march north at once to save the new lands of Omani-Persia (and the Usfarid dyanty's legacy). We suggest keeping a detachment in the newly liberated Yemeni lands but the Wali-Malik is more concerned with saving Persia. A week after we depart Taizz (to no one's surprise) King Ezana commences a counter-attack on southern Arabia.  We are almost all the way to Muscat when Sami finally relents and orders the Bahrid family to return to Yemen. But it is too late, there was no new garrisons established in the south after we took the lands, and now every able-bodied soldiers has been sent north. King Ezana simply marches back in and retakes the land he lost in less than a year.  Our armies meet immense Ethiopian defenses put up in an alarmingly quick amount of time and the Bahrid army alone cannot fend off the might of Abyssinia without aid, Ezana can keep Taizz as much as it may displease the Wali-Malik.  By time we reach Muscat the war across the Gulf has already concluded as Commander Rana is captured in battle and orders the surrender of all the Hindu resistance for sake of his own life.  When the Omani armies first marched in to Persia they were merciful and allowed local lords to continue to rule and adhere to their own faith and customs as long as they paid taxes to Muscat and assisted us in times of war. Wali-Malik Sami has changed that policy and now Usfarid soldiers are going from city to city along the Persian coast, arresting Hindu lords and forcing them to convert or face exile, in stark contradiction to everything the Ibadi stand for. This has also had the side-effect of giving more land and soldiers to the Usfarids to directly control. That is, until Sami decides to gracefully grant us the castle of Bam (or Banjur) in central Kerman, and leaving the responsibility of suppressing the locals to the Bahrid.   It would be prudent to ensure more of Perisa is not under Sami's direct control, and we do not care what methods see this goal achieved. Thankfully the Usfarid soldiers are not as loyal to their master as Bahrid it would seem, and a high ranking commander is willing to weaken the Usfarid army and Sami's hold on Persia.  Unfortunately the commander is as subtle as he is good-nature - which is to say, not at all. He is captured and tortured by Sami (likely personally) and it is not long before our involvement is known.  Regardless of Sami's feelings for us he obviously recognizes the Bahrids are the most powerful family in Oman, and war between patrician families would be disastrous. Had we simply asked diplomatically for him to surrender the Persian lands to another then he would have likely refused, but now he has seen the lengths we are willing to go Sami has done as we wished. Though we did not expect him to grant the Bahrids that land.  But on reflection it would make perfect sense for Sami to do this and we may have gotten the short end of this deal. This land brings in almost no wealth, it's castles are tiny and poorly manned, but there are many towns and cities scattered across Kerman. That the Bahrids must now care for and rule lest they rise up, and they would come for us before they go for the Usfarids or any other family. The Barhids have gone from the stewards of Suhar, Muscat Harbor and Mahoyadapuram, to lords of all of Kerman, with tens of thousands of people we must now administer and our attention is going to be greatly divided from here on.  Sami makes no secret his contempt for us and the Bahrid family nor does he try to hide our more disingenuous methods.  The Chinese claim another Indian raja, they have now cut a path straight across the known-east, alarmingly, with Oman next in that line, assuming they would actually cross the Gulf.   Despite Faransa falling to the Abbasids the Catholics seem to vent their anger on their Orthodox neighbors rather than make a concerted effort to retake Paris. Greek merchant vessels are increasingly raided by Catholic corsairs in the Mediterranean, Greek travelers are assaulted in the streets of western cities and large numbers of preachers have been sent to the Slavic lands - both pagan and Orthodox. In response a new Orthodox holy order in the fashion of the Hospitallers and Knights of Santiago / Calatrava has been established to better protect the Orthodox faithful.  And even further west news reaches of the establishment of a new grand center of learning by name of Oxford in some place called 'The Empire of Prydain'. It takes a number of months and a few reports from other merchants and envoys for us to even learn what or where this place is, the Greeks translate it to Britannia. The Anglo-Saxon kings led by the House of Norfolk led a number of brutal conquests across the isles, but their new Celtic subjects were not content to serve until Germanic foreigners and over the past century worked their way up through the House of Norfolk with strategic marriages. Now a Welsh lord sits on the throne in the capital of Gwent, and an Irish king loyally serves as steward of the smaller western island. Also of note - they have forsaken the Pope and fully embraced Orthodoxy, the Irish Orthodox Church being one of the strongest outside of Constantinople.  All the excitement of the past decade has taken it's toll on our body, had we been half our age then perhaps we would have shrugged it off. But it seems the duel in Taizz against Sami would ultimately be his to claim, as the minor wounds in our back and knee would nag at us for the next decade until finally we would be near-bedridden and feeling our good health rapidly fading away.  We grow more tired and weary by the day, until finally one day we never wake again, and pass peacefully to paradise. 
Crisis Now fucked around with this message at 17:16 on May 6, 2020 |
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12 - Clash of Civilizations (1088 - 1109) We are Kamran Bahrid and though we tower over any man we have ever met and have strength enough to crush their skull with our bares should we so choose, we have never felt the compulsion to let anger or rage dictate our actions. Why wield a sword when words can do so much more, with so much less bloodshed.  We do not hide the fact our father was a contemptuous and dishonest man (he had some good qualities as well) and can only hope to lead a more honorable life than he, but there are many others out there in the world who will use any manner of trickery to meet their goals. Word reaches us of a new order of murderers and fanatics of the nearly dead Shia-branch, with the fall of their last stronghold in Tunis, the Shia have coalesced under Hassan-i Sabbah are willing to do anything to reclaim what they perceive as the rightful place as leaders of the Muslim world.  The actual leaders, the Abbasids, are enjoying a golden age and finally have a caliph worthy of emulating, a smart and temperate thinker and not a warrior.  Khalil Varanid, most powerful of the al-Andalus sultans however has different plans and convinced the Sultan of Africa and all the newly appointed emirs of southern Faransa to join in his bid for independence from Daylam and the Persian Caliph.  We would much rather spend our time with our wife and children here in Muscat and peacefully ruling the Bahrid estate, but fate it would seem has other plans for us.  Our daughter is married the to Egyptian Emperor, who has been a far from popular figure in the empire - ambitious, greedy and cruel. But more pressingly he is of Han descant, his father Emperor Aziz took a Chinese princess as his wife, Sagai Orhoda. Muzaffaraddin II may carry a Muslim name, and he may be seen to pray to Mecca and adhere to Sunni customs, but he is the splitting image of his mother, and is rumored to carry out many mystical and strange eastern rituals in secret. Though his marriage with our daughter Ikhsidid and Bahrid are allied, and now that the people of Egypt rise up against their strange new Emperor we have been called to help keep him on the throne.  We take charge of the Bahrid army and march north across the desert and in to Syria until we reach the great city of Damascus and begin at once besieging the capital of the rebellion.  It is unfortunately only the first of two rebellions that spring up, south, somewhere along the Nile another lord has risen with intent on putting a rightful Ikhsidid on the throne of Cairo.  The Bahrid Army is ambushed outside of Damascus, the rebellion army far greater than we anticipated and we are quickly surrounded where upon we surrender rather than lose any men unnecessary, despite our commander's willingness to fight on to the last man.   We were amused at first at our capture. The emir of Damascus had no shackles large enough to fit our wrists or ankles, and we alone required an another squadron of soldiers watching us at all times lest we suddenly 'get loose and go on some sort of berserker rage' or whatever such nonsense these Egyptians think a man of our size would be capable of. The week in one of the cells beneath Qsar Bardawil dampens our mood some what as even sitting on the provided stool our head grazes the short cell ceiling and we are forced to bow our head at all times. Ashraf met with us personally and saw that we were simply adhering to the alliance our marriage with the Emperor had forged and we swore to him that we would take the Bahrid army and march south out of Egypt at once. But we had still killed men of their rebellion and captured part of the city and set them back, and that required punishment. We are tarred and feathered and marched through the streets of Damascus to the jeers and laughter of the people who feared our siege just weeks prior, no little more than the 'Giant Chicken of Oman'. We grit our teeth and bear the humiliation, knowing it is a better fate than death at the hands of some petty rebel leader at least.  More annoying than the humiliation we endured, we learn on the long march back south that the war is now over, Muzaffaraddin II has fled Cairo for al-Andalus and Hamdan of the second rebellion on the Nile was the new Emperor. Had we marched to Damascus just a little slower perhaps we could have avoided any of this.  At the very least we return to a peaceful and prosperous Suhar, the Bahrid home away from home in Muscat.  We get only half a year's rest before receiving strange tidings from the latest merchant vessels from India. The Bengal Empire has grown to become the dominant force on the subcontinent now, and through their wide-reaching alliance of tributaries they have fought off a major Chinese incursion and even brokered some kind of peace with the Karnata Confederation when it comes to matters of India's sovereignty after both have witnessed the Jin Empire's repeated expeditions to their lands.  Both Jain Karnata and Buddhist Bengal have pledged huge amounts of gold and their own personal soldiers to form new holy orders to defend India against outside threats. In response to the Indian's bolstering their defenses and uniting against outside threats the Jurchen Emperor has turned his gaze elsewhere.   On the morning of 4th March 1100 they came. We watched as from the horizon a thousand war ships flying the banners of Sagai Daozong approached. Any vessel that was caught in their path; be it an Omani warship, merchant ship of the five families and even foreign trade ships was utterly destroyed with no care for their crew or cargo, this navy had but one goal. They completely surrounded Muscat, as far as the eye could see along the shore in either direction more ships than had ever been witnessed blockaded the city. One sailed in to the Muscat Harbor where we and each of the four patricians had hurried to meet it, aboard an envoy of the emperor demanding the immediate surrender of Oman and subjugation of the republic in the form of a tributary state to China. Wali-Malik Sami refused, of course he did, his pride and arrogance would never allow Oman to fall to another power under his rule. It would seem the envoy knew this would be his response and simply said that the armies of Protector-General Saihid Saiha were already marching across the Himalayan Mountains towards us, and the Chinese navy will retain the blockade of the city until their arrival. The envoy remarked their people had heard of the riches of Muscat and the might of it's professional mercenary armies from a visiting patrician, and all at once the other four patricians were glancing to us, most of all Sami whose hatred for the Bahrids we could feel intensifying as he glared a hole into us. After mockingly wishing our good fortunes in us future endeavors the envoy returned to his vessel and his ship rejoined the blockade. Sami called at once for the patricians to ride out and gather every able-bodied person the republic could muster, it's very future was at stake and the united armies of the Omani patricians and emirs will ride to meet the Chinese before they can reach Arabia.  The Bahrid Army typically ranges from 7000 to 9000 men depending on if it has to just defend Muscat / Suhar or go forth on any of the republic's expeditions. But for this we have managed to swell the ranks of our personal army to 12,000 of the best soldiers money could buy our family. In addition from the Suhar garrison and the people of Kerman willing to join us we could field an additional 9,000 men. Typically raising 21,000 men would allow us to strike forth and defeat any foe or capture any city we could set our sights on, but we find ourselves at war with the greatest power in the world. The Usfarid and Muscat garrison directly beneath them accounted for another 21,000 and combined with the other patricians and garrisons across the republic we had over 50,000 soldiers at our disposal, the most Oman had ever commanded. But we already knew it would not be enough, we alone have been to China, we have seen the glory of the Imperial Palace, the scale of their empire and enormity of their armies. This one they march to Muscat is just one of their armies and it alone dwarfs the greatest force we've ever fielded. Wali-Malik Sami will not be swayed from his ambition of seeing it driven away though, especially not by the words of his nemesis' son. And so north we march.  But as we land in Hormuz we find a messenger awaiting us. The city is abuzz, but not with news of China's impending invasion of Arabia, there is somehow something even more tremendous taking place.  In some fit of madness the Pope has seen fit to call the Third Crusade, not for France, nor Iberia, the Holy Land or any number of what would seemingly be any number of suitable targets for the Catholics to invade en mass, no. The Pope has decried the Orthodox church as the source of all of Christendom's woes, a malignant evil force that has seeped in to the heart of once faithful Catholics and turned them away, it is Orthodoxy that has made the Christians weak and divided and seen the west of Europe fall to the Umayyad and Abbasid advances. And for that, Constantinople must burn. The Basileus stricken from his throne and the remnants of Eastern Roman Empire vanquished for good. The messenger that awaited us in Hormuz was not there to tell us any of this. This information we learnt easy enough from the merchants and nobles of the city. No indeed, this messenger was here to inform us the Bahrid family must oblige by it's alliance, we are married to the Basileus' daughter, we must march to Constantinople and defend the Greeks against the Catholic heathens.  And so it came to be the Bahrid family found itself at war with all of China and all of Europe. (Our scouts and informants provided as best they could the scale and number of the armies involved, rounded to the closet 1000 men)  The army of Wali-Malik Sami is already far ahead of us, having reached the Indus valley and fighting the Indian allies of the Chinese on the banks of the Indus river and in the foothills of the Sulaiman Mountains. We order the Suhar Garrison to continue on and meet up with the Wali-Malik and assist however they can. Meanwhile take charge of the Bahrid Army and begin to march west, west to Constantinople.  The Suhar Garrison reaches the Indus and marches north to convene with the Muscat Garrison and Usfarid Army, but not before spying the immense force of the Protector-General camped on the other-side of the water.  Having met up the Wali-Malik seems more content to destroy the cities of China's allies than actually face their army head-on all the while Jurchen armies surge in to Omani-Persia and take castle and town with little effort.  This war with China has been decided before the first sword has been swung, but the war in the west could go either way, and arguably the Bahrids have more Greek than Arab blood in our family's veins at this point so we suppose there is some vested interest in seeing Byzantium remain intact. Our scouts tell us the Empire is a mess, Catholic fanatics cross the border by the thousands and rampage across the countryside and sacking every town they can. Just five years previously, just five short years, The Bulgarian Empire was Orthodox and one of Byzantium's closest allies. They had shocked them when the Balgarsko Tsar converted to Catholicism and convinced all the nobles of Bulgaria to follow suite. But now it all makes sense, they knew this was coming and knew they could take the Greeks down a peg and become the new dominant power Southern / Eastern Europe.  By the 6th June 1102 we have reached the Sea of Marmara after marching across the Eastern half of the Byzantine Empire. Local lords and armies would march out to meet us, mistaking our army for an Abbasid invasion and it takes much convincing each time that we are not Sunni, but Ibadi, that we are a merchant prince of Omani here to fight for the Emperor against the Catholics. Each time we say it it never becomes any less nonsensical to hear the words. It is usually only our impeccable Greek and intimate knowledge of their culture that sways them and we march on wards, sometimes with monetary aid, sometimes gaining a few more hundred local soldiers to our ranks. To our north Germans besiege Nikomedeia and across the water Danes sack the great city. There is no sign of the emperor nor any concerted resistence against the Catholic madness so the Bahrid army holds-fast at the edge of Asia-Minor.  A month later on the 24th July we at last sight some kind of major Orthodox army across the Dardanelles and the Bahrid Army crosses in to Europe. The Theme of Coloneia has engaged the Papal Legion and though he greatly outnumbers the army of the Priest of Rome, all the Catholic forces are converging. We rush to join, bewildered Greek commanders seeing Bahrid camel cavalry and Ibadi warriors approaching to join their flanks.  The last report from the east tells of how the Chinese have surged across Persia and Wali-Malik Sami is paralyzed with indecision, many have begun to flee Muscat in to the deserts and we've ordered all valuables out of the Bahrid estate to be hidden until this conflict is concluded.  On the shores of Gallipoli, Arab and Greek fight side by side against the Catholic onslaught. The battle started in favor of the Orthodox and only grew with our arrival, unfortunately many of the minor German armies in the area raced to defend the Pope. Thankfully before the Danes could arrive from Constantinople the Byzantine Imperial Legion arrived to halt them, though we fear this battle will not go our way regardless.  It is September and we are falling back across Greece, across land that has been ravaged and left desolate by the Crusader's advance, at the very least the Imperial Legion won it's battle against the Danes and now pushes in to Constantinople to retake the capital and the Pope's army is still in disarray after the battle. Unfortunately our arrival on the scene has only further incensed the Catholics who have used our presence as further justification of Orthodoxy's wickedness.  December, and China has entered the Arabian Peninsular and surrounded Surhar and Muscat, our two greatest cities. We trust they will not do our cities too great harm, after all they wish to exploit all the gold we generate from their trade, and we cannot trade from smoldering ruins.  The Bahrid Army has recouped as best it can and marches alongside the Varangian Guard and Theme of Thessalonika as we re-engage Hungarian and Bulgarian forces along the Marmaran shoreline.  The chaos in the homeland has only grown greater as supporters and minor members of the Bahrid and Usfarid family use the anarchy brought about by the departure of all major armies in the region to turn Muscat in to their own battleground, all the while Chinese armies sit just a few miles away beyond the city walls.  Much of the Third Crusade is fought on the Gallipoli Peninsula as the armies of Catholic and Orthodox clash over and over, but gradually over the months the Byzantine forces are slowly dwindling. During what must be the fifth or sixth engagement outside the city in the past month we fend off the army of Pomeralia where we personally duel Duke Ehrenfried. The cowardly German flees rather than face us, and in the process drops a most mysterious weapon.   Not even a magical sword from the stars is enough to sway the course of this war though and we once again fall back across the Dardanelles in to the relative saftey of Asia Minor. More and more men are called up from the eastern cities and more resources dedicated to the war effort but the Catholics cannot be pushed out of Thracia no matter how hard we try.  In May of 1103 we receive a messenger from home. Oman has fallen. We are now a subject of the Jin Empire and at the mercy of the whims of the emperors of China. Whatever golden age Ali 'the Philosopher' may have started or Sami 'the Rich' expanded upon with his glorious conquests have all come to a thundering halt. Large hauls of Omani gold have been extradited from Muscat and carried off back over the horizon on Chinese ships and a new permanent diplomatic office established in the city where a Chinese official may keep a watchful eye over the Omani people. From here on whoever leads the republic will be forced to send a large yearly tribute to the Imperial City, and likely must travel there too, to kowtow as we once did before the 'son of heaven'   Wali-Malik Sami will never get the opportunity to be so humbled. He is never seen again, after news of Muscat's fall to the Protector-General's army, what was left of the Usfarid army in Omani-Persia simply vanished in to the desert with Sami at it's helm and was never seen again. Ramadan Rasulid now leads the republic in this strange new world it has found itself.  The Third Crusade drags on in to 1104 and try as we might the Orthodox forces face setback after setback, there is little stopping the Catholics and at this point we are simply delaying the inevitable. At the very least we can say we tried to do something. An infidel marched four thousand miles to help defend the great city against the 'Catholic Madness'. The Giant of Oman striding the battlefields of Greece and terrorizing German and Bulgarian alike where ever he roam will at least make for a a great tale.   With Muscat severely weakened the western provinces of Oman have lost their trust in the city and would rather be independent. For all the good it would do them, they would be invaded by Abyssinia within months and their faith stripped of them.  What remains of the Suhar Garrison is mustered to assist the Rasulids in suppressing this revolt.  On the 25th September 1104, as our army marches north along the Anatolian coast once more to fight whatever battle may await us, a small detachment of Greek soldiers stop us. They are forlorn, the life drained from their bodies as their commander delivers the news. Constantinople has fallen, utterly and completely. The Basileus has fled and the Greek armies are shattered. Byzantium is no more. The greatest of empires that stood for more than a millennium has been ended, and at the very hands of their supposed brethren.  In it's place a new "Latin Empire" has been formed, the King of Germany Siegmund 'the Vicar' has placed his son Lutbert on the throne of the Great Palace of Constantinople - Or what remains of it, Crusaders have sacked the great city, stolen it's ancient artifacts and thrown it's religious icons in to the Bosporus and driven all Orthodox east in to Anatolia. To add further insult this new ruler has styled himself "Kaiser" in some crude imitation of the Caesars of old. Our father-in-law Maurikios now rules as a Basileus-in-exile from Lykandos in Cilica. The collapse is so sudden many of the doux have found themselves with no aid, and no great Imperial Legion to fall back on, raiders and bandits rule the countryside and petty kings scrounge for power in the once great cities. In the East, on the border with the Abbasids, Thomas 'the Bull' has crowned himself king of Coloneia and Megistos Argyros, distant relative of the Basileus has formed the Kingdom of Trebizond which has now become the largest power in the region. But should the Abbasid turn their attention west, then all the lands of the old empire may fall to the Sunni.  We begin the long solemn march back to Oman. Our exploits and the lengths we went to to defend the empire are known far and wide among the Greeks, and as we progress further east back across land where the Byzantine Empire once stretched we find more of the locals joining us. Oman and Byzantium have long been trade partners, and tales of the golden city at the edge of the known world are famous among the locals, as is it's reputation for tolerance and it's open society. With their future here in Anatolian uncertain and the risk of Sunni incursion or worse Catholic rule, it would seem many would rather seek a new life in the south. By the time we reach the Euphrates the dwindled Bahrid Army of barely a thousand of the bravest remaining soldiers has swelled to a massive column of refugee townsfolk, displaced peasants and other lost souls numbering at least ten thousand. The Valencian-African revolt against the Caliph was suppressed some years ago but now it seems it is Iraq's turn to rise up (and likely ultimately fail) against Caliph Vahhab. Thanks to the turmoil we pass through Mesopotamia unmolested and reach the Persian Gulf once more. We personally fund the settlement of the many Greek peoples north of Suhar and in the largely unused lands of Kerman. We're certain this is the very thing our grandfather Ali would have wished when he envisioned the new Oman he was establishing and reorganizing. At the very least we have attracted some of the brightest minds and greatest thinkers of Byzantium here to the republic.  The revolt in Hadramut has been raging on for a year, our depleted numbers making it hard to put down, but as Rasulid and Bahrid forces combine we finally gain the upper hand.  It's only when overseeing the construction of new houses and temples east of Hormuz that we come to realize just how 'Hellenized' the Bahrid dynasty has become. Our son Maurikios spends more time with the Greek refugees than Omani locals, and he is far more interested in learning about the Bible than the Quran, this is becoming true with all our children and it dawns on us we may in fact be one of the last Ibadi Bahrid.  The last holdout of the revolt sits on the isolated island of Socotra, we muster what we can of the new Bahrid navy being constructed and sail to it at once and put down the revolt at last, bringing peace back to Oman after a turbulent decade.   Along with a new navy we have reorganized the Bahrid army, before it was a messy mix of all manner of troops and equipment and a nightmare for commanders. Now it is solely calvary, a fast and efficient response force for any threat that may occur at our now expansive borders. And with one key special element - elephants. One upside of the Hindu invasion of Persia was they brought their elephants with them that now roam the coasts of the Persian Gulf, and with luck we have a number of Ibadi-converted Rajput who are more than willing to train and equip war elephants for us.  Thankfully Suhar came out of the Chinese Invasion mostly unscathed. After repairing the settlement's walls and refilling it's stockpiles we begin at once with continuing all the work our grandfather and father did in expanding this fortress-turned-palace and the surrounding city.   Our first son Damianos has come of age, and just like his younger brother we have found he would rather follow Christ than Muhammad. We are terribly conflicted and are sure that if Sami Usfarid were still here he would immediately demand re-conversion or try to destroy our family. Almost every Bahrid male (from the family patriarch to the lowest brother or nephew) since Sa'ddadin 'the Hammer' has taken a Greek princess to be his wife. We have all been immersed in Greek and Arabic culture since birth and now with a great many Orthodox refugees coming to the republic from the north perhaps this is just the next logical phase of our family?   The days grow long and hard for us, our great stature has taken it's toll on us, along with years of living in encampments during the Third Crusade. Our bones struggle to support our huge frame and soon we find ourselves confined to our quarters just like our father before us.  Even up to our final day we ordering the construction and improvement of Suhar and the other cities across the Gulf.  On a winter's night near the end of 1109 a heart-attack takes us and we collaspe in the Bahrid estate. The sizable impression we leave on the floor remains there for many century to come, but hopefully the effect we've had on the Greek world will last even longer. 
Crisis Now fucked around with this message at 00:41 on May 7, 2020 |
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May 7, 2020 00:10
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 Goddrat.
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May 7, 2020 00:48
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Alls well that ends well, I'm sure.
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May 7, 2020 00:58
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Honestly, I'm kind of impressed whit just how bad of a situation you ended up in there and survived. Simultaneously trying to fight off China and the entire Catholic world was one hell of a feat to have the family come out of mostly unscathed.
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May 11, 2020 15:46
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Poor Kamran.  Even though it goes against the narrative, I hope we can return to Ibadi Islam some day. I like it when minority groups do well.
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May 11, 2020 16:24
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