Sharper Than A Serpent’s Tooth, To Have a Thankless Child – 1220-1246
While Assyria’s eyes were fixed on the adventuring of King Nahir in the St Thomas Crusade, tremendous instability was afflicting one of its most powerful neighbours. For a century and half many had held out hope that the schism of 1054, that had broken apart the unity of the Roman Church – leaving behind distinct Latin Catholic and Greek Orthodox churches, could be mended. In 1211 the Byzantine Emperor Konstantinos XI achieved just this – restoring full communion with the West. Yet unity came at a price, accepting the highest authority of the Pope in Rome, surrendering on key dogmatic principles and even recognising the Holy Roman Emperor as the successor to the Western Roman Emperors of old – equal and legitimate heirs to Rome’s legacy. This union proved itself hugely controversial among the Greeks themselves and in 1214, Konstantinos was overthrown by Theophlaktos – who promptly restored the independence of the Greek church. The religious ructions were not ended there, as the Pope called for a Crusade to restore Konstantinos to the imperial throne while the Byzantine Empire as whole descended into conflict centred around pro and anti union factions.
Although the anti-Catholic philhellene faction were ultimately victorious in the ensuing struggle, the chaos in Byzantium bled into the affairs of the wider Near East. The war worsened an existing tense relationship between the Byzantines and the Crusaders of the Levant, while also cooling the close relationship between Nineveh and Jerusalem as the experience of the Greeks filled many Nestorians with the fear that the Catholics might attempt to undermine the religious independence of their own church as well.
Upon returning to Assyria the old bear Nahir showed little inclination to retire in peace, continuing to wage military campaigns abroad through his sixties and into his seventies, displaying remarkable longevity. Through these years he fought the Armenians for territory around Edessa and the Arabs to push Assyrian power as far south as Amman. Yet the largest foreign conflict of these later years was not in the pursuit of new conquests, but to support the adoption of Nestorianism in the Persian Gulf. Emir Shaiban II, who ruled most of the southern shore of the Gulf, abandoned his Muslim in favour of the Church of the East in 1231, bringing many of his tribal brethren alongside him in this transition. Almost immediately he was beset by internal rebellion and invasion from his Muslim Arab neighbours – who all sought to topple him and restore Islamic control to the region. Spying an opportunity to extend Assyrian and Nestorian influence, Nahir led his armies in a series of campaigns to prop up the Emir and consolidate the Church of the East’s expansion into the Gulf – a key way station to Malabar in India.
A century on from the birth of Saint Ta’mhas’ Assyrian statelet in Samarra, his son’s realm was entering a period of cultural and economic change. Throughout its early decades, the Kingdom of Assyria had been a predominantly Muslim state with a sizeable Christian minority in which Kurds and Arabs both outnumbered the ruling Assyrians. Although this remained very much the case at the end of Nahir’s reign, there were some signs of change. Notably, a slow process of culture change was underway on the Plains of Nineveh, and in the cities of northern Mesopotamia – Islam, Arabic and Kurdish were slowly receding while the Syriac language and Nestorian faith were on the rise. Indeed, it was during this period that Aramean became the predominant language in Nineveh itself.
At the same time, the realm was growing increasingly prosperous. The lands of Mesopotamia were themselves agriculturally rich and enjoyed a sustained period of bountiful harvests and advantageous weather, but Assyria’s greatest improvements came in the field of commerce. Benefiting from an advantageous geographical position, Mesopotamia’s existing trading advantages were stretched further. For one, the area’s already large Jewish population grew significantly in light of the tolerant attitude of Saint Ta’mhas and his successors to their settlement – seeing Baghdad, Nineveh and Basra emerge as the centre of world Jewry and the heart of a nexus of international connections spread across the known world. Further to this, Assyria’s new links to southern India gave Mesopotamian merchants easy access to the bountiful riches of the Indian spice trade and key naval choke-point on the maritime route to the markets of the Far East.
For all his military glories and undoubted ability, King Nahir was always surrounded by many enemies throughout his life. There were those who doubted his religious convictions and suspected he still harboured heretical beliefs, those who feared his tendency towards cruel and arbitrary treatment of his inferiors and many who simply tired of the unending call to war. As had been the case for much of his reign, the Order of Saint Addai remained a hotbed of discontent in the King’s later years. Nahir had sought to exert greater control over the Order when he pushed for his second son Ta’mhas to be appointed as Grandmaster in 1223, following his return from India. Unfortunately for the King, it did not take long for Ta’mhas to be sucked into the dissenting culture of the Order and in 1230 he spearheaded a rebellion against his father. This revolt was swiftly and brutally dealt with by the elderly monarch. As his son pleaded for clemency, the betrayed father commanded that Ta’mhas be put to death. Taking on a practice he had witnessed in India, the Prince was to be executed by elephant – crushed to death under the feet of a mammoth beast taken back to Assyria from the St Thomas Crusade.
By 1230, already seventy three years old, King Nahir was ancient by medieval standards and the question of his inevitable impending demise ensured that the defeat and execution of Ta’mhas was merely the opening chapter in a period of instability. Unlike many western Kingdoms of the era, Assyria lacked a codified law of succession. The transitions that had followed the deaths of her first two monarchs had been smoothed by the informal direction of the departing King and the approval of both the Qatwa dynasty and the realm’s important magnates. Nahir lacked the same certainty his father and brother. The King’s favoured successor – his eldest son Avina – was seen as weak and overly close to his father and was unpopular with much of the Assyrian elite who favoured the grandson of King Niv by his eldest son Shovai – Nahir Bar Shovai.
Conflict was sparked in 1235 after King Nshir fell became bedridden with an illness. Expecting his impending death, both Avina and the younger Nahir assembled their forces to prepare for war. Although the elder Nahir recovered from this illness, the wheels of conflict were already well in motion, a civil war had begun. The old bear summoned his strength for one final conflict and in a blistering campaign destroyed the best part of the rebel army – advancing from Nineveh to Basra in the space of a few months and winning several major battles. Yet this would be the last act for the great King, who died in Basra in 1236, with the civil war still raging. At his death he was seventy eight years old, having reigned for thirty six years despite assuming the throne in middle age. Incredibly, a full one hundred and thirty eight years separated the birth of his father, Saint Ta’mhas, in 1098 and his own death in 1236
Although King Nahir had bequeathed a powerful position to his son, Avina lacked the martial talents of his father and his position soon worsened following his ascension to power. The rival faction regained their footing and pushed Avina towards a costly stalemate and a negotiated truce in 1238. The rebels accepted Avina’s Kingship, but in return the new sovereign named Nahir Bar Shovai as his successor. Assyria’s spate of infighting had allowed her rivals to prey upon her most vulnerable interests. In India, the Tamils had reclaimed the northern parts of Malabar, while in the Gulf the Shaiban Emirate that Nahir the Bear had fought so hard to support was destroyed by the invading Seljuk Turks.
Avina’s reign proved to be short and unfortunate. Lacking the strength of his father, Avina struggled to maintain control over his vassals. In 1242 the ever troublesome Order of Saint Addai provoked a war against the Byzantines over the city of Damascus, drawing the King into a war which he had not sought. Still suffering from prolonged internal turmoil, the Romans were not the power they once were but were nonetheless able to deploy a large force to Syria, confronting the Assyrian King at the Battle of Baalbek in 1243. There, King Avina was cut down by the Greeks, although his generals were ultimately able to force the Byzantines back. With the King’s death, his erstwhile rival ascended the throne as King Nahir II. Through this exchange of power the war in Syria continued, with Damascus falling after a long siege and the Byzantines struggling to mount an effective campaign to reclaim it. A peace was agreed in 1246 that transferred the important city over to Assyrian control.
Followed the career of The Bear from its beginning to his triumph in India. The Assyrian-Nestorian angle is indeed an interesting one.
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