By a Single Decision (Alternate History)

[das]

OOC: I actually wrote a lot, up to the year of 1000 AD (not as much as it might seem, as the remaining 15 years were LARGELY uneventful. However, I also made a new map...). I just forgot to post all that...

IC:

Chapter Sixty.

985. Samarkand. The great city was burning, for resisting the God’s Will. That God was not Allah; nor was he the Christian one. Well, in a way one can say he was both and more, but the city was burned in the name of the oldest edition of the Abrahamic God. It was being burned by the Khazars.

Under Solomonos IV (increasing Roman/Byzantine influence, remember?), the Khazars were pursuing a very aggressive policy. Two words were enough to summarize their history in later 10th century: “They fought”. They fought with the Aesti tribes in the north; they fought with Viking raiders even further north; they fought with Slavic rebels and with Magyar states; they fought with Shiite Imamate, too.

Right now, they were fighting with Central Asian city-states. You see, Samarkand and Bukhara were at that point merchant states that controlled a lot of trade at the crossroads between the civilizations, and that were the gateway to the mystirious eastern lands of Sin’ (a.k.a. Cathay, a.k.a. China). The Khazars were notably annoyed by the monopolization of the trade with Sin in Samarkandian hands, and with the high tariffs.

And so the Khazars asked to tone down on those tariffs. Samarkand refused. The Khazars quickly attacked it, defeated the mercnaries in a bloody battle outside of the city, and seized it after a two-week siege and a ten-hour assault.

This marked the beginning of Khazar expansionism in Central Asia.

 

[ThomAnder]

Hmmm will gunpowder be introduced soon? N. America have already been discovered after all

 

[das]

OOC: Gunpowder? Nah... Far from it.

IC:

Chapter Sixty One.

In 984, a Khazar army entered Central Asia. At the time, Central Asia was effectively divided between four states: the Uighur kingdom, where Manicheanism met Nestorian Christianity and Buddhism, the two merchant city-states (Bukhara and Samarkand) and the regional Muslim Turkish power (formed after the Orguz Turks migrated south), Khorasani Shahate, or Khorasan. The latter, it must be said, was led by one Mustafa Hamidi, who built a very strong empire in the power vacuum following the Turkic migration. He had a strong cavalry force, but he also learned well from the Battle of Khajuraho, and built up a competent infantry army as well (largely gathered from the Arab cities in his lands). Khorasan's border with the city states was on the Am Darya river.

And so it was that along that river's north coast, the Khazar army, based partially on the Byzantine one but also with veyr heavy resemblance to the Turkic armies, advanced to Samarkand. The city was seized and burned in 985; in the same year, Bukhara surrendered without a battle.

Khazaria officially placed Bukhara under its "protectore", essentially annexing it. A large land corridor towards it, including the former Samarkandi territory, was acquired as well.

All this troubled Mustafa of Khorasan greatly. Quietly, he begun preparing his entire army for war. In early 986, Bukhara promised allegience to him if he defeats the Khazars.

Mustafa's reply was very short and arrived quickly.

 

[jalapeno_dude]

Yay! Can't wait for the map...

 

[das]

Chapter Sixty Two.

The Khazar army was, as previously mentioned, of a "Byzantino-Turkic" character. That, however, is far less then there is really to it. Like most armies of the time, it could be divided into Infantry and Cavalry. Artillery, or more generally onagers and ballistas, were present as well; the Khazars, like most Turkic peoples, did have a good grasp of siege warfare, but not only it ofcourse. The Khazar infantry was largely divided into "spearmen", "swordsmen" and "archers". "Spearmen" had large shields and long spears; their primary function was defense, of artillery in particular, against enemy cavalry. Ofcourse, the Khazars rarely used spearmen alone in defense against enemy cavalry; Khazars had their own cavalry, and the lighter parts of it were used in defense as well. "Swordsmen" were ligthly armored and equipped jatagans - curved cutting swords. They were somewhat similar to the Arab infantry, and especially good at assaulting fortresses; they were also capable in attacking other infantry, as their light armor allowed them to move more quickly though also making them more vulnerable. "Archers" too were lightly-armored, and armed with complex bows. The archers too had an important part to play in the Khazar army - in defense and offense alike. They were well-trained, and thought by many to be the most accurate archers in the world.

The Khazar Cavalry could be divided into Light, or Baghatorim, and Heavy, or Cataphraim. The Baghatorim, it must be noted, were a good combination of light cavalry and horse archers: they were armed with jatagans AND composite bows alike. Lightly-armored, they specialized in harassment, but were quite capable against enemy light cavalry and swordsmen. The Cataphraim were largely a copy of the Byzantine Kataphraktoi; they were heavily-armored, armed with swords and lances and generally used for overwhelming charges.

The Khorasani army was the "typical Turkic" one. The infantry was armed with jatagans and javelins, and not very strong, though stronger then the average Turkic infantry. The siege weapons were not abundant, in fact, there were just the siege rams. The cavalry was lightly-armored, very fast and ferocious.

The Khazar Army; the Khorasani Army. Two armies; two nations; two Turkic peoples. Fate would have it that they would meet at Turtkul, on the northern coast of Amu Darya.

 

[jalapeno_dude]

I want to know about the battle!

 

[das]

OOC: Sadly, the battle turned out slightly anticlimatical...

IC:

Chapter Sixty Three.

Turtkul. Northern coast of Amu Darya. South of Bukkhara, north of Khorasan. March 11th, 986.

The Khorasani army, led by Mustafa al-Khorasani, has marched all the way here to free Bukkhara and fight back the Khazars. The Khazars too arrived here, led by nasich (prince, as in heir) Sharon ben-Shlomo; they suspected the Khorasanis of planning an attack, but overestimated their progress into former Bukkharan lands, and thus intended to cut off their supply lines. Instead, the Khazars clashed head-on with the main Khorasani force.

The battle did not really take place AT the small village of Turtkul, but slightly to the west from it: the Khorasani forces already passed through it when they encountered the Khazars.

The Khorasanis started with horse archer harassment of the Khazar infantry, which was slowly moving towards them. However, much to their great surprise, the Khazars ALSO had “horse archers”: the Baghatorim attacked and slaughtered the harassing Khorasanis, with bow (before they got close enough) and jatagan alike. Mustafa was surprised, not expecting any light cavalry in the Khazar ranks.

The Khazar infantry moved on. In the middle of the spearmen, the archers moved as well.

Next, the Khorasanis sent out much of their cavalry to outmaneuver the Khazars from the north, while the infantry and the archers attacked their advancing Khazar counterparts.

But the maneuver has failed - ferocious and fast the Khorasanis might have been, but the Khazars sent out the Cataphraim to face them. Both sides suffered from heavy casualties, but when the Baghatorim rejoined the fray as well, the Khorasani cavalry had to fall back. The Khazar infantry, Mustafa realized, was much stronger then Khorasani one.

And so he decided to retreat, and to lure the enemy into his own territory…

 

[jalapeno_dude]

More! More! More!

 

[das]

Chapter Sixty Four.

Encouraged by their victory at Turtkul in 986, the Khazars became quite confident in their military superiority to the Khorasanis. That is actually true - the Khazars don't, so to speak, put all their eggs in one basket - they have strong infantry AND strong cavalry. Admittedly, the Khorasani cavalry is marginally better, but it is a rather small margin.

The Khazar Kezar, Solomonos IV, was no great enthusiast of marching into Khorasan. There was, he thought, nothing there worth the trouble, but rather there were ferocious natives fighting whom in their territory could be quite nasty. Rather, he wanted to hold on to the Central Asian cities he gained already. There was nothing, he said, to gain in Khorasan.

Nasich Sharon ben-Shlomo thought otherwise, and wanted to punish the heathens (officially, Khazars were religiously-tolerant, but Muslims were not liked too much by your average Khazar - not for religious reasons but rather due to the lengthy and bitter wars between the two. A bit like with an Englishman hating a Frenchman in OTL). He also wanted some martial glory, as he was not the only contender to the throne. The most likely one, yes, but the popularity of a warrior-kezar would be quite useful anyway.

And so, the nasich and his army decided to take initiative and invaded Khorasan's northern vestiges following the retreating Khorasani force. The Khorasani land was, contrary to common opinion, quite good and so there were enough villages for the Khazars to pillage (the Khazars were not too much into pillaging, really, but all armies at the time liked to pillage - just at a varying scale and proportion) as they went. They did not stay at any village for too long, ofcourse, as they were hurrying up after Mustafa al-Khorasani's retreating forces. The Khazars followed him deep, all the way towards - as they anticipated - the Khorasani capital, Balkh. The Khazars reached the city and besieged it, laughing at the Khorasani foolishness - offense is the best defense, so why were those idiots locking themselves up in a fortress?

The Khorasanis weren't idiots. In fact, a large part of their army went into Balkh... and then on the night before the Khazars besieged it left. The Khazars were left besieging an impressive fortress, while outside of it, Mustafa had a sizeable force which was growing as it went.

 

[jalapeno_dude]

More! More!

 

[das]

I wonder if there is anyone other then Jalapeno reading this...

 

[Vanadorn]

Absoluitely! Just post more often than you have been (stroke the ego, stroke the ego!!!).

Now write. 'Nuff said.

V

 

[ThomAnder]

lol what Vanadorn said

 

[blackheart]

Nah, I'm not reading this

 

[North King]

Since writers often lose their pride if they don't get replies in great carload lots, I am here, and announce it thus.

 

[jalapeno_dude]

I wonder if there is anyone other then Jalapeno reading this...

I was beginning to wonder that too...

 

[das]

Chapter Sixty Five.

At first it seemed to the Khazar nasich that all was going well. The siege was still on, the Khorasani forces were locked in the city. The two onagers fired at its walls. Soon, the Khazars will enter the city... if they see so fit. There were enough supplies, and the nasich wanted to keep Balkh under siege for a while, fearing that otherwise the assault would be too costly. All indeed was going well, until the second day of the siege when reports came in that the supply route was interrupted. This confused the nasich, but rather then reestablish the supply lines, he decided to attack the city now instead, and deal with everything else later. The assault was bloody, as the few Khorasani defenders refused to give ground, but finally, Balkh was captured.

It was then that the nasich realized that the sultan, most of the army and the treasury were NOT in the city. He quickly aftewards understood what was happening, but by then it was too late. Balkh was surrounded by Khorasani troops, and attempts to break out were either costly failures, either failed to create a secure escape route due to Khorasani flanging maneuvers.Soon enough, nasich Sharon, who previously rather arrogantly described the Khorasani strategy - i.e. getting themselves besieged in a fortress - as "idiocy" was now feeling like an idiot himself, being trapped and besieged by the Khorasasnis in the very same fortress.

When the news of this stunning reversal reached Itil, Solomonos IV was not amused.

 

[das]

Chapter Sixty Six.

Solomonos IV was faced with a clear choice - help his son pull out and risk another defeat or let the son and his forces die and get a bad name amongst the nobles. He considered the two choices carefully. Finally, his decision was made...

"My son," - he declared - "disobeyed orders. He was supposed to secure our territory - instead he rushed after fleeing glory in his arrogance. He doomed good Khazars to death. Some ask of me to send more Khazars to die for his mistake.

I will not do so, for no longer is Sharon ben-Shlomo my son - he has, effectively, betrayed me. I value the lifes of all Khazars equally, and thus I will rather condemn some of them to death then more for a rather small chance of saving those besieged. This grieves me greatly, but my decision is made."

Sharon ben-Shlomo did not know this. He expected help to come until the very last moment, when a Khorasani assaulter's poisoned arrow killed him. Khorasan had a tactical victory, but soon enough it would learn that it was different from a strategic one - lands north of Amu Darya were still Khazar. A series of on-and-off wars had started.

 

[das]

Chapter Sixty Seven.

The period between 985 and 1000 AD was a rather dull one for the world. So here are the rough outlines:

Vinland was beginning to expand into the coastlands of the mainland. There, though, it quickly enough encountered the iron-wielding horse-riding warlike Mingans.

Tolteca was quickly coming to dominate the Mexico Valley, fighting the Muslim Arabs, Berbers and Mayans (who were largely united under Mohammed ibn-Kinoquopa of Chichen Itza, but who also now only controlled parts of Yucatan due to the utter collapse of the southern Mayan civilization) alike.

Islam in Mayan lands was increasingly spreading, taking something an unique form as it partially mixes with some local beliefs.

Caliphal colonization is painfully slow.

Ghana raids begun to increase in size yet again, as the Western Caliphate was proved, again and again, unable to efficiently deal with those. Dissent thus spreads in the Caliphal lands.

Francia, Itala, Hermaland and Magyaray were getting increasingly distanced from each other. Also notable are the Slavic rebellions.

Lombardia/Roma is slowly, but steadily regaining its commercial, if not dominance, then at least significance. Some military leaders want a war. Doesn't matter whom with, but a war to regain some more old Roman lands.

Byzantine resources are increasingly drained by the war with the Caliphate.

The Caliphate itself is quite weakened itself. Most fighting in Judea is on skirmish-level now.

The Shiite Imamate consolidates its holdings and fends back Khazarian attacks.

Khazarian Kaganate is consolidating those territories NORTH of Amu Darya; Khorasan is consolidating to the south.

Chandallans finished off the last of Deccanese opposition and reunited India.

The coming century was to be quite interesting indeed.

 

[das]

And here is the long-awaited map.