Part 12: Ioannikos ‘Yuddhamakos’
The Cleansing of Shah Anedashemnad Bahram
(Alt. ‘Fire-Trial of Pantlyan Stokadaraja at the Persian Temple’)
15th century CE
900 CE
900 marked the beginning of what promised to be the greatest war yet between the Arabs and the Indo-Goths and their descendants. The Yona called this the ‘Yuddhamaki’ after the Yuddha, a syncretism of Ares, Shiva, and apocrypha surrounding Theodoricos the Conqueror and Alexander the great. Many of the Atlantes held the Yuddha in high esteem, despite the protests of more orthodox members of the Heirety, and their shields were often adorned by images of a spear with a serpent handle or a Corinthian helmet with the moon as its crest, both symbols of Yuddha.
Ioannikos led the Atlantes as the vanguard of the great army of the Yavana, bringing them west, across the Suleyman mountains, and directly into Muhallabid Persia before support was behind him. More than out of fervor, he did so to secure a greater commitment of troops from his vassals. Over the century, they had grown quite powerful and independent, but the most powerful among them were still Kappadoki. If the emperor died or were captured, it would be calamitous to them. Thus, the more resources they sent to support the war, the better they could avoid catastrophe.
Ioannikos’ brother, Apoladatis, was King of Sindh and Indikos, and his heir, Sagrayus Agateclaya was the lord of Profiteya and Raskumaros Ghandara. His nephew Amtiyalkan ruled Maru, a small but highly-developed raskumarity near the Deccan, which dominated the neighboring territories. The sprawling province of Makran was ruled by a scion of the house Kimmerikon, an ancient cadet dynasty of the Kappadoki. Finally, the Priest-King of Kosalas still owed the emperor a debt of protection from the secular nobility, who frequently petitioned to revoke the title and divide the ‘Auspicious Kingdom’ into the hands of greedy lordlings.
In early 902, Ioannikos and his warriors entered Persia. All who followed him were granted the honorable epithet ‘Fotismenos’ as the most illuminated figures and most easily-seen from the mount of the Gods. The Fotismenoi were held in high regard during and after the war, with the term sometimes being used interchangeably with ‘Atlante’ for a holy warrior of the dharma. The experiences of the Fotismenoi in Persia and on their return to Yavana would come to define the course of the Rajya over the next century.
As the ‘Yuddha Army’ of Ioannikos began to take over the eastern territories of Persia, the Catholics in Europe were conspiring to their own great holy war. During the latter half of the 9th century, Christendom had seen monumental losses on every front to its neighbors: Islam was taking root in southern France, while vikings pillaged and conquered the northern and English coasts. Sicily and southern Italy were firmly in the grasp of Hellas and Epirus, both of which had stabilized after decades of internal turmoil. The Pommeranians had expelled Christendom from all of Saxony and now hungrily eyed Frisia. The greatest institution of Catholicism after the Church itself, the Holy Roman Empire, had been eviscerated by the Slavs and by internal heretical uprisings, leaving it a mere shadow of its former power. All over the Christian kingdoms of Europe, free-thinking heretics defied the church and proliferated in such numbers as to make even an inquisition against them a monumental endeavor.
Thus, in the face of intense pressure from without and within, the Pope declared a holy war in northern Italy, where the Fraticelli King Federigo had laid claim to the whole peninsula, including Rome. This was not only a threat to the Church, but an opportunity. Federigo was weak, his lands as divided between mainstream and heretical sects as any true Catholic kingdom while lacking the long-standing ties and traditions of the Catholic church. Further, his territory lay near the remaining Catholic heartlands of the Empire around the Alps and southern Germany, meaning the aid of the Holy Roman Empire would be more likely and more useful. Yet the greatest opportunity of all was to reverse the tide of history, which had turned against the Church and delivered it loss after loss. If Italy could be saved, so too could Burgundy, Occitania, Saxony, and Aengland.
Meanwhile, the war in Persia continued apace through 902 without sight of any major Arabic armies. The forces of the local lords were easily swept away by the combined forces of the Rajya, and the morale of the opposing troops was falling precipitously with every failed skirmish and surrendered keep. It was presumed the Muhallabids were gathering their forces somewhere in middle Arabia, and would thus be a long time in reaching eastern Persia. The port at Hormuz became a top priority for Ioannikos, as locking it down before the Arabs could cross the Gulf would force them to the long way around through Iraq. Their only other option at that point would be to load the troops onto ships to make the crossing, and if the Muhallabids were willing to do so, they would have done it by 903.
The Shia-Christian war in Iraq came to a close in the spring of 903, as the local Shia overtook Baghdad and broke the supply lines of the Qasrid forces. The Shia of Baghdad installed the granddaughter of the first Shia Caliph Shujah to the throne, with the backing of the current Caliph in the southern reaches of Arabia. For his part, Ioannikos wasn’t sure what to make of Sultana Shokouh; she was no ally of the Muhallabids, but was still a Muslim. When the Yona reached the edge of Persia, wisdom might dictate they keep up the march and see if the ‘House of Wisdom’ was truly as splendid and auspicious as common knowledge held.
By mid summer of the same year, small advance forces of the Muhallabids had finally reached the front in Persia, only to be shattered just like the local soldiery. Captured Arab warriors told a dreary tale of defeatist Emirs and apocalyptic Imams throughout Arabia, and failure from the top down to even recognize that the war was ongoing. Some of the Arabs expressed openness to the dharma, but few were willing to consider rejecting Allah.
The emperor’s highest military adviser, Strategos Ergica ‘Ironside’ of Trigarta, advised Ioannikos to try a light hand with the Muslims going forward, especially in occupied Persia. In a message to the emperor, he wrote that the Muslims were led to believe from a young age that there were no Gods besides their Allah, and that to acknowledge any others was a sin of the highest order. It would take time to bring them into the fold, just as it had taken time for the Hindus and Buddhists to accept the truth of Olimpos, but he believed they would someday find their way to the Noble Eightfold path.
At the Yavana war camp near the city of Bandar Abbas, which the army was preparing to besiege, Ioannikos rode his war horse ‘Vijayee’ as if on a procession through Delhi. Soldiers on the dirt thoroughfares bolted out of his way or flew to their knees to bow in the hastily-dug gutters. As befitting the size of the army, the tent encampment was massive, so Ioannikos fell into a meditation as he rode, closing his eyes while Vijayee carried him, his hands reflexively forming the dharmachakra mudra. As he grew older, Ioannikos often found himself meditating by instinct, especially as a reaction in moments of excitement to prevent himself from taking rash actions.
Sometimes he wondered if such a reflex could have prevented his storied ancestor from making his ill-advised trek into Tibet; the Legends said he had been drawn there by the Gods, but Ioannikos doubted that. In his experience, the Gods had little power to make a man take action where he wasn’t already predisposed to take action. Why else would Orpheus defy the warning of Persephone and look back at Eurydice before she crossed the threshold of the living world? Why did the field crow defy the marsh crow Bodhisattva and go into the reeds in the water, where it drowned? Why did King Daksos not invite his father-in-law Lord Shiva to his sanskaar when this was conditioned on the wedding of Lord Shiva and Daksosiana? One lesson was obvious: the Gods do not force mortals’ hands, but guide them lightly and leave them their consequences.
The tent of Ergica was the tallest in the camp and embroidered around the edge of the top canvas with sky blue and red patterns of waves and flowers, so that passing underneath it was like going under a canopy. Further embroidery up the tent showed lotus flowers, bodhi leaves, and auspicious patterns of renewal and cyclical growth. On the ritual mornings, an icon of Gnosistos Archistos, or ‘Ganesha’ as the Indikoi knew him, was raised on a wooden pole to be inhabited by his Godhood, or by whatever God his icon was used to receive, before being brought inside to inhabit it as His or Her temporary Earthly abode. There were no rites this morning, or else Ioannikos would have been attending his own private ceremonies, but soldiers still came to circumambulate the tent or pray before it like a Temple, thickening the crowd of soldiers around it. Ioannikos slowed Vijayee here and sent Eskandar in to fetch Ergica, who came back with Eskandar from behind the tent atop his horse.
Together they rode out from the tent to the village of Sarzeh, whose western delineation was a tiny mosque with a squat minaret that peered just barely above the mud-brick houses of the village. In addition to Ioannikos, Ergica, and the companions, the group contained three of the emperor’s sons and their bodyguards, making them well over 3 dozen in splendid robes, tack, and armor. On sighting the approaching Yona, the villagers of Sarzeh fled into their houses or were in the process of fleeing, averting their eyes from the warriors in the hopes of escaping notice. As the Yona rode, Eskandar shouted that the villagers must come to the mosque and see what would happen. Another companion at the back of the procession repeated the shouting, so that everyone would hear.
At the mosque, the companion Brahmanarayan went in to fetch the Imam. He re-appeared a moment later behind a short man, old but seemingly healthy for his age, in a turban and a threadbare robe and tunic. Brahamanarayan translated between the two men. The Imam, impetuously but with a kind voice, spoke first: “Good afternoon. I am called Yousef.”
“You address Deivanampeos Megalyteros Ioannikos of the Yavanarajya. Bow before his majesty,” said Eskandar, but Ioannikos intervened.
“That’s not necessary,” said the emperor, who dismounted and walked before the Imam, who bowed his lightly in greetings.
“Thank you, your majesty. I can not bow, at my age, without a great deal of help to turn upright again.”
Ioannikos turned his shoulders and looked out towards the sea, which was just visible on the horizon from the front of the mosque. A small crowd of men had come from the village and stood well away from the companions and the mosque, but drew nearer as the conversation went on and their curiosity overcame their caution. Pointing, Ioannikkos asked, “Makkah is somewhere in that direction, isn’t it?”
“Yes, your majesty.”
“You prostrate towards the Kaaba?”
“Yes, your majesty. We call that direction the Qiblah.”
“It is wise to know where one stands in relation to a holy place,” said Ioannikos. “Tell me, if you lived a thousand years, would you ever renounce Allah as your only God? Would you pray in a different direction?”
Yousef bowed his head. “No, your majesty. Allah, blessed and lofty, is one, and there is no equivalent to Him.”
“Would you accept him by another name?”
“No, your majesty. He has one name, and we know it to be true by the revelations of the prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him.”
Eskandar slowly broke from the companions and began to go around the mosque. Some of the Persians watched him, but turned back when he rounded the back of the mosque.
“And because Allah is one, and there is no equivalent to him, you could not worship another God, not even as a subordinate to him.” Yousef shook his head solemnly. Ioannikos turned to Ergica. “The Imam says he would waste a millennium rejecting the dharma. Is that long enough to call him a lost to us? Shall we wait until the gandharvas come down from Olimpos and tell the good Imam that his Qiblah is pointed the wrong way?”
Ergica grimaced. “I apologize, your majesty.”
“You don’t need to. I have let my cruelty speak for me. I shall follow your example of compassion.”
Ioannikos turned away from Yousef and got back on his horse. Eskandar was coming around the other side of the mosque and rejoined the group at the same time as the emperor. Ioannikos conferred with another companion, who held out a sheathed sword for him. He drew it, and the Persian men gasped and cried in fear for Yousef. Some of them ran back to the village, but a number stayed behind to see.
Ioannikos turned towards the Imam, rode up, and held the sword over his head. “As an unrepentant heathen and denier of the truth of the dharma, I sentence death on the priest called Yousef of Sarzeh temple. May the Gods bear witness that I have ruled justly and in order.”
The imam closed his eyes, accepting the coming death, while his flock looked on in horror. Their transfixed faces changed to confusion as Ioannikos lowered the sword gently, then brought it back to his front, holding it at attention.
“By my authority, most-blessed and greatest ruler before the Gods Ioannikos I of the Kappadoki, I hereby spare thee. However, your temple is the abode of a false god and shall be destroyed by the will of Zeyus Aftokrator, who reigns supreme over Olimpos and the world.”
Brahmanarayan took the Imam by the arm and brought him to the Persian men so that he wouldn’t resist the burning of the mosque. He spat out untranslated curses while Eskandar and two other companions went into the mosque and then left it, with smoke at their backs. The oil which Eskandar had poured on the back of the mosque was quick to alight. Soon, the little mosque was lost beneath a raging fire whose warmth licked Ioannikos’ nose. “I do this for my Gods, and for Zoroaster, the prophet of the Lord of the Wisdom, a God we know and honor. May this cleansing flame please him and drive the false god Allah back to his house in Makkah. He shall have no abode in Parsiyah."
The companions cheered, and soon left after making clear to the Persian men that further practice of Islam would be punished. When they arrived at the camp again, the idol of Gnosistos was raised for a celebratory ritual.
Ganesha Idol of Yannakas Maharaja
9th century CE
The razing of the mosque at Sarzeh was disseminated quickly through the army and inspired a number of similar razings, as well as sporadic violence against Muslims. The traditional turbans and coats of the Parsees, Zoroastrians who had fled Persia for India to practice their religion in peace, began to be worn widely by Persians who could afford such garments in the hopes of signalling to Yona soldiers and magistrates that their wearer was Zoroastrian, or at least were more loyal to their own lives than the Caliph or the Sultan.
903 had already been an eventful year, but wasn’t to finish without further spasms in the shape of the world. The Pope declared victory in August from the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Milan, and began a series of reprisals against the local ‘Fraticellis’, driving those remaining in northern Italy into the countryside. As an unintended consequence, heretics fleeing the violence of the triumphant crusaders fled to Occitania in great numbers, further entrenching anti-Catholic sentiment there and weakening efforts to re-assert the Church’s authority.
King Nezir ‘the Protector’ entering Florence
Joseph-Nicholas Robert-Fleury
1840
The deposed king Federigo was captured a month later trying to cross the Alps ahead of winter, hoping the snow would close the way to pursuers. Famously, he was undone when his bodyguard, the esteemed knight Fortebraccio di Mede, called him ‘Il Gallo’, an obscure nickname for him that was nevertheless-recognized by a passer-by who alerted the local constable. Braccio was killed defending his lord, and Federigo would be mocked throughout history by the coining of the idiom, “rooster’s flight” for an endeavor undertaken by a fool. Worse for him was his execution by burning at the stake after a parade through the streets of Roma.
In Persia, the Yavana army stormed the under-manned keep at Bandar Abbas. From the port they captured vessels to carry detachments to Qeshm and Hormuz islands, whose few defenders were caught flat-footed by the speed of the attacks. With the fall of Bandar Abbas, the strait of Hormuz was essentially uncrossable by the Muhallabid army. The only way from Arabia to Persia would be by transport ships or march through Basra, which was now controlled by the Shia. Their only hope of keeping Persia now relied on summoning enough men from the northern plateau and Azerbaijan to secure a landing for a more-numerous army from Arabia. Ioannikos split his force into three; 5,000 horsemen would race to Basra and resist any Muhallabid forces there, while a further force of 5,000 would advance more carefully up the coast to look for potential landing sites. The rest of the army went about requisitioning supplies for the march north into the highlands.
A few days after they had left, a ship came from Arabia bearing diplomats from the Muhallabid court. They met with Emperor Ioannikos, and attempted to angle for monetary recompense in exchange for the surrender of the Persian crown. Ioannikos refused these, understanding that the diplomats had arrived to surrender, not negotiate, in the hopes of keeping the Caspian territories as ostensibly under their sovereignty. After a few days’ of posturing and threats, the diplomats crossed the gulf, which now separated the Muhallabids from the Yavanarajya. The Yuddhamachy was won.