Shah Suleiman I - Fighting the Good Fight
Shah Suleiman I – Fighting the Good Fight (1666 – 1669)
Well the new man. A turn back to the nasty yellow circles.
Suleiman, unlike recent Shahs had been taken by religious fervour since a young age. As an infant the physicians didn’t think he would live past his first year. He proved them wrong, 6 years later he fell into a river near Tabriz. At 6 and still a sickly child it looked like the miracle of him making it this far was about to end. He was carried downstream, around a bend and out of sight but the young Suleiman just a few moments later came walking around the bend by the side of the river a little wet but more or less fine.
After this the clerics had decided he was blessed. The highly religious Kizilbash Guard also apparently thought so and despite being in no way in line to the crown he had, at the age of 18 been crowned Shah of one of the greatest Empires in the world. While not supremely talented in any areas he was strong of will, determined and dangerously ambitious. Throughout his childhood he had loved to examine the many maps in the Harem. He had once remarked to Najam, one of the Council that despite the great Safavid Empire being so powerful all these little infidel states continued to defy the true form of Islam just around the borders.
Unsurprisingly then, after giving each member of the Council control over one of the 20,000 men armies which were the mainstay of Safavid power he launched an attack on his smallest Sunni neighbour – the state of Sindh. Najam’s army led the assault on Sindh while the army of Abbas, another council member hung back just in case the vastly smaller Sindh, without the backing of the divine defeated Najam’s attack.
Najam leads the assault on the Sindh
Najam not only defeated the Sindh army but mercilessly butchered killed any of the Hindu and Sunni populations which opposed him, inserting Shiite leaders in their place.
The war and peace were settled quickly, Sindh converted and as a token of thanks Suli (the Council’s pet name for Suleiman) sent them an extravagant gift of gems and gold from Isfahan to thank them for ‘seeing the light’. He also had gifts sent to the Turks, with whom relations were still strained after the wars and to Yemen the other Shiite state
Next Suli turned his gaze north. The Khiva Khanate which had split from the Uzbeks soon after the death of Abbas was a little larger but still with the Allah’s blessing his forces could not loose. The regions weren’t rich but conquest didn’t interest Suli. No these barbarians to the north would be taught the true faith – something his predecessors had never managed with the Uzbeks.
The Khiva Khanate
Before Suli could get his armies in place for the attack the natives of Natal launched an attack on the colony. The natives were brave although their bravery was taken to a little too extreme lengths, attacking the colony was simply suicide. The wooden palisade surrounding the few hundred settlers had cannon mounted at 40 metre intervals and 10,000 Safavid men stationed near by to protect it.
Despite their bravery the natives quickly succumbed to the muskets of the Safavid Colonial Army. The governor in Natal took pity on the natives who had lost many of their hunters to Safavid guns and blades. He had food sent to the encampment in the hope this offer of friendship would deter any future attacks.
An uprising in Natal
Meanwhile back on the mainland four of the six council members had sent their armies north for the attack on Khiva.
The Safavid army marches on Khiva
40,000 men hugged the eastern coastline and assaulted, quickly capturing without major loss Karabogaz, Turkmenistan and Khiva. The other 40,000 skirted around the western border of Khiva before moving west towards the capital of the Khanate. The forces of Khiva however massed in Kara Kum and Khwarizm. Najam ordered the armies to hold. The losses to supplies and the anti-Safavid hysteria (built up mainly from his continuous brutal actions to local Sunni communities) would inflict an unimaginable toll on the Safavid men. This was obeyed for a year or so. But eventually, tired of waiting and impatient as ever, Husayn launched an attack, as it happened he won a magnificent victory which led to a complete surrender from the Khiva Khan.
Winning
While the Khiva were made to convert and Suli celebrated the victory in Isfahan Najam was less impressed. While not an official leader he was the eldest of the council and had always been accepted as wisest. Husayn’s actions had driven a wedge between the two and with Suli growing in power and confidence they began to compete for his influence. The rivalry grew bitterly fierce in just a few short years and with each at the head of a 20,000 man force the political future of the Empire looked shaky at best.