CK Writing pt. 1

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 Reconquest of Aššur, the Ru’maia Advance, and Tulun’s Fall ~ ~

The news that Suriya’s coronation spread through the region like wildfire, as the rise of any such claimant to Kingship naturally would among their peers. Among the Haga’raia, of particular note was three rulers in particular; Governor Kundaj of al-Jazira, Emir Abu Abdallah of Malatya, and Governor Yazaman al-Khadim of Tarsus and chief among the Abbasid commanders in al-thughur al-Shamiya (Cilicia).

For Governor Kundaj, the crowning of a Šarratu in Harran was ominous by itself, that this was the same woman who had at least nominally agreed to pledge fealty to his liege in Cairo and agreed to deal with his heretic-problem even more so. Unfortunately for the governor, those very same issues which made the Šarratu a threat also prevented him from acting against her. He could not afford to turn his attention away from the Kharijites to his north, nor could he ignore the Caliph Al-Mu’tamid to his south, who might take any marshalling of troops as a threat and move to replace the Tulunid subject with one more pliable to the government in Baghdad.

Emir Abu Abdallah of Malatya on the otherhand, faced a different set of problems. Since the death of his father, the (in)famous ‘Umar al-Aqta, Malatya was a waning power in eastern Anatolia. Where once there stood a power capable of repelling Ru’maia armies, now rested a pitiful husk which could only hope to survive such an assault with the support of Governor Yazaman. A new threat to his east was not something the Emir could tolerate, not if he hoped to endure to pass on his lands to his own son.

Finally, Governor Yazaman al-Khadim of Tarsus was a experienced and acclaimed commander in his own right, with a long history of successful raids against the Ru’maia. Unlike the independent Emir of Malataya and the Tulunid loyalist Governor of al-Jazira, Yazaman owed his allegiance to the Caliph in Baghdad and stood in opposition to the Tulunids...at least under Ibn Tulun himself. But under the man’s son Khumarawayh, the governor had been reconsidering his allegiances. For him, interest in the Harranian Kingdom was only extant wherein it affected his own fight against the Ru’maia.

For Suriya though, the activities of the Haga’raia rulers were largely immaterial, at least as far as immediate concerns went. Instead, for the first half of the year 5640 (890 AD) Suriya focused her efforts on the drill but critical task of establishing an state bureaucracy to oversee the management of her subject territories and cities, the collection of taxes, provision of salaries and other payments, and the maintenance of key infrastructure.

While this was neither a particularly difficult nor controversial course of action, it still took time to convince local officials and prominent landowning families to buy into the system. Neither could Suriya simply coopt the provincial administration still centered around the Tulunid governor in Mosul. But the restoration of certain old privileges, as well as the issuing of various protective edicts for the practice of Kristia’nuta and the Ibrītu (Hebrew) faith managed to win them to her side.

The essential structure of the system was one of limited local autonomy. Cities in the mat Harranu u Aššur would be divided into three categories; Ellu-Ālu (Free Cities/Towns), Kanāšu-Ālu (Subject/Submissive Cities/Towns), and Kânu-Ālu (Tributary Cities/Towns).

Ellu-Ālu, composed of those cities who either willingly joined the kingdom or surrendered absent struggle prior to annexation, were allowed to maintain their own form of local governance whether it be a local Malku (Prince, lesser ruler as opposed to mār Šārri/Prince referring to a king’s son or the crown prince of a nation) or a council of oligarchs. Free cities were obliged to pay a portion of their own income to the treasury, enforce the edicts of the Crown within their jurisdiction, and organize and provision a militia of 1/10th of their fighting age men. The city was to ensure the militiamen spent at least one day a week training and one day a month drilling in units, and the city was obliged to provide them with arms and armor meeting a state mandated minimum of quality. Half of these militiamen would be trained for garrisoning the city, and the other for activities in the surrounding countryside. Commanders of the city militia were assigned by the local government, but had to be approved by a representative of the Crown.

The Kanāšu-Ālu were those cities which offered resistance during their conquest or cities which had recently been constructed or resettled by the Crown. In the case of conquered cities, for their first twenty years the city would be governed by a Šaknu (governor) appointed by either the Crown or the Pīḫātu (provincial governor). They held the same obligations of the Ellu-Ālu without the attendant privileges. But if a Kanāšu-Ālu remained loyal for a period of 20 years, it would considered an Aḫurrû-Ālu (Junior City/Town) and would be allowed to elect a council of leading citizens to administer the city and advise the appointed Šaknu. If the city remained loyal for another 20 years, then it would be elevated to the position of Ellu-Ālu, with all the privileges that entails. Further, those cities constructed or resettled by the Crown would begin at the second stage, bearing an appointed Šaknu with an elected council under him.

Finally, the Kânu-Ālu are those cities which, while not formally part of the Kingdom, acknowledged Assyrian suzerainty. The Kânu-Ālu were obliged to pay a yearly tribute in currency, raw materials, slaves or levies, to fight alongside the armies of Harran when called upon, and were bound by the edicts of the Šarratu regarding relations with foreign polities. Otherwise though, the Kânu-Ālu were functionally independent while enjoying the protection of the Kingdom and reduced tariffs for the exporting and importing of goods from said Kingdom.

Much of which was, at this point in time, largely academic. As there were as of yet no Kânu-Ālu, and the only city that would’ve qualified for the status of Kanāšu-Ālu had been razed instead of subjugated. Nevertheless, Suryia had established the outline of her vision for the Assyrian state and the structure by which her current dominion could be governed.

Of course, the process of building an administrative apparatus was not something that could be completed in a mere year, let alone half of one, but by the anniversary of her coronation Suriya was confident enough in the foundation she had laid to delegate those tasks to her younger brothers Sharo and Ramin. So Suriya turned her focus to building a standing army to defend her new realm.

The core around which Suriya formed her army was the militia her father had organized for Harran, and her subordinate tarkhans from among her Khazarian host. The bulk of her Khazar and Alan followers would remain in the new distinct of mātu Ṣāb Ṣēri (Country of Nomads), the new administrative title for the Caliphal distinct of Diyar Bakr, but those officers most loyal to her would form the basis of her cavalry officers and the officer corp in general.

For the body of the army, the great majority would be recruited from the countryside. Whether they be pastoralist Arabs struggling to compete with the influx of Khazar and Alans (more of whom would continue to flow down into the Kingdom from the highlands as the fortunes of the Khazars worsened and the Christianization of the Alans continued), third and fourth sons of small landowners unlikely to inherit any land, and religious zealots looking to restore the land to the Anunna gods.

By the dawn of the new year (891 AD), the Harranian standing army had grown to a size of 10,000, composed of 6,000 footmen and and 4,000 cavalry (1,000 cataphracts, 1,000 horse archers, 2,000 light cavalry), which could be supplemented by both the urban militias and the Khazar and Alan tribal levies. The standing army itself was well-drilled, but had little practical experience, but while though the tribal levies possessed more formal skill and practical experience those same men were needed to build a new homeland in mātu Ṣāb Ṣēri. Naturally then, both to ensure her people’s security and to fulfill her word, Suriya would take her army for a campaign.

On the 22nd of Araḫ Nisānu (4th of April, 891 AD) Šarratu Suriya bath Yoel beth Harranu led her army out of Harran and off to the east. Marching east it took the Harranians 13 days to cross the 200 miles between Harran and the hill-country north of Mosul and Nineveh around the 5th of Araḫ Āru (17th of April, 891 AD), at which point they were met by a contingent of Tulunid soldiers sent by Governer Kundaj. With a mix of charm and coercion, Suriya subordinated the Governor’s lieutenant and integrated the two thousand off men as auxiliaries of her own forces.

For the next two months, the Suriya’s host would conduct regular raids against the Kharijites in the hill-country, as well as the villages and hamlets that supported and harbored them. All the while, Suriya was careful to ensure that whenever casualties were unavoidable, the Tulunid forces bore their brunt. By the 1st of Araḫ Dumuz (17th of June, 891 AD) the Kharijites had been largely routed from the countryside, taking shelter in the village of Beth Nuhadra.
There the Kharijites of Diyar Rabi’a made their last stand, and there they perished. So too, did the Tulunid commander subordinated to Suriya, and before even a day had passed the Arab and Turkic soldiers found themselves reorganized, their number dispersed throughout different units of primarily Assyrian and Armenian make.

With their mutual enemy destroyed and her temporary ally’s present soldiers neutralized, Suriya marched down to al-Mosul to meet with Muhammad ibn Ishaq ibn Kundaj. The journey south took the better part of three days, and the latter half of the third was spent resting after the march. On the 5th of Araḫ Dumuz (21st of June, 891 AD) the two rulers met at the governor’s palace. The exact contents of their discussion are lost to time, but it is known that both parties left their conference aggrieved. The next day, the Harranian Šarratu barged into the governor’s private chambers and dumped a mutilated corpse at his feet, loudly accusing him of sending an assassin after her. When the man attempted to defend himself, Suriya grimly accused him of being a liar, approached him before his guards could respond and ripped his still beating heart out of his chest.

The city of al-Mosul fell into chaos as news of the governor’s grisly demise spread, and the city’s garrison was too busy trying to maintain order to prevent the Harranian army from marching in and seizing it. Renaming is Mepsila, as it had been called in Achaemenid times, Suriya installed a third cousin as Šaknu of the city and stationed five hundred of her men to garrison as she set out to subjugate the other cities in the region. But only after sending a legation, led by her brother Sharo, to Baghdad to see her claim to the region acknowledged.

It took about a month for news to spread across Diyar Rabi’a and the southern half of Diyar Mudar that the Tulunid governor had fallen and the Šarratu seized the provincial capital. Most of the population, following either the Nestorian Church, the Syriac Orthodox Church, the Armenian Apostolic Church, or lesser sects, were largely ambivalent to the change in ruler. The urbanized Arab Muslim population was little different, with only the pastoralist Rabi’a and Mudar tribes showing mild apprehension. So when the Harrani-Assyrian army passed through, the cities of al-Jazira bent the knee.

Two months after the governor’s death, Suriya was the uncontested de facto ruler of al-Jazira, and on the 16th of Araḫ Ulūlu (30th of August, 891 AD) the Harrani-Assyrian legation returned with an Caliphal envoy, delivering to the Šarratu a crown, acknowledging both her dominion over the region as well as her claim to royalty, while at least retaining the pretension of suzerainty over the Šarratu.

Suriya would spend the next three years working to integrate the cities of the former district of Diyar Rabi’a, now called mat Aššur u Ninua (Country of Ashur and Nineveh) into the Harrani-Assyrian administration. Most of this time would be spent overseeing the election of city councils in the Aḫurrû-Ālu and the appointing of Šaknu for the cities in general. Of particular interest to the Šarratu was the cordoning off of ancient Nineveh from the modern town of the same name and the ever-growing city of Mepsila. The same was done for Aššur, which had remained a sizeable town of Assyrian Hammi’nanai (Christians)

By 5644 (894 AD) though, Suriya had returned to Harran where she would spend the rest of the decade engaged in various building projects. Of particular note was the careful deconstruction of the Caliphal palace of the Umayyad Caliph Marwan II (744 - 750 AD) and the reconstruction of the original E-hul-hul Temple, completed in 5647 (897 AD). The transfer of the idol of Suen and that of his wife Ningal from the new House of Rejoicing to the rebuilt original was made into a festival in its own right, and the consecration of the rebuilt temple was overseen by both the Šarratu and the Entu. The newer, or perhaps now older, temple was refurbished, renamed as the ‘E-Nawru-Māšām/Enawrumāšām’ (House of the Radiant Twins) and rededicated to Ishtar and Shamash, in particular as the twin divinities of Divine Justice and Patrons of Righteous Kingship. Accompanying shrines and chapels were also built for the Radiant Twins’ consorts, Tammuz and Sherida respectively.

Beyond the construction of new temples Suriya’s efforts in her capital were focused on refurbishing the city’s walls, and building a new palace to serve as the royal family’s residence. Neither of these projects received the fanfare of the Šarratu’s efforts towards the rebuilding of the temple, though the rebuilding of the city walls received a fairly positive reaction.

Regardless, the affairs of the rest of the region did not come to a half merely because the Šarratu looked inward. In 6641 (891 AD) Governor Yazaman al-Khadim perished from wounds suffered during a raid against the Ru’maia, and his fellow Tulunid officer Ahmad ibn Tughan al-Ujayfi succeeded him, uniting the Levant under the control of the Tulunids. Two years later in 5643 (893 AD) King Smbat I of Armenia, son of King Ashot I, and King Adarnase IV of Iberia joined together to make war on the Kaysid Emirate, the most powerful and westernmost of the Arab Emirates in Armenia, which was vanquished in a mere two years.

Finally, in 6646 (896 AD) Emir Abu ‘I-Jaysh Khumarawayh ibn Ahmad ibn Tulun of Misr and al-Sham (Egypt and Syria) was murdered by a palace servant after emptying the treasury on extravagances. Khumarawayh would be followed by his son, who would be deposed after a few months in favor of his brother Harun ibn Khumarawayh. Harun left the actual governance to his vizier Abu Ja’far ibn Ali, leading to the decay of the country and collapse of state finances.

But the slow implosion of the Tulunid state was just that, slow, and therefore subtle from the outside. It was the campaigns of Leo VI the Wise in 5650 (900 AD) against the Emir of Tarsus (Ahmad ibn Tughan al-Ujayfi, replaced first by Damian of Tarsus and then the Abbasid appointees Ibn al-Ikshad and Abu Thabit), ending with the capture of the Emir and the conquest of Cilicia as a whole, shocking even the Ru’maia commanders and Emperor. This allowed the Ru’maia Emperor to turn his attention west, reinforcing Ru’maia Sicily and reclaiming a portion of the island.

Once the weakness of the Tulunids became clear though, it did not take much time for their neighbors to bring them low. From the north, Šarratu Suriya bath Yoel of mat Aššur invaded in 5652 (902 AD), while an Abbasid host marched north from the Hejaz to take the districts of Filastin and southern Dimashq. And surprising the region, the Kingdom of Makuria under King Georgios I invaded Tulunid Misr (Egypt). In all cases, the divided and chronically unpaid Tulunid army deserted at the first sign of confrontation.

In all cases, by the year 5654 (904 AD) the Tulunid Emirate of Misr and al-Sham had ceased to exist, divided between the Caliphate, the Empire of the Ru’maia, Aššur, and Makuria.