Heirs of the Pharaohs: Ancient Egypt Restoration Campaign

[ChicagoZohan]

Chapter 1.1: In the Lands of Kordofan

The vast Sahara desert is bordered, along its southern edge, by a transitional region known as the Sahel. Not as dry as the desert to the north, and bordered to the south by grasslands that give way to dense, uninhabitable jungle. The region is home to a number of tribal groups, some belonging to the native Daju people; others to the Zaghawa peoples, who have arrived in the area from the north, likely decedent from the Garamantes of Libya who brought Berber culture deep into the African interior.

On the eastern end of the Sahel, in a place known as Kordofan, a chieftain named Bolad had come to power. He wasn't the strongest chief in the area, not by a long shot; he didn't even control all of the Kordofan region, as neighboring tribes had taken control of the western part of the land long ago, when Bolad's grandfather still ruled. Still, his people had all they needed -- fertile grazing lands for their cattle in the southern part of their territory, fertile hunting grounds in the small forest in the center, and the twin villages of Ubaid* and Shatt prospered.

*Note: The map above shows Kordofan's capital as El-Obeid. This is a Romanization of the Arabic name for the place, "Al-Ubaid". As we continue with our story, it is important to remember that during Bolad's time, his people did not yet write down their own history. The Chroniclers wouldn't begin to write down the oral traditions of the Daju people for many years yet; until then, we rely on folklore and the writings of their neighbors. Still, in the future I will try to ensure the proper name of these villages is show, when possible; the capital of Kordofan will be labeled as "Ubaid" going forwards.

Bolad's father was killed during a raid when he was still relatively young, so Bolad -- his only son -- inherited the chiefdom at the young age of 22. Bolad was a man of many appetites -- The Daju people were semi-nomadic cattle herders at this time, and Bolad was always growing his herd larger, even when this came at the cost of hurting his relations with the other powerful figures in his tribe.

Bolad's appetite was not limited to large herds of cattle, however; the Chroniclers are not always reliable when because of how long after these events occurred, but all the sources agree that Bolad was a lustful man. Though he preferred the company of other men, Bolad would marry and take many concubines, ensuring his line would prosper.

If Bolad's greed hurt his relationship with the elders of the tribe, his forgiving nature earned back their respect and then some. Chief Bolad was never one to punish his enemy when he could turn him into an ally instead, and this would be his strength when it came to controlling his tribe. Bolad ruled with a gentle hand, guiding his people along the path to greatness.

It might seem strange to start our study of the neo-Egyptian Empire here, a thousand miles away on the African grasslands with a tribe of cattle herders, but this is where the Chronicles all start -- with a petty chieftain and his unremarkable tribe. Bolad was a learned man, despite the remoteness of his tribe, and within the limits of his time and place, he learned all he could of history. He was fascinated by the Pharaohs of old and his peoples' supposed descent from them, and he shared this passion with the rest of his tribe in a way that none of his forefathers could ever achieve. The fire that Bolad would set would burn across the African continent, changing it forever.

Bolad had a son, a boy known to history as Murtin ibn Bolad, who was born to him just before he took leadership of his tribe. Murtin's mother had died in childbirth, leaving Bolad alone; he would not marry again until after rising to the rank of chieftain. As of Bolad's ascent, Murtin was 2 years old.

Directly to the west of Kordofan was the land of Darfur. Chief Dahab ruled over another tribe of Daju peoples in the eastern part of Darfur, and his father had taken the western part of Kordofan from Bolad's grandfather. Though they shared a common tongue and similar sets of beliefs, Dahab's tribe was encroaching on Bolad's territory. They would have to be brought to heel.

Past the lands of Dahab, deeper in Darfur, another Daju tribe ruled by one El-Fasher held sway. The young El-Fasher was a talented fighter, and the Chroniclers always highlighted his skill at asymmetric warfare. Chief El-Fasher was known to be a cunning leader who could lead his men through rough terrain, turning the land itself against his enemies.

Meanwhile, the northern and western lands of Darfur were controlled not by Daju tribes but by the Berber, Zaghawa peoples. Two of their tribes, led by Sheikh Kpodo in the west and Sheikh Mawulawde in the north, had control of the remaining habitable lands here in the eastern Sahel.

Unlike the Daju peoples, the Zaghawa were Animists, believing that the spirit world interacts with our own. Their priestesses, all of whom are women, interpret the will of the spirits and communicate them to the tribe.

To the west, meanwhile, the Sahel gave way to a fertile river valley, flanked by the White and Blue Niles. In this land of plenty, controlling eight prosperous villages, High Chieftain Dauid II rules over the Chiefdom of Alodia.

The Nubian peoples were close cousins of the Daju, but by this time most of them had fallen under the sway of Coptic Christianity. While the tribesmen under Bolad were certainly no religious zealots, it was clear to them that the Coptics viewed them as barbaric and primitive and according to the Chroniclers they reacted with appropriate hostility.

We have more contemporary records describing Kordofan at the time of Bolad from the Coptics than we do from anyone else, and though their bias against their pagan cousins is clear, it is often by comparing the Alodian records to the Chronicles that we get our best idea of what really happened during this era.

It is from these records that we learn much of what we know about the early Kushite faith that the Daju people followed at this time. Bolad's people considered themselves descendants of the Pharaohs of Egypt, and there is certainly some evidence that this is true in at least some sense. The unreformed Kushites still venerated the old gods, many of which were common to both the kingdoms of Kush and ancient Egypt.

First, we know that the Kushites venerated their ancestors. They believed that when their chiefs died, they should be buried with as much of their wealth as possible -- in ancient Egypt, this meant that the Pharaohs were buried in massive tombs with mountains of treasure. In the grasslands of Kordofan, it usually meant being buried with their weaponry, as many slaves or servants as the tribe could spare, and what gold and trinkets the tribe had gathered during the chief's reign. In Egypt, kings were mummified through complex processes and rare reagents. In Kordofan, the Kushites desiccated the dead with smoke instead.

The Kushites placed great value on their chieftain's family; the chief's wife and concubines were treated with great respect, and any children born into the chief's family were celebrated and respected by the whole tribe.

Not every Kushite belief as practiced on the Sahel came directly from their Pharaohnic heritage; some traditions Often, rulers who reached old age and felt their usefulness to the tribe was at an end would undergo this desiccation process themselves. In the Kushite tradition, this cleansed the elder ruler of sin, and smoothed the transition of power, allowing the new chief to begin their rule with the tacit approval of their predecessor.

Finally, Bolad's tribe placed great emphasis on mysticism and prophecy. Wise men, mystics, or witches were embraced, not reviled; they were believed to possess powers coming directly from the gods, and to be able to communicate with the long-dead Pharaohs and other ancestors of the Daju peoples, allowing the most respected of ancestors to guide the realm from beyond the grave -- or, to more cynical interpreters, allowing the Daju's spiritual caste to exercise some control over the direction of their tribe.

When the reign of Bolad began, the lands of Egypt and Nubia had been already been thoroughly converted to Coptic Christianity; in Egypt proper, Islamic control had just been established, and conversion had already begun. The Kushite holy places were mostly under foreign control. If the Baju people were to restore themselves as Pharaohs and hoped to be treated as legitimate rulers, capturing these holy sites and restoring the old faith of Kemetism would go a long way towards proving to the scattered Baju and Nubian peoples that they were still masters of their own destiny.

By all accounts -- even the Coptic sources agree -- Bolad, tribal chieftain or not, was a deep thinker on theological matters. The Chronicles treat him almost as a prophet, while the Coptics treat him as a great evil, for his persuasiveness on religious matters is viewed as a gift from the devil himself. Certainly, he was convincing enough to his own peoples.

Though the Coptic records bear no record of this, the Chroniclers are all adamant in their agreement that when he came to power, Bolad gave a rousing speech which inspired his people to greatness, making it clear that their destiny was not to remain nomadic cattle herders on the periphery of civilization. In the Chronicles, the young Chief inspired his people to such heights that they gave him a new name; though outsiders would continue referring to him as Bolad of Kordofan, and the Coptic sources will continue referencing House Kordofan for centuries hence, the Chroniclers point to this moment as the creation of House Tantamani, named for one of the last Kushite Pharaohs of old.

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What's this? A whole second post before I actually unpause? Holy crap! Well, hopefully the action picks up soon. Well, I can promise you it will! But I hope this is still enjoyable See ya'll soon!

 

[ChicagoZohan]

Chapter 1.2: Establishing Legitimacy
Anywhere you look in the medieval world, marriage was extremely important, and the African Sahel was no exception. A man's worth was measured, in large part, by the number of women he could support. So even though the Chroniclers hint to us pretty heavily that Chieftain Bolad had little attraction for women, he still took a wife to replace the one he had lost almost as soon as he rose to power.

Historians have long debated the question, why did Bolad take a wife of common blood, instead of a neighboring chieftess? If he had been able to secure an alliance, the years to come would have proved much easier for the young ruler. But the first wife the Chroniclers mention[1] is a lowborn member of Bolad's own tribe named Pid.

The oral traditions spin a whole slew of wonderful, elaborate tales about how Bolad sent out dignitaries to the local tribes, each of whom had an eligible bachelorette of courting age. Yet misfortune befalls each messenger in turn, and when Bolad learns of this he is forced to conclude that the gods do not desire his lineage to be spoiled by foreign blood if they are to return to their thrones as Pharaohs. The story makes little sense, of course -- Bolad and his descendants would take many wives of varied heritage in the years to come -- and most of these tales date from centuries after the fact, anyways. In truth, it seems more likely that it was the other way around -- Bolad, chieftain of a minor tribe in a land dismissed by most as primitive and unproductive -- was simply not a particularly desirable commodity in the market of matrimony.

By all accounts, Pid was the rationalist to Bolad's faith. The adage, "The gods help those who help themselves" would be attributed in Daju and Nubian culture to Pid of Kordofan in the years to come. The tales don't ever say that this was a problem for the couple, however. But when Pid felt like her husband was placing too much faith in the gods, she would quietly make more mundane arrangements behind Bolad's back, just in case. Despite their differences, the couple prospered.

Perhaps another factor in Bolad's choice was his wife's lineage. Though lowborn, she was a woman born to a long line of fierce warrior men. While Pid's charms were lost on Bolad, her potential for passing her forefathers' strength into the Tantamani line certainly would not have been.

Not all charms were lost on the young chief, however. The Chronicles tell us of Bolad's pursuit of an older man named Youssouf. He was either a traveler, or a visitor from nearby Nubia -- accounts vary -- but Bolad overheard him one night, telling of his participation in a siege far to the north. Bolad was fascinated by the idea of these fortifications -- structures far more massive than anything he'd seen in his life, yet a challenge he or his heirs would have to master if they wished to take back their birthright.

Youssouf's own personal charms didn't hurt matters, either; nor did his reciprocation of the sort of interest that Bolad might show.

Most of this kind of personal information about Bolad's life comes from the oral traditions. A lot of the accounts are contradictory, or anachronistic; but some things are generally agreed on. Generally, that's what we try to stick to here. But sometimes an odd detail -- something so minor, you'd never think anyone would remember it -- a detail like that just seems to show up in so many different places that you just have to believe it's true.

What the stories agree on is, Bolad approached Youssouf to see if he would join the court by his side. But Youssouf was disgusted by Bolad's hunger, for cattle or wealth or men. So he made it quite clear that he was not interested.

But Bolad couldn't bear to see Youssouf leave, so he granted him a position in his court, with all the wealth and honor that this entailed.

Outside the regal tents of the Chief of Kordofan, the people who lived at the very seat of Bolad's power were already starting to turn against him. Answering the call from the east, the majority of the commoners in the north half of Kordofan had already turned Coptic.

Bolad had tasked Angrun, most respected of the Kushite shamans, to try and stem the tide of Christianity. Angrun had been doing his best to keep the old ways alive, but to many the message of salvation offered by Christianity was simply too appealing to resist. Bolad and Angrun agreed that the problem was with their faith. Their people had been cut off from their holy land for so long, the elaborate hieroglyphs so painstakingly written by their ancestors left neglected and forgotten in ruined temples. Was it any wonder that their faith, a faded echo of its regal ancestor, would struggle here? And was not a mighty, righteous Pharaoh on the twin thrones of Nubia and Egypt a foundational piece of the faith? How could they stand without it?

Their ancient glory must be restored, before their ways are forgotten and their wisdom naught but ash.

According to the more 'sympathetic' chronicles[2], it was during one such discussion about the future of their faith that Angrun revealed to Bolad an ancient secret. Some stories say it was a scroll, others an oral tradition passed from shaman to shaman. One fifteenth century manuscript claims it was a "book", which is patently ridiculous.

Whatever the source, the secret is the same. Out in the open drylands, a mud hut would be built, with a small opening at the top. In the center of the mud hut would be dug a pit, and in it a very specific and very secret pile is built. Supposedly, there was an exact number of branches needed, and these branches needed to come from a specific mixture of types of trees, some of which were very rare, didn't grow in Kordofan, and were believed to have all kinds of special effects. And atop the pile would be arranged all sorts of herbs and reagents and plants. Then, as the sun began to set, the fire would be lit. The room would get overwhelmingly hot, and filled with smoke and vapors of all sorts. While in this room, the spirit of a shaman was believed to commune -- to follow the journey of Ra, the Sun God, and in his light travel safely through Duat and back the next morning, learning all manners of divine secrets.

The first night Bolad was said to have witnessed only confused glimpses of visions. But on the second night, he had some sort of revelation, the exact nature of which would be debated by theologians for centuries. Regardless, he seemed to believe -- and to have convinced Angrun, and by extension his tribe -- that he had witnessed something divine, and that he knew that their glory was ordained. He had already earned his place in the hearts of the Daju people.

[1] None of the chronicles or oral traditions give name to Bolad's first wife, the one who died giving birth to Murtin, his eldest son. One Coptic chronicle even claims that Bolad found the baby Murtin in the desert and declared him his son -- though this account is generally discredited.

[2] This isn't a story the Coptics would tell you...

 

[ChicagoZohan]

Chapter 1.3: The First War

Soon after receiving his visions, Bolad took Wadanh, a Coptic woman who had been serving as his informant in the Coptic community, as a concubine. The Coptic Chroniclers saw this as a grave insult, a Pagan ravaging of Christian purity. Bolad probably intended a different message -- one of unity, of elevating a Coptic Daju woman to a high position on his court. But if so, it was a dreadful miscalculation.

As a lowly Chief, having just a single wife was considered appropriate. But a High Chieftain with just a single woman was not respected in the tribal culture in this place and time. While Bolad was no High Chief quite yet, by acting like one he could earn the trust and backing of his people.

This is a key point, and something that many casual readings of history often miss. No matter how cruel the tyrant or absolute the dictator, no man has total control over an empire. No matter how small the class of privileged few whose opinion counts, they still had to be taken into consideration if you don't want your head to end up on a pike.

That's why Bolad spent the first few months of his reign establishing his credibility. Now he was no longer a young prince whose father just died. Now he was a true Chief, with a pair of wives who would hopefully soon bring a bundle of heirs and a direct connection to the gods of old. He was the sort of man you could respect. The sort of men you'd be willing to follow. Even... follow into war.

For years, Chief Dahab of East Darfur had treated the western edge of Kordofani land as if it was his own. The Darfur tribes had been pushed west over the generations, so that they only held the corner of their ancestral homeland. Most of the rest was now taken up by spirit-worshiping Zaghawa Bedouin. In desperation, Dahab's Muglad-clan Daju invaded their own cousins. and seized western Kordofan from Bolad's father.

Once again we get two very different perspectives when we compare the Daju oral traditions and the Chronicles that would later be based on them to the Coptic chroniclers. The oral traditions praise Bolad for restoring his father's honor, and paint Dahab as an evil, decadent man. But the Coptic chronicles describe him as a devout Kushite, nearly as learned as Bolad himself, who simply found himself the victim of Bolad's ambition.

One way or the other, Bolad and his men had soon surrounded the enemy village in west Kordofan. To their surprise, the Darfuri force did not engage, instead heading to a desert pass to the north.

The Kushite Chronicles which would later encode much of the oral traditions about this era describe what happened next like this.

And so Chief Bolad Tantamani, with great anger, ordered his men to abandon the positions where they had encamped around the enemy village, and to carry their weapons and head back to the village of Ubaid at once so as to cut off the Darfuri. But Youssouf came to Bolad, and he said to him, "Yes, the enemy is headed for our lands; and yes, their village walls are high and packed with hardened mud and solid beams of wood. But I have been to the North, to the Lands of the Arabs and the Romans, and I have seen how they lay siege to fortifications mightier than this. Let him go and march through the desert; I will lead the men, and I will take the villages of En Nahud and Umm Gafala before they take Ubaid.

Bolad placed his faith the subject of his adoration, and true to his word the Kordofani seized both villages while Dahab's men still fumbled outside the village palisade at Ubaid.

After extorting Chief Dahab for ransom and claiming victory in the war, Chief Bolad looked over his unified land and thought about the future of the realm.

The sources agree that the war ended just over a year after Chief Bolad took power. He had reclaimed the land of his immediate forefathers, but for the voracious Chieftain this was not enough. Indeed, it couldn't be. The lands of the Kushites and the Nubians were no longer dominated by the believers in the old ways, for the Coptic way had spread among them like fire. Nubia was split into two -- the land of Alodia, just to the east in the river valleys of the Blue and White Niles; and the land of Makuria, stretching along the river valleys to the north, beyond the desert.

High Chief Dauid II ruled over a confederation of eight powerful villages. Once he had held all the land himself, but he had recently granted some of these villages autonomy under their own vassal chiefs. Makuria to the north was a feudal realm, on the other hand, wealthier and more powerful than Alodia under the iron first of Petty King Zakharias III. Of course, Makuria also bordered the a far nastier neighbor to their own north, the Tulunid Caliphate, so Bolad judged it unlikely that they would turn their wrath south.

Alodia was a more immediate threat, and far too strong to take on directly. So taking more land to try and oppose them made sense, on a strategic level.

The way that the Daju tradition describes what would happen next comes down to what Bolad's scouts reported when they were fighting in Eastern Darfur. The Darfur region was fragmented, with the northern Bori tribes raiding the lands of Chief Bahar of Darfur as well as Chief Eri of El-Fasher. Darfur was a broken, fragmented land, they explain. A strong ruler was necessary to bring their peoples together to oppose Coptic incursions from Nubia.

It is entirely possible that they are correct about this, but in the interest of fairness, the Coptic Chroniclers offer what may be a simpler explanation. They claim that once he'd gotten a taste in Western Kordofan, Chief Bolad's voracious appetites extended to his conquests.

 

[ChicagoZohan]

Prelude - Setting the Stage for Bolad of Kordofan

Throughout the course of human history we can find, again and again, that the ancient empires possess a certain siren's call that drives men to fight and die in their name long after they are gone. The legitimacy that derives from tracing one's line back to those primordial polities, no matter how tenuous the connection, was to many rulers more precious than gold. Here in the West, we focus on the legacy of Rome and Greece. But these are hardly the only ancient states that have fueled the dreams of men whose ambition hungered for an empire.

This is the story of an empire born from one such dream, which sprang not from memories of Rome or Greece, but from a place far more ancient -- a place that inspired the Romans and Greeks themselves. This is the story of a chieftain whose people descended from Pharaohs, and who dreamed of restoring that legacy once more.

It is commonly known that long ago, the Hellenic Greeks took Egypt and installed their own Ptolemy as Pharaoh, adopting much of Egypt's native culture while injecting their own influence at once. Ptolemy was not the first foreigner to rule over Egypt as Pharoh. Alexander, in fact, took Egypt from Persia, not the Pharaohs, and was greeted as a liberator. And the Persians were only the last in a long line of foreign kings. Indeed, Egypt had thirty one dynasties, and often it was a foreign ruler who would conquer Egypt during a period of decline, install themselves as new Pharaohs, and begin a new great dynasty.

When our story begins, it had been almost nine hundred years since Ptolemy XV -- the last Pharaoh of Egypt -- was killed by Octavian, who would become the first Emperor of Rome. One empire replacing another on the world stage with grim finality. And in the time since then, Rome had decayed, shrinking into a vestige of its former glory confined to the East. The Arabian Conquest had swallowed Egypt whole and devoured it, leaving little of its ancient legacy but silent monuments, eroding slowly beneath shifting sands.

But the fire of Pharaonic Egypt had not burned out quite yet, for the chieftain of a minor tribe still remembered the tales of his fathers. His name was Bolad, and he ruled a modest tribe of Daju peoples who lived in inner East Africa. When he was a child, Bolad would eagerly listen to his father's tales of the time when their forefathers, who had ruled a mighty kingdom in the lands of Nubia, had sent their younger sons forth to conquer the fallen kingdom of Egypt. The princes then rebuilt the temples and restored the priesthoods, studying the ancient hieroglyphs carefully to ensure their rule would be as glorious as that of the Pharaohs of old.

There is little archaeological evidence that this story is true as told, but as we will often see throughout this tale, when studying this story it is important to understand not just what really happened, but also what the people living through these events and making these decisions truly believed. True or not, this foundational myth would drive generations of Bolad's descendants towards a unified goal, and change the history of the African continent and the wider world beyond.

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So, here it is. My own Let's Play! I'm deeply inspired by @Cora Giantkiller and their wonderful A Most Forgiving Land: A Nigerian Coast AAR in that I want to go for a history book style, but I'm thinking it could be fun to do more of a "Pop History" vibe. Think if Dan Carlin's Hardcore History was an AAR, though of course of much lower quality! But probably just as long-winded.... sorry!



Also, of course, the subject matter -- an African chief who believes he is destined to be a Pharaoh -- is a bit more... 'fantasy'. I hope people like that!

My inspiration here was pretty simple. I have a personal game as House Karen, creating the Persian Empire. I did it by swearing fealty to my next door neighbor right away, eating his realm and converting it from the inside, then claiming his kingdom and taking it; then I did the same to the Abbasids, revolted when I had 3 kingdoms, and founded Persia. Since then I've gobbled up the rest of the Abbasids and most of India. It's fun... but I'm mostly playing on speed 4-5 and I barely know my characters. And I feel like it would have been a lot harder if I had stayed independent.

So that's this game. Same inspiration as my Persia game -- let's rebuild a fallen empire -- but this time I start further behind the big enemies, if that's possible; my tech is gonna be terrible. But I have actual opportunity for expansion without having to swear fealty, and I get to play around in a newly expanded area (I didn't play much Holy Fury and this is even better anyhow!). The religion "Kushitism" description kinda hints at a link to ancient Egypt so my goal is to get Egypt and reform my religion into something that fits better. We'll see if I actually accomplish this, and if I can really stay independent the whole time. It won't be easy -- wish me luck!

Plus, slowing down to take pictures and put a narrative together will be nice, too.

PS: OK, I swear I'm not trying to copy Cora, even though their LP is amazing. But my starting Chieftain is also homosexual. It doesn't show you in the preview screen.

PSS: Not sure quite how long these will take me but I will try to get a good rhythm going.

PSSS: First time going tribal! Eek!

 

[ChicagoZohan]

Chapter 1.4: Expansionist Tendencies

As the second year of the reign of Chieftain Bolad began, the Kushite faith was in decline.

Once, the followers of these deities were Pharaohs and kings. Now they were squabbling chieftains fighting petty wars, and under siege from all sides.

The Daju tribes at this time were plagued on the east by the encroachment of the Coptic faith. Their persistent missionaries were a constant irritation in the villages on that end of the Sahel, and in the north the powerful kingdom of Makuria had even encroached on their holy lands, seizing their lands and putting their villages under Coptic rule.

Meanwhile, in the west, Zaghawa shiekhs had subjugated the tribes of western Darfur. Their conquests threatened the last of the free Kushite tribes, including the one whose territory contained Jebbel Marra, a mountain holy to the Daju.

According to the Kushite Chroniclers, who always tried to paint the best picture of Bolad they could, the war against Sheikh Mawulawde was a protective one; the Shiek was a Zealous man, and entirely controlled by the evil Bori priestesses of his tribe. The Coptics pain a less rosy picture, claiming Mawulawde was chosen simply because his forces had been weakened during a failed raid a few weeks before the attack.

Whatever the case, war was soon declared, and the Kordofani forces made their way through western Darfur once more, the defeated Chief Dahab powerless to stop them. It was in lands controlled by Chief Dahab that Bolad's men caught up with the shiekh's. With their superior numbers, it was a slaughter, and soon enough Bolad's men had encircled the enemy village.

There is a clear shift in the way outside sources write about Bolad, starting right around this time. There were still other Daju tribes, independent from his own, but when the sources speak of the Daju people after this point, they almost always speak of Bolad's tribe specifically.

A common theme throughout the chronicles, especially the ones based on Kushite and Daju traditions, is Bolad's fascination with fortifications and siegecraft. We saw the important role that a skilled besieger from the Mediterranean world played in Bolad's first war, and these tactics would continue to fascinate and aid him throughout his rule.

According to the Daju oral tradition, it was during the encirclement of Dar al-Rih that this fascination -- perhaps obsession -- truly blossomed. Each night, Bolad would interrogate Youssouf about weapons of siegecraft, then excitedly share all that he had heard described to his men. "Imagine how their village walls would crumble before these mighty engines; bringers of destruction, weapons of Apep himself!"

Yet behind these wondrous boasts, Bolad had a keen understanding of the principles involved, and began experimenting with siegecraft, though he had a hard time finding the skilled hands and raw materials he needed.

And of course, this practice gave Bolad an excuse to spend more time with Youssouf himself. He would listen to Youssouf tell of the lands he considered his, and regaled Youssouf with the tales of his divine visions.

One of the oral traditions, apocryphal as it may be, tells of one such late night conversation and also hints at what divine justification Bolad may have given for his wars.

"And in this dream-like state, as I came to the river, I saw a wolf, and his fur was bluish-grey; and as I came before him he arose, and I recognized that he was no wolf, but Wepwawet, the Opener of the Way. And he spake to me, and he said, come with me and I will show you your path. And he took me by the hand and he guided me onto a boat that was in the river, and handed me an oar, and told me to row; and so I rowed, and after some time we came to a wide bend in the river, and I saw the whole land laid out before me. And he said, look, and I looked; and he asked, What do you see? and I answered, I see the land of Darfur, the land to the west. And he said, you see the land of your sons. And I took the oar and I broke it over my knee in my wrath, and I shouted, No; the land of my sons is the land of my fathers, the land of Kush, the land of Nubia, the land of Egypt; and he said, No, that is the land of the sons of your sons. For Egypt is a great land, ruled by a great people; and the Daju must become a great people if they are to inherit the lands of Egypt, Nubia, and Kush."

The tales say Youssouf was greatly moved by this story, and that he told the people of what he had heard and that they rejoiced at the wisdom of their chief.

Whatever the case, Dar al-Rih fell soon enough, and by the rainy season of 868 the Sheikhdom had surrendered its lands.

The tribes of Kordofan were at peace once more, and in the conquered village of Dar al-Rih, Bolad turned his mind to more personal matters. But fate was about to intervene twice more, and great change would soon come to the Sahel.

 

[ChicagoZohan]

Chapter 1.5: He Who Opens the Ways

History often acts in these broad, faceless moves. The Bubonic Plague. The Great Migrations and the Fall of Rome. The Late Bronze Age Collapse. All of these are massive, world-changing events, but they're also deeply impersonal.

But other times you get these rare events that seem so confoundingly unlikely and yet so monumentally impactful that it's easy to understand how the people living through them could honestly believe that this was all predestined. That they were genuinely chosen.

The events that would take place over the next two years in the lands of Kordofan and Darfur can seem like they were barely a footnote in the grand scale of history. But the people who were there would see their whole world turned upside down in the blink of an instance, through a series of coincidences so fortuitous that to many, they could only be a sign of divine favor.

This is the story of how Bolad became High Chieftain of Darfur -- according to the Kushite customs. [1]

Immediately following the fall of the village of Mao-Darfur, before he had even returned with his men to Ubaid, Bolad got word that Chieftain Eri of El-Fasher had declared war on Chieftain Dahab of Darfur, who had recently been defeated by Bolad in the conquest of West Kordofan. Eri had decided to make good on Dahab's temporary weakness in the wake of his defeat and invaded the eastern lands of Darfur.

In the tribal customs of the Kushite Daju at this time, peace treaties between warring tribes usually included an agreed-upon truce, enforced at penalty of grave dishonor, and these truces usually lasted for years, so Bolad would have had nothing to fear from Dahab, and vice versa. But if Chieftain Eri managed to subjugate the tribes of East Darfur, he could lead their warriors against Bolad.

Further, the Chroniclers claim (a bit hypocritically, one might say) that Bolad was simply trying to prevent the shedding of Daju blood by other Daju, by uniting the fracturing tribes. He had planned to do this diplomatically (and one must raise an eyebrow at this claim as well), but Eri's attack simply left him no choice.

In any case, war was declared, and the Kordofani warriors marched south to the village of El-Fasher[2] while their enemy still fought against the warriors of Chief Dahab the Muglad.

It took time for the messengers to reach Bolad at Mao-Darfur, and even longer to gather the warriors who were still securing the province for the march on El-Fasher, so even with Youssouf's expertise, the enemy managed to secure the villages of East Darfur before El-Fasher could be captured, claiming the lands of Eastern Darfur and slaying Chief Dahab and ending the Muglad line. When the village did finally fall, it came with a handsome prize: Chieftain Eri's young son and heir Ederisu was taken hostage. Bolad ordered him released even while the war was still being fought, in exchange for a ransom of many heads of cattle for his herds.

Soon after the village of El-Fasher fell, Bolad's men caught up with the warriors of Cheiftain Eri in the highlands north of Mao-Darfur, at a place called Malha. It was a costly battle, and many warriors on both sides fell. But in the fighting, Chieftain Eri himself was grievously wounded and taken captive by the Kordofani. In exchange for his safe release and the forfeiture of the lands surrounding El-Fasher, Eri was released, sealing the customary truce.

If Chieftain Eri's ill-fated decision to invade Eastern Darfur before Bolad's army had even returned to Kordofan was the first pivotal event in this tale, the second came as a result of the Battle of Malha. Chieftain Eri had negotiated a five year long truce with Chieftain Bolad and sealed it with their blood, and five years would have been a long time to wait before securing the rest of Darfur. The fractured Daju tribes had been steadily losing ground over the prior few decades to the neighboring Zaghawa people to west and the Coptic Nubians to the east. Yet so long as the truce stood, Bolad would not have even imagined invading Dar Al-Said. Breaking a truce would have shattered the people's faith in him and in his message, maybe irrevocably, and the last echoes of ancient Egypt would have died out, muffled in the sands of the Sahel.

Bolad's path to victory was opened, he would later claim, by the direct intervention of the god Wepwawet himself. Before the men of Dar Al-Said had even reached their own territory, the Chief was dead, his internal injuries from the battle having festered.

Eri's heir was a boy of four years old named Ederisu, and Bolad wasted no time declaring that the gods have warned him that the boy was unfit to rule land along the western frontier's hostile border, where the Sheikhdom of Ayn-Farah was ruled by a cruel and craven animist named Kpodo.

For the protection of all Daju Kushites, he claimed, be they in Darfur or Kordofan, it was crucial a strong, fit ruler control these contested territories. A four year old boy certainly did not qualify. Bolad would seize and rule Dar Al-Said while the boy chief would be allowed to keep the lands of Eastern Darfur, which his father had won by right of conquest.

Of course, Bolad could use his troops to enforce this decree without fear of violating the truce, for his pact was with Eri and died with him. He owed Ederisu no loyalty.

Bolad raised his troops in El-Fasher and marched them to the village of Dar Al-Said, hoping to catch the retreating soldiers before they could regroup. Indeed, Bolad and his men arrived at Dar Al-Said first; but when the warriors of Eri reached the village where his son had been encircled, they abandoned him, fleeing into the mountains instead. Bolad took Dar Al-Said easily, capturing the boy chief, but magnanimously released him, 'granting' him the land of East Darfur.

It was barely half way through his fifth year of reign, and Bolad was now High Chieftain of a land that would come to be known as "Dardaju", or "Land of the Daju" in the native tongue. The name was chosen as a unifier for all the different tribes, Kordofani, Darfuri, and so on. This strategy of consolidation wouldn't always work, though it would always prove more effective when the realm was under external pressure.

Bolad's own title was Chief of All Daju, which wasn't true quite yet -- the sheikh of Ayn Farah ruled over tribes of Daju people, and Bolad would turn his eye to their liberation next. And the tribes of East Darfur did not yet swear loyalty to the Chief of All Daju - in fact, Ederisu (or his regent) would resist peaceful offers of vassalage. But in the minds of many of the Daju themselves, this was a pivotal moment, where Bolad had proven his worth at ruling their people and restoring them to glory.

There is one other smaller, more personal story that comes down to us through the Daju oral traditions of this time. According to the tales it happened slowly throughout this war, but so as not to interrupt the flow of the narrative, I'm placing it at the end. This is the story of Bolad's more personal ccampaigns, where he proved less effective a conquerer.

During the previous war[3], Bolad had convinced Youssouf of the sincerity of his faith and swayed him; there was no questioning Youssouf's faith in Bolad as a leader. But Youssouf had originally caught Bolad's eye for more sentimental reasons, and Youssouf had previously made it clear that he was not interested in such attentions. Still, their relationship had grown along the years, and during this war Bolad tried once more.

His attempts at courtship were quite awkward, and often ended in failure. These sorts of relations were not forbidden or even shunned in Kushite society, but they generally weren't something a chief with aspirations for conquest would air publicly, especially if that chief was married and held multiple concubines yet had fathered no children in many years despite his youth. Yet Bolad publicly pursued Youssouf, to the latter's great embarrassment.

Yet in the days following the conquest of Dar Al-Said, as Bolad and his men went over the village's new management, Youssouf came to Bolad one evening, soon after the rest of his courtiers departed, and revealed his intentions. He did not wish to reject Bolad, the opposite; he simply wished to accept him on his own terms, not be badgered into it by public displays.

Bolad and Youssouf finally accepted each other, and the realm was rapidly growing. But not all Daju were united under the Chief of All Daju, nor were his tribes powerful enough to deal with the Nubian Coptics. Dardaju was not yet safe.

[1] The Coptic chroniclers do not go into nearly as much detail about this period, only plainly stating that Bolad conquered the lands of Darfur through guile and force of arms.

[2] El-Fasher was built at the foothills of a mountain that was holy to the Daju people, known as Jebel Marra. Securing this site would go on to grant Bolad much of his divine legitimacy.

[3] It is likely the two tended to bond on campaign because they were away from Bolad's wives and concubines, but the Chroniclers are unclear on this topic.

 

[ChicagoZohan]

Chapter 1.6: Chief of All Daju

By the fall of 870, High Chieftain Bolad had declared himself Chief of All Daju, and found himself in direct control of more land than he could possible manage alone. Almost all the Daju tribes had now been united under his rule, with the exception of the tribes to the west which still lay under the thumb of the Zaghawan Sheikh Kpodo.

In order to secure the loyalty of his men, Bolad granted two of the villages in Darfur to Kamalgi, his top lieutenant.

Kamalgi was a skilled warrior, clever in the ways of the desert but also skilled with a blade in personal combat. For years, he had loyally led Bolad's men into battle asking for little in return beyond the traditional annual tribute of a Chieftain to his best warrior -- the best of the year's calves, prime cuts of meet from the Chief's best slaughtered bulls, and so on. Once Bolad needed loyal men to manage the villages taken from Chieftain Eri, he turned to his lieutenant with little hesitation.

Never one for words when action would do, Kamalgi's impatience often caused friction between him and his liege. But Bolad could certainly tell that Kamalgi, for all his faults, was a Just man -- even if he took too much pleasure in seeing that justice carried out. Bolad knew he could count on the villages staying firmly in Kamalgi's control.

Kamalgi's first task as a lesser chieftain was to take the men west, into Zaghawan land. They would raid and pillage the animist's lands to inspire the men, giving Bolad the influence he would need to expand his conquests further.

The raid went well, though Bolad was growing weary of the lack of discipline his men showed. They were, at this time, less an army, and more a collection of tribesmen, mustered for war by faith in Bolad's visions and fear of Kamalgi's punishment. So long as they only faced other disorganized tribes in the Sahel, Bolad was not worried; but if the Daju people were to hold their own against the larger Zaghawan kingdoms further west, not to mention the powerful Nubian kings and chiefs to the east, they would need better trained troops.

With this in mind, Bolad had Kamalgi choose three hundred of the tribe's best warriors. These men were equipped and trained with bow, pike, or on horseback; recent raids paid for the equipment and Kamalgi ran the training personally.

As soon as the men had gotten used to their equipment, High Chief Bolad ordered the invasion of Ayn Farah. Bolad's new troops easily outmatched the defending levies, and soon a new village had been freed from its Zaghawan overlord to join the Dardaju.

Sheikh Kpodo, though an Animist, had ruled over a land of Daju, and so many in his service were Daju, too. In the village of Ayn Farah, Bolad captured Ur, the Sheikh's spymaster, as well as Shendi, his marshal. Both were Kushite Dajus, and eager to join up with Bolad's Dardaju nation. Ur would become Bolad's concubine while Shendi would serve Bolad as a champion.

For months, Bolad's men would skirmish with Kpodo's as fighting raged back and forth across the grasslands. Many men lay dead, yet with every engagement the Daju would come out further on top. Finally, in pitched battle at a place called Hurayz, Sheikh Kpodo fell captive, and a truce was sealed, recognizing Dardaju's claim to the lands of Ayn Farah. The Sheikh consolidated his holdings further to the west, in a land known to the Daju as Qimr and prepared to lick his wounds, while the Daju celebrated their victory and the liberation of more of their people.

The Coptic Chroniclers had mostly been silent on the story until now[1]. In their telling, Bolad's conquest of Dardaju is glossed over, the High Chief painted as a bloodthirsty tyrant who unified his lands through fear and dread. Yet strangely, there is one story - a tale of diplomatic expansion, no less - which has survived only in the Coptic Chronicles. If the Kushite or Daju traditions had a similar story, it hasn't survived. Still, this author is inclined to grant some credibility to this story as told by the Coptics, because it seems to portray Bolad in a positive light, taking great lengths to avoid another war with Ederisu and his tribe.

What is clear, even in the Kushite tradition, is that East Darfur had stayed independent even after the rest of the free Daju tribes had eagerly pledged themselves to Bolad. The young Chief Ederisu ibn Eri had not yet forgiven Bolad for the loss of his lands, nor for the death of his father. He certainly wasn't stupid enough to send the ragged warband of East Darfur against the mighty Dardaju warriors openly; perhaps he remembered what had happened when his men had come upon the encircled village of Dar Al-Said and abandoned him to be captured, but he also refused to swear fealty to Bolad, despite the latter's repeated offers.

Eventually, though Bolad had come to control many villages on either side of East Darfur, and the lands claimed by Ederisu started to become inconvenient. The truce with the boy chief would expire in but a year or two, and Bolad would be free to conquer East Darfur and do with it as he would. But instead, he offered to betroth his new daughter[2] to Ederisu, forming an alliance between the Tantamani and Tunjur clans. Ederisu agreed, and Bolad would follow lavish gifts in an attempt to get Ederisu to pledge fealty to the Dardaju, though he still hesitated to do this.

Before further progress could be made with bringing the tribesmen of East Darfur into the fold, war broke out once more. This time the Zaghawa Sheikh Dalu, of a land further west called Dar Sila, had invaded the lands of Qimr, hoping to capitalize on the weakness of Sheikh Kpodo. He would seize the southern half of the region, around a village called Masalit, and claim it for his own. The perfect opportunity for Bolad to invade once more without breaking a blood truce. The future was clear: soon enough, the Dardaju would march off to war again.

[1]While the Zaghawa undoubtedly had their own rich and fascinating take on this tale, these traditions haven't made their way down to us.
[2]The Chroniclers mention that Bolad's wife and concubines had given him five daughters during these wars, but no sons. The exact timing of each daughter's birth is unclear.

 

[ChicagoZohan]

Chapter 1.7: Consolidation

In the last days of the year 875, High Chief Bolad had found himself in a tight spot. Almost all of the Daju people had been freed from foreign rule, aside from the tribes of the Masalit and Qimr, in the far west of their lands; but even there, war between the Zaghawa Sheikhs had left them fairly distracted, allowing their Daju subjects to do as they pleased, for the most part.

Though still highly respected for his religious motivations, the Daju tribes had been at war for five years; they did not wish to follow their High Chief into yet more battles, not yet.[1] But now was the opportune moment to strike, precisely because the Zaghawa Sheikhs were at each other's throat!

The Kushite tradition holds that Bolad was in constant communication with the god Wepwawet, Opener of the Ways, at this point. Every victory the Daju had won, Bolad had attributed to Wepwawet's aid. Now he turned to him in his time of need, and -- according to the tales -- Wepwawet delivered, coming to Bolad in a dream or vision and showing him of the Boar of Osiris[2]. This massive creature was said to be a great boar bearing massive tusks; its thick hide was a pale tan, nearly white. It was closely associated with the god Osiris, and if Wepwawet's vision could be trusted, it was somewhere near the village of Ubaid.

Bolad called a great hunt, and summoned his chiefs to him. Together, they went forth and found the great beast.

Bolad's slaying of the boar got the minor chiefs of Dardaju's blood boiling once more. Bolad would now have no trouble convincing them to follow him to war.

Another story of this hunt, this time from the Coptic Chroniclers, speaks of Murtin. Chief Bolad's son and heir had come along on this grand hunt, as they tracked the boar, they found a wounded antelope. The creature must have angered the mighty boar somehow, for it had been gored savagely, its legs folded under it at awkward angles. It bleated in pain as Bolad and Murtin approached, feebly trying to rise.

Murtin seemed amused by this sight, which angered Bolad. "You wish to make light of a living creature's death, when you yourself are the most pitiful of creatures? You are as helpless as this antelope! Be like the boar. Be strong. Until then, do not mock your equals." It was said that Murtin would remember these words, and everafter strive to prove mighty, not weak.

Meanwhile, in the west, Sheikh Dalu of Dar Sila had won his war against the Sheikh of Qimr, seizing the village of Masalit for himself. This was what Bolad had been waiting for, as he had agreed to a blood truce with the Sheikh of Qimr, but owed nothing to Sheikh Dalu. Bolad mustered his men and prepared to march on Masalit.

Almost as soon as the war had begun, it had ended. Bolad's men took Masalit unopposed and caught the Dar Silan warband closer to its eponymous village. With Bolad's Lions, Hyenas, and Jackals, as the men had taken to calling the regiments of Pikes, Bows, and Cavalry, the battle was no contest at all. The Dar Silan tribesmen were scattered to the winds. Undefended, Dar Sila itself was captured and Masalit was forfeited by the Sheikh.

Nearly all the Daju people were now united under High Chief Bolad. Only two small tribes - under the young Kushite Cheiftain Ederisu of East Darfur, and the Zaghawa Sheikh of Qimr - were still independent. The Daju of Qimr would, of course, have to be rescued from beneath their oppressive Bori yoke; but Cheiftain Ederisu was a potential vassal, not necessarily an enemy.

The Chroniclers list out the fine gifts that Bolad granted Ederisu (beyond the promise of the hand of his daughter in marriage, of course) -- fine Arabian cloth, shells from the seashore of west Africa, and of course, dozens and dozens of heads of cattle. It is said that High Cheif Bolad's gifts were worth more than the whole of East Darfur.

Yet the Chronicles say that none of this was enough. Ederisu felt greatly indebted to Bolad, and saw him nearly as a father; yet he refused to swear his lands to the High Chief until finally, the Chieftess Pid[3] took him aside and whispered something -- exactly what has been lost to history -- and returned to Bolad with a confident smirk on her face. Soon after, Ederisu ibn Eri swore himself as a lesser chief of Dardaju.

Perhaps it was this symbolic unification of the Daju people, nearly all united at last, that provided the final push in Angrun's efforts to remove the taint of Coptic Christianity from the lands of the Daju, for soon after Ederisu's pledge, he had announced that his task was complete. The village of Ubaid would once more follow the Kushite ways.

The village of Masalit was given to a skilled warrior named Bug Gadabuursi; Chief Bug was known for his fervor in following the Kushite faith and fighting its enemies, a trait which would prove useful in the near future.

Two more tales concerning these wars can be found in the Chronicles, though exactly when they occurred varies by the exact source.

The first story had become something of a Kushite parable in years to come. In the village of Masalit, soon after it was taken, Murtin and Bolad came across a Zaghawa priestess. The woman, whose dangerous magic was known to all, had been chained up to a post in the center of the village while the elders decided what to do with her; she had often made the Kushites' life difficult during her master's rule over the village.

As Murtin and Bolad passed her, she begged them for water; Murtin laughed, saying, "Why would I bring water to you, my enemy?" But Bolad chastised him, saying, "You must bring water even to your greatest enemy, for one day you may be in his place yourself." Murtin himself would often tell this story later when he wished to make a point.

The second tale tells of a personal tragedy experienced by Bolad, which would haunt him in years to come.

For some time now, Bolad and Youssouf had been intimate companions to one another, but only at a superficial level. Bolad would do his duty with his wives and concubines, but his passion lay with Youssouf; but their relationship was one of friendship and physical intimacy, nothing more.

Youssouf had never taken a wife, though, so Bolad remained hopeful that one day he could win the other man over. There are various tellings of his adventures (or, more often, misadventures) on this quest; but eventually, the stories all end the same way. One night, Bolad came to Youssouf's residence, hoping to surprise him -- again, the details vary -- when he heard the sound of a struggle. Thinking his friend and lover was under attack, he ran into the home, screaming.

Yet Youssouf was not in danger -- not in the least -- and Bolad realized that while he could have Youssouf's friendship and desire, he could never have his love.

The two remained close, but the Chroniclers agree that there was something reserved about Bolad from that day on for the rest of his days.

[1]Read another way, I was out of Prestige.
[2]Most historians dismiss this tale as fanciful exaggeration, but some have pointed to a wider historical distribution of the Giant Forest Hog Hylochoerus meinertzhageni as a potential explanation.
[3]I was stuck at -1 until I put Pid to Court Politics; this just convinced Ederisu to accept vassalage!

 

[ChicagoZohan]

Chapter 1.8: The Kingdom of Kush

Midway through the year 877, with the village of Masalit secured under Dardaju rule, High Chief Bolan sent his men into the Zaghawa territory to the west, to raid and pillage. When they finally returned in early the next year, laden down with plunder and driving cattle before them, Bolan kept the lion's share to himself and distributed the rest among the minor chiefs, thus earning their loyalty.

Vassalage is often viewed, by our modern eyes, as a very one-sided relationship -- the king lording over his servants. But in fact, vassalage was more like a contract. The exact duties of each party varied from culture to culture, but in general, the vassal would pay tribute to his liege, obey him, send his men to fight for him; and in return, the liege owed the vassal protection, and in the case of the Sahel tribes, a share of the plunder. While offensive wars of conquest would drain the realm and require significant investment of political capital to maintain, low level raiding was a near constant, and an expected part of the liege's duty. Bolad would fill the time between expansionist wars with plenty of raiding, much to his vassals' delight.

While men like Youssouf, Shendi, or Chieftain Bug of Masalit[1] took the men into enemy territory, Bolad would attempt to commune with Wepwawet or debate theology with High Shaman Angrun, who would become Bolad's close friend and confidant. The two would also try to interpret any ancient scrolls they could get their hands on. Occasionally a forbidden scroll bearing the lore of the old gods would be found in Coptic Nubia, and Angrun's agents would do their best to spirit such finds away from the zealous hands of the Nubians and into Dardaju. The oral traditions claim that Bolad could read hieroglyphics, though this is considered by modern historians to be quite farfetched. Even the Coptic Chronicles agree that he was quite eager to acquire such scrolls, but it is unclear what their true purpose was.

When he wasn't with Angrun, or with his wife or concubines (who would continue to give him daughters during this period, some of whom become important later; but no sons), Bolad would spend his time with his son Murtin and the boy chief Ederisu, who he took under his personal protection as soon as East Darfur had been incorporated into Dardaju. Both sons were said to thrive under his guidance, learning much from the wise Chief.

It was rumored, even during Bolad's life, that he secretly preferred Ederisu to his own son. By the Kushite traditions, the former was incredibly patient as a child -- a trait praised in Kushite doctrine -- while the latter was a shy and sometimes jealous boy who was, in his youth, often seen as soft. Murtin, on the other hand, absolutely adored his father, and looked up to him in every way.

Once the raiding parties had returned midway through 878, Bolad sent them right back out to conquer the village of Qimr, as the blood-sealed truce between him and Sheikh Kpodo had finally expired. War was declared and Bolad's men marched to encircle Qimr. No enemy warriors sallied out to meet them -- the men of Qimr were away, raiding the village of Dar Sila; when they saw the superior forces arrayed against them, they dared not march in to relieve their Sheikh. Even when he called in his supposed 'ally' Sheikh Alooma of Wadai, the craven dog dared not send his men into battle against the mighty warriors of Dardaju. While the cowardly Animists hid away, Bolad and his men seized Qimr and freed the final Daju village under foreign rule. Now every Daju village on the face of the earth paid tribute to one man: High Chieftain Bolad Tantamani of Kordofan.

And High Chief Bolan surveyed his domain, and he found it lacking, for he knew that compared to the fertile river-valleys of the Nile along which the twin Nubian kingdoms of Makuria and Alodia lay, his own land was barren and dry. All the Daju in the world didn't compare to the might of of just one of the Coptic states. How could he hope to retake the lands of his fathers when those lands were ruled by the enormous Tulunid Sultunate?

The Chronicles say that this was the first time that Bolan truly understood what Wepwawet had meant. His path lay to the west; this was the path Wepwawet had opened for him, all those years ago, when Chief Eri died of his wounds, taking the blood truce with him and freeing Bolad to unite the Daju lands. He would subjugate the splintered Zaghawa tribes to the west, and in their lands his people would multiply and grow strong and mighty. And in time, perhaps his sons' time, perhaps his sons' sons', perhaps even beyond that; in time the Daju people would be a great people once again, and when the time was right they would descend upon the kingdoms of Nubia and upon the Sultunate of the Tulunids and they would crush them, and they would once again reign as Pharaohs in the land of their fathers.

Bolad would commune with Wepwawet more often now, and his conviction had grown clearer too. His people had won so many wars by following him that there was less doubt, now. When he told them it was time to strike west once more, the lesser chiefs did not question him again, despite the next village now longer being a Daju village they would be freeing from Zaghawa masters. Instead, they would be subjugating a foreign tribe.

The targets were twin Sheikhdoms, each ruled by a boy Sheikh - Dar Sila and Salamat. Their fathers had died, leaving each child with one village. Unfortunately, the boys' advisors both had similar ideas: raise an army and conquer the neighboring village, by force, in the name of their boy Sheikh.

Bolad would put an end to the war by annexing both villages in a quick deployment of troops -- neither boy's army could put up a real fight. He would then send High Shaman Angrun to the region, to convert the local Bori to the Kushite faith. He would then hand out the new conquests, including the village of Qimr, to three of his best warriors, rewarding service once again.

The Daju people had now annexed foreign land, putting another peoples under their own yoke. Cheif Bolad had taken a downtrodden people and elevated them; now the shoe was on the other foot. The next rival to the Daju's west was a large, united Emirate known as Wadai; beyond them were more fractured tribes, as well as the much larger Kanem kingdom. Chief Bolad betrothed his son Murtin to a princess of the Kanem named Jalila, cementing an alliance with the Mai, Aritso.

Of course, now that they were allying with mais and conquering foreign lands, the Daju people were more than just a tribe. In early November, in the year 880 (or so claim the Chroniclers), a host of peasants from all over Daju lands arrived at the village of Ubaid and came before Chief Bolad, praising his rule and the prosperity it had brought them. Their herds have swollen thanks to raids on their enemies, the Daju were free once again, and their lands were safe from bandits or enemy tribes. As such, they came before Bolan bearing a gift -- the elders of each tribe had gathered all the golden objects they could find. As pastoral herders, they didn't have much, but there was always some few golden objects, taken during a raid or found in a stream. The villagers had brought the gold from throughout the land together, and found the greatest Daju smith in all the land. They had him make the gold into a crown and scepter, which they now presented to Bolad, begging him to be their king.

In that great tradition that all mythical kings seem to follow, Bolad denied their request, claiming he wasn't worthy and asking that they crown Edrisu instead, but he declines, begging Bolad to continue leading them. Bolad refuses again, claiming the Daju people need no king, but they rebuke him; before he was High Chief, their lands were divided and bickering, but now they were united and strong. Finally, at the third request, Bolad acquiesced, and Shaman Angrun anointed him King of Kush.

[1]Chieftain Bug was granted the village of Masalit in 876 after his remarkable performance during the battle. His specific deeds are long forgotten, but they impressed Bolad enough that he granted Bug the village.

 

[ChicagoZohan]

Chapter 1.9: A War of Subjugation

In the year 880, King Bolad I of Kush would declare the first of what was to be many wars of subjugation. The Coptic Chronicles had described Bolad's wars to unify the Daju as the acts of a power-hungry tyrant, but the Kushite traditions always had one justification or another for each of those conflicts, and at the end of the day, he was reuniting his divided people, and he truly did bring them prosperity.

So when we get to King Bolad's adventures in the lands of the Sao, the Kanuri, and the Hausa, it is of little surprise that the Coptics describe this as a brutal, continuous war of subjugation. But what's strange is that the Kushite chroniclers would barely offer justification in their own telling of the tale. It does seem as if the Daju ruling class who would have created these oral traditions in the first place didn't even consider the lot of these soon to be subjugated peoples worth mentioning, even to explain why it was justified to conquer them. It was only natural for the Kushite kingdom of Bolad to dominate its neighbors.

This is a bit surprising, considering the radically different approach later rulers would take towards integration of their subjects. It is clear that under King Bolad little dissent from the cultural and religious norms of the Kushite Daju conquerors was tolerated.

The villages of Dar Sila and Salamat were just the start of Kushite expansion into foreign territory. Just as the rains ended in 880, Kushite forces would invade the Emirate of Wadai.

It was at this time that Bolad accepted the call to war of his ally, the Mai of Kanem. For the most part, Kush would not participate in this war, with the exception of one incredibly unfortunate battle.

That same year, King Bolad's son Murtin and his vassal and ward Ederisu had come of age. Bolad had trained both children in philosophy and the study of their ancestors' religion, but while the boy chief excelled, Murtin's skill proved lacking. Yet while Murtin's loyalty to his father knew no limit, Ederisu had begun to despise the man who was responsible for the death of his father and the diminishment of his house. Despite the way that Bolad had treated him since he had sworn fealty, the oral traditions say that Ederisu harbored hatred for his liege and even threatened to reveal Bolad's relationship with Youssouf. Despite all this, Bolad still treated Ederisu fairly, and on his sixteenth birthday Bolad granted him all the lands of the Cheifdom of Dardaju, keeping Kordofan as his own domain. After this Ederisu treated his liege with due respect.

Meanwhile, Bolad's forces invaded the Emirate of Wadai. At first, they faced no resistance as they encircled the villages of the emirate and took them one by one -- the craven Emir's forces were nowhere to be found. But the Emir was ancient, and at the early in the year 810 he died of natural causes. His daughter, no craven, ordered the levies raised; but before they could reach Bolad's forces, they'd charged the village they were encircling and found the young Emira within. She was forced to surrender and Wadai was taken with barely a fight.

The last free Zaghawa Sheikhdom had fallen to the Daju. The Kingdom of Kush stretched far to the west, nearly to the banks of Lake Chad. To the southwest lay a collection of minor squabbling Sao tribes; to the north the Kanuri Maidom of Kanem held sway.

That same year, Bolad's wife Pid gave birth to his third son. The boy Issa, far younger than Bolad's eldest Murtin, would throw the question of succession into jeopardy. By this time, Bolad had divided the western lands into the chiefdoms of Darfur (granted to Cheif Bug, who had distinguished himself in prior wars and was rewarded for his service first with the village of Masalit and then with the High Cheifdom of Darfur) and Darzaghawa, which replaced the conquered Emirate of Wadai. Darzaghawa was granted to Bolad's second son Malaz, leaving nothing for Issa; perhaps this was yet another reason to expand.

During the final days of the war against the Emirate of Dawai, that Kanemi war Bolad had agreed to join finally came calling. The Kanemi were fighting a large coalition of smaller tribes, and though most of the fighting occurred far from Kush, at one point the Kanemi army was caught by its enemies quite near where the Kushite army had been stationed. Since their allies were outnumbered, the Kushites rushed to help. It was a slaughter.

Nearly the entire Kushite army was destroyed. Worse, six Kushite champions lay dead, among them Bolad's longtime lover Youssouf. Bolad would never recover from this loss, according to the Kushite Traditions, and would mourn Youssouf until his dying day.

The destruction of its army would be a setback to Kushite expansion, but as it happened as part of a foreign war, the cost to the realm wasn't all too great. Still, it would be a number of years before the kingdom of Kush would declare its next war.

 

[ChicagoZohan]

Chapter 1.10: Conquest, Continued

By late 885, the Kingdom of Kush had recovered from the devastating losses it had suffered in Kanem and declared a war of subjugation upon the Sao Chimma Dwiyongi of Tumak. The Chima was craven, and rather than engage the numerically superior Kushite warriors his warband carried out an ineffective campaign of low-level harrasment. The war progressed quickly and by late 886 the Sao Chima was forced to surrender, swearing fealty to King Bolad and pledging his lands to Kush.

The Coptic Chronicles claim that when King Bolad first entered the newly conquered lands to inspect them, he fell quite ill. These lands were wet and humid compared to his homeland of Kordofan, and the climate did not agree with the victorious king. According to the Chronicles his physician treated him with leeches -- also native to this new land -- and this immediately cured Bolad of his sickness.

The kingdom of Kanem had quite a bit of cross-Saharan trade with the Islamic sultanates to the north, so now that Bolad's Kush was nearly bordering them is when the Daju seem to enter the Muslim consciousness. The Annals of Tunis contain the first surviving mention of Kush, with an interesting story about Bolad's treatment of his Zaghawa subjects.

Soon after the conquest of Tumak, a collection of Zaghawa elders from all the villages of Darzaghawa travelled across the entire kingdom of Kush to reach Ubaid, seeking an audience with King Bolad. They requested some degree of autonomy, but Bolad refused, and though the elders were weary from their travelers, and had used up their supplies and valuables for barter on the way to the capital, he ordered them to return to Darzaghawa directly, refusing to resupply them or allow them lodging in Ubaid even for the night.

Whether this alleged mistreatment actually occurred or not, it is clear that in May of 887 the First Bori Uprising broke out across Darzaghawa and Darfur. The Kushite armies, already raised for their war of conquest, easily dealt with the rebels, and the Uprising ended less than three months later.

There was no harsh reprisal, and those warriors who fled the field of battle and returned to their village were allowed to do so peacefully. High Priest Angrun's conversion efforts redoubled in the west, however, and the Kushite faith slowly began to gain ground.

Offensives in the west would resume in early 889 with the invasion of Kuku. Again, we can actually get a pretty good picture of the story from the Annals of Tunis. They tell us that the Chima of Kuku was a wise Bori named Loel. He was considered a great holy man by the Bori of the region, and the Annals even claim that he had been influenced by the teachings of Islam and spread many of its tenants[1] to the surrounding Bori.

Whether it was intended to sow discord among the Bori faithful or not, the conquest of Kuku went smoothly. Chima Loel had only a few warriors pledged to him directly, but the chiefs of nearby tribes had respected the Bori wiseman and came to his support. By the time they arrived to face Bolad's warriors, however, the Kushites had already stormed Loel's only village, taken control of it, and exiled the Chima. The Bori forces dissolved without a clear leader and Bolad started eying his next target.

Perhaps it was the elimination of a notable rival in the realm of the divine, but it was shortly after this time that the various priests and shamans of the Kushite faith came together and officially proclaimed King Bolad to be a prophet of the great gods of old, and his lineage to be directly descendent from the pharaohs -- who, of course, were sons of the gods themselves.

Ironically, this is when Bolad's rule seems to shift focus in many ways. He's still an incredibly influential religious figure, but as the lands that Kush controlled grew and grew, he seemed to realize that he must get his kingdom's mundane affairs in order, too.

In mid 889, the Kushite army would march once more, this time against Chima Bakarou of Wandala, claiming the Chima's secondary lands of Baaguirmi. Again, the war itself proved relatively quick and simple. The fragmented Sao realms could not stand up to the united Daju peoples, and so fell one by one in a series of swift campaigns.

Even an easy war is not without cost, however. The skilled warchief Bug of Darfur was killed in the fighting, and his young son Beg inherited his lands. Bolad would raise Ber as a son, as he raised Ederisu beforehand.

Speaking of Ederisu, he had been taken prisoner when his village was sacked by another chief in an internal dispute, and only released in exchange for his abdication as High Chief. His title returned to King Bolad, who granted it to his son Issa. Had Bolad's intent in continuing hostilities in the west was to secure a proper inheritance for all of his male heirs, this would have resolved the problem. Yet expansion in the west would not slow.

The war for Baguirmi was further complicated by Chima Begli of Baguirmi, who controlled a large stretch of land to the north and considered the lands Bolad had just taken his. This new war would continue for a time.

As this occurred, the Annals of Tunis claim that the Mai of Kanem -- whose daughter was betrothed to Bolad's eldest boy Murtin -- had died, and with no living sons his successor came from a different part of his dynasty. This meant that Bolad's alliance would no longer be with the mighty Mai and therefore the whole of Kanem, but instead to a minor Chima in that realm. He promptly broke the betrothal and allowed his son to pick a wife from the women of the tribe.

The angered Chima, daughter of the dead Mai, and so she joined the Chima of Baguirmi in his war. But even with this aid, the Kushite forces overwhelmed the Chimas and the conquests were defended.

During this war, many of King Bolad's daughters (at the time of his death, Bolad had 13 children -- 10 female, 3 male) had come of age. At his return from campaign, he arranged marriages for them. Most he married to the men who had proven themselves worthiest during the wars, rewarding them by adopting them into House Tantamani and marrying them off to his daughters; some would even be granted land, thus ensuring that the chiefs of Kush would be related by blood and hence, hopefully, loyal to the crown.

One, however, he married to the heir to the Emirate of Air, a Siguic tribal realm to the west of Kanem. Bolad hoped this marriage would prevent Kanem from invading the conquered Kushite territory. Instead, he was almost immediately forced to honor the alliance by joining the defense of Air, as the Kingdom of Kanem declared a war of conquest against the Emirate.

[1] It does appear true that after losing his holding, Loel would travel north and would eventually die of old age in the Grand Emirate of the Sahara, converting to Ibadi Islam on his deathbed. Whether he had been influenced by Islam beforehand remains unknown.

 

[ChicagoZohan]

Chapter 1.11: The Defense of Air

The historical record is never complete, but sometimes it's astounding just how large the gaps can be. For example, we know that Bolad's son Murtin was, at the end of his life, disfigured so badly by some facial injury that he wore a mask to hide his face; and further, that he was utterly insane. But what happened to make him this way? We have no idea, and all three sources we've used so far -- the Coptic Chronicles, Kushite traditions, or Annals of Tunis -- are completely silent on the matter.

What is made clear is that Bolad knew that Murtin inheriting Kush would be disastrous. The disappointing boy had turned into a man who was entirely unfit to rule. In the Kushite tradition, Bolad is haunted by this knowledge but is powerless to do anything about it. The Coptics and the Tunisians give this tale a much more sinister bend.

What all three sources agree on is that Murtin ibn Bolad was not a very skilled fight.

We do know that the Kushites didn't expect the war they'd just gotten dragged into to mean much. It was thought that they would raid the eastern lands of Kanem, maybe skirmish with some smaller enemy forces, but that the main fighting would be in the far west, between the Emirate of Air and Kanem themselves. To begin with, that proved true, and Murtin led the Kushite army as it started taking villages on the periphery of the kingdom.

But eventually, after a few villages had fallen, Kushite forces came across three smaller Kanemi bands. Murtin was no longer leading the army, though he was still one of its champions. The commander, whose name has been forgotten, made the tactical mistake of attacking the Kanemi from across a river. The Kushites outnumbered them, so he judged this worth the risk; but Kanemi reinforcements soon poured in, and though the battle looked like it would go for the Kushites at first, the final wave of reinforcements swung the balance back the other way, and the Kushites were routed. Murtin ibn Bolad was among the dead.

This enraged King Bolad, who would never forgive Kanem or its Mai, and would bring about their downfall in due time. But that's a tale for another day. For now, the question on everyone's mind was succession. With Murtin dead, Kush would go upon Bolad's death to his second son, Malaz, High Chief of Darzaghawa.

Yet soon it was discovered that Beydaan, the wife of the late Murtin, was pregnant. A few months later she gave birth to a boy; though he would never meet his father, he would be named for his grandfather, and one day inherit the kingdom of Kush. The baby boy was renown for his beauty, a quality he would remain associated with for the rest of his days.

In the Kushite tradition, this is when King Bolad becomes a Flagellant, using physical self-punishment to cleanse his sins. For a modern reader, it is easy to interpret this as the stress of losing his son causing the already overworked king to crack mentally. Bolad's anger would be focused on Kanem for the rest of his days, surely an unnatural state for a man as forgiving as he was renown to be, and it is clear even from the largely detached style of the medieval writings that his mental health had suffered for this.

At that same time, Bolad's close confidant and high shaman Angrun would convert the Cheifdom of Wadai to the Kushite faith; this would be his last act before his death that same year. His successor, High Shaman Monica[1] of Kush, was far less learned and (perhaps more importantly) far less effective at the conversion of the Bori tribes.

Though the Kushites would go on to pull their forces back and cease participation in the war, they'd done enough damage to sop Mai Fune from conquering the Emirate of air. The Kanemi conquest had failed, and in the peace agreement Bolad managed to greatly increase his herds of cattle. Yet he would not forgive nor forget, not in this case. His western ambitions had grown; no longer would he limit his expansion to the small realms of Sao, but he would keep his eye on Kanem and beyond.

[1]I had no idea Monica was on the Kushite/Daju name list but apparently...?

 

[ChicagoZohan]

Chapter 1.12: The Road to War

As 895 came to a close, King Bolad was ready to invade Kanem. He planned to conquer the whole heartland kingdom, leaving only shattered realms on its outskirts. The main motivation for this war was a desire for vengeance, as Bolad's eldest son was killed while defending the Emirate of Air against Kanemi aggression. Yet a second motivation was, once more, the desire for more land. Some of the chiefs had begun to speak of splitting up the kingdom of Kush on Bolad's passing, saying it was too big for one chief to govern effectively. The idea of splitting off a kingdom of Greater Darsao was gaining popularity among the chiefs. By conquering even more lands, Bolad hoped to both show that a single chief could indeed manage that much land, but also to make practical the idea of granting his younger son a vassal kingdom.

Invading that much land takes a lot of convincing in a tribal society, though, and Bolad did not have the necessary clout with them minor chiefs to launch such a war. He would need to solidify his power base before the chiefs would agree to act.

The Coptic Chronicles tell us that Bolad's first attempt to convince the chiefs of his plan was to invite them all to a grand feast, where he could rally them behind his dreams of conquest. Yet the feast was an unmitigated disaster, and the chiefs lost respect for their liege by the display. Bolad would instead use what clout he still had to convince the chiefs to invade Wandala, a smaller realm they had fought with before over the Baguirmi lands. This war would go seemingly, though the victory would not have the desired effect -- Bolad would find that it took more political goodwill to get the chiefs to agree to war than it won to capture more land. At this same time, High Cheif Jal -- who was granted a realm the Daju called Dargula in the occupied Sao territories -- had fought his own war against the Baguirmi without his liege's help, capturing more land for the Kushites.

By this time, Bolad was fifty five, and his mind had been battered by grief and loss over and over throughout this time. Bolad would go on to live another decade, but the Kushite traditions say that he would have little taste for life by this point. A modern person might say that he was simply going through the motions.

I probably shouldn't be speculating like this -- as you know, yours truly is not a historian. But I can't help but wonder if the fact that Bolad's heart lay to the northeast in the lands of Nubia and Egypt while his conquests lay to the west didn't have something to do with it. We know that at this time the twin Nubian kingdoms of Alodia and Makuria were united by alliances of blood (a situation that would only grow worse in the years to come). Expansion to the east simply wasn't in the cards, as Bolad believed Wepwawet had fortold. Bolad could set his sons up for the future conquest of Nubia and Egypt, but he could never experience the fulfilment of this dream himself.

The Coptic Chronicles say that Bolad's wars in the west would not end until the day he died. Bolad's dream - to make the Kushite Kingdom into an Empire strong enough to strike eastward - is not one that he would see fulfilled, close as he did come. Yet in his quest to secure the secession, Bolad would pay an ultimate price and render the question moot.

Bolad still wanted to convince the chiefs to go to war with Kanem, and finally he sent his forces into the western kingdoms as raiders in order to bring back plunder and win him some fame. The men did very well, and the ransomed captives and loot they brought back would see Kush's treasury swell.

Back at his home village, preparations for the war were carried out with gusto. The Kushite tradition says that in his final years, Bolad would gain much comfort from the execution of a road project, of all things. High Chieftain Jal had put Bolad in touch with a highly skilled builder named Youssouf, oddly enough. While Bolad would never develop any deep relationship with the man, it appears that he did remind him of his old love, and Bolad was most at peace when discussing some details of infrastructure with the man late into the night.

The road was a resounding success, and when the road's construction was complete Youssouf was granted charter as the head of a builder's guild which greatly improved construction quality across the villages of Kush.

Finally, midway through the year 900, Bolad would declare war upon Mai Fune of Kanem, intending to seize the heartlands of the kingdom. The Emirate of Air would join in the war effort, the threat of Kanem would finally be put down, and vengeance for Murtin's death would be wrought upon them.

 

[ChicagoZohan]

Chapter 1.13: Culmination of Conquest

As 900 gave way to 901, Kushite forces pushed into Kanemi land. The Kushites moved in along the north shore of Lake Chad, heading towards the Kanemi capital itself, while the Kanemi instead approached from the south. The Kushites left a small force to seize the northern villages while sending the main army to the south, to engage with the Kanemi. The Kushites won the battle, and the larger force proceeded to besiege more villages to the south. Meanwhile, retreating Kanemi forces had regrouped and started moving in towards the smaller Kushite force, which had encircled the Kanemi capital.

The Kushite forces rushed together north of Lake Chad and reunited, smashing into the Kanemi enemy and crushing the opposition. It was a glorious victory, but in war, even a glorious victory is not without loss. The Kushite traditions say that High Cheiftain Malaz's horse was struck by an arrow fired by a friendly archer, and when the horse fell it crushed Malaz's leg beneath it, shattering the bone. Before Malaz could be recovered, he was killed by an enemy pikeman who gutted him while he still lay under his horse.

While tragic for Bolad on a personal level, the battle was a resounding victory for the Kushites, and in late 902 the Kanemi armies had been totally shattered, and most of the villages captured. The Mai surrendered his heartland, withdrawing to the peripheral villages in the Sahara to the north or in the forests to the south. Kanem had been defeated.

The rest of Africa had changed, too. In the east, the once-Petty King of Makuria now claimed the titled of King of All Nubia, despite the existence of an as yet independent Alodia to the south. In the north, the Fezzan Emirate, ruled by Ibadi Muslims, had been growing in power, spreading Islam to inner Arica. To the west, the young kingdoms of Igboland and Yorubaland had been forming, while closer by Hausaland had been a rising power. Many of the Hausa had hoped that the fall of Kanem would mean more room for the Hausa to grow. They would be tragically wrong about this.

As Kanem fell, Bolad found he was successful in another long-time venture. The Kushite tradition says that Bolad's endless tinkering with weapons of siege would finally pay off when he would bring the Onager to the lands of the Daju. Kush would not deploy onagers in actual war during King Bolad I's reign, but their adoption was now at hand.

In line with the more domestic approach King Bolad would take near the end of his life, the Daju's next obsesssion would be with crop rotation. The arid Sahel lands were not ideal for agriculture, which is why at this time most of the tribes were cattle herders instead. Various cultures had their own forms of agriculture, but these tended to supplement the herding diet, not replace it. If the Kushites were to become a truly settled peoples with populations to rival the kingdoms of Nubia and Egypt, this would have to change, and so King Bolad embarked on a project (which would be continued by his descendants) to study the different agricultural practices of the different tribes and figured out which of their practices could be expanded or brought to other regions to allow multiple farming methods to be practiced each year, enriching the soil and providing more food over the longer term.

In 903, shortly after the fall of Kanem, King Bolad declared a war of conquest on the heartland of the Hausa tribes. Again, very little effort is spent in any of the records to justify this war. By this point, it doesn't appear that it was difficult for Bolad to convince the chiefs to go to war, either. The conquest of Kanem had given him the clout he'd need to essentially have free reign over the lesser chiefs for the rest of his life. In fact, he would never hand out the villages he'd won these last few years, as was the custom. One must assume that leaving (at his death) fourteen villages to be managed by a single Chief would lead to waste and inefficiency, but the Kushite tradition holds that with the end of his road construction project and thus close association with the new Youssouf, little could bring Bolad out of his grief over the death of his two sons and his despair at the knowledge that he'd never see his true dream, the restoration of his line as Pharaohs, fulfilled. Bolad found little reason to care for such trivialities. He would leave such work for his heirs, instead spending more and more time communing with the gods.

The war, once more, went swimmingly at first. The villages of Hausaland fell before Bolad's host, and where their armies clashed Bolad's forces easily came out on top.

Yet again, we see that even an easily won war has a cost. Marching armies, besieged settlements, and fetid battlefields had always been breeding grounds for disease. In mid 904, King Bolad's last remaining son, High Chieftain Issa of Dardaju, was struck with smallpox while recovering from injury following a battle. A short month later, he died at the age of 19.

None of Bolad's sons would see their thirtieth birthday, while the wizened king had reached his sixtieth year. His despair was deep and heartfelt, and he took to the practice of consuming the drugs of his communion rituals on a regular basis, even when not reaching out to the gods.

Ironically, this death would secure the problem of succession once and for all. All three of Bolad's sons were dead, and though his ten daughters yet lived, they held no claim on his inheritance. Each of his sons had fathered male heirs to rule their chiefdoms after their passing, but by Daju law only Bolad's eldest grandson and namesake held a claim to his dead father's inheritance. The younger Bolad would reign over a united Kush as King Bolad II, and his cousins would be vassals under him.

Bolad had spent the last decade chasing a secure succession. The Kushite tradition holds that he must have felt some relief that this was now done, and yet enormous guilt at how it happened, and his own role in the deaths of his sons. Perhaps this contributed to Bolad's deterioration in the years to come.

Soon after, despite continual victories in the war against the Hausa, Bolad was forced to recall his forces in order to deal with the Second Bori Revolt, which had broken out in the Kanuri lands of the late Kanem kingdom. The peasant rebels were smashed in due course, and then Bolad's army returned to the west, defeating the Hausa and claiming their heartland.

Kush had consolidated its power in the west, but to the east, so did the kingdoms of Nubia, which were now united under one liege. In the north, the Sultanate of Egypt had expanded massively, as did the the smaller but still powerful Emirate of Fezzan. Kush was a mighty realm now, but so were her opponents.

 

[ChicagoZohan]

Chapter 1.14: King Bolad's Last War

By early 907, King Bolad, Restorer of Kush, Prophet of Wepwawet, and Heir of the Pharaohs, was in decline. More then once, he had suffered a bad reaction to the drugs used in his rituals of mystical communion. It was said that Wepwawet no longer spoke to him. Bearing dreadful guilt over the deaths of his three sons in the wars he undertook to secure their inheritance, Bolad had taken to the ritual of self-flagellation, and his wounds refused to heal. Bolad would seek mystical treatment from his physician Awdinh, and for centuries hence the Kushite elders would whisper dark tales of the treatments he received.

Still, he was obsessed with fulfilling what he believed to be his divine mission and securing an Empire worthy of competing with the Nubian kingdoms to the east. In late 907, he would declare what would be his final war, claiming the lands of Kebbi on the other side of the Hausa from the southern kingdom of Igbo-Benue. The war went smoothly enough, especially as Bolad's grandsons were as of yet too young to take the field.

A third Bori uprising would break out in mid-909, though the Kushite army would easily dispatch the rebels before returning to the field. By late 910, the Oda of Igbo-Benue was forced to concede her northern lands to Kush.

As the war drew to a close, Bolad's namesake and grandson had finally come of age. While his father and grandfather had focused their study on communion with the gods, the younger Bolad instead learned how to communicate with his subjects and foreign rulers. He was only an adequate bargainer, but his handsome features were noted by all, and he had plenty of natural charisma and a head for diplomatic concerns.

The young boy Bolad had come of age not a moment too soon. In October of 910, in the middle of the rainy season, King Bolad I of Kush had finally passed away. He was 65 years old, and had reigned over Kordofan, Dardaju, and later Kush for forty three years. In his time, the Daju people had gone from squabbling tribesmen ruled by foreigners in the west to the rulers of a powerful kingdom, with their own subjugated peoples in the west. The Kingdom of Kush was now a mighty force to be reckoned with, though its rivals had grown powerful too.

In the west, most Bori lands had come under Kushite control, and the process of converting the Zaghawa, Sao, Kanuri, and Hausa tribes to the Kushite faith had already begun. In the east, Coptic Christianity and Ash'Ari islam had nearly suffocated the Kushite faith. While the holy temples at Jebbel Marra were in Kushite hands, the rest of their holiest sites had fallen to the Coptics or Ash'Ari.

The young King Bolad II had inherited the foundation of a mighty empire. The realm he would build on that foundation had yet to be determined.

PS: The succession screen claims that Bolad ruled for 13 years; this is because at one point my grandson and heir Bolad was taken prisoner in an internal dispute, and his liege refused to ransom him even after the war had ended. Not wanting a terrible heir who missed his education due to being in prison, I jumped over to that character, paid the ransom, and jumped back to Bolad.

 

[ChicagoZohan]

Chapter 2.1: The Young Diplomat

The Kushite Oral Tradition tells us that October 7th, 910 was a rainy day in the village of Ubaid. As such, the coronation of King Bolad II would be held under the eye of Tefnut, and Bolad ibn Murtin would always consider his reign to be, in many ways, dedicated to her name.

Bolad II had barely reached his seventeenth year when he took the throne of Kush.

The young king was renown for his honest and humble nature, though he was also known to be shrewd and unpredictable. Yet undoubtedly the feature that Bolad II was most renown for was his handsomeness. The younger Bolad would find that few could resist his charm, and throughout his rule he would find that within his realm words could often win brighter victories than spears. Abroad, however, Bolad would not hesitate to raise arms when he felt it would be in the best interest of his fledgling nation.

His grandfather's final war against the Igbo-Benue had earned the young king a powerful enemy to the south, and left his levies depleted. To thwart any potential aggression in retaliation and secure the southlands, Bolad II would betrothe himself to the granddaughter of Oba Ila of Yorubaland. With this alliance secured, Bolad turned to his sisters, many of whom had not yet married. Bolad arranged for each of them to wed one of the champions who fought under his father. Most of these men were not Kushite, nor of noble blood; as such, their heirs would be born to House Tantamani, and could build their own branches of their houses. Further, by granting land and noble status to these lowborn men, Bolad II would earn their loyalty. Finally, since most of these lands were not occupied by Daju, Kushite peoples, placing his own kin in charge of these chiefdoms would ensure they'd remain a secure part of the Daju's kingdom, and could assimilate over time.

Once more, King Bolad II would find himself running into that same age-old issue that his father had once faced. To rally the tribal chiefs to war took much political capital, called in favors, and general backscratching. As a young, newly crowned king, Bolad II -- well liked as he was -- simply didn't have the prestige he'd need to rally the chiefs. In January of 911, Bolad II would send two raiding parties to the south, into Igbo-Benue lands. The southern kingdom's army would smash the raiding forces, sending them fleeing, though not without some small consolation prize.

By April of the next year, Bolad had managed to gather enough support to seize the lands of Ghazzal, a small, independent realm entirley surrounding by Kushite lands on all sides except for its north, where it bordered only the open desert. The war was brief and eventless, and soon the Chima Amadi had capitulated.

A few month later, Kushite forces would invade the lands of Malika Nastaran, taking the place known as Katagum. Again, the war was brief, though this war would be remembered as the first time that the Kingdom of Kush would deploy siege weapons, using onagers to destroy the villages' palisades in hours. The men who operated the onagers would be known as Youssouf's Brigade, by the wish of Bolad II's grandfather.

In June of 914, the last of old Kanem's successor states would collapse, with Emira Mariam taking the lands of Fika and Mai Fune taking Garoua. Kush would immediately declare war upon both chiefdoms and seize them, finally securing all the fertile lands that lie between the river-valleys of Nubia to the east and the eastern shores of Lake Chad; and much of the sahel beyond that, though the last Hausa Malika still ruled in Katsina, while the Emir of Air and the Oba of Yorubaland each held some of the Sahel for themselves.

As these wars began, the Tradition maintains that King Bolad began to worry, as a few years had passed since he had taken the throne; he was no longer a naïve teenager. He had begun to realize that if some misfortune should befall him before he had an heir, the kingdom would collapse into chaos. Bolad's betrothed would not come of age for a couple years yet, and so, though the Chroniclers claim the humble Bolad II did not really desire to do so, like his father before him the young king would take a number of concubines, the first being his cousin Ngid.

Ngid would soon give the king his heir, a boy who they would name Murtin, after the father Bolad had never met.

Soon after, the princess of Yorubaland would finally come of age and make the journey to Ubaid to meet her new husband, solidifying the alliance between the two kingdoms.

The maps below show Kush and its surrounding region at the start and end of Bolad's first wave of expansionist wars. The Kushite Tradition holds that Bolad would hungrily consider the remaining fractured kingdoms to the west; but soon an opportunity would arise in the east, one which the Kushites had been waiting for since Bolad I had first taken the throne.

 

[ChicagoZohan]

Chapter 2.2: Opportunity Knocks

In December of 915, a raiders from the Emirate of Air began to raid the Cheifdom of Dendi, in the western hinterlands just past Kushite rule. Bolad's own raiders were rallied, and they smashed the Emirate's men, taking their loot as their own. They then continued to pillage the neighboring tribes to the west, and Bolad would reinvest this plunder in his own holdings in the lands of Kordofan, which had come to be known as the High Chiefdom of Darkurta. Trading outposts would be built across all the villages of the region, and the roads between them improved. The kingdom would tax these transactions,

For a time, Bolad II was content to raid and improve his own realm. In 919, however, Yorubaland would annex the southern holdings of Malika Nastaran, and Bolad would hurry to seize Katsina before the Yuroba could take it.

After the war Bolad would send raiders into Igbo-Benue once more, splitting them into two large war parties. The armies pillaged much of Igbo-Benue and seized many captives, who would be ransomed for much wealth in cowrie shells, cattle, and metal tools. Again one of the armies was defeated by the Igbo-Benue's forces, and the raiders forced to retreat, but with the ransoms included the raids were still very successful overall.

The Kushite traditions claim that at this time, as Bolad and his cousins began rearing children, the blood of the Tantamani had been blessed by the gods, and many of the dynasty's heirs would henceforth be known as particularly beautiful or handsome, hardy or strong. In recognition of this blessing, Bolad and some of his relatives would mount an expedition to the Great Temple of Alexandria. Though held by the Islamic Abanoubid dynasty, and separated from Kush by Nubian lands, it was a simple (though pricey) matter to secure some guards for protection and travel as anonymous traders.

Bolad would later describe his encounters with those of Coptic or Muslim faith as abominable, and would find his heart hardened against the foreign faiths within his own lands. Conversion efforts in the west would redouble in the coming years while Bolad would come to be seen as a wise man, much like his grandfather. He would begin communing with the gods upon his return to Ubaid, or so claim the legends.

On his return to his own lands, Bolad would order the construction of longhouses for his personal warriors at all three of Darkuta's great villages. He would also find that his wife Lorane had given birth to his second son while he was a way, a boy they would name Anqarib.

Perhaps Wepwawet truly did smile upon Bolad II for his pilgrimage to the holy lands of his ancestors, for it was shortly after his return, at the end of the year 925, when the way east would finally open to the Daju peoples. The three great Coptic kings of Nubia, Abyssinia, and Damot had declared war upon the tiny Emirate of Baqlin. Somehow, the tiny chiefdom managed to smash the Nubian army in battle, wounding King Georgios of Nubia. This was the opportunity that Bolad II, like his grandfather before him, had been patiently waiting for all this time. With little fanfare, the Kushite army marched into the lands of Nubia, claiming its very heartland -- the realm of Makuria.

 

[ChicagoZohan]

Chapter 2.3: The Great Expansion

As the year 925 came to a close, the Kushite army would enter Nubia in two places. In the south, the lands of Alodia bordered Kordofan, and it was here that the Kushite army would clash with what forces the Nubians could still muster after their loss at Baqlin. In the north, Kushite troops would follow the river valley of Wadi El-Milk to reach the king's personal holdings at Makuria. Depleted as it was, the Nubian army would be quickly smashed and most of the castles (for the Nubians had adopted the building of fortifications by this time) captured before the end of 926.

One surviving account by an unknown source describes the sack of Grnetti in the chiefdom of Meroe, one of the king's main holdings, from the Coptic perspective:

The pagan devils appeared from the desert without warning at the break of dawn, most of them simple tribesmen armed with nothing but club or spear and clad only in cloth[1]; yet their numbers were vast, and we were forced to remain behind our walls for fear of their slings, which most of the devils had fashioned after encircling the castle. Suddenly, one of the men called out that the Dajuites had set up weapons of siege. I do not know which fool rival of ours has lent the devils such devices, but I fear that they have doomed us all. Our walls shall not last long.

Daju onagers of the era were still relatively crude, mostly because they hadn't faced true castles before in their western expansion. During the course of their Nubian conflicts, designs would improve rapidly, and soon the Nubians would curse the Daju's cunning rather than an imaginary feudal ally.

By the time the rains came in the year 927, the Nubian King Georgio had been forced to capitulate. The Daju seized much of the northern Nubian territory, currently to be held by the Kushite crown directly.

When he returned from war, Bolad II would find that his wife had given birth to twins, a girl they would name Ur and a boy they would name Mbakin. Bolad would now have seven children, four girls and three boys. The Kushite tradition notes that almost all of Bolad's children would be renown for their beauty, to one degree or another, aside from the daughter Ur. [2]

Crucially, one of the new provinces acquired in the war included a site holy to the Kushite faith. The wadi was once a tributary river to the Nile, joining it just as it begins its great bend to the north. Nestled in the mountains from which water once flowed to join the Nile is a place the Kushites believed sacred to the lion-headed goddess of rain and water, Tefnut. Now the land was under Daju control, though the people still believed the Coptic faith.

With two of the Kushite holy sites and lands stretching from the lands of the Nubians to the lands of the Yoruba under his control, King Bolad II of the Kingdom of Kush would be coronated as High King Bolad of Greater Kush. In September of the year 928, the Tantamani would finally have their empire.

The Kushite tradition describes the ceremony in great detail[3]. It was held at the traditional capital of Ubaid, where a great tent had been built, and its sides had been raised so all could see inside. Around it a large open area had been prepared. The High Shaman and his retinue of lesser shamans and traditional sacred guards had prepared a stage within the tent, below which sat a simple wooden chair. King Bolad II ibn Murtin, King of Kush, entered the tent; the High Priest stripped him of his royal garbs, leaving him only in a simple tunic, and removed his royal turban. Bare headed, Bolad sat upon the wooden chair.

Into the flat area around the tent came the High Chiefs of each of the provinces sworn to Kush, each guarded by his retinue. The chiefdoms were Dardaju, Darfur, Darzaghawa and South Darzaghawa, Dargula[4], Darsao and West Darsao, Darkanui, South Darkanui, and East and West Darhausa. Each land was named for the conquered tribes who lived in the area, though modern historians believe that in the great tradition of conquering empires, these borders were, in truth, mostly arbitrary, and the ruling class often differed from the populace. For example, the High Chieftain of West Daraso at this time was Hausan, the High Chieftain of West Darhausa was Butr, and the High Chief of East Darhausa was Zaghawan. All were Kushites, of course, and the faith had made good progress spreading through the Kushite subjects, though the work was far from complete.

One by one, the High Chiefs each re-pledged their Chiefdoms to the High Kingdom of Greater Kush, and demanded that Bolad be crowned High King. As had quickly become traditional, Bolad would decline each High Chief, arguing that they would be better of independent; yet each High Chief would prostate themselves before Bolad, as would their men, and they would cry as one, "alone we are weak; together, we can stand against our enemies, and return to you the glory of your fathers". Finally, as the final High Chief begged Bolad to do so, he arose, and asked them to pledge themselves to him, which they did again. Then Bolad returned and sat upon the chair, and the High Shaman climbed the stage behind him, and in a booming voice declared Bolad to be a son of the Goddess of the Nile. Anointing Bolad's forehead with mud taken from the banks of the sacred river -- which now, finally, in two short places, lay within Kushite territory -- he declared him High King of Greater Kush.

As High King Bolad ibn Murtin of Greater Kush[5] rose from his chair, attendants cloaked him in a fine robe and placed his new turban upon him. Thusly adorned, he called upon his new vassals to make ready for war again. The Emirate of Air to the west would be theirs; combined with an alliance that Bolad's diplomacy had allowed him to negotiate with the Emirate of Sahara, this would allow Greater Kush access to the rich trade routes across the desert.

The High Shaman exclaimed that, just as all the chiefs had been summoned, so to had the Emir of Air been summoned to pledge fealty to Bolad. Yet he declined, refusing vassalage; and so Bolad called for a war of subjugation. Roaring in approval, the chiefs made ready for war.

The Emirate's forces couldn't match the might of Kush, and after a few quick yet decisive skirmishes their forces were in disarray and the Kushites were able to besiege most of their settlements. The Emir was killed in battle, and his young son was forced to capitulate, pledging fealty to High King Bolad and becoming the only non-Kushite vassal under the High Kingdom of Greater Kush.

Around this time, Murtin would finally come of age. Unlike his father or grandfather, Murtin was more interested in battle and strategy than in studying religious texts or diplomacy, yet he was only adequate at best even at that; though he was particularly skilled at leading raids and foraging with his army. Still, High King Bolad soon arranged for him to be wed, hoping to secure the dynasty further.

Greater Kush had secured its northern and southern borders through alliances, and a number of fractured states to the west provided opportunity for further expansion, which High King Bolad briefly considered. But soon Wepwawet would open his path one more in the east, as the king of Nubia's wounds from his last encounter with Kush would fester and rot. Weakened, he would be struck down in battle shortly after losing his war against Kush, and his young son would inherit the Nubian throne. The boy's realm in chaos and the blood truce with the Kushites broken, High King Bolad struck immediately. This time the target was Alodia, which bordered Kordofan and was the seat of the second of Nubia's great Coptic kingdoms, before they had united. Once more, the war was swift. The boy king Epimachos could mount no significant defense.

Much of the Nubian kingdom had fallen back under Kushite control, including the highly developed feudal lands of Makuria. Bolad was determined to bring the Daju culture to these lands, as well as the Kushite faith, and thus to modernize his own people and prepare them for even greater conquest.


[1]Historians believe that the northern force consisted mostly of untrained levies, while the professional forces were deployed to the south where the Nubian army had been spotted by scouts. Both forces included onagers, however.

[2]In the image, we see that Bolad is praising Min for making a baby. From his description on Wikipedia, I think that's appropriate:

Spoiler: NSFW Description

Min [...] was most often represented in male human form, shown with an erect penis which he holds in his left hand and an upheld right arm holding a flail.

[3]I figure all that gold I spent must have gone somewhere, and all the prestige I got must have come from somewhere, too. This would be the sort of thing that I'd imagine creating a title in a tribal realm would involve.

[4]The titles of High Chief of South Darzaghawa and High Chief of Dargula were held by the same High Chief, Dong ibn Kosom; this made him one of the realm's most powerful vassals, and his family would be a constant thorn in the side of the High Kings of Greater Kush for many years.

[5]Because the primary title is now Greater Kush instead of Kush the numbering reset. We will see next time a Bolad takes the throne (and I'm sure it will happen, the autogen loves prior kings) if he is II or III.

 

[ChicagoZohan]

Chapter 2.3: Heirs of Nubia

With the Nubian heartland now under his control, King Bolad would send his steward, marshal, and shaman into these new lands to begin spreading Daju culture, the Kushite faith, and reestablishing control where these efforts failed. The Kushite faith's high shaman was not particularly effective at this time, but the Nubians and the Daju were close cousins and the court's Steward quite effective. The Coptic Chroniclers tell us that while the Kushite faith made slow progress among the Coptic faithful, the Nubian culture would easily merge into the Daju one.

The Kushite tradition holds that around this time, Bolad would hear tale of a beautiful all-white oryx being spotted in the lands of Kordofan. He would embark on the first of many hunts for the creature, taking his vassal chiefs with him - a practice which would be sung about in Daju legends and buy him the respect he'd need to rally the chiefs to further conquest.

In December of 932, Bolad would lunch his own invasion of Baqlin. The tiny realm's army was still weakened from its encounter with the Nubian kingdom a short time before, and the mercenaries it had used to ensure victory had long since departed. Victory was swift, and after converting the boy to the proper Kushite faith Bolad would place the deposed Chieftain's own son upon the throne[1].

Just before the war's end, Bolad's concubine Ngid would give birth to a fourth son, Koydin. The boy, Bolad's other issue, was renown for his beauty.

The Kushite Tradition tells that King Bolad would next set his eye on the Kingdom of Damot, a neighboring Coptic realm in western Ethiopia. A boy king of only seven years of age sat upon its throne, twisted by a scaly affliction that led many of the locals to wonder if their local gods had cursed the Coptic ruler with this punishment. Yet on his next communion with Wepwawet, Bolad would be presented with a vision showing him a different path. To the north, Sultan Mikail ibn Abanoub ruled over the lands of Egypt. He was an incompetent ruler, and young; he had only recently taken the throne, and his powerful vassals squabbled with one another while leaving him little for his own domain.

Best of all, he too was afflicted by a punishment from the gods, as he was a leper. High King Bolad of Greater Kush turned his attention upon the lands of his forefathers at last. He would restore their legacy.

Of course, convincing the chieftains to make war upon the powerful Abanoubid Sultanate would be no easy feat. Bolad would embark on continued hunts searching for the white oryx of Kordofan and lead his kingdom's forces on multiple raids into the Coptic kingdoms in Ethiopia to build up enthusiasm for the war. But in this time, the Leper Sultan had not been idle, either. He had secured a pair of alliances with nearby Muslim realms. Combined, their forces would be more than a match for Kush's.

In the meantime, another of Bolad's concubines gave birth to his fourth son, a rather plain boy named Dahab.

The Kushite tradition holds that in early 935, Bolad would begin plotting the death of the Leper Sultan. The man was hated by his own court, so securing his death proved easy enough; in the Kushite tales, Bolad would hire a Somali woman named Taljat Bisharin who was a follower of the traditional faith of her lands; she had allied with Bolad to secure her land from the encroachment of Muslims and Coptics.

Surprisingly, the contemporary Muslim chroniclers still don't have much to say about Bolad or the Kushites. It seems they had underestimated the threat, viewing his rise as just the squabbling of a petty tribal ruler with his neighbors, and the invasion of Nubia as little more than a sustained raid. Later Muslim writers would connect the dots, and many claimed that Taljat was a vile practitioner of dark arts and a dealer with the devil himself. Some would even claim that it was her curse which struck the Sultan with leprosy in the first place.

One way or another, on the 22nd of December, 936, an assassin murdered Sultain Mikail in his sleep. The Sultanate's alliances broken, the High Kingdom of Greater Kush would immediately declare war upon the new Sultan, Nasir, claiming the Kingdom of Egypt.

[1]The Coptic Chroniclers tell that the boy would die in one of the realm's future wars at the age of 22, leaving the Chiefdom to his father once more; Bolad offered to fund a lavish funeral, honoring the young chief as a war hero, in exchange for the father's conversion. The old chief agreed, and Bolad would rebuild the churches of Wolqayt as Kushite temples in the slain chief's honor.

 

[ChicagoZohan]

Chapter 2.3: The Sorcerer King

If the Kings of Kush had been noticeably absent from the Arabic records until now, in early 937 the Kushites would erupt into the Arabic record much as their forces would erupt into the Abanoubid Sultunate's territory.

The Annals of Tunis are still our best Arabic source as Tunis was still under Abanoubid control at this time, and is the court to which many of the Sultanate's nobles fled after the Kushite invasion. Tunis itself would fall to Byzantine control soon after, but the records survived.

The Annals describe the Kushite forces thus:

Into our lands descended a great horde of savages, the punishment of Allah; the Daju and their subject peoples, a host of tribesmen armed with spears and javelins. In the vanguard of their great horde came an elite company of warriors, clad in the pelts of lions and armed with great iron halberds with which they slaughtered our cavalry with great effect. Behind them came a great force of archers, clad in the pelts of leopards, and their accuracy and range amazed our warriors, who fell before them in droves before they turned and fled. On the flank came a host mounted riders in quilted armor, whose horses were covered in the pelts of hyenas, and who darted at our warriors, riding past them and behind their shields, then throwing their javelins into our rear, with devastating effect.

In their first engagement with our forces, the devils were outnumbered. Yet soon after the fighting started, they simply disappeared into the desert sands, taking few losses; our men easily retook our holdings from the weak garrisons they'd left behind. But suddenly the devils returned in even greater numbers, and our armies were cut down and destroyed. Somehow the tribal savages possessed weapons of siege, and our castles fell before them with alarming speed; up the Nile the devils traveled, destroying the Sultanate's forces.

How the Abanoubids angered Allah is unknown, but it is clear his favor is no longer with them. We can only pray a more righteous lineage can soon reclaim the Sultanate from these infidels.

In late July of the year 940, the Abanoubid Sultanate was forced to withdraw from Egypt. High King Bolad had reclaimed the ancient kingdom, up and down the Nile, and restored Kushite rule over the region. Yet the path ahead was still a long one. The Kushites were still, for the most part, a tribal society, though now they were ruling over a whole host of feudal Arab realms as well. The Crown itself had seized much of the land along the Nile for its personal holding, but these lands would have to be reapportioned, the Muslim dukes converted or removed.

Worse, these lands were inhabited mostly by Arabic Egyptians, whose culture was foreign and hostile to the Daju, and their faith saw the Kushites as foreign, not restorers of the former Egypt. Maintaining this empire would take great skill and willingness to adapt.

Still, the promise of King Bolad I of Kordofan had been fulfilled. The Daju held most of the lands he'd sought, and the rest would soon follow. Greater Kush had conquered the Upper and Lower Kingdoms of Egypt. Now they must begin to rule.