Chapter I - The Ghazi of Charsianon
1337 - 1342
The origins of the patriarch of the Eretna dynasty are shrouded in mystery and legend. At the time of his ascendancy Anatolia was going through a tumultuous period of warring states as the Ilkhanate’s conquests in the region were being undone by rebellious vassals.
One of these rebels,
Timurtash, is credited with noticing the young Eretna while fighting the forces of the Ilkhanate in a failed rebellion in the early 1320’s. During this conflict Eretna became renowned as a great warrior and lieutenant, and despite the defeat and exile of his liege, the young warlord was subsequently supported by the Mamluk Sultan of Egypt -
al-Nasr Muhammad Bahri.
The Mamluks’ intentions for young Eretna were not altruistic of course, the Egyptians merely wished to harm their Ilkhanate rivals and see the Mongols tied up fighting the Turks rather than the Egyptians. In the late 1320’s the Mamluks supported numerous Turkish beys in their struggle against the Ilkhanate as the whole region gradually seceded from Mongol rule.
De-facto Eretna ruled the region around
Charsianon from 1325, but it took until 1335 before his position was secure and the Ilkhanate gave up attempting to exert control in Anatolia due to their own internal conflicts.
The Eretnid realm may be one of the larger beyliks, but Sultan Eretna is not content. The Sultanate is surrounded by infidels and rival warlords - rivals that need to be crushed. After years of border skirmishes and preparations Eretna has been patiently preparing for the right moment to strike. Eretna did not spend the last few years idle. The Sultan knew that if the balance of power began to shift too greatly in Anatolia he would attract the ire of either the Ilkhanate or the Mamluks.
Eretna has spent the last few years building a network of spies in the courts of Cairo and Baghdad. These spies paid dividends as Eretna became aware in late 1336 that both Islamic empires would soon be embroiled in great conflicts - taking their eyes away from Anatolia for hopefully many years.
In late 1336 the Mamluk court was abuzz over rumours of a new crusade being planned in the west to outright invade Egypt. The
last crusade sent against Egypt was an abject failure, but with Christian success in Iberia and the Baltic a new enthusiasm for Crusading was growing amongst the Frankish nobility. If the crusaders attacked Egypt the Mamluks would likely be tied up in a drawn out conflict for many years and unable to check Eretnid expansion...
To the east news from the Ilkhanate court in Baghdad talked of growing tensions on the eastern frontier as great conqueror
Muhammad bin Tughluq of Delhi was apparently poised to invade
Baluchistan. Putting his trust in these rumours Eretna decided to prepare for war in 1337.
As established, the Eretnid realm was surrounded by foes so the Sultan had no shortage of targets for his first war of expansion.
However Eretna’s position was only secure as long as he had loyal vassals and warriors - the keys to any feudal kingdom (or
Iqta). Eretna decided to consult his council in late 1336 to decide which of his neighbours was going to be on the receiving end of an invasion.
Surprisingly all the councillors, even the argumentative Bey Murad of Kars, agreed on a target - King Levon IV of
Armenian Cilicia.
Cilician Armenia was a particularly bold target to go after as the Kingdom was officially under the protection of the Ilkhanate as a tributary. Eretna reasoned that the (supposed) coming war in the east would sufficiently distract the Mongols and that the Armenians were unlikely to garner any support from other Christian powers in the region as they were
Miaphysite heretics in the eyes of both the
Rhomaioi and the Franks.
Thus in January 1337 the armies of Eretna began to muster as the Sultan declared a holy war to subjugate the entire Armenian Kingdom. In February Eretna himself led his forces at the Battle of Adana against the Armenians, winning a decisive victory over the infidels. During the battle Eretna was wounded leading a charge and engaging in single combat with an enemy commander and would sport a scar across his face for the rest of his life as a mark of personal valour and bravery.
After the crushing defeat at Adana the Armenians were defeated on the field and forced to retreat to their strongholds. For the next two years Eretnid forces would lay siege to the Armenians.
News of the Eretnid invasion reached Baghdad quickly, but as Eretna had predicted the rulers of the Ilkhanate had more pressing concerns than a comparatively minor squabble in Anatolia as the Tughluqs had begun their offensive into Balochistan. The Armenians were on their own.
With the Armenian army effectively neutralised Eretna ordered his army to split up and lay siege to various Armenian strongholds in order to force Levon to accept defeat. Eretna and his army laid siege to
Sis and commander Porsuk surrounded
Teluch, both castles would fall before the end of the year.
As the new year of 1338 dawned the Armenians continued their resistance, leading to more sieges and skirmishes across Cilicia. As the result of the conflict now appeared to be a foregone conclusion Eretna left the conclusion of the campaign to his loyal commander Porsuk and returned to Charsianon.
With the Mamluks struggling against the Crusaders and the Ilkhanate tied up in the east, the Eretnid realm only had one other large neighbour to appease. Eretna made diplomatic overtures to Orhan Osmanli, winning over the Ottoman ruler with his knowledge of military strategy. Later in 1338 Orhan became embroiled in a defensive war against Roman Basileus
Andronikos III and so Eretna became less concerned about Ottoman interference in his own expansion.
In January 1339 after over a year on the run, Levon IV of Armenia finally surrendered to Eretna. The Sultan, magnanimous in victory, allowed the Armenian to continue as ruler of Cilicia, but as a vassal of the Eretnids. Eretna had won his first war of expansion and became known as “the Tenacious” for his victory over the infidels.
Across Anatolia the
Ghazi of Charsianon was celebrated by all Sunni faithful as news from Egypt was becoming increasingly dire...
The counties of
Erivan and Kafan were later inherited by Levon in 1339, peacefully expanding the Eretnid realm into former Ilkhanate territory without bloodshed. Despite this Levon despised Eretna and it was clear to many in the realm that the Armenian was merely biding his time to throw off the shackles of Turkish rule.
Eretna’s troops barely had time to catch their breath before the Sultan declared another war of expansion - this time against the Kingdom of Georgia. The Eretnid realm was divided in two both by the small Ortokid Beylik and the Georgian region of
Tao, seeking to join his territory and also bloody the nose of some more infidels Eretna decided to strike the Georgians and annex the region.
At the same time King Giorgi V of Georgia was attempting to fend off a Mongol invasion that would see his realm become a tributary state - so the bulk of the Georgian army was tied up elsewhere when Eretna invaded, leading to another campaign of lengthy sieges.
The months went by as the occupation of Tao continued when in December 1339 dire news came from the south. The Mamluk Caliphate, one of the two “superpowers” of the Islamic world, had fallen. The Crusaders of England and the Holy Roman Empire had won a devastating victory at the Battle of Mansoura and routed the Mamluk army, speeding onto and then sacking Cairo. The 17 year old Nikolaus de Luxembourg now proclaimed himself King of a Christian Egypt. The Levant had subsequently shattered into petty independent Emirates. It remained to be seen how durable this transplanted Christian realm would be and exactly how much of a threat the Crusaders would pose to the rising Eretnids.
Some good news to soften the loss of Egypt came in Summer 1340 as the Hafsids of Tunis reconquered Sicily from the Christians. In Tao the long siege of
Khakhuli continued as the Georgians refused to cede the region despite the hopelessness of their position.
By the start of 1341 the Tao region was fully occupied but King Giorgi V continued to resist. A series of small battles were fought across Georgia before they eventually realised that Tao was lost.
As a new year dawned Sultan Eretna marched his troops back from Georgia and began preparations for a new set of campaigns...
