Rebuilding Great Armenia - 1072 edition.

Table of Contents:

1. Vahramiad, part 1

2. Vahramiad, part 2

3. Sipariş

4. Year of Four Princes

Rulers:

1. Vahram Varajnuni, b. 1035, Shurbaz - d. 1096, Antioch.
Spouse: Gaday Arcruni, komissa of Tauros.
Issue: form unknown woman: sons Abulgharib (b. 1060), Ligos ( b. 1062 - killed in action 1082). From Gaday Arcruni: son Mamigon (b. 1072), dughters: Berdjuhi (died in infancy), Alitz (b. 1078), wife of prince of Salerno)

2. Abulgharib Varajnuni, b. 1060 - d. 1096
Spouse: Eria d'Hautville
Issue: from Eria: son Mushel, daughters Vartuhi, Dalita, Nane.

The most complete account of Vahram Varajnuni's life is provided by "Vahramiada", memoir of his life written by his son, Mamigon, while incarcerated. While this book may be apologetic and by no means objective, let's provide some exempts:

I know that my time on earth is nearing its end. I spend my days awaiting executioners to enter my door. But I don’t want to go mad while waiting. And so, I, Mamigon, son of Vahram, decided to write all I remember about my glorious father and a kingdom he forged, to which I am righteous heir.
The house of my father is not known for its ancient and illustrious history. They hail from the nigh unknown district of Varjounik in the land of Vasparukan, or as Greeks call it, Basorepiada. Anyway, the first Varajunis was little more than azats, serving great royal houses of my people. It is through my mother, Gaday Arcruni, whom my father married in 1072, shortly after his ascension, that I, Mamigon, am descendant from Kings of Vasparukan and emperors of Rome.


But let us not dwell on my figure. Anyhow, Varjouni of old found little advancement serving kings of Vasparukan. By the time the last king of Vasparukan, Senekerim Arcruni, sold his kingdom to Byzantines in 1021, Varajnuni, or as Greeks called us, Brachamios, were already serving the empire, and were granted different commissions, mostly in the land of Armenians.


I don’t want to tire you explaining all the sad events preceding the ascension of Roman Diogenes to the imperial throne. Seeking to cement empire against the growing Seljuk threats, he dismissed corrupt Greek nobles, and elevated my most noble and trustworthy father to the position of Domestic of the East and gave him the command of Syrian frontier.

The task in which my father excelled. I heard that some claim my father was with emperor in the unfortunate day of Manzikert. This is not true, of course. Had Vahram been there the Turks would most certainly be crushed and Romans triumphant, while betrayers’ heads put on display. Unforunately, my father was as far as Edessa.


In the spirit of his utmost loyalty, he didn't abandon his task of protecting the imperial border weven during the civil war between Roman and vile Doukas. As we all know, Doukas won. When usurper Michael Douka sent his cousin Andronik to relieve my father from the position of Domestic, my father, couldn't accept that. The post was given to him by Roman, and only he could take it away.

So, it wasn't my father who abandoned Byzantium, but rather Byzantium betrayed my father. He was forced to proclaim independence, after taking the city of Antioch under his protection.

In the year of 1072 he was made Sevast and August in Antioch.


Though he already had two sons, begotten by some lowly woman, Abulgharib and Ligos, now he saw the necessity in having a proper heir with ancient and royal blood in his veins. And so he married my mother, Gaday Arcruni, komissa of Tarsus in Cilicia. I was born in the same year.


Ah, but it becomes too dark to write in my cell, and so here I will interrupt my tale. It will be continued, if I to live another day.

DKM said:

Of course I will follow! I was one of the original followers.

Click to expand...

Good to see you again1

GulMacet said:

Highly interesting. Do you plan on exporting the proper interpretation of the Faith to the Greeks?

Click to expand...

Not in Vahram's life. He was famous for his disregard of religion, converting to Orthodoxy while on Byzanthine service and to Islam when Seljuk threat was especially high. That's why contemporary historian and zealous Myaphisit Matteos Uṛhayetsi absolutely hated him and that attitude even sipped into English Wikipedia, for example.

Everyone knows, that barbarians are wanton and chaotic by nature, and sons of Ishmael, Arabs and Turks, are of the second worst kind of barbarians, being surpassed only by Normans in that regard. So the empire of Alp Arslan was as colossus with feet of clay, and many of his vassals made an alliance to overthrow him and achieve independence. The most prominent of those tyrants was Rashid ad-Dawla, emir of Aleppo, man famous for his cruelty and opulence. I know, some say that my noble father, Vahram, was in league with this despot, maintaining relations with him through Armenian mamlukes in Rashid’s service. That is of course not true. Noble and pious, my father would never associate himself with such a low characters, unlike some of his unworthy descendants, whose very names are anathema to everything that’s true.


But I will not speak of such rot.


Seeing how Alp Arslan’s dogs are tearing each other apart to the east and to the south al-Masmudi, emir of Damascus defected his liege, Fatimid caliph, my father led an expedition against Baarin, or Monferrand as it is more widely known, since Normans and their speech are tainting our land and our language. And here I’m forced to talk about Normans and other unpleasant things.

As you may know, decadent and weak, devoid of my father’s guidance, Byzantines failed not only against Turks in the east, but also against Normans in the west. Robert Guiscard and his brother, Roger Bosso of Sicilia, of de Hautvilles, conquered Epirus in the western Greece.



In order to protect his people from Norman menace, and also utilize their barbarity against enemies of Christendom, Vahram decided to sacrifice some of his less noble sons, and betrothed the eldest, Abulgharib, to Robert’s daughter Eria, while the middle son, Ligos, was betrothed to Roger’s daughter Adelise.


So with Norman troops supplementing his own, Vahram crushed Moslems at Burj Safita in 1078. Normans, of course, were only auxiliaries. With Monferrand under his arm, my father gave little regard to the news of Rashid ad-Dawla dying under torture in Alp Arslan’s dungeons.

With his inner opposition crushed, Alp Arslan once again turned against Byzantium, this time taking the whole of Iconium. However, that Turkish victory brought some relief to the heart of my father. One of Seljuk warlords, Kerman Shah, no longer satisfied with his subservient position, proclaimed himself sultan of a new sultanate, which he arrogantly called Rum.


Nearly immediately two Seljuk empires went at war with each other, settling their innumerous border disputes. My father saw this as opportunity to expand his realm even more, this time conquering the great city of Emessa in Syria, or Homs, as Arabs call it. It's said that the emperor Elagabal, known for his depravities, once was the grand priest of pagan temple in Homs. The temple still stands and serves as a mosque for Muslims, what other proof is needed to see that there's no difference between Moslims and pagans?


Unfortunately for its citizens, Homs didn’t enjoy Varajnuni’s benevolent rule for a long. Jalal ad-Duala, Emir of Aleppo and Rashid’s son, took it from us. I believe that was due to some sort of Norman betrayal. Anyhow, loss of Homs proved to be a blessing in disguise. Among many prisoners taken by Jalal were my vile brother’s snake of a wife, Eria de Hautville, and his daughter, Dalita. While Dalita was exchanged promptly, Jalal, no doubt sensing some proximity of characters with Eria, refused to ransom her and kept her in Aleppo. As his concubine, I’d wager.


There’s not much to add to this tale. The rest of my father’s reign was spent relatively peacefully. There was some Turkic raid in our northern borders, which we successfully repelled, albeit with a price of my other brother, Ligos’s, life. Ah, but sacrifices have to be made. Plus his untimely death freed us from his Norman wife’s company.


The Normans proved to be a great disturbance, specifically after Robert’s death, since no one except the Devil himself was able to keep these barbarians in line. My father was forced to conduct a punitive expedition to Southern Italy across the sea, forcing peace among their chieftains.
Sometime there I was force to marry Ksenia Rurikovich, daughter of some Russian prince. What made my father to think she would be a good party I’d never know, he died soon after my wedding, in the year of Our Lord 1096.


So the story of my father is complete. I do not want to write about the sad events that followed. I have to hurry, I hear the footsteps approaching. I need to hide my manuscript before my jailers enter.

And here we say good buy to Mamigon Varajnuni as a narrator, although we'll see him again as a hero. Isn't he a swell guy?

I will update the second post (the one with Table of Contents) with some biographic info about Vahram.


To answer Siempre' and Aves' question:
I do not plan to convert without necessity, but if the situation will dictate it, I will. Although I have on some authority that religious situation may change a bit in Middle East in the years to come.

Wow, comments!

DKM said:

How did the Normans gain Epirus?

Click to expand...

They start in invasion war with ERE

Aves said:

As far as I know, the Normans start at war with ERE in HIP. If they win, they'd get some land to the west of the Empire.

Another great update. I for one am looking forward to the return of Mamigon Varajnuni.

Click to expand...

Well, he won't be a narrator, but we'll see him.

Khryses said:

Outstanding, great to see another HIP AAR using all the modules - as well as one as the fiercest mouse that ever tried to carve out a home for itself between two rampaging elephants.

Three, if you count the ERE.

Click to expand...

Nah, two. ERE lost all its Asian possessions and is trying to fend off Normans and Bulgarians in Greece, wouldn't bet on them doing comeback. Fatimids are even worse, I mean "strange screenshot" level of bad. Perhaps I'll talk about them, if I manage to somehow justify their absurd situation. So it's down to Seljuks and their spin-off, Rum.

metalinvader665 said:

Vahram is a fun start with lots of interesting potential, even though I only played with him in the pre-Manzikert starts. Good luck!

And if you convert to Islam, make sure you or one of your descendents finds his way back to the One True Faith.

Click to expand...

Thank you. Vahram really have a lot of ways to die expand early on.

herrmarisa said:

I really like your style mang, you are very literate in English, especially considering the fact that most Russians hardly have any English skills at all

Click to expand...

Well, thank you. I don't think I'm particularly good in English, though. I mean I can achieve some descent language from time to time, but I often slip here and there. And of course, articles. Articles are invented by Satan to make my life harder. I don't think there's a way to get articles in order if your native language doesn't have them, so I just ignore articles and hope they go away.

I looked for some Russian forum, to maybe write AAR in my native language for a change, but everything I found looked quite deserted.

The exempt from a memoir:

My name is Vache and it means Word in Armenian. I like this name, though words coming from my mouth tend to be commands, and commands are nowadays usually given in Turkic, so you may call me Sipariş.


As a boy I was captured in a slave raid. Oh, I can see you already feeling sorry for me. Don’t be. Perhaps I was captured only because I was the only one who didn’t leave the village. Perhaps I even run behind slavers’ cart, asking to be taken. See, I was born a peasant, and that meant that I will spend my life tending to the flock of some azat, whose ancestors last did anything worthwhile before St. Grigor baptized king Trdat. I didn’t want that. I wanted a flock of my own, and being mamluke in service of some emir was a good way to start.
Have you ever heard of Ali ibn Yahya al-Armani? He was Armenian mamluke, who became the ruler of Cilicia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. I don’t remember who told me about him, some visiting monk, I suppose. For all my life I knew I was going to be like him. Something has gotten wrong.

Not initially. Initially I was doing great, being the first among young warrior slaves of emir of Aleppo, Rashid ad-Duala. To check growing power of Turk mamlukes and balance his own Banu Kilab tribe of Arabs, Rashid elevated me, Armenian, to the commanding position in his guard.


I’m not a coward, everyone from Aleppo to Isfaghan can attest to that. More times that I can count I let my warriors to victory for the glory and enrichment of my noble master, making Armenian regiment the core of Aleppo forces and putting Turks and Banu Kilab to shame. But when Rashid decided to rebel against Great Seljuk, I knew we all was going to die.

I still remember the day of our defeat. Surprisingly, we were closer to victory that I could ever hope. What has gone wrong? Did Turks on the right flank defected to their compatriots? Or maybe Banu Kilab on the left decided to left Rashid and go back to Aleppo to put his son on the throne, to be their marionette? Why, both of course. The center, comprised of my Armenians, stood its ground. But there’s only so much we could do, Seljuks’ power were overwhelming. Ah, you know the rest, Rashid died in Alp Arslan’s prison, his son Jalal became Emir of Aleppo, Arab tribesmen put every Armenian mamluke surviving the battle to death.


How come I alive? Well, Jalal is not stupid. As soon as Banu Kilab crushed his enemies in Aleppo, they outlived their usefulness. And so he invited their elders to the banquet. I served them there. See, Jalal is of Banu Kilab, he can’t be murdering his kin. Not by his own hand, at least.

But I’m not stupid also. It was just a matter of time before he would invite me to the banquette, so I made some preparations.

With new Armenian principality taking Homs, only to lose again to Jalal, he took their ruler’s daughter-in-law prisoner. Normally she would be ransomed, but Jalal took a liking in her, settling her in his harem.

It is a perfect opportunity. If I, mamluke of Emir of Aleppo, would appear at gates of Antioch alone, they would probably just shoot me before I can even say a word in Armenian. However, if I brought their Prince daughter-in-law with me, I may even land a job.

Palace guard in Aleppo isn’t what it used to be, it can easily be passed. Specifically if you are the man who was its commander for years.

This screenshots are not taken in chronological order. First shows Vache about time I found him, the second a from earlier in his life :closedeyes: