The Christian Kingdom of Sarir – the Forgotten Persian Principality

[Killcrazy13]

It’s often forgotten how diverse the Persian Empire was. Mazdanites, Christians, Jews and other religions mixed openly during the time of the Sassanids. After the fall of the dynasty with the coming of Islam, the common view was that the lands of the empire was quickly Islamised with all but a handful converting to the new religion.

In my research, I was surprised to learn of a holdout of the old Persian ways, and even more surprised to find that it was Christian in faith. Beyond the Caucasus mountains, there was the Kingdom of Sarir, ruled by the Shah-al-Jabal (King of the Mountain). The Wikipedia entry for it offers relatively limited information – I’m sharing it here for your quick reference but you can find the full entry at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarir.

“Sarir was first documented as a political entity in the 6th century AD. The memory of its foundation was transmitted orally among the Caucasian Avars. According to one legend, the kingdom was established by a Persian general who was sent to control the Caucasus by a Sasanian king. This legend is corroborated by the names of local kings, which are normally of Persian or even Syrian etymology. Medieval Arab sources commonly associated Sarir with a throne gifted by Khosrow I or Yazdegerd III.

According to the 10th-century Arab geographer al-Masudi the king of Sarir was a descendant of the 5th century Sasanian king Bahram V. The first king allegedly arrived in Dagestan as an emissary of Yazdegerd III, bringing with him the Sasanian throne and the imperial treasure after the Sasanian empire had been defeated by the Arabs in the 7th century. To protect the throne he established a hereditary reign. The 9th century geographer al-Ya'qubi noted that the golden throne of Sarir was a gift of the 6th-century shah Khosrow I Anushirvan. The king of Sarir reportedly titled himself as sahib al-sarir ("master of the throne") as well as khaqan al-jabal ("khagan of the mountain") and wahrazan-shah (possibly "king of the Avars"), titles he had allegedly received from the Sasanian shah. These reports suggest that the kings of Sarir tried to back their authority by claiming a relationship with the Sasanians. During the Iranian Renaissance of the 10th and 11th centuries, it was common among both Muslim and Christian rulers of the Iranian world and its periphery to express their legitimacy in reference to the Sasanians.

Sarir bordered the Khazars to the north, the Durdzuks to the west and northwest, the Georgians and Derbent to the south. As the state was Christian, Arab historians erroneously viewed it as a dependency of the Byzantine Empire. The capital of Sarir was the city of Humraj, tentatively identified with the modern-day village Khunzakh. The king resided in a remote fortress at the top of a mountain.”

Beyond this, information is scant. From what I’ve gathered, in the 18th and 19th centuries as the Russian Empire annexed the Caucasus and destroyed much of the writings and antiques of this lost Kingdom of Sarir, refusing to countenance there being a Christian Kingdom in the East before the rise of the Third Rome in Muscovy. I thus set out to uncover what I could of this lost Kingdom of Sarir and the Persians who called it home. Please pardon any mistakes in this historiography as I’m not a trained historian and working within the budget of a post-graduate student.

Read on to discover the history of the House of Sarir and the lands rules by the Shah al-Jabal.

 

[Koweth]

I'm immediately hooked, and will eagerly await what you have in store next. Good luck with your AAR!

 

[Crimson Lionheart]

This looks awesome! Subbed and will be following, cant wait for the next chapter

 

[NarcomancerPL]

"Obscure" christian nation in Persia? Oh man that sounds epic! ^^

 

[HistoryDude]

Christian Persians? You have my attention.

 

[Killcrazy13]

The Kingdom of Sarir was located in what we now call Dagestan in modern Russia. The first mention in Sassanian histories was in the 5th century as a satrapy, contested with the Roman Empire. In later antiquity, it was fought over by the Roman Empire and the Sassanid Persians as the former sought to contest the latter's rule over the region, without success. Over the centuries, to a relatively large extent, the peoples within the Dagestan territory converted to Christianity alongside Zoroastrianism. In the 6th century, they had constructed a strong citadel at Derbent, known from then on as the Caspian Gates, protecting Persia from the steppe hordes beyond the Caucasus.

After the fall of the Persian Empire, the lands beyond the Caspian Gates were overlooked by the Muslim conquerors, content to hold Derbent as a fortress against Khazar raiders. Just beyond it, against all odds, the House of Sarir ruled, aligning themselves with the Jewish Khazars of the steppe. Following the victorious campaign of Merwan ibn Muhammad in 737–739, Sarir was pressed into submitting to the Caliph's authority. This is where we managed to find the first recorded names of the Sariran kings or Khans as they were named in the tax collection records recovered from the House of Wisdom in Baghdad. Do note that these are copies of copies of the original which were destroyed during the Sack of Baghdad. There might be some inaccuracies in the copying which we are unable to detect as these are our only records.

Starting with Abukhusro in 740 AD, we have a record of the names of these Khans and the tribute and men provided to the Arab garrison of Derbent until the ninth century, when, emboldened by the shift in momentum in the south, Sarir asserted its independence. As Caliphal authority broke down and control from the centre receded, the Sariran King Avaz managed to capture Derbent in 883 AD . Now in control of the gateway of the Caucusus, we begin to find more sources about these Kings of the Mountain, starting with the son of Avaz, Bukht-Yisho.

 

[Killcrazy13]

I'm immediately hooked, and will eagerly await what you have in store next. Good luck with your AAR!

This looks awesome! Subbed and will be following, cant wait for the next chapter

"Obscure" christian nation in Persia? Oh man that sounds epic! ^^

Christian Persians? You have my attention.

Thank you all for the warm reception to this AAR. It's been a while since I wrote my last one that fell apart due to mod issues. I've been seeking an interesting angle for an AAR for quite some time whenI stumbled on to the House of Sarir - think they were added with the Persian expansion or maybe one of my mods like RICE or CE. Googled them and found that they were a historical kingdom with much mystery surrounding them. So in absence of answers to the many questions about them, I created this AAR to see what we could find out.

Cheers and thanks for reading so far.

 

[Asbjoern52]

think they were added with the Persian expansion

They were part of the free stuff from the persian expansion

 

[Koweth]

I like the history-book style you're going with here. I've never heard of the Sariran Khans, so the fact that you're writing an AAR on them feels like a whole other world I'm delving into.

I wonder how Bukht-Yisho will fare as the first 'King under the Mountain' that we'll get a closer look on.

 

[HistoryDude]

I appreciate this background information on Sarir!

Do you plan to expand out of the Caucasus at any point?

 

[Killcrazy13]

I appreciate this background information on Sarir!

Do you plan to expand out of the Caucasus at any point?

Yes, we will expand. Generally looking at playing in Armenia and Western Persia but I'm taking my time. I have some broad ideas around supporting any crusader states that form + Sarir being viewed as the Prestor John of Christian legend.

Lets see how things go. For now, I will be exploring the Sarir-Khazar relationship and see how things shake up in the Caucasus.

 

[Killcrazy13]

On the Relationship Between Khazaria and Sarir

We know a little more about Khazars compared to Sarir but that’s not saying much. The Khazars were a steppe people who claimed descent from Japheth, son of Noah and thus, professed Judaism as their faith. The Khazar Khaganate dominated the Western steppe, from about 650AD to the 10th century. There’s been some debate about how adherent they were to the tenets of Judaism but for this narrative, we’ll take it as fact.

It's never quite clear if Sarir was an ally, vassal or client state of the Khaganate but by the time of King Avaz, it seems they were quite friendly with each other. The Khagan had even fostered his second child, Yabghu, in the court of Avaz, the boy becoming friends with Avaz’s son, Bukht-Yisho. While the Khagan’s court in Itil might be Jewish in form, the sitting Khagan, Manasseh II managed his realm and protectorates with a light hand in practice.

With the increased power of Sarir after the capture of Derbent (root: Darband or door/opening in Persian), the Shah al-Jabil Bukht-Yisho was declared the Steward of the South by the Khagan. As a symbol of his trust, the Khagan placed his son, Nisi, and the lands he controlled under the power of Bukht-Yisho.

The Incident at Samiran

At this point, Nisi and Bukht-Yisho were young men in their 30s. Nisi chafed at this, being made to follow the commands of someone he barely acknowledged as a peer and rebelled. Calling on many of those eager to curry favours with the heir apparent, Nisi raised his banner and marched south from Samiran in 901 AD. The first battle was a slaughter of Nisi’s army and in his panicked retreat, he demanded his father intercede on his behalf. Bukht-Yisho knew he didn’t have much time before the Khagan’s army arrived and rode to Samiran with his host, seeking to parley directly with Nisi.

We have no record of what transpired at Samiran but we do know that Nisi surrendered Samiran without a fight and moved to reside in the court of the King of Sarir until his elevation to Khagan of Khazaria in 912 AD. Even when Nisi became Khagan, he did not seek revenge and kept Bukht-Yisho in his trust and council. Bukht-Yisho, on his part, remained loyal, serving faithfully against internal and external challenges.

The Ruthenian Rebellion

As both men aged, Khazaria began to face pressure in the west. The Rurikids and the Kievan Rus had been conquering what we know as Russia and many of the Khans and High Chiefs in the region had become unhappy with the lack of action taken by Khagan Nisi to this new threat. In 916 AD, they demanded their independence and many other Boyars, Voivodes and Chieftains joined their cause. Bukht-Yisho stayed loyal and held the south capably against the Alani on Samir’s western border. In the final terms agreed, only the lands of Ruthenia and Mordvinia became independent. Many of the others realized that it made more sense to stay within the bigger Khazarite tent instead of trying to go it alone.

Khagan Nisi would be Khagan for another year before being cast into Sheol and the peace between Sarir and Khazaria would be tested with the next few Khagans in the coming years.

In Summary

In my view, it was unlikely for the peace to endure. The Khazarites and their strange blend of pagan steppe ways and unorthodox Judaism would always clash with the classically-influenced Persian strand of Christianity in Sarir. As Sarir grew in power, the Khagan would need to show his other lords that he was not a Christian puppet.

 

[HistoryDude]

Being Khazaria's vassal will probably protect you from the other powers nearby.

Do you have Legacy of Persia? If so, are you planning on getting involved in the Persian Struggle, or will you let that resolve itself without interference?

 

[Killcrazy13]

Being Khazaria's vassal will probably protect you from the other powers nearby.

Do you have Legacy of Persia? If so, are you planning on getting involved in the Persian Struggle, or will you let that resolve itself without interference?

Yup, I have LoP. The plan is to go south but there's some powerful obstacles in the way at Shirvan and Armenia. Let's see if I can get involved in the struggle before it completes. The relationship with Khazaria is getting a little complicated too as a new Khagan is a little more zealous than his predecessors and with the new territories going to family members, the new clan system is making it a little difficult to sustain house unity.

 

[Killcrazy13]

The Reign of King Bukht-Yisho (893 AD – 937 AD)


It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees.
Psalms 119 Verse 71

The Long Reign of Bukht-Yisho
Inheriting the title of Shah al-Jabil in 893 AD, Bukht-Yisho would live through the reigns of four Khagans. After Khagan Nisi passed on in 917 AD, he was succeeded by Khagan Bihor, only child of his firstborn son, Buzer, who died from excessive bleeding after a leeching.

Khagan Bihor, a young man of 23 years, kept Bukht-Yisho on in his ruling council and re-affirmed the House of Sarir as Stewards of the South. Bukht-Yisho had already been gifted the province of Cabardinia as a reward for his loyalty during the great rebellion at the end of Nisi’s reign. This made Bukht Yisho the guardian of both Caspian and Caucasian Gates, the only two mountain passes where armies could pass through the Caucasian Mountains and allowed him to begin diplomatic exchanges with the Christian kingdoms of Armenia.

We need to backtrack a little here to understand how these lands became free of the Abassids. By 900 AD, Caliphal authority had fully collapsed in the Middle East. The Abassid Caliph only controlled Antioch, Aleppo and few other cities around it. In Armenia and northern Daylam, the new rulers were a mixture of Turkic invaders and Christianized Arabs. The most powerful were the Armenian Kingdom of the Zurayids, the Yazidis of Shirvan and the Principality of Abkhazia in Northern Georgia. Any expansion through the Caspian Gate of Derbent was blocked by the Yazidis, who could call upon three times as many men as Sarir while Abkhazia and Armenia were Christian and thus better suited as allies.

Disease and Tragedy in Sarir

Early in Bukht-Yisho’s reign, in 896 AD, smallpox ravaged Sarir, even inflicting its cursed marks on the King. He was cared for by his learned sister, Afsaneh but the treatment was harsh, rendering him impotent, after an ill-judged castration. Fortunately, he had already sired two children, Avaz II and Afsaneh. The smallpox also took away his wife, Isabelle, and Bukht-Yisho would not marry again. Despite his loss of manhood, he was never short of amours, taking several female courtiers as lovers. Beyond the court, he found a renewed lease of life in his duties, content in husbanding his lands and greater Khazaria during the reign of Bihor.

A True Jewish Khagan

Unfortunately, Khagan Bolud passed away only five years into his reign due to ill-health, possibly cancer. The Khagan had not sired any children and his uncle, Manasseh, second oldest of Khagan Nisi’s sons succeeded him as Khagan Manasseh III. Manasseh the Third had travelled the world in his youth, even making a pilgrimage to the ruins of the second temple in Jerusalem, and he returned to Khazaria a zealous and righteous Khagan.

Across the Khanate, he began to persecute non-believers across his lands. Christians, Muslims, Taltoist and other pagans were forced to convert at the point of the sword. While Bukht-Yisho did his best to stay on the Khagan’s good side with the timely reminders of his service to the Empire, eventually Manasseh’s ire would be turned to Sarir. It took 14 years but eventually everyone runs out of time. Bukht-Yisho was stripped of his title of Steward of the South and summoned to the Khaganate capital of Itil in summer of 936 AD. The king knew what awaited him and refused the herald’s order, mustering his army and seeking alliances among the Christians in the south.

Seeking allies, Bukht Yisho looked south to the newly cultured relationships he had made. The Princess Gwaschekhwzsh of Abkhazia never formally married but she had a brood of bastards that she married off for defensive alliances. Bukht-Yisho’s son and heir, Avaz’s wife had just passed away and the opportunity arose to match Avaz to the eldest daughter of Princess Gwaschekhwzsh, Lawitse. He also betrothed his 9-year-old granddaughter, Salomeh, to the 57-year-old Malik Faisal of Armenia. The combined Christian force was luckily supported by the Khan of Kimek and put field an army of 10,000 men, still outnumbered by the Khagan's Kuzarite horde.

The Last Ride of Bukht-Yisho

Bukht-Yisho was already an old man by then and he knew he was delaying the inevitable. Practicing hit-and-run tactics, the Christian army would strike at encampments and holdings up and down the Volga and Don rivers, even sacking the capital of Itil while they tracked the slow march of the Khagan’s army from the west. The constant march wore on the king and he was soon too ill to even ride. The army set down for camp near the township of Astrakhan and the priests began to prepare the final rites.

Surrounded by his askari and the men of House Sarir in his tent, he spoke his final words to his son and breathed his last. “Remember, my son, that kingship is a public charge, for which you will have to render a strict account in another world. Protect our people, your God commands it.”

 

[HistoryDude]

Let's hope that this new king will be able to defend Sarir, despite his passive nature.

What was your casus belli for this war against Khazaria?

 

[Koweth]

The Khagan's demands for Sarir's conversion was certainly going to happen sooner or later. I suppose it remains to be seen as to the result of Bukht-Yisho's rebellion, and his son certainly has big boots to fill.

How many men does the Khagan have compared to your Christian coalition?

 

[Killcrazy13]

Let's hope that this new king will be able to defend Sarir, despite his passive nature.

What was your casus belli for this war against Khazaria?

No casus belli. The Khagan was revoking my titles for refusing to convert. So it was either war or an early game over.

The Khagan's demands for Sarir's conversion was certainly going to happen sooner or later. I suppose it remains to be seen as to the result of Bukht-Yisho's rebellion, and his son certainly has big boots to fill.

How many men does the Khagan have compared to your Christian coalition?

Screenshot above shows it. The Khagan had 15,000 while Sarir's alliances brought together 10,000. Of these 10,000, Sarir's forces only numbered 2,000.

I was actually fearing that this would have been it for this campaign as you can't trust the AI to properly support the player in war. But we got lucky as we'll see.

I also found Bukht-Yisho's obituary pretty funny. The best the game could come up with on his achievements was that he was old.

 

[Killcrazy13]

The Reign of Avaz (937 AD – 945 AD)
While we know this Avaz was named after his grandfather, he’s generally considered the first in our regnal numbering as he was the first to be properly documented as a lord of a significant domain. Scholars debate categorizing the original Shah al-Jabils as kings or simply warlords who ruled a valley. Bukht-Yisho and his son on the other hand ruled a land stretching across the northern side of the Caucasus mountains.

A Note on Sources

What we’ve gathered on the lives of Bukht-Yisho and his son Avaz is based on the memoirs of Bukht-Yisho’s 2nd sister, Roxana. It gives us a more personal look at the reigns of these kings, and ultimately contributes to the positive view we have developed of them. This memoir, commonly referred to as the Book of the Butterfly was written in classical Middle Persian, a mark of how little cultural drift there was between the Sarirans and their Sassanian Persian ancestors. At least in the courts and the documents of scholars of Sarir and Derbent, the language of Eranshahr endured. Roxana would live till 951 AD and see 71 summers but sired no children. However, her legacy lived on in her writings and has provided us an invaluable glimpse of 10th-century Sarir.

Beyond the anecdotes of court life and kingly actions, the Book of the Butterfly also captures the Sariran flavour of Christianity, detailing creation, heaven and earth, the angels, darkness and paradise. We’ll get into the nuances of Christianity in Sarir in a later post but in these writings, we can see a almost pagan-like regard for the supernatural forces in their worldview compared to Western Christians and a more interventionist Jesus in the lives of believers.


Crisis Delayed

With the death of Bukht-Yisho, Avaz was now the new Shah al-Jabil. The zealous Khagan Manasseh practised the piety he preached and he gave leave for Sarir to mourn their fallen king and see to his burial. A white peace was agreed for a term of one year and he beseeched Avaz to discover the true faith of YHWH and cast aside Christ by that deadline.

The cunning Avaz knew he did not have the numbers to match the might of Khazaria, and switched tracks to diplomacy. Paying weregild to soothe the sacking of Itil, the Khagan’s own encampment, and wrote many letters of theology addressed to Manasseh, highlighting the similarities of the two faiths. Manasseh developed a begrudging respect for the Shah al-Jabil and eventually declared Avaz a friend and that his body was sacrosanct. Invited back to council and restored to the title of Steward of the South, it seemed things were back to the status quo.


Finding Enemies of Your Enemies

However, Avaz had not forgotten his father’s dying command and he reached out to the khans of the Steppes, inviting them into Khazaria in the hope of weakening the Khaganate. His scouts provided intelligence to the Avars and Qipchak tribes, acquired from Sarir’s own recent war expeditions along the Volga and Don. Soon the Khaganate was engulfed in war and steadily ceding ground in the Caspian steppes. As these new enemies appeared, the urgency for Manasseh to convert his own lands receded.


The Price of Peace

Avaz was a peaceable man, he was already old when he came to power after the long reign of his father, and his focus was on consolidation and the strengthening of the kingdom. He formalized his rule over the Alani, styling himself Shah of Sarir and Alan, and helped the families settled in these western lands develop farms, marketplaces and churches.

Not all Kuzarites were ready to forget about the Christian in their midst. High Chief Bagha of Azov, ruler of the lands just north of Alania coveted the prosperity growing in Avaz’s domain and sought to trigger a diplomatic incident, aware he had no casus belli while the Khagan’s command held. Bagha demanded Avaz send over a hostage which the king firmly rejected while maintaining his alliance with Abkhazia through marriage with the Princess’ daughter. Hostility was rising between the two lords and Avaz kept his Spahbed (army chief or marshal) and the Marzobans (marcher-lords) at a high level of readiness in case of trouble.


Manasseh the Holy, Manasseh the Apostate?

Avaz’s reign was relatively short, totalling only 9 years and it passed uneventfully. The same cannot be said of Khazaria. The raids of the Avars and Qipchaks and the steady receding of the Eastern border shook Khagan Manasseh’s faith and he found his own way to Christ the Redeemer late in his life. Perhaps the theology sessions with Avaz created a chink in his armour or he discovered salvation through a personal crisis but he soon professed faith in the Orthodox Church of the Eastern Roman Empire. This would have ripple effects for the stability of Khazaria as both his vassals and family members took offence at the apostate.


The end of King and Khagan

In 945, Avaz would meet his end, passing on peacefully in his citadel in Derbend as his son, Bukht-Nisho II succeeded him. Manasseh would join the Lord in 949, strangled by an unknown assailant. A sad contrast of fates as chronicled by Roxana, our tour guide into these more peaceful years for Sarir.

 

[Killcrazy13]

So a quick context setting of what happened in game:

1) The War for Tyranny actually ended inconclusively with the death of Bukht-Yisho as the casus belli of refused conversion no longer applied with the accused dead. I made friends with the Khagan before he could do the same to Avaz.
2) The Cuman horde was fortunate timing and I just weaved in the part of Avaz helping them out for story purposes.
3) The reason all my heirs are wearing veiled turbans are due to some mod conflicts after the release of the North African pack. They're not breaking the game so just going to keep going while I fix each of them in the barbershop.