CK Writing Prologue pt. 2

Chronicles of Harran and the beth Harranu
Scribed by Yonan ‘Didabû-Sin’ bar Atour
Translated by Monk Eudokimos of St. Panteleimon Monastery, as commissioned by Basileus Eustathios Maleinos 995 AD

~ ~The Šarratu’s Early Years ~ ~

The Lord Yoel beth Harranu was the first of the beth Harannu to achieve political dominance over the city of Harran, but made no claim to true Kingship. That was a task the man left to his children. Among their number by the year 5628 (878 AD) was Khava ‘Sin-ēṭiru’ bath Yoel (b. 850), Aho bar Yoel (b. 853), Eshu bar Yoel (b. 856), Sharo bar Yoel (b. 858), Ramin bar Yoel (860) and Suriya bath Yoel (862).

The four beth Harranu brothers would upon reaching maturity take positions in managing the family businesses. Aho as the eldest took charge of managing the agrarian landholdings of the family, while both Eshu and Sharo managed the collection of rent from the various pastoralist communities who moved their herds through and grazed upon the family’s land, leaving Ramin the task of overseeing the family’s rented-out properties in the city proper.

This left the youngest child of Lord Yoel, the girl Suriya with few prospects outside marriage to one of the young dynasts in the city, though prior to the example she would set it would’ve been unusual for a young woman of good repute to have any other path through life, the priesthood excepted.

But for Suriya, a devotee of the goddess Ishtar in her martial aspects and a restless youth besides, such a domestic fate was intolerable. So it is said that the girl in possession of the hero’s strength took up her father’s sword and spear, took a horse from the stable and left the family’s countryside estate at the age of 16, though not without leaving a letter specifying her intentions.

Suriya journeyed north, first along the Balikh and then east into Diyar Bakr. There in the hills  which laid at the slopes of the Hakkari mountains Suriya met an old woman by the name of Nēštu. It is said that the young Suriya, proud and haughty, spoke down to the elder and questioned how such a feeble old woman could survive in the wilds. Nēštu responded with firm grace, offering to show the impetus youth the strength of age, and the younger woman accepted.

The young dynast possessed the hero’s strength, in her grip did steel bend and stone break, her footfalls shook the ground and cratered the dirt, but the old woman bore the weight of ages upon her blows and the skill of yore to guide them. Before the hour had passed, the land around them was ruined and proud Suriya lay in a heap, breathing heavy and quick. Old Nēštu, the warrior sage, lifted the girl to her feet and acclaimed her a champion in the making, a blessed daughter in spirit of the Eanna’s Mistress. But just as the Lioness of Heaven required numerous trials and conquests to secure her dominion, so to would the Lioness of Harran need honing and discipline to do right by the blessings she had received.

So it was that for two years Suriya dwelled in the hill-country of Diyar Bakr with old Nēštu, learning the ways of both sword and scepter. Even to this day, locals tell tall tales of earthquakes and rockslides that plagued their ancestors when the two would spar, and at least two small rivers are thought to have been redirected by their efforts. Regardless of these legends, all accounts are in agreement with what brought Suriya’s tutelage to an end.

Old Nēštu called Suriya to her cave as the Morning Star heralded the dawn, and told the young dynast her tale. Nēštu stated in the red tongue of truth that she was in elder days called Al-lāt, a goddess of war and prosperity among the Arabs before they strayed, and a handmaid and companion of the Queen of Heaven, Ishtar. When the Haga’raia under their Prophet’s lieutenant secured Ta’if and burnt down her temple, Al-lāt was much aggrieved and begged her mistress to avenge the indignity done unto her. Ishtar though, knowing that the rise of the Haga’raia was fated, rebuked Al-lāt for her short-sightedness, reassuring her friend that many honors would be hers again in due time.

But Al-lāt could not accept that, and in her intransigence angered her mistress, who banished her from the heights of Anu down to the mountains of Hakkari to live as a mere djinni until Ishtar sent her a task by which to redeem herself. It was plain to Al-lāt that Suriya bore a grand fate, touched by the Lady of the Evening Star and bearing her blessing.

 So Al-lāt had taken up the task of training her mistress’s chosen champion, and after two years there was nothing more for the goddess of Ta’if to teach. Her task complete, Al-lāt congratulated her student and wished her well, instructing her to head north to the land of the Khazars where she would find her fate. And as the Morning Star faded away under the shining brilliance Shamash, so to did Al-lāt fade away as her spirit returned to high heaven.

With her mastery of the arts martial achieved, Suriya followed her departed mentor’s instruction and journeyed north past the lands of the Armenians and Georgians, past the Caucasus Mountains to the great steppe where the Khazars ruled.

Here legends state she overcame many challenges, whether they be from hordes of savage horsemen or ancient beasts long banished from civilized lands. Regardless of the means, it is known with great certainty that the lady Suriya came to serve in the guard of the Khazar Qaghan Benjamin son of Menahem, after ripping the head off an assassin with her bare hands.

From the years 5632 to 5636 (882-886 AD) Suriya fought under the Qaghan, facing in battle Pechenegs, Alans, and Rus among others. Anecdotes from her time among the Khazars speak of the boisterous Suriya promising the Qaghan that after each battle she would pile up the heads of those she’d slain till it reached twice his height, and managed each time. Regardless, it is known that the Harranian lady rose in the esteem of Qaghan Benjamin, and by 5635 (885 AD) was given command of two thousand horsemen who lingered in the worship of Tengri, much to the consternation of Prince Aaron II.

It is said that in the greatest battle of Qaghan Benjamin’s reign, when the Asya, Oghuz, Burtas, Onogurs and Bulghars united and attacked the Khazars under the guidance of the Emperor Constantinople, Suriya encouraged the Qaghan to commit fully to the battle so as to cripple his people’s enemy for generations to come with the complete slaughter of their fighting men.

And with her aid, Benjamin’s Khazars would do just that. With Ishtar’s chosen sovereign fighting on their side, the Khazars achieved complete and total victory against their foes. Every man who stood against them was slaughtered, and every man who fled was struck down by bolt and spear. But such victory came at a cost, for just as the five enemy kings fell in battle, so too did the Qaghan Benjamin fall down to Kur.

The new Qaghan, Benjamin’s son Aaron II, had little time to mourn his father. The young man was eager to capitalize on his father’s victory, and anxious over allowing his death to be in vain. But before he could launch any campaign, Aaron had to deal with Suriya. As the Harranian lady had become a high ranking commander in the Khazar host and an informal advisor to the Qaghan, she had accrued a significant influence among the elite of Khazar society. Further, those men assigned to her command had, over the past year, come to relate much more to the ‘Warrior Princess of the South, Grandaughter of Father Tengri and Mother Umay’ than the Jewish converts who made up the elite of Khazar society.

Were it within his sense of propriety, Aaron might have had the foreign woman executed for giving the advice that led his father to his death. But for the very same reasons that made her a threat to his rule, such an end would not have been acceptable either to her followers among the ‘pagan’ Khazars or her friends among elite. Nor would it be seemly for a son to execute the warrior who claimed the head of his father’s killer. So Aaron settled upon a middle ground between killing Suriya and hoping the Harranian would leave him alone; he ordered her banished, along with all those sworn to her service and their kin.

This was met with some protest from the Tengrist Khazars, but Suriya went among them and calmed their proud spirits. The future queen promised her warriors a of wealth and prestige in her homeland, and of great honor to accrue in battle in coming wars which would herald a time of peace and plenty. With her followers calmed, Suriya went before Qaghan Aaron and assured the young man of her intent to leave with all her followers.

So it was that on the year 5636 (886 AD) that Suriya bath Yoel began the Šaglūtu Ṣāb Ṣēri.

~ ~

Chronicles of Harran and the beth Harranu
Scribed by Yonan ‘Didabû-Sin’ bar Atour
Translated by Monk Eudokimos of St. Panteleimon Monastery, as commissioned by Basileus Eustathios Maleinos 995 AD

~ ~ The Journey South and the Ascension to the Throne ~ ~

The journey of Suriya bath Yoel and her Khazar followers south from the steppe of Khazaria would in total last three years, from 5636 to 5639 (886-889 AD). Were Suriya merely traveling with her 2,000 horsemen, it is likely that such a journey would’ve only taken the better part of the year. But, this was not merely the march of an army, but the migration of a whole people.

Along with the 2,000 warriors sworn to her service, Suriya also led her men’s wives, typically only one but a not insignificant portion of her warriors having two or three, and numerous children. In total, Suriya’s migration was composed of roughly 8-10,000 men, women and children at the beginning of the journey east and south.

The migration began around the town of Kursk, Suriya’s host traveling east till they reached the Don river and then riding south along its banks till they reached the city of Sarkel. There they crossed into the heartland of Khazaria, and for the rest of that year journeyed south through increasingly rough terrain till they reached the Kingdom of Alania.

Having come under the influence of the Eastern Ru'maia Empire and the Kingdom of Abkhazia, the King of Alania had converted to Kristia’nuta (Christianity), though many of his people retained the old religion of the Scythians in a degraded form. Nevertheless, while the Alan King was a true convert to his faith, he still held some bitterness in his heart over the forced nature of his baptism as a Hammi’nana (Christian).

So when he was informed by a herald that a band of Khazars ten thousand strong was requesting passage through his land into that of Abkhazia, the Alan King was happy to allow his enemy’s enemy safe passage through his land, if a ‘minimal’ toll was paid, at least. It would take three months for Suriya’s Khazars to pass through the Alan lands, during which a number of disgruntled Alans, disatisfied with the settled and Hammi’nana way of life their King favored and having heard tales of Suriya’s exploits among the Khazars, joined up with the Tengrist Khazars on their trek south. By the time the host passed from Alania to Abkhazia, it’s numbers had nearly doubled to roughly 16,000.

The King of Abkhazia, the recently crowned Adarnase Shavliani, son of the usurper John Shavliani, was in a delicate position. While his Kingdom was both wealthy and mighty, his personal position was precarious. As the son of a usurper, the rightful claimant to the throne not only still being alive but having achieved significant political influence in his exile at Constantinople, Adarnase could not afford any military embarrassment. Lest his own supporters loose nerve and choose to depose him in favor of the Anchabadze prince Bagrat I.

So with four thousand horsemen on his border Adarnase agreed to meet with horde’s leader, and was surprised to find at their head a Syriac-speaking woman. Nevertheless, King Adarnase of Abkhazia found little reason to stand in the way of Suriya’s journey through his land, or at least none that warranted the risk of military conflict. In fact, in order to facilitate the swift exist of the Khazar-Alan host from his land, King Adarnase of Abkhazia introduced Suriya to his peer, King Adarnase IV of the Iberians of Tao-Klarjeti.

The King of Ibarians though, was less amenable to the notion of simply allowing a nomadic horde 16,000 strong to wander through his lands. Nevertheless, this second Adarnase was willing to come to an agreement. Namely, that if Suriya and her four thousand horsemen would aid him against against his cousin Nasra, supported by the Ru'maia Emperor, then he would not only allow the Khazar-Alan host to pass through his lands, but vouch for them before the Armenian King Ashot I.

Suriya accepted the King’s offer, and in the next year the fighting men of her horde would fight alongside the Iberians and Armenians against Nasra’s Ru’maia host. Thus did Suriya not only gain free passage through Iberia and Armenia, but secured an alliance with both King Adarnase and King Ashot.

So, by the last month of 5638 (888 AD), Suriya’s host enter Diyar Bakr, which rested under the rule of the Sheik Ahmad ibn ‘Isa al-Shaybani. Unlike the Hammi’nana rulers to the north, Ahmad took his allegiance to the Caliph in Baghdad seriously, and the sight of a horde of kaffir nomads riding into the heartland of the Caliphate was not something he could countenance.

Unfortunately for the Sheik, there had been little warning of the arrival of the Khazar-Alan host, and by the time Suriya had reached the town of Mayyafarqin Ahmad only enough time to gather two thousand men, most of whom only could only sport light armor absent horse or camel.

There was little glory in the Battle of Mayyafarqin, for it takes little skill for a host of four thousand experienced and well-equipped horsemen to mow down half their number in poorly equipped light infantry on an open plain. In the aftermath of the battle, so as to reward her faithful followers for their obedience over the long journey across the Caucasus and highlands of Armenia, allowed for the sack and razing of Mayyafarqin, the majority of its residents either put to the sword or put in chains.

Thus at the dawn of the 5639th year since Lord Elil’s Deluge, did the towns of Si’irt and Hisn Kaifa and the city of Amid bend the knee before the Lady Suriya bath Yoel beth Harranu, and made their lands open to the Khazarian and Alan herds.

But before her subjects could settle in their conquered lands, Suriya rode south with half her warriors to her home city of Harran, having sent a messenger ahead, and was greeted with both surprise and joy by her kin. Her elder brothers, Ahu and Eshu, welcomed her with open arms, though with an underlying bitterness. They informed her that, after receiving a dream sent by the Lady Ishtar and Lord Suen, their father had changed his will so that the seat of their father as head of the family would be passed onto her instead of Ahu.

This had initially been a cause of bitterness for both of the elder brothers, though their sister the Entu of Suen was largely ambivalent. But after seeing the great host Suriya had gathered to her side, there was little room for bitterness or jealousy with such surprise and hope filling their hearts. It was in the days following this explanation, that what had been a vague idea in Suriya’s mind began to take form among the council of her family.

From the months of Araḫ Addaru (February - March) to Araḫ Dumuzu (June - July), Suriya spent her time securing the support of the other prominent families of Harran and the neighboring cities, settling her Khazarian and Alan subjects in the former distinct of Diyar Bakr and the northern portion of Diyar Mudar, and negotiating with the Tulunid governor of al-Jazira, Muhammad ibn Ishaq ibn Kundaj. By the month of Araḫ Abu (July - August), the two rulers came to an arrangement.

In return for military aid in exterminating the Kharijite rebels occupying the lands around Beth Nuhadra, Governor Kundaj would acknowledge Suriya’s right to rule the districts of Diyar Bakr and Diyar Mudar in the name of his liege, the Emir Khumarawayh ibn Ahmad ibn Tulun of Misr (Egypt). Suriya accepted, and promised to begin her own campaign against the Kharijites within the year, a true statement, if one that left out a number of critical details in her plan.

Regardless of future betrayals, in the month of Araḫ Ulūlu, presided over by Ishtar, Patron and Protector of Kings, Suriya called forth the chiefs among her Khazar and Alan subjects, as well as the leading citizens of those cities which had either bent the knee or otherwise allied with her cause to Harran. Where, upon the eighth day of that month (In traditional Mesopotamian religion, the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th day of a month is a ‘Holy’ or ‘Evil’ day on which official business in certain spheres could not be conducted. The 7th in particular being holy to Marduk/Bel and Ishtar) Suriya was crowned by her elder sister, the Entu Sin-ēṭiru, as Šarratu mat Harranu u Aššur (Queen of Harran and Assyria).