Our new Malik, Shah Walad Jalayirid has newly been appointed the new ruler of us, the Jalayirids. Although he knew he would become our next leader, I firmly believe he had no idea that it would be so soon. He seems devastated at the loss of his father, but at the same time he appears to know that the people of our nation need a firm hand to lead them. As such he hasn’t even once showed any weakness in front of them. He has also put all his effort into figuring out how to deal with the Timurids to our east. They are truly mighty, and to be honest, they are quite scary.
As our new ruler needed information about our rather humble nation, we became close friends, and I have taken the liberty to record his tales, his achievements, his battles, his glorious victories and terrible losses. I am one of his trusted advisors Yasir Sa'id and this is the tale of our ruler, Malik Shah Walad Jalayirid!
My master was troubled with the Timurid threat to the east and looked rather worried, he knew that the truce would end soon, he hoped that the Ottomans might be able to inflict serious blows to them before the truce expires in early March 1406. He also ordered the training of three new regiments in December in order to fight this threat. I believed we didn't have the necessary resources to pay such a grand expansion of our army. But he told me that they would come in handy "later". I have no idea what he is planning.
Although I'm a Master of Mint I became more or less an errand boy helping our gracious ruler with everyday diplomatics, managing the realm and such. The first thing he ordered me to do is to wed away some of our princes and princesses, four of them to be exact, to the nations of Oman, Yemen, Mamluks and Tripoli.
Just after two months we received bad news from the Timurids, they had beaten Ramazan and forces them to become their vassals, although they were small, they are now supporting the Timurid wars. A small blow towards any defense against them, but my master said that they "didn't really matter in the grand scheme of things, as long as the Ottomans hold out, and maybe manage to destroy a couple of their armies we should be alright I think". I remember the former Malik, he also seemed to have this "gift", a gift that makes them stand above me and the others, a gift that will either lead us into glory or destruction, with the latter being the more likely option.
In December 1405, the Algiers decided to go to war against Tunisia, they wanted us to join in, but Tunisia was allied with Yemen, Hedjaz and Oman. With the truce coming to an end with the Timurids we would be doomed if we honored the alliance, we had no choice but to tell them that due to our situation we can't aid them in this war, we are sorry, but you are on your own. We have enough trouble with the Timurids at the moment.
With the truce nearing the end and no ducats to pay a general our glorious ruler saw no other option but to lead his forces himself on the battlefield. Although I do not like to admit it, he is a decent general, what we need however is a military mastermind if we are to survive a Timurid invasion.
Then in early March 1406 we got a message that the Timurids was ready for war again, we did however, have some luck on our side as it seems our intel was mistaken, the Timurids appeared to be weakened and led to suspision that the nation had been trown out into civil war. Later an Ottoman messenger arrived explaining that they had killed of a large division of their army and that they should be kind of manageable right now, bless the Ottomans for their war efforts.
My master sent me a letter from the front lines reporting that after the initial entry into Timuridian territory they had found nothing, no troops, only a few rebels sitting in the near lying provinces, he also wrote that he had got his hand on some intelligence saying that the Timurids was in the process of training regiments in the provinces of Khuzestan and Hamadan, he wanted to kill those troops before they could even enter the battle field, he ordered the main army of 6000 men to Hamadan, while he had 2000 men sent to Kuzestan with a remaining 1000 troops ready to be sent to the front lines if necessary.
The 2000 men sent to Khuzestan successfully managed to kill the one thousand Timurids, with very limited losses, less than a hundred. The same went for the battle in Hamadan, except no Jalayirid died in that battle.
Just a few months after they had marched over the borders into Timurid territory I got another letter from my master, this time he wrote that his scouts reported a 15.000 man army in the neighbouring province of the main army and himself, they were killing of rebels in the province next to my master and his men. My master suspected that they would make a move against him and his sixthousand men if they got the chance. He was right, after killing the rebels they moved towards the province they were sieging, my master did however manage to slip into the province to the south, evading them for now.
Just a few days after I got yet another depressing message, Rajaputana had given up the war effort and conceded defeat. One less front for the Timurids to focus on. Peace had to be made quickly, or we would have to hope rebels would bring them down.
Nearly half a year after the war had begun I got yet another message from my master, he wrote that after playing tag with that damned army for months they had finally shaken them off and the scouts reported that it was heading inland, they had also killed another thousand Timurids in a swift battle in Azerbaijan after fleeing there in order to "avoid" a major battle. After arriving in Hamadan and setting up the siege, yet another thousand man regiment was brought up by the Timurids, and soon killed.
My master’s messenger reached me in early January telling me to prepare the capital for a siege as the Iraqi rebels had successfully taken Sharizhor. This could both be seen as a blessing and a curse, if we were lucky, they would be able to break the province away from the Timurids grasp, on the not so good side the rebel troops were marching towards Jalayrid capital. I did however order the capital to prepare to be sieged, hopefully we can fend them off long enough for my master and his army to return home.
We received our first blow in March, exactly a year after the war started with a battle in Khuzestan, a Timurid army ambushed our 3000 man army attacking what apeared to be a defenseless regiment.
Luckily enough the Timurids decided to not chase after our fleeing army.
I took a look at our current war calculations, it would seem we were "in the lead" however, that was thanks to us killing of smaller Timurid armies.
In late June our ruler returned from the battlefield, on paper he had been defeated, but he and his 9000 men had fought valiantly nonetheless and it seemed that the Timurids had decided that we were not worth the trouble. Our leader liberated the capital from the Iraqi rebels siege in late July and they fled back to Timurid territory.
Peace is once again upon us, I do however ponder what the Malik meant by those 3000 men would come in handy later?
This document describes the events under our new Malik, Shah Walad Jalayirid, during the second war against the Timurids. Witnessed and written down by his most trusted advisor, Yasir Sa'id.