A Dowry for the Sultan

by Lance Collins

  “Not since we set him on his way with his nephew and a certain amount of gold and silver. The Roman woman that was with him we sent to Mush with a nun and a few of my men as escort.”

  “Good! Another soul saved. How much gold and silver?”

  Bryennius had hesitated. “Adequate, I would say.”

  “Hmm!” Basil had grinned. “Well. It’s no more than he deserved. And one never knows—he may be useful at some stage in the future.”

  After the immediate hard work of commemorating the dead, repair of the physical damage started and crops planted, there had been a public feast accompanied by merriment and dancing. Many said was the most heartfelt in the city for years. In a way, it was this celebration that really marked the end of the siege and the first occasion on which the ordinary people were able to rejoice at what they had achieved.

  A month after the raising of the siege and before the autumn weather turned too bleak, Guy and Irene accompanied the Sixth Schola as the regiment departed Manzikert.

  They formed up in the early morning, each man mounted and under arms, the gaps in the ranks partly filled by the squires promoted to their places. Their gear was easily strapped and roped onto pack mules, for the men had sold or given away much that they no longer required. Squires, assisted by hired citizens, drove their spare horses including ten fine animals now belonging to Guy—gifts from Basil Apocapes. Guy and Irene rode behind Bryennius as the regiment paraded in the square and trooped down the barren avenue to leave the city by the western gate. The citizens turned out in a throng, cheering them to the echo. Varangians, Norman and Armenian troops lined the way, crashing their spear hafts on the flagstones in salute to their comrades-in-arms of the siege.

  It was a time of turbulent emotions for Guy. So many faces and places were familiar. He turned in his saddle, hoping to see Jacques so they could share this moment with a glance, but the groom was somewhere back in the column with Joaninna, Isaac and Flora Asadian. Guy looked at Irene, beautiful in her green riding habit. She had drawn back her veil and Guy could discern a tear in her eye.

  As the procession left the walls of Manzikert, they heard urgent whinnies. Hector and Diomed, who had been grazing loose in the river flats, galloped over and searched for their places in the ranks, shouldering in, looking for the man who would no longer ride them.

  “Let them in,” said Bryennius. “We will take them back to their master’s family.”

  A standard-bearer turned his horse to make room. As they took their usual places, Serena Cephala, veiled for the journey, rode alongside and touched Diomed’s dun neck with a gloved hand and stroked Hector’s grey forehead as he nuzzled close to her.

  Basil rode awhile with Bryennius at the head of the column. They passed along the track through freshly sprouting crops where peasants tilled the earth. The recent rains had brought on new growth and the day was rich with the shooting barley and the scent of new life.

  Guy watched one woman, bowed down from terror and toil, usher her small children to the track and close to Zarrar, who bent his head to them. This nameless poor woman of Vaspurakan stroked the horse’s neck and made to kiss the boot leg of Bryennius, but the rider stooped down and took her hand as she held up her children to kiss his. Guy reached down also, and looked back as he passed, to see the children reaching up to the outstretched hands of Lascaris and those who rode behind.

  Basil saw them off at the bridge where the column crossed the river and rode up the escarpment on the other side. As Guy and Irene paused with them, the strategos and the count exchanged a few parting words.

  “You’ll be alright?” Bryennius asked.

  “Between you and me, Leo, I don’t know if I can do that again.”

  “How long will you stay?”

  “For a time. But when I last spoke to my father, he had much praise for the country around Edessa. Perhaps I’ll travel there one day.”

  “For the way you defended Manzikert, there will be rewards and high office in Constantinople,” Bryennius said.

  “Perhaps. We’ll see.” Basil paused and looked at the ground, then into the count’s eyes. “Leo, say a prayer for me in Saint Sophia, for I took a life I shouldn’t have, even in battle.”

  Bryennius nodded.

  Then they said farewell and the count trotted after the regiment as it moved up the rising ground, most of the riders looking back for a last glimpse of the fortress as they passed over the crest.

  There, Bryennius peeled off, cantering to a low knoll. It was the place, Guy remembered, from where he had his first glimpse of the city. The count reined-in and sat his horse, looking back.

  Guy glanced at Irene and they followed, drawing up alongside him.

  Bryennius said without turning his face to them, “Much happened here and now it belongs to the ages.” He motioned to the faces in the column. “And now some ride forward to their futures, others back from whence they came.” With that, the count drove his spear point into the earth, the upright haft lonesome in the clear morning air, as though to leave some sign of his passing.

  Guy’s stirrup touched Irene’s.

  She spoke quietly. “I’ll never forget the moment that I first saw you. I somehow knew you would be important in my life. And I’ll never forget your riding out that gate on Zarrar. It was the loneliest and most frightening time of my life. Even that ride from Archēsh was less terrible.”

  Guy leaned over and squeezed her hand. Then he looked at Bryennius. “What moment do you remember most, Count?”

  “There were so many,” the Roman answered after a pause. “Good, bad, indifferent, pleasant, terrifying. Not many when I was filled with devotion to church or empire, I must say.”

  “The moment you would live again and again if you could?”

  Bryennius beheld the valley and the snow-capped mountain beyond. At length his gaze rested on the fortress. Zarrar moved impatiently, as if to return to the column. With the touch of a heel and rein on the horse’s neck, Bryennius stilled him. “The moment I would live again?” he mused, looking at Guy as if he had never considered it that way before. “It was a draught of cool water from a well in Manzikert.” With that, he looked long at the fortress and turned Zarrar to the road ahead.

  THE END

  Characters

  Plain text denotes real historical characters

  # denotes real historical figures, of whom I have invented or assumed much

  * denotes fictional characters

  Main Characters

  Guy d’Agiles *# Frankish mercenary. His real name is unknown.

  Leo Bryennius* Byzantine officer.

  Derar al-Adin* Arab mercenary with the Seljuks.

  Basil Apocapes # Byzantine general.

  Bardas Cydones * Imperial courier from Constantinople.

  Bessas Phocas* Byzantine officer.

  Irene Curticius* Daughter of a Byzantine officer.

  Martina Cinnamus* Byzantine courier.

  Modestos Kamyates* A high ranking official from Constantinople.

  Tughrul Bey# Sultan of the Seljuk Turks.

  Minor Characters

  Arabs

  al-Ka’im Sunni caliph in Baghdad.

  al-Asfar al-Taghlibi An Arab raider and slave trader.

  Derar al-Adin* An Arab mercenary with the Seljuks.

  Farisa* A Roman captive, the servant of Derar al-Adin.

  Zobeir al-Adin* An Arab mercenary of the Seljuk army.

  Armenians

  Ananias* Servant of Bardanes Gurgen.

  Aram Gasparian* Citizen of Manzikert.

  Araxie Bagradian* Priest of Manzikert.

  Armine and Theodore Vosganian* Associates of Togol.

  Arshak* Scout for the Byzantines.

  Bardanes Gurgen* An Armenian patriot.

  Kavadh* Muslim blacksmith of Archēsh.

&
nbsp; Gagik-Abas II Bagratid king of Armenian Kars (1029–1064).

  Joaninna Magistros* Healer from Manzikert.

  Ruben* Scout for the Byzantines.

  Seranush Donjoian * Irregular officer of the Byzantine Army.

  Simon Vardaheri* Horse trader.

  Tatoul Vananttzi # Also T’at’ul. Nobleman of the Kingdom of Kars.

  Theodore Ankhialou* Irregular officer of the Byzantine Army.

  Tigran Zakarian* Landlord of Arknik.

  Vartanoush Norhadian* Maid of Maria Taronites.

  Yūryak* Courier for the Byzantines.

  Byzantines (Romans or ‘Greeks’)

  Aaron Vladislav Former Governor of Vaspurakan.

  Agatha Bryennius* Wife of Leo Bryennius.

  Anna Curticius* Wife of John Curticius.

  Aspietes* A cataphract of the Scholae.

  Athanasia* Abbess of the monastery Manzikert.

  Bardas Cydones* Imperial courier from Constantinople.

  Basil II (‘The Bulgarslayer’) Byzantine Emperor 976–1025.

  Basil Apocapes# Commander at Manzikert in 1054.

  Bessas Phocas* Byzantine officer.

  Catacalon Cecaumenus Byzantine general. Governor of Iberia and Ani in 1048.

  Constantine Monomacus (Constantine IX) Byzantine Emperor at the time.

  Antony Lascaris* Officer of the Scholae.

  Cosmas Mouzalon* Squire of Bessas, Lascaris and Sebēos.

  Damian Curticius* Byzantine officer. Irene’s brother.

  Daniel Branas* Basil’s Military Secretary.

  Domnos and Maria Taronites* Merchant from Karin and his wife.

  Eirene Prodromos* Serina’s maid.

  George Drosus. Governor of Iberia and Ani in 1054.

  Irene Curticius* Daughter of a Byzantine officer at Manzikert.

  Isaac* A clerk.

  Helene Cephalus* Serina’s mother.

  Joshua Balsamon* Junior officer of the Scholae.

  John Curticius* Princeps of the Manzikert garrison.

  Karas Seth* Army engineer at Manzikert.

  Leo Bryennius* Count of the Scholae.

  Loukas Gabras* Trooper in the Scholae.

  Maniakh* A Patzinack scout for the Byzantines.

  Mariam Branas* Wife of Daniel Branas.

  Martina Cinnamus* Courier.

  Michael Cerularius Orthodox patriarch in Constantinople.

  Michael Psellus (1018–1081) High-ranking bureaucrat.

  Modestos Kamyates* Senior official from Constantinople.

  Maro Atticus* Trooper of the Scholae.

  Nicholas Italos* Serina’s servant.

  Nicetas Pegonites General.

  Peter Stoudios* Soldier of the Scholae.

  Petros Dourkitzes* Citizen of Melitene, the servant of Bardas Cydones.

  Pholos Cephalus* Civil official in Manzikert

  Sebēos* Officer of the Scholae.

  Sergios Atticus* Soldier of the Scholae.

  Serena Cephalus* Daughter of a Byzantine official in Manzikert.

  Taticus Phocas* Leo’s squire.

  Theodore Vladislav Strategos of Taron, son of Aaron Vladislav.

  Theodora ‘Empress Elector’ of Byzantium.

  Theophanes Doukas* Officer at Manzikert.

  Tzetzes* Trooper of the Scholae.

  Togol* Cuman scout.

  Franks

  Charles Bertrum* Frankish knight.

  Guy d’Agiles *# Frankish man-at-arms: real name unknown.

  Hervé Mercenary for the Byzantines.

  Jacques* Guy’s servant.

  Reynaldus* Norman mercenary.

  Robert Balazun* Norman mercenary.

  Raymond de Gaillon* Commander of the Franks at Manzikert.

  Geoffrey de Rouens* Norman knight, a friend of Charles Bertrum’s

  William de Chartres* Norman knight of Balazun’s group.

  Georgians

  Bagrat IV King of Georgia

  Ch’ortuanēl Soldier.

  David Varaz * Count Leo’s Iberian scout.

  Liparit Orbelian Nobleman—pretender to the Georgian throne.

  Kurds

  Abu-Nasr Iskander Shaddadid ruler of Dvin.

  Abu Nasr Ahmad Nasr ad-Daulah Marwanid ruler of Diyar Bakr (Amida).

  Wahsudan ibn Mamlan Ravvadid emir of Tabriz.

  Patzinaks

  Galinos Warrior who rescued Cecaumenus after Diacene.

  Tyrach Khan of the Patzinaks.

  Maniakh* Scout for Count Bryennius.

  Seljuk Turks

  Abu ‘Ali ibn Kabir Representative in Constantinople.

  Abramas* Persian siege engineer in the Seljuk army.

  Abimelech Seljuk emir, brother to Kutulmush.

  Lord Alkan Commander of troops from Chorasmia.

  Alp Arslan Seljuk emir, nephew of Tughul Bey.

  Ames* Persian scribe of the Sultan’s court.

  Amid al-Mulk Muhammad al-Kundur Vizier of Seljuk Sultan Tughrul Bey.

  ‘Amr-Kāfūr Emir of the court of Tughrul Bey.

  Arsuban Emir of the Seljuk army.

  Asan See Crown Prince Hasan.

  Beyruh Dirse* Younger brother of Emren Dirse.

  Bughra Dumrul* Sultan’s spymaster.

  Burla Dirse* A Seljuk woman.

  Çağri Bey Brother to Tughrul Bey.

  Crown Prince Hasan Seljuk nobleman, killed at Stragna.

  Dinar Emir from the Court of Tughrul Bey.

  Emren Dirse* Seljuk Emir, a friend of Ibrahim al-Adin’s.

  Hurr* Dancer with the Seljuk camp.

  Ibrahim Inal Foster brother to Tughrul Bey.

  Isma’il* Seljuk general of the advance guard.

  Kijaziz Emir of the Court of Tughrul Bey.

  Koupagan Bey* A Seljuk Emir, a relative of the Emir Samuk.

  Kutlumush ibn Arslan Senior Seljuk emir, the cousin of Tughrul Bey.

  Osketsam Tughrul Bey’s father in law.

  Osman* Seljuk Emir.

  Samuk An Emir of the Court of Tughrul Bey.

  Seljuk Sometimes ‘Saljak”. Founder of the Seljuk Turks.

  Tughrul Bey Sultan of the Seljuk Turks.

  Zaibullah* Seljuk tribesman.

  Varangians/Rus

  Flora Asadian* Rus-Armenian woman: companion of Charles.

  Oleg* Viking/Rus commander at Manzikert.

  Olga* Oleg’s wife.

  Afterword

  I first came across the story of an unnamed Frankish mercenary’s ride at Manzikert, during 1992 while reading J.C.F. Fuller’s Decisive Battles of the Western World. This man’s single handed attempt to save a doomed Armenian city immediately struck me as an extraordinary feat of military derring-do and superb horsemanship. The wider story of the sanguinary Turkish raids into Byzantium’s reluctant Armenian provinces and old hatreds lingering for a millennium was given immediacy by the war then being fought between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno Karabakh. Thus I became interested. Who was this remarkable Frank and what was he doing there in 1054? What prompted him to undertake such a suicidal act? Matthew of Edessa’s record of his words, “today my blood shall be shed for all the Christians, for I have neither wife nor children to weep over me,” was little more than a hint. His story deserved more than the couple of lines in a few history books.

  The historical records are sparse and often biased, a challenge exacerbated by what Christopher Beckwith describes, in his preface to Empires of the Silk Road, as a Western, especially Anglo-American, apathy about Central Asia.

  This is reflected in the general indifference to the 2015 centenary of the Armenian Genocide, one of the first great crimes against humanity of the ugly twentieth century. In a sense the paucity of readily a
vailable sources is liberating. The storyteller is freed from conjectural “history”—this might have happened, or that—to imagine what it might have been like for ordinary people to live through those times.

  There are of course different views on what happened in eleventh century Asia Minor and why: the Seljuk Turks and other Muslims cast as aggressors; or the Sultan seen as responding defensively to Byzantine moves into Persarmenia and Azerbaijan. While Edward Gibbon in Volume Six of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, describes Tughrul Bey, after his initial conquests in Iran and Iraq, as the guardian of “justice and the public peace”; Alfred Friendly is doubtless correct to note in The Dreadful Day, while “Armenian chroniclers were not driven to understatement …the carnage must have been ghastly.” One of a growing number of scholars interested in this period, Osman Azis Basąn from the University of Edinburgh, in his PhD thesis, The Great Seljuks, notes Tughrul stating “world dominion” was not possible without Seljuk unity. Similarly, depending on bias, the 1048 battle at Kapetrau is variously described as a hard-fought draw, or Seljuk victory.

  John Julius Norwich’s Byzantium trilogy brings that oft forgotten empire and its colourful characters alive, with sympathy and insight into the personal strengths or failings—“the smug intellectualism and obsessive personal ambition”—of key figures. Historical Byzantine perspectives can be read in Fourteen Byzantine Rulers by the eleventh century Byzantine bureaucrat, Michael Psellus, and in Princess Anna Comnena’s The Alexiad. For the Armenian story, Ara Edmound Dostorian’s translation of The Chronicle of Matthew of Edessa and Robert Bedrosian’s translation of Aristakes of Lastivert’s History are essential sources. The American historian, Paul A. Blaum’s closely researched and detailed series of monographs—An Armenian Epic-The Siege of Manzikert, The Dawn of the Seljuks, Diplomacy gone to seed—a history of Byzantine foreign relations, A.D. 1047–57—amongst his other works, are vital sources. Warren Reed’s novel Hidden Scorpion, draws on experience in the Middle East to vividly portray some of the pitfalls of diplomacy and espionage which, given human nature, seems to have changed remarkably little in a millennium.

  While there is a great deal of information available on medieval warfare, the following titles provide a useful starting point. Byzantine Armies 886–1118 by Ian Heath and Angus McBride; The Armies of Islam 7th-11th Centuries by David Nicolle and Angus McBride and Armies of the Caliphates 862–1098 by David Nicolle and Graham Turner, are detailed and well-illustrated. Warren Treadgold’s Byzantium and its Army 284—1081, provides a wealth of information on doctrine, organisation and administration which, in the way of armies, was in constant change. Sir Charles Oman’s A History of the Art of War in the Middle Ages is also a most useful reference. For notes on Seljuk history, culture and military organisation, the two volumes on the Seljuk period, from A Cultural Atlas of the Turkish World, by Metin Eriş et al, published by the Turkish Cultural Service Foundation, are essential sources. The representation of the Manzikert defences draws on the diagram in Jacques de Morgan’s The History of the Armenian People: From the Remotest Times to the Present Day. The city’s triple walls are mentioned in Alfons Maria Schneider’s 1937 study, The City-Walls of Istanbul.