(Samarkand, Transoxiana, Timurid Empire [in modern Uzbekistan], 40 years later, February 1445)

For several months, throughout his spare waking moments, Little Arman’s brown eyes and intelligent mind had hardly ventured away from the many intriguing scrolled manuscripts he had been reading. The boy had relished the chance to be privy to Vissarion’s historical recollections of his early life, especially as the child’s own grandfather had played such a prominent part in them. However, the 10 year-old’s bright curiosity now encouraged him, whilst he was once more alone with his beloved elderly ‘ Great Uncle’, to enquire about other, albeit related, matters.

"Where are your friends coming from, Uncle, to attend the 40^th anniversary reunion?" Little Arman asked with interested wonderment. "From all over the world!" Vissarion answered with teasing exaggeration, causing the sublime brown eyes of the very pretty 10 year-old boy to open wider in awe.

"Oh, please, Uncle, provide me with details," Little Arman next requested, whilst extending his arms to Vissarion. The boy’s common gesture was well known to the elderly Georgian, as it inevitably indicated that the child wanted to sit again in the great storyteller’s lap to listen to one of the old eunuch’s famous tales or recitation of amazing facts.

Vissarion was not the type of person to deny the boy either his time or such a treat and so Little Arman soon found himself in the protection of the comforting lap of the old eunuch. The elderly Georgian then advised his fascinated young listener from where the imminent guests would be coming and what had happened to them since Tamerlane’s death.

(Otrar, Timurid Empire [near the modern village of Shaulder in Kazakhstan], 40 years previously, February 1405)

With Tamerlane’s suspicious death, Miranshah achieved several long-sought wishes, including the last-minute abandonment by the mighty Timurid army of the invasion of China. Naturally, when Emperor Zhu Di subsequently learnt of the news in faraway Nanjing, he was exultant. However, such a description could not be applied to his loyal nullified eunuch, Zheng He, despite the fact that the tidings were entirely attributable to the imperial servant’s secret pact with the dreaded conqueror’s oldest surviving son.

Zheng He did not like the sort of subterfuge that led to the assassination of important leaders, even if they were enemies and proposed to launch devastating war against his imperial master and adopted homeland. The nullified eunuch considered such tactics cowardly and would have much preferred instead to face such foes in battle. However, he was also a realist and knew, when Miranshah had offered the deal, that he could not refuse because he had a duty to protect both his Emperor and China in any way possible.

Instead of progressing to China, Tamerlane’s vast army now turned round to escort the body of the dreaded conqueror back to his beloved capital of Samarkand for internment in the Gur-Emir mausoleum. As requested, Vissarion ensured that his late master was buried beneath a single stone, although the type was rather special, as it consisted of a large polished slab of precious marble. However, even this valuable cover appeared to the Georgian insufficient to honour such a man and he was later to be instrumental in ensuring that it was replaced with something even more remarkable.

(Ankara, Anatolia [in modern Turkey], same time)

As Suleyman readied his now formidable forces to attack Mehmet in Amaysa, he was given the worrying news that Musa had appeared in the Balkans with his own army, which had been substantially strengthened by Byzantine troops and those of other regional Christian princes. Bayezid I’s oldest son therefore realised that he had no choice but to abandon his current plan to destroy his youngest sibling in Asian Anatolia and return instead to defend his now endangered European base, centred on Edirne.

(Samarkand, Transoxiana, Timurid Empire [in modern Uzbekistan], a few weeks later)

In order to overcome their mutual distress at losing Tamerlane, Vissarion was telling 11 year-old Ulugbeg another wondrous story. The tale, as was common between the two admirers of the starry firmament, involved a celestial body, on this occasion the moon.

Vissarion told of the adventures of an 11 year-old boy called Ulugbeg, who managed to fly to the moon and eventually help the people who lived there to secure peace and prosperity, as well as build a magnificent city. In return, the young adventurer was honoured by having his name applied to a large crater found on planet Earth’s solitary satellite.

(Amaysa, Anatolia [in modern Turkey], same time)

Mehmet, at his palatial refuge in Amaysa, which was northeast of Ankara, naturally received the news of Suleyman’s withdrawal back to Europe with relief. However, such a reaction was not immediately evident to the highly alarmed Vladimir, Kiril and Zoran because, after hearing the tidings, their beloved 16 year-old Ottoman prince had worryingly suddenly collapsed.

Mehmet had subsequently quickly regained both his senses and feet and reassured his closest servants and friends that he was alright, although he could not explain what had just happened to him for the first but sadly not for the last time. It was the Sultana Olivera who, having learnt of the unusual worrying incident and associated symptoms, and later witnessing one of the infrequent events herself, who eventually provided the correct diagnosis.

Meanwhile, the conflict between Suleyman and Musa, which was largely confined to the Balkans, was to last 5 years. However, this internecine war provided someone else with better fortune.

Mehmet not only escaped his oldest half-brother’s enmity but also began to recoup lost territory in Asian Anatolia and thereby attract more local supporters to his cause. He did so despite succumbing occasionally to further sudden collapses.

(Samarkand, Transoxiana, Timurid Empire [in modern Uzbekistan], over 3 years later, Summer 1408)

The new sole ruler of the Tamerlane’s empire was presiding over the internment, in the great Gul-Emir mausoleum in Samarkand, which had become the Timurid family tomb, of his brother, who had earlier been his unsuccessful rival for supreme power.

Tamerlane had followed the custom of his people by bequeathing his conquests to his two surviving sons, thereby dividing his empire. Miranshah and Shahrukh had respectively received the western and eastern parts.

Vissarion, in a rare failure, had been unable to dissuade his master from following such tribal tradition. The perceptive Georgian knew that such action was only likely to replicate the deadly squabbling that had broken out amongst Bayezid I’s four sons and he was sadly proved correct.

After the suspicious death of their master and the conqueror’s own subsequent internment in the Gul-Emir mausoleum, all of Tamerlane’s boys gravitated in various capacities to the service of Shahrukh, for whom Arman, Sibur and Teimuraz were already loyal lieutenants. One of the prime motivations for the action of the former catamites, apart from the fact that the amicable prince was well liked, involved their unproved suspicion that the much less likeable Miranshah had poisoned his father.

Vissarion also believed that he had worked out why Miranshah would do such a dastardly deed, which basically involved four main reasons.

Firstly, Miranshah probably still bore a jealous grievance against his father for promoting some of his boys into prominent positions and for killing the equally envious second son, Umarshaykh, who had attempted to murder Vissarion. He also might have feared sometime suffering the same fate.

Secondly, Miranshah, who had only ever been given relatively minor roles despite his high opinion of himself, might have become impatient to succeed Tamerlane in order to gain the ultimate status to which he long believed he had every right. He was certainly weary of living in his exalted father’s shadow, as was exemplified by what he once attempted to do when based as governor of Persia in Sultaniyeh, which happened to be Ulugbeg’s birthplace. At the time, his misery had tempted him towards consuming copious amounts of alcohol and to participating in many depravities. Amidst one over-indulgence in wine, he complained that the only way he could think of leaving his own legacy for posterity in light of his male parent’s many successes was by destroying something significant. He therefore ordered the demolition of the magnificent local mausoleum of a former Mongol King of Persia, Oljeitu. Fortunately, the conqueror, a lover of splendid architecture, came to hear about the desecration. The tomb had also been too well built to suffer much by the time that he arrived to stop the profanity and banish his third son into temporary obscurity as punishment. Consequently, the masterful building, which was one of the inspirations for the later Taj Mahal in India, survives to this day, although sadly earthquakes and pillage over the centuries mean that only stumps remain of the eight minarets that afforded the towering egg-shaped dome of perfect proportions a crown-like girdle.

Thirdly, Miranshah had always opposed his father’s aim of attacking China. He considered the enterprise unnecessary, overly ambitious, too dangerous personally and too precarious for the wellbeing of the existing empire.

Fourthly, Miranshah never had any intention of allowing his late father’s will to stand. He believed that, as the oldest surviving son, he should inherit the whole empire, for which ambition an alliance with a Chinese Emperor, grateful for the extinguishing of Tamerlane’s threat to his country, might be very useful.

Unfortunately, Vissarion could never prove his conjecture. However, after the inevitable civil war broke out between the avaricious Miranshah and Shahrukh, who was only trying to defend the legacy received from his father, the Georgian eunuch knowingly noted that the Emperor of China did indeed immediately ally himself to Tamerlane’s older surviving son.

Like that cursing the Ottoman Empire, the feud in the Timurid equivalent between the late ruler’s sons was to prove lengthy and bloody, with one eventually emerging victorious. Fortunately for Tamerlane’s legacy, it was 31 year-old Shahrukh who now presided over the internment of Miranshah’s dead body in the Gur-Emir mausoleum.

Miranshah might have had a high opinion of himself and the Emperor of China as an ally. However, his feeling of superiority proved unjustified, and his Chinese alliance almost worthless, in face of Shahrukh’s counterattacks against his older brother’s covetous aggressions.

Shahrukh’s ultimate success was significantly assisted by having the highly capable warriors, Arman, Sibur and Teimuraz, at his side, plus the inheritance into his service of his father’s last boys. Rahu naturally now became the prince’s fierce personal bodyguard, protectively accompanying his new master everywhere, just as he had done for his beloved Tamerlane. Meanwhile, Vissarion simply assumed the crucial advisory and bureaucratic role he had previously fulfilled for the conqueror, and had once temporarily performed for his late master’s youngest son during punitive military campaigns to Georgia and Armenia. He was capably assisted by Nicolai, Rezan and Haluk, who in the process learnt much of significance for their own futures, as did Prince Ahmed.

Ahmed also assisted Vissarion. The hostage status of the Muslim Indian prince had been ended but he had now reluctantly become an exile in Shahrukh’s court because of the insistence of his own father, Mahmud Tughluq, that he did not return to his homeland because of the dangers resulting from the continuing strife there.

Although desperate to aid his father’s ailing cause, Ahmed reluctantly acquiesced to the parental command. He was partly consoled in so doing by the suggestion that he could probably help more by being the Tughluq ambassador to Shahrukh than by returning to his family’s ever-dwindling domains. He was additionally comforted by the still loving arms of two devoted eunuchs, Krishnan and Nicolai.

Shahrukh’s own strife with Miranshah sadly subsequently prevented any worthwhile response to requests for belated intervention in India. However, by now, Mahmud Tughluq’s immediate cause was already irreversibly terminally ill. Nevertheless, his son’s retention at the Timurid court would one day in the distant future help to restore his family bloodline to splendid prominence in India.

Miranshah had not been killed in battle or murdered by his younger brother but instead died in bed. His hold on the western part of the Timurid empire was being substantially eroded by Shahrukh and others opportunistically making use of the warfare between the two siblings to grab territory, such as the former Sultan of Baghdad, Ahmad Jalayir, when his dissolute lifestyle brought a premature death through cirrhosis of the liver.

Despite their dispute, Shahrukh had Miranshah’s body returned to Samarkand to be interred near their father, Tamerlane, in the resplendent Gul-Emir mausoleum. Taking Vissarion’s advice, the new sole ruler of the Timurid Empire then successfully sought reconciliation with his late sibling’s family, especially his nephew, Khalil, whom he appointed governor of Persia.

Such reconciliation was later to be of great significance to Prince Ahmed.

(Hagia Sophia, Constantinople, Byzantine Empire [modern Istanbul in Turkey] ¾ year later, Spring 1309)

25 year-old Petŭr looked on proudly as his beloved Byzantine prince, who was now 19 years of age and dressed in the most ornate regalia, was being crowned in the great basilica of Hagia Sophia. Following Byzantine tradition, Manuel II Palaeologus had appointed his second son as his co-Emperor, after the sad early death of his sickly oldest offspring, Michael, who had not survived the recent cold winter.

Before becoming co-Emperor, John had regularly suggested to his father that they should attempt to maintain good relations with a particular Turkish prince, who had been contesting supremacy of a reunified Ottoman Empire with his estranged half-brothers. The young Byzantine did so without explaining in depth why he was certain that the recommended ally would reciprocate by never causing Constantinople any harm.

Manuel II Palaeologus had previously forged changing alliances with the princely Ottoman contestants, hoping to play one off against the other and keep them divided and weak. The Byzantine Emperor, or ‘Basileus’, was perhaps wisely afraid of a reunified Turkish Empire if one of the rival brothers ever emerged victorious. However, his current ally, Musa, appeared to be slowly gaining supremacy over Suleyman.

Manuel II Palaeologus therefore decided that the time was now right to change sides again. Finally following his son’s advice and as a coronation present, the Emperor began fatefully to support Mehmet, thereby accelerating the latter’s hold over Anatolia.

There were other consequences resulting from the revised alliance. Manuel II Palaeologus’s young co-Emperor, John VIII Palaeologus, equipped with his new delegated authority, could begin writing openly to his friend, Mehmet, instead of disguising their regular communications in the correspondence between Petŭr and his younger brother, Kiril. They could also happily now do something else.

(Constantinople, Byzantine Empire [Istanbul in modern Turkey], a few months later, Summer 1409)

The great chain that protected the entrance of Constantinople’s great harbour, the Golden Horn, was lowered to allow an impressive Byzantine galleon to leave. This vessel then caught a favourable wind and began to sail swiftly south along the Sea of Marmara towards the Ottoman port of Mudanya on the Asian coast of Anatolia.

(Mudanya, Anatolia, Ottoman Empire [in modern Turkey], next day)

After a gap of 12 years, 19 year-old John and 25 year-old Petŭr were joyously reacquainted on the quayside of Mudanya with the two 20 year-olds, Mehmet and Vladimir. After an even longer wait, the Bulgar servant of the Byzantine prince was also reunited with his younger brother, 21 year-old Kiril.

Zoran, who was the same age as Kiril and had been respectfully standing aside to allow the cheerful reunions to unfold, soon became caught up in the happy scene after he was introduced to the important Byzantine guests. Not long afterwards, the imperial party was on its way to nearby Bursa, where Mehmet had re-established himself in the local palace.

Mehmet and Vladimir were therefore later able to show their Byzantine acquaintances the place from where they had been fatefully abducted by an Arab trader 12 years previously to end up being sold as boy slaves in Constantinople. Despite their initial horror and shame, the whole incident now appeared to the victims to be highly fortuitous rather than very unfortunate, given the friendships they had subsequentlu made in the great city.

(Tikrit, Mesopotamia [in modern Iraq], 1 year later, Summer 1410)

Benefiting from the fighting between Tamerlane’s two surviving sons, Sultan Ahmad Jalayir had a fews years previously again opportunistically regained Baghdad, with the help of an ally, Kara Yusuf, who was chief of the ‘Kara Koyunlu’, or ‘Black Sheep’, Turcoman tribal confederation from eastern Anatolia. The latter went on to take Azerbaijan, which was north of Mesopotamia, from Timurid control.

Ahmad Jalayir, however, was not the type of person who retained friends for long and soon he and Kara Yusuf were squabbling over spoils and land. Their dispute eventually reached stalemate, with a number of indecisive minor conflicts between the men’s respective armies taking place in the borderlands between their two small territorial entities. The area to suffer most was inhabited mainly by Haluk’s people, the Kurds.

Haluk had once rescued Rezan, along with Teimuraz, from Ahmad Jalayir’s evil clutches in Baghdad. The relationship between the Kurdish eunuch and the Persian had subsequently gradually become more intimate, with the latter frequently using his rampant cock to entertain the former within Tamerlane’s tent and elsewhere.

The regular intimacy between Haluk and Rezan had gradually developed into love. After serving Shahrukh loyally and capably until their new master had gained sole supremacy over Timurid domains, they therefore went to live together in the Persian’s homeland.

Rezan’s people wanted him to lead them as their Khan, a post once occupied by his father, Reza. As a mere 10 year-old and in order to travel adventurously with Tamerlane, the Persian had left his tribe, which previously had been badly ruled by his late parent, in the safe hands of a sadly now recently deceased and childless former personal servant.

In light of this man’s recent death, it now seemed appropriate to everyone concerned that the highly capable Rezan should return to reclaim, under overall Timurid suzerainty, his family’s legacy. In Persia, the new Khan and Haluk, who was a year older than his intimate friend, eventually came to learn about the dispute between Ahmad Jalayir and Kara Yusuf. The Kurdish eunuch had in particular not forgotten the wicked Sultan of Baghdad, who had commissioned his castration and had once threatened to torture him every day for life. He had also not overlooked the fact that he had sworn vengeance against the evil man.

Haluk was additionally naturally disturbed by the fact that the conflict between Ahmad Jalayir and Kara Yusuf was concentrated in lands populated by fellow Kurds, who were thereby suffering grievously. Consequently, he initially observed events from afar with keen interest, hopeful that the Sultan of Baghdad would be quickly defeated and killed. However, the impasse between the two warring parties continued remorselessly and he eventually began to fret that such a decisively satisfactory conclusion would never be attained.

Rezan naturally shared his lover’s hopes and concerns and finally both decided that they should do something to try to help end the stalemate between Ahmad Jalayir and Kara Yusuf. In 1410, hearing that the normally cowardly Sultan of Baghdad was uncharacteristically personally leading a raid against his enemy, they offered their services to the opposition.

27 year-old Rezan and Haluk, who was about 12 months older, brought four valuable benefits to Kara Yusuf’s cause. First, they were highly competent young warriors in their own right, having learnt much when with their Timurid masters. Second, they came with a useful tribal troop of Persian heavy cavalry. Third, given his ethnicity and fame as once being one of Tamerlane’s boys, the Kurdish eunuch could quickly assemble sizeable forces from amongst his own people, who had wisely previously established relatively friendly relations with the dreaded conqueror. Fourth and most important, a message to friends in Samarkand had resulted in the arrival of a large contingent of horsemen, led by the redoubtable Arman.

Arman was accompanied as always by Sibur and Teimuraz. The latter, of course, had his own reason for seeking the demise of Ahmad Jalayir as, alongside Rezan, he had once been captured and threatened with slow dismemberment by the wicked Sultan.

Kara Yusuf had previously fought against Tamerlane and his successors, not least when involved in snatching Mesopotamia and Azerbeijan from their control. However, the era was full of rapid changes in allegiance and consequently he was happy to accept such unexpected allies, as well as their advice as to how to conduct the current campaign against Ahmad Jalayir. The result, largely as a consequence of Arman’s military suggestions, was the adoption of Timurid strategies of co-ordinated rapid manoeuvre, which eventually trapped the surprised Sultan of Baghdad in a small fortress near Tikrit.

It was stated in an earlier chapter of this saga that Ahmad Jalayir would have two reasons to regret his dealings with Haluk. The first, of course, was the Kurd’s part in rescuing Rezan and Teimuraz from his evil clutches. The second was now to be the eunuch’s role in this entrapment of his former master and subsequent developments.Many of Ahmad Jalayir’s soldiers had fled and so the Sultan was now protected only by a small military escort and some fortress walls that were no match for Timurid siege expertise and technology. As a result, a brief attack on the part of the besieging enemy soon broke down the defences, with Haluk, scimitar in hand and Rezan at his side, amongst the first to enter the citadel.

Rather symbolically, Ahmad Jalayir, carrying his own sword, made his last stand in a bedroom, where he had been cornered. The now 28 year-old Haluk, with the slightly younger Rezan, was again amongst the first to enter the lair of the Sultan, who was already tearfully pleading for mercy.

Despite the 9 years that had passed since Ahmad Jalayir had briefly entertained Haluk in the torture chamber of his Baghdad palace, the Sultan instantly recognised the arriving eunuch. His pleas therefore centred on his former Kurdish catamite, who had restrained the soldiers already present in the bedchamber from killing the man.

"Dear Haluk," Ahmad Jalayir begged between sobs, "please save me and you’ll be well rewarded." "And how do you intend to compensate me for such devoted service?" the Kurd replied. "By castrating me or torturing me every day in your dungeon?" he subsequently sarcastically added.

"I want no rewards from you," Haluk then announced, "just vengeance. Now, fight me like a man if you can!" The Kurd, bloody scimitar in hand, then slowly and menacingly advanced towards the alarmed Ahmad Jalayir, who finally realised that there would be no mercy from the eunuch.

Intense anger now somehow encouraged Ahmad Jalayir to summon up some combat spirit and he raised his own sword in readiness to defend himself. "Eunuch slut," the Sultan screeched, "son of a whole line of Kurdish whores, I intend to die happy in the knowledge that I’ve sent you to hell first!"

The clash of swords soon reverberated around the spacious bedchamber, whilst the small group of soldiers in the room were now restrained from intervening by Rezan and the newly arrived Teimuraz, both of whom had particular cause to watch the spectacle. Even though both would have loved to join in the fight against Ahmad Jalayir because he had once threatened them with castration and other bodily mutilation, they knew that the honour should be Haluk’s alone. After all, the Sultan had actually succeeded in having the Kurd gelded.

Although the normally cowardly Ahmad Jalayir had never previously used his scimitar in anger, he was a competent swordsman, having for personal protection been instructed in the art by the best instructors in Baghdad. The Sultan’s weaponry skill therefore posed a genuine threat to Haluk and caused the watching Rezan and Teimuraz several alarms as the fight to the death proceeded.

The worst fright stemmed from a bloody wound that Ahmad Jalayir managed to inflict on Haluk’s sword arm. This event also proved to be the turning point of the combat.

The gory end of the conflict now came very quickly. The shock of the occasion was increased by the sudden silence, as the noisy clash of steel ceased, and the sight of a decapitated body, spurting copious blood from the neck, slowly falling to the floor. The severed head was already residing on the ground, with eyes wide open and appropriately exhibiting a facial expression of horrified surprise.

The severed head in the fortress near Tikrit had been that of Ahmad Jalayir. The injury to Haluk’s arm had only spurred the Kurdish eunuch to more ferocious and skilful wielding of his own weapon and the swift decapitation of the Sultan of Baghdad.

(Edirne, Ottoman Empire [in modern Turkey], same time)

As well as once being supported by the Byzantine Emperor, Musa had been usefully aided in his war against his eldest brother, Suleyman, by some Balkan princes, including Mircea of Wallachia [modern Romania], who was the grandfather of a certain Vlad Dracula. The third of Bayezid I’s sons was also assisted by his oldest sibling’s personal faults, which included, like those of Miranshah, timid and incompetent leadership, cruelty, treachery, debauchery and drunkenness.

The economic and social devastation caused by the lengthy civil war, along with Suleyman’s shortcomings, eventually encouraged the Janissaries in Edirne to revolt. This significant event was to be the first but by no means last time that the elite corps was to dabble in Ottoman politics.

As a result of the Janissary revolt, Suleyman was murdered, leaving Musa in charge of the Ottoman European domains. Meanwhile, the now 21 year-old Mehmet, still ably advised by Vladimir, Kiril and Zoran, and now provided with crucial Byzantine support, had been quietly continuing to consolidate his control over much of Anatolia.

The ultimate showdown for sole control of the Ottoman Empire between Musa and Mehmet therefore seemed imminent.

(Samarkand, Transoxiana [in modern Uzbekistan], 1 year later, Summer 1411)

34 year-old Shahrukh had just reluctantly released the similarly aged Vissarion from his immediate service. However, he retained the close support of his three most senior generals, Arman and Sibur, both of whom had by now sought to propagate their own bloodlines by marrying, and by the newly promoted general, 28 year-old Teimuraz.

Shahrukh had agreed to Arman’s suggestion that, for strategic reasons, he would be better ruling his empire from the more central location of Herat [in modern Afghanistan]. This city was to the southwest of Samarkand and was now to be greatly aggrandised by the new Timurid ruler after he had moved his base there, leaving behind his now 17 year-old son, Ulugbeg, to govern the former capital.

Shahrukh appreciated that Ulugbeg would need wise counsel to rule Samarkand and the surrounding province. Realising the very close longstanding relationship between Vissarion and his son, he had therefore selflessly sacrificed the Georgian eunuch’s outstanding advisory and administrative services so that the teenage prince could benefit from them instead.

Shahrukh was helped in making his sacrifice by the knowledge that Vissarion was continuing to provide his dynasty with invaluable service and that couriers, using a relay of horses, could quickly convey messages between Herat and Samarkand. The Georgian’s continued wise counsel could therefore still be obtained within a few days, thereby helping his master to rule his large empire wisely for another 36 years.

Some historians have accused Shahrukh of being a poor successor to Tamerlane. This view appears to emanate from the fact that he was not as bellicose as his father and was prepared to allow some of the peripheral territories of the Timurid Empire, such as Mesopotamia and Azerbeijan, to fall under the control of others. However, the judgement is unjust.

Advised by Vissarion, Shahrukh astutely decided to keep within his empire only lands that could be easily retained. His policy was to try to consolidate Tamerlane’s achievements by presiding over relatively peaceful domains, where people could repair any devastation caused by the late conqueror’s campaigns and then prosper.

By assisting Shahrukh and Ulugbeg to follow such a policy successfully, Vissarion was fulfilling the Bibi Khanum’s hopes and prophecy that he would help, for as long as he lived, to protect and preserve the legacy of Tamerlane. The formidable Eldest Queen of his late master had therefore herself recently died happily, knowing that the Georgian, whom she had come to afford much motherly love, was succeeding in achieving his foretold destiny.

Vissarion’s main sadness at remaining in Samarkand whilst the Timurid capital was transferred to Herat was his consequential separation from his oldest and best friend, Arman. However, compensation came from the Georgian’s continuing close association with the nicely developing Ulugbeg.

(Samarkand, Transoxiana [in modern Uzbekistan], almost 34 years later, February 1445)

Vissarion was also to be compensated by receiving regular visits from Arman and his family, which now included a young son, named after his father. This pleasant and clever offspring, after later reaching manhood and becoming a renowned scholar, was to be appointed by Ulugbeg to an important academic post in Samarkand.

The elderly Timurid general of Armenian extraction subsequently additionally eventually chose to live in Samarkand, retiring to the city to be close to his son, as well as to his beloved Vissarion. He was later delighted that his first grandson followed family tradition by also being named Arman.

This grandson, who became known to Vissarion as ‘Little Arman’, was now still sitting on his honorary great uncle’s lap, as the elderly Georgian eunuch continued to tell his fascinating history.

(Tiflis [modern Tbilisi], Georgia, almost 33 years previously, Summer 1412)

The two handsome men with fair hair and blue eyes, whose ages were separated by 12 years, hugged each other in farewell. They had recently met for the first time and would sadly never meet again in this life.

The pair had taken an instant liking to each other, perhaps because they were so similar, and not just in physical appearance. The older man had travelled a long way to be an incognito guest at a certain special event and was returning to where he now regarded as home. He had also fulfilled his younger cousin’s prophecy in respect of playing a major role in the latter’s national destiny.

The coronation of Alexander I, the new 23 year-old King of Georgia, had just taken place in the holy splendour of Tiflis’ restored Sion Cathedral. His father, Konstantine I, had recently died, having succeeded the late Georgi VII half a decade previously.

The very handsome Alexander I, who shared the wonderful blonde, blue-eyed features of his older cousin and furtive guest, Vissarion, was to reign so well for 30 years that he was later to gain the epithet of ‘The Great’, just as a certain Macedonian namesake had done about 17 centuries earlier. Despite some difficulties involving internal rebels and external predators, which were eventually overcome, he was to reunify and restore his nation to relative prosperity, after the devastating attacks reeked in recent times by Tamerlane and others, such as the Mongols of the Golden Horde. However, he only managed to do so because of important assistance, kept secret because the provider was still regarded with acute public disdain in his homeland and also did not want to divert any praise from the King.

Although allowing Georgia to escape permanently from his control was in line with Shahrukh’s policy of shedding troublesome borderlands, he was also influenced by a desire to reward Vissarion for his considerable services to Tamerlane and his legacy. Prompted by his son, Ulugbeg, he had granted the eunuch the favour of promising that his homeland could face the immediate future without any Timurid threat.

Although others would, later in the millennium, seriously disturb the peace, especially the Persians, Turks and Russians, with the latter conquering Georgia in the 19^th century, such promised respite from Timurid intimidation now enabled Alexander to reunite his homeland under his wise and just kingship. He had already begun the process by the time of his coronation.

Restoration of native royal control was exemplified by the joyous fact that Alexander I’s coronation took place in the magnificent restored cathedral of Georgia’s capital of Tiflis [modern Tbilisi]. Vissarion, whose own crowning this could have been, happily watched the whole spectacle.

"Farewell, Cousin, and thank you," a tearful Alexander I later said to Vissarion, on behalf of himself and Georgia, as the two handsome men subsequently hugged before parting forever.

(Great Palace, Constantinople, Byzantine Empire [modern Istanbul in Turkey], same time)

22 year-old John VIII Palaeologus was now gradually assuming more power from his father. The latter, as he aged, was content to allow his highly capable co-ruler such earthly influence whilst, as he began to give greater consideration to his own mortality, he concentrated on religious and personal spiritual matters.

One of John VIII Palaeologus’ earliest actions on assuming real power had been to appoint the equally highly capable 28 year-old Petŭr as his Grand Chamberlain, or principal adviser and bureaucrat. The main thrust of their policies was to try to maintain the independence of what remained of the Byzantine Empire, which now comprised little more than the city of Constantinople. They hoped that their task would be made much easier by their continued friendship and alliance with the Ottoman prince, Mehmet.

(Near Sofia, Bulgaria, 1 year later, Summer 1413)

Musa and Mehmet had delayed the inevitable fateful showdown between themselves for 3 years, whilst they concentrated on increasing and consolidating their control of their respective European and Anatolian strongholds. Bayezid I’s youngest son then took the initiative.

Mehmet was assisted in his cause by the fact that Musa had alienated the Balkan princes who had supported him against Suleyman by typically treacherously turning against them. Amongst his campaigns, he attacked Serbia, advancing as far north as Austria, sent raiding parties into Greece and besieged Constantinople, whose rulers had now allied themselves to his younger half-brother.

Mehmet’s Byzantine allies were able to gain their revenge in 1413 by helping the forces of the younger half-brother to cross the Dardanelles to the European mainland, where they sought a decisive battle with Musa’s army. This was fated to take place near the Bulgarian city of Sofia. Both Ottoman princes were confident of ultimate success but, of course, only one of them would now be proved correct.

Mehmet’s confidence did not just stem from the large army of Anatolians he had managed to assemble or the substantial supporting forces his Byzantine friend, John VIII Palaeologus, had been instrumental in securing for him and was also now leading. The 24 year-old prince’s assurance had been further boosted by the arrival of large contingents of renowned Timurid cavalry, commanded by Arman, Sibur and Teimuraz, and the loan of a key advisor from Ulugbeg’s court, in the still handsome shape of Vissarion.

The idea of supporting Mehmet militarily had been entirely Vissarion’s. The Georgian was now also to play in own key role in the campaign against Musa by providing his fellow eunuch and bureaucrat, Vladimir, with important assistance in organising the associated military logistics.

Neither Shahrukh nor Ulugbeg had wanted to deny their loyal servant, Vissarion, his wish to go to the aid of a friend in need, especially as their own lands were currently largely peaceful. The attitude of the Timurid princes was assisted by the fact that their empire was also no longer really threatened by Ottoman ambitions. After allowing certain western territories to fall into the hands of other rulers, the domains of the two imperial houses rarely even bordered each other, each benefiting from having buffer states between them.

Shahrukh and Ulugbeg also recognised that if Mehmet was victorious, they should, by providing help for his cause in his war against his surviving half-brother, gain a useful friend on the throne of the reunited Ottoman Empire. The Timurid princes therefore did not only wish Vissarion well, as he left to embark upon his military adventure in the west, but also equipped him with whatever forces he wanted, plus Arman, Sibur and Teimuraz to lead them.

The ultimate result, guided by Arman’s excellent campaign strategy and tactics, which Mehmet had followed, was the complete rout of the forces of the Ottoman prince’s half-brother near Sofia. The momentous victory was also aided by the battlefield defection of the opponent’s Janissaries, whose Agas, discontented with Musa’s leadership, had previously been in secret contact with their former comrades, Kiril and Zoran.

The rather cowardly Musa meekly surrendered on the battlefield, just as he had done to Tamerlane at Ankara 11 years previously. The question then arose as to how the victor should treat the vanquished.

Mehmet initially wanted to show Musa mercy, as he abhorred the idea of fratricide. However, he was strongly advised that such a scenario was too dangerous. His older half-brother would undoubtedly seek to escape any subsequent imprisonment and the long, bloody civil war that had already been suffered within Ottoman domains could resume.

Mehmet was eventually persuaded that he could not allow Musa to survive when even the normally highly compassionate Vissarion added his weight to the argument in favour of execution. The Georgian’s advice, which might in the modern era seem harsh, needs to be considered in the context of the brutal times and that his attitude balanced the fate of one cowardly but devious captive against the interests of a whole empire and its population.

Vissarion’s attitude was not affected by the grievous and near-fatal wound suffered by Teimuraz during the recent battle. The Georgian managed to keep such considerations out of his mind and judged the situation with his customary mental clarity and wisdom.

Mehmet finally gave the execution order to his 25 year-old Janissary commanders, Kiril and Zoran, who, although themselves not normally cruel, decided that Musa should share the same fate that he had inflicted on Isa. They supervised the garrotting with a bowstring of their prince’s surviving half-brother.

Later, after Mehmet had finally safely returned to Edirne and the Ottoman Empire was once more controlled by a single ruler, the Timurid contingents, which had proved so vital in the success, departed to return to the east. Despite attempts to be manly and desist from such displays, some tears flowed when final farewells were expressed between the new Sultan and his friends, Vissarion, Arman and Sibur, who were leaving Teimuraz behind to recover from his wound.

Assisted by excellent care within Mehmet I’s palace in Edirne, Teimuraz did slowly and completely recover. However, he subsequently did not fulfil his original intent of also returning east. The new Ottoman Sultan’s reunified domains were still challenged by dangerous external and internal threats. The 30 year-old Timurid general therefore sought and obtained Shahrukh’s permission to remain to help secure his current host’s imperial legacy.

30 year-old Teimuraz’s decision was partly influenced by the fact that the youthful passions previously enjoyed between him and the now 36 year-old Arman and 45 year-old Sibur had long since changed to mutual close non-sexual friendship. He, like they had already done, therefore now sought to marry well and ensure that his miraculously still intact testicles made good use of their survival by assisting in the procreation of his bloodline.

Over the next few years, Sultan Mehmet I tried to become a man of peace, wanting to concentrate on consolidating his domestic position. However, he was at times forced onto the offensive, defeating, with the invaluable assistance of Teimuraz, as well as of Vladimir, Kiril and Zoran, internal revolts and attacks from international enemies. His efforts were assisted by the continued alliance with his friend, John VIII Palaeologus of Byzantium.

Mehmet I’s ultimate achievement of restoring his father’s legacy under a single ruler, thereby putting to an end the period of ‘Fetret’, or ‘Interregnum’, later earned him consideration as the second founder, after Osman, of the Ottoman Empire. He also preceded the similar act of national restitution after lengthy conflict, achieved by the great 20^th century Turkish statesman, Kemal Ataturk, by almost half a millennium.

(Samarkand, Transoxiana, Timurid Empire [in modern Uzbekistan], same time)

Ulugbeg was mourning the loss of his senior wife, who had produced him a son and likely heir, Abd al-Latif. However, the motherless boy was now fatefully sent to live in Herat at the insistence of his formidable grandmother, Gohar Shad, who believed that the child should, in the sad circumstances, grow up under her own maternal wing.

Gohar Shad’s attitude was in contrast to her own experience as a mother, when she had been content to leave Ulugbeg largely in the keeping of her husband, Shahrukh, whilst she enjoyed a carefree life in Tamerlane’s palaces. Such lack of maternal interest had been the primary reason why her son, despite his tender years, had spent much of his early boyhood on campaign with his father.

Gohar Shad’s stance in respect of rearing Ulugbeg also now made her a poor choice to supervise the growing up of young Abd al-Latif. She had no real experience of proper motherhood, although, as in many other matters, she had firm opinions as to how it should be conducted.

Gohar Shad did not believe that children should be spoilt but should instead be toughened. Consequently, her maternal approach was unfortunately highly disciplinarian, with no overt displays of love or tenderness. Such a regime was to have a detrimental effect on the character of Abd al-Latif, who had already been traumatised by the early death of his mother and separation from his father, from whom he thereby became estranged.

Ulugbeg had not wanted to send young Abd al-Latif to Shahrukh’s court at Herat but he was also disinclined to disobey his redoubtable mother. His irresolution when confronted by Gohar Shad’s force of personality was undoubtedly increased by the temporary loss of advice from Vissarion, to whom he had granted permission to embark on the long journey to the Ottoman Empire to help old friends.

Both Ulugbeg and Gohar Shad were later to have much cause to regret transferring young Abd al-Latif from his father’s love and care to a contrastingly emotionally cold life in Herat, where he eventually fell under the influence of rather fanatical Islamic teachers.

(Lahore, Timurid Empire [in modern Pakistan], 1 year later, Summer 1414)

Ahmed had just returned to Lahore, having attended with his closest friends, Krishnan and Nicolai, the funeral of his father. Sultan Mahmud Tughluq had recently died, worn out by ceaseless warfare.

Subsequent to Tamerlane’s attack, Mahmud Tughluq’s empire had dissolved amidst much fighting into various smaller Muslim entities, eventually leaving the Sultan with only a tiny proportion of his former domains. Gujarat, Malwa and Jaunpur emerged as independent states, whilst in the west Lahore, Multan and Sind remained in Timurid hands. Even Delhi had recently fallen to an undistinguished rival clan, the Syyids.

The Syyids would preside over the rump of the Delhi Sultanate, which was largely confined to the Doab, for 40 years until another rival clan from what is now Afghanistan, the Lodis, assumed local power. The subsequent three Lodi rulers would then once more assert some control over much of northern India from their new capital in Agra, although they suffered many factious nobles, whose dissension eventually allowed someone of destiny to move in and take over.

Prince Ahmed therefore did not inherit the Delhi Sultanate but was instead appointed by Shahrukh, on advice from Vissarion, as the governor of Lahore. The decision of the new Timurid ruler, who had become more religiously devout than his father, was despite the fact that the new appointee was a Sunni Muslim whilst Tamerlane and his family and tribe were Shias.

Shahrukh sensibly did not allow issues of religious allegiance, as opposed to personal devotion and competence, to cloud his judgement over people. He recognised Ahmed, who had become a friend, as being highly capable and very loyal and he was rewarded for his correct perceptions by years of excellent service in Lahore, where a Hindu called Krishnan became the new governor’s main assistant.

Ahmed married well and sired many children. His efficiency and loyalty was also eventually rewarded when Shahrukh permitted one of his daughters to join the Timurid family by becoming the wife of a grandson of Miranshah. As a result of this marital union, the Indian legacy of Mahmud Tughluq’s son was to be prove much greater than that of either the Syyids or Lodis.

Meanwhile, to ensure regional harmony, Shahrukh, again responding to Vissarion’s astute suggestions, appointed Ahmed’s friend, Nicolai, to the governorship of Multan, which neighboured Lahore to the southwest. The Muscovite was also to prove to be a most worthy choice, quickly overcoming the apprehensions of the local populace about having a fair-featured foreign Christian eunuch in the gubernatorial palace.

An unusual aspect of Nicolai’s later life was that he became an excellent father. The Muscovite eunuch could not, of course, sire his own children. However, as in many countries of the time, there were many local street waifs without parents and he became so concerned for their welfare that he not only established decent orphanages but also personally adopted as many as he could manage.

When Nicolai eventually returned to his Russian homeland to visit his surviving Muscovite family, including the prospering Yaroslav, he was accompanied in great splendour by a coterie of happy, adopted brown-skinned children. Some of their extended progeny subsequently became notable regional tribal leaders.

Ironically, therefore, some of the most distinguished Muslim families of modern Pakistan, Afghanistan and northwest India can trace their proud status back to the rescue from the gutter of a distant ancestor by a Christian Russian eunuch.

(Bukhara, Timurid Empire [in modern Uzbekistan], 3 years later, Summer 1417)

The stonemason was busily carving the final ornament on the new madrassa, or Islamic college, in Bukhara, which was a city to the west of Samarkand. The quotation was being displayed on the orders of the author of the words, who had also been responsible for building the school.

The name of the sagacious author, who had benefited much from his association since boyhood with Vissarion, was Ulugbeg. The inscription, which is still visible on the same madrassa today, read: ‘It is the duty of every Muslim man and woman to acquire knowledge’.

(Mudanya, Anatolia [in modern Turkey], 3 years later, Summer 1420)

It was a hot, cloudless, sunny summer mid-afternoon, a time of day when many local people were indulging in a siesta. However, the port superintendent of Mudanya on the Sea of Marmara was temporarily diverted from a similar intent. He had been alerted by a harbour-worker to the fact that an apparently important foreigner, protected by a small escort of Turcoman soldiers, was seemingly waiting for something, alongside the currently vacant berths reserved for Imperial vessels. The senior official therefore went to see for himself whom the stranger could be.

The superintendent found a handsome, clean-shaven, distinguished looking and richly dressed man in his early 40s, with golden hair and blue eyes, adjacent to one of the vacant Imperial berths, looking out to sea. The stranger’s cavalry protectors wore the fierce expressions and uniforms, crowned by fur-trimmed, round leather hats with spikes, which were typical of the Turcoman warriors associated with the late, dreaded Tamerlane and his successors.

The intrigued superintendent approached the stranger, formerly introduced himself and asked bluntly and rather pompously what the foreigner’s business was in his port. The traveller turned his blue eyes away from the sea towards the short, fat, bearded official and answered, in an understandable Turkic dialect, "I’m waiting for a friend’s ship to arrive here to take me and my escort elsewhere. The vessel is due soon and my friend is rarely late for appointments."

"Do you have permission to be in Ottoman territory?" the xenophobic superintendent next enquired in a rather unfriendly manner. "Yes," the stranger responded, whilst simultaneously producing a folded document from a pocket. He had frequently been compelled to repeat this action in recent days, as a result of similar interest by the military or officialdom elsewhere within Turkish domains.

The superintendent unfolded the document and his curious eyes were immediately drawn to the impressive Imperial seal located at the foot of the paper, which appeared to be that of the Sultan himself. He then read the wording, which commanded all Ottoman subjects to allow free passage and provide the best hospitality to the bearer.

The superintendent immediately presumed that the stranger had to be some form of diplomat, who had to be shown respect. Consequently, he carefully and neatly refolded the early form of travel visa and, with insincere thanks, returned the document to the foreigner.

The superintendent then felt compelled pompously to advise the stranger that "Your friend’s ship won’t be docking here. These berths are for vessels of the Imperial fleet and none are due."

"In fact," the superintendent added, "if your friend’s ship does berth here, he would normally be liable to a fine for docking illegally and irreverently and, if he can’t pay, his vessel might be subject to confiscation." The official was actually rather keen about awarding penalties for such port misbehaviour, as he usually only passed a proportion on to the civic coffers, corruptly keeping a substantial amount for himself. However, in perpetrating such practices, he was not alone in the Ottoman Empire, as graft was unfortunately rife everywhere.

"I’m sure my friend can pay any fine imposed for any illegality," the stranger retorted. "Well, rest assured," the superintendent rather officiously replied in response to such nonchalance, "that, whatever happens, I’ll carry out my duties as necessary." "I’m sure you will," the foreigner remarked before glancing back out to sea.

The superintendent correctly took the stranger’s aversion of eyes as a signal that their business was over and so, without saying any more, he walked away towards his overdue afternoon sleep. However, the senior port official ordered the harbour-worker, who had originally informed him about the unusual traveller’s presence on the quayside, to let him know as soon as the so-called friend’s ship docked.

An hour later, the superintendent was woken from his slumber by the harbour-worker. "Has the friend’s ship docked already?" the sleepy senior port official subsequently asked. "No," was the answer, "it’s just appeared on the horizon but…."

"Fool, I told you to let me know only when the ship’s docked," the superintendent interrupted, with clear annoyance evident in his voice, "so come back then!" The senior port official was keen to resume his slumber, realising that, given the current calm conditions, with what little wind there was being disadvantageous, the vessel concerned should take several hours to arrive.

"But….," the harbour-worker began to reply. However, his words were again interrupted when the superintendent retorted "No ‘buts’, fool. Just come back when the ship’s docked!"

In response to this clear command, the harbour-worker decided not to argue but retreated from the superintendent’s presence. He eventually returned less than an hour later to re-awaken his boss and confirm that the friend’s ship had indeed now completed docking in the Imperial berth. However, having been called a ‘fool’ earlier, he now felt no duty to advise the senior port official about anything else concerning the arriving vessel, as the man could instead find out himself what his employee had intended to tell him.

Despite his initial drowsiness, the superintendent appreciated that the sailing ship had arrived with remarkable swiftness, given the prevailing weather. However, he incorrectly presumed that the wind must have changed direction in order to speed progress and did not query the point with the harbour-worker.

The superintendent instead rushed to the arriving boat, sensing a quickly earned cut of a hefty fine. However, his eyesight was too poor and he was too busy with tidying his clothing, which had become dishevelled as a result of his recent sleep, to appreciate properly until he was close the type of ship now docked in the Imperial quayside berth. In fact, the senior port official was almost adjacent to the stranger, who was still in a position similar to where he had previously been standing, by the time that his eyes fully recognised the newly arrived vessel.

The new galleon was the biggest and grandest that the superintendent had ever seen, and he had viewed thousands over the many years that he had occupied his current post. The swiftness of the ship’s arrival was explained by its large number of oars. The ownership of the vessel was also evident by not only its splendour but also the banner that fluttered on top of one of the masts. The flag was the personal standard of the Ottoman Sultan.

Ownership of the galleon was further confirmed by the appearance, at the top of the newly fitted gangway, leading up to the deck from the quayside, of a richly dressed, bearded man, whose head was literally crowned with a magnificent bejewelled turban. The 31 year-old Sultan was flanked by a similarly aged and splendidly attired Slav servant, plus three older senior Janissary officers, whose distinguished status was clear from the red and yellow colours of their boots.

The Sultan took one look at the clean-shaven stranger with golden hair and blue eyes, who was waiting for him on the quayside. His bearded face then burst into a broad smile, as he rushed down the gangway to greet the foreigner with a firm hug, which defied all court custom. People granted audiences with the Ottoman ruler were supposed to bow and keep their distance, not receive an emotional embrace.

The Sultan’s amazing greeting of the stranger was then matched in similar style by the attendant Imperial servant and the Janissary officers, whilst the astounded superintendent simultaneously thought that he overheard the word ‘angel’ spoken several times. Meanwhile, a large group of marines also disembarked from the galleon to cordon off this area of the quayside for security reasons.

‘So’, the watching superintendent now fearfully thought to himself, ‘the stranger’s friend is the Sultan himself.’ For how he had earlier addressed the foreigner, he also believed that he could already feel the blade of the executioner’s sword as he was being beheaded.

The superintendent’s nightmare scenario then appeared to be beginning when, after their mutually emotional greetings, the stranger, sensing the nearby presence of the stupefied senior port official, advised his friend, the Sultan, that there was someone he wanted to introduce. Soon afterwards, the foreigner and the Ottoman ruler were approaching the petrified bureaucrat, who felt urine begin to seep down one of his trouser legs.

The superintendent’s terrified face was ashen, as he attempted a polite bow before the Sultan and as a little pool of urine began to form around one foot. However, a little colour began to return when the official then heard the stranger’s verbal introduction.

"I must commend this port superintendent to you, Majesty," the stranger commented, "for taking excellent care of the interests of the Imperial fleet here in Mudanya!" The Sultan, puzzled that he was being introduced by his friend to such a minor local official, glanced enquiringly at the foreigner, who responded by furtively winking and revealing one of his completely disarming smiles.

The Sultan consequently realised that his foreign friend was indulging in some game with the port superintendent and was happy to play along. He therefore addressed the obviously awe-struck official by thanking him for being so conscientious.

The superintendent tried to react by giving his thanks in return but, conscious of the potentially fatal autocratic power held by the Sultan and the irreverent pool of urine on the ground beneath him, all he could manager to mutter was "I….I….I….I…." repeatedly. Fortunately for the official, the Ottoman ruler, seeing a belated official civic delegation beginning to gather to welcome formerly their exalted but unexpected guest, then intervened to put a stop to the man’s repetitious embarrassment.

"I would love to stop to converse for longer," the Sultan interrupted, "but other Mudanyan dignitaries appear to be gathering to greet me and it would be rude to keep them waiting." The superintendent then quietly breathed a huge sigh of relief when he saw the backs of the Ottoman ruler and his foreign friend start to walk away from him.

The superintendent did not hear the Sultan quietly ask of his friend "What, my dear ‘Angel’, was that all about?" The official also did not discern the reply, which was "I’ll tell you more fully in private later, Majesty, but it concerned deflating a little bit of official pomposity!"

The new galleon flagship of the Ottoman fleet later sailed south along the Sea of Marmara, aiming for the Dardanelles. If the superintendent had been aboard, he would have heard loud laughter emanating from the passengers, as they dined in luxury and as the foreigner finally recounted his story.

Vissarion was now appraising his friends, Sultan Mehmet I, Chief White Eunuch Vladimir, who presided over his master’s palace bureaucracy, and Janissary Agas Kiril, Zoran and Teimuraz, of his new tale. Until now, none of the intrigued listeners had been aware of a pool of urine on the quayside of Mudanya or how the mischievous Georgian had encouraged a certain pompous port official to wet himself.

(Constantinople, Byzantine Empire [modern Istanbul in Turkey], same time)

The great chain that protected the entrance of Constantinople’s great harbour, the Golden Horn, was again lowered to allow an impressive Byzantine galleon to leave. This vessel then caught another favourable wind and began to sail swiftly south along the Sea of Marmara towards the Dardanelles and the new secret scene of an annual reunion.

(Dardanelles, Ottoman Empire [in modern Turkey], next morning)

The new flagship of the Ottoman fleet was already at anchor in the quiet, secluded cove on the European shore of the Dardanelles, not far from the port of Gallipoli, when the Byzantine boat arrived. The marines and sailors on board the Turkish galleon now prepared to receive two more important guests by lowering a gangplank alongside one of the sides of their vessel.

Meanwhile, a similar happening had taken place on the Byzantine galley. Two men, one now 30 and the other 36, then disembarked onto a large rowboat, crewed by several expert oarsmen.

The existing exceedingly important passengers on the Ottoman flagship, Sultan Mehmet I, Chief White Eunuch Vladimir and Janissary Agas Kiril, Zoran and Teimuraz, along with their angelic friend, Vissarion, also readied themselves on deck to receive the special visitors. As the rowboat approached, they all could see that the imminent guests comprised two handsome fair-featured and now bearded men.

After these guests had finally climbed up the gangplank of the Ottoman vessel, Mehmet I once more disregarded court etiquette by rushing to the arrivals and giving them both warm hugs of greeting. "Welcome, welcome, John and Petŭr," the Sultan then declared.

Vladimir and Kiril, who was Petŭr’s younger brother, soon joined in the emotional reunions, along with Zoran, Teimuraz and Vissarion. The scene was particularly poignant for the person whom Mehmet still called ‘The Angel of Ankara’, as the Georgian eunuch had not seen the Byzantine visitors since they had campaigned together against Musa 7 years previously, whilst the others met at least annually.

Mehmet I now requested, in the decent Greek he had deliberately learnt over the years because of his friendship with these particular Byzantine guests, "Please, John and Petŭr, come below decks and accept the humble hospitality of the Ottoman Sultan!"

As Mehmet and his guests subsequently began to descend the steps into the luxurious innards of the Ottoman flagship, Vladimir, who always tried to be alert for the signs, thankfully noticed the Sultan’s eyes glaze over. This enabled the Slav eunuch to catch his beloved master before he fell down the stairs.

"What’s happening?" an alarmed John asked on behalf of himself and Petŭr. However, Kiril, Zoran and Vissarion did not make such an enquiry, as they were already privy to Mehmet’s secret, having been occasional witness to similar scenes previously. They instead simply went to the aid of Vladimir, who was grateful for the assistance in preventing his beloved Sultan from collapsing dangerously down the steps.

John and Petŭr were then amazed to observe Mehmet quickly regaining his full senses. The Sultan, feeling four pairs of hands holding him steady, also immediately realised what had just happened.

"Thank you everyone," Mehmet politely said to his four supporters before, noticing the worried and puzzled expressions on the still handsome albeit bearded faces of John and Petŭr, then suggested to the concerned pair, whilst displaying a reassuring smile, "Don’t worry, my friends! I’ve just experienced a brief faint to which I’m occasionally susceptible."

In fact, Mehmet I had just suffered a type of epileptic fit called an ‘atonic’ or ‘akinetic’ seizure, in which all muscle control is temporarily lost and the victim simply collapses to the ground, hence another name of ‘drop attack’. Although the person falls heavily, they are usually able to stand up again immediately. However, the sufferer’s head can sometimes receive a serious knock.

Mehmet I had suffered such occasional attacks since he was 16 but they had thankfully been very rare and so far relatively harmless. The disability was known only to his closest entourage, as the associated fits had never occurred in public.

Having once more rapidly recovered from his faint, Mehmet then led his guests towards the couches and low tables, which would be the scene for a long and lavish banquet, whilst they appraised themselves of the latest news about each other, as well as reminisced over past times. The reunion in the quiet anchorage was to last for several happy days. When those participating eventually had to part again to go their separate ways, a few tears again flowed, reduced in quantity only by anticipating similar future meetings.

In light of what had happened in the stairwell of the Ottoman flagship, a common farewell salutation towards Mehmet on the part of Vissarion, John and Petŭr comprised wishes for his continued good health and avoidance of any harm because of his occasional fits.

(Edirne, Ottoman Empire [in modern Turkey], almost 1 year later, 26^th May 1421)

32 year-old Mehmet, looking as healthily vigorous as ever, was hunting in the countryside around Edirne, accompanied on horseback by his usual close retinue, including Vladimir, Kiril, Zoran and Teimuaz. However, the Sultan suddenly suffered one of his rare atonic epileptic seizures and suddenly his alarmed entourage could do little to prevent their master from falling from his tall steed.

Unfortunately, as he tumbled, Mehmet’s bejewelled turban fell from his head, which was therefore unprotected as his skull hit a rock. Vladimir was already tearful when he was subsequently the first to reach his beloved Sultan, quickly followed by the equally distressed Kiril, Zoran.

(Bursa, Anatolia, Ottoman Empire, 1 year later, 26^th May 1422)

Vladimir, Kiril, Zoran and Teimuraz were again lachrymose, as they departed the magnificent ‘Yesil Turbe’, or ‘Green Tomb’, in Bursa, the city that was the customary site of the internment of the most prominent Ottomans. However, the public tears of such important state officials were not commented upon by anyone else present. Not only did such people not fancy losing their heads but also they could understand the quartet’s emotion, as Mehmet I, who had initiated the building of a resplendent local mosque of similar colour to the new mausoleum, had proven to be a great unifying ruler.

Tears at Mehmet I’s grand mausoleum, on the first anniversary of the Sultan’s tragic death, therefore appeared appropriately shed by his closest advisers and friends, all of whom had been sagely retained in their important civil and military positions by the late ruler’s young successor. However, Murad II, now an 18 year-old, was not currently present in Bursa. He had declined to follow his father’s policy of peace towards the remains of the Byzantine Empire and was currently engaged on besieging Constantinople.

Murad II was eager to establish himself by achieving glory and, in his opinion, there was no better way of attaining this than by capturing Constantinople. Nevertheless, the new young Sultan respected the wishes of Chief White Eunuch Vladimir and Janissary Agas Kiril, Zoran and Teimuraz to demur from assisting him in this particular enterprise. His unprecedented benevolence to the officials, who might be accused by others of profane disobedience or even treachery, enabled the quartet to retain not only their heads but also their senior positions.

Vladimir, Kiril, Zoran and Teimuraz had bravely felt morally obliged to continue to honour Mehmet I’s undertaking not to seek to harm Constantinople during the lifetime of John VIII Palaeologus, not least because they too immensely liked the city’s co-Emperor. Murad II’s tolerance therefore permitted the four officials to perform alternative duties whenever action against the Byzantines was ever being discussed or, as now, actually perpetrated.

Murad II’s remarkable consideration towards Vladimir, Kiril, Zoran and Teimuraz resulted from his respect for their continued honouring of his father’s pledge, which demonstrated admirable staunch loyalty to Mehmet I’s memory. The new Sultan also wisely did not want to lose four such obviously highly capable men so early in his reign, when he appreciated that he would need all the help he could acquire to strengthen his own personal position.

Murad II’s magnanimity was additionally boosted by the service already provided to him by Vladimir, Kiril, Zoran and Teimuraz. His Chief White Eunuch’s administrative skills and his Janissary Agas’ military prowess had already helped to consolidate his succession, which had been disputed by several impostors, including one pretending to be another of his father’s brothers.

Sadly, in apparent replication of what had occurred after Bayezid I had poisoned himself, another rival for Ottoman supremacy had been Murad II’s younger brother, Mustafa. The 13 year-old boy had unwisely allowed himself to be used by rebels covetous for power, only to be executed when finally defeated and captured on behalf of his older sibling by forces commanded by the new Sultan’s three senior Janissaries, aided by his Chief White Eunuch’s excellent logistical skills.

All of the pretenders had therefore been rapidly defeated during the first year of Murad II’s reign, mainly as a result of the organisational and military prowess of his Chief White Eunuch and principal Janissaries. Such a scenario then enabled him to concentrate on Constantinople, whose rulers he suspected of aiding the impostors. In fact, the Byzantine co-Emperors had actually only done so reluctantly when they realised that the new Sultan’s next target would be their city.

The Byzantine support to the impostors was to be the first time that John and Petŭr and Vladimir, Kiril, Zoran and Teimuraz were to find themselves on different sides in a conflict. However, the young Byzantine co-Emperor and his Grand Chamberlain did not actually participate in any fighting, their ultimately unsuccessful contribution towards the rebel cause being confined to a few mercenaries, supplemented by significant amounts of gold.

Murad II, of course, had to enter the current campaign against Byzantium without the assistance of Vladimir, Kiril, Zoran and Teimuraz. Their help was to be sorely missed, as the siege of Constantinople eventually proved humiliatingly unsuccessful.

Vladimir, Kiril, Zoran and Teimuraz had instead temporarily retired to Bursa, where they supervised the completion of their late master’s magnificent mausoleum, which is a splendid legacy of both him and them that remains extant to this day.

(Pacific coast of South America, over 2 years later, Summer 1424)

With great sadness in his heart, Chi Le waved goodbye to his admiral, Zheng He, as the huge flat-bottomed junk of the latter sailed with the rest of his fleet out of the natural harbour, which appeared to be a good place to establish a colony. The leader of the Chinese naval expedition was, as during previous voyages, under instructions from his Emperor to organise such settlements in faraway lands.

Over the years, within the admiral’s regular vast expeditionary fleets, the now 38 year-old Chi Le had become one of 53 year-old Zheng He’s most capable captains. In line with contemporary Chinese imperial practice, all such key officers were nullified eunuchs.

Chi Le had also now volunteered to lead the effort to establish the latest colony. However, he fully hoped and expected to return to China someday and rejoin the service of his master.

The Emperor Zhu Di’s idea was that the distant colonies would become centres of procurement of local resources, either natural or manufactured by the native populace, as well as possible bases for future imperial expansion. The settlements would remain in touch with the faraway homeland through regular return naval visits.

Unfortunately, in this year, the Chinese Emperor died and his successors increasingly rejected the idea of worldwide exploration, colonisation and trading, and soon there were no more return voyages to the settlements. The inhabitants of the latter, including Chi Le, were consequently left to their own devices and through such efforts either to prosper or perish.

Consequently, Chi Le regrettably never again saw his former master and admiral, Zheng He, who died in 1435, still wondering how his fellow nullified eunuch was faring in the land on the other side of the vast Pacific Ocean. In modern times, there is little evidence of the answer to this question, although there is an etymological hint that the emasculated colonist might have prospered.

The name of the modern South American country, on whose territory the Chinese settlement was established 68 years before Columbus supposedly discovered the continent, is said by some to derive from a local native language, Quechua Chilimapa. The relevant word referred to an area that was cool and snowy and meant ‘cold land’.

‘Chili’ in Quechua was virtually synonymous with the English ‘chilly’, although it has no common history with that word. Some also say that the term was not the source for the name of the modern republic of Chile.

Other people instead propound the notion that the name of the republic is a legacy from a certain redoubtable nullified Chinese eunuch settler called Chi Le.

(Samarkand, Transoxiana, Timurid Empire [in modern Uzbekistan], 5 years later, Summer 1429)

Ulugbeg walked with his mother, Gohar Shad, around the new observatory that he had invited her to open officially. The formidable queen was not the type of person to refuse such honours and so she had travelled from Herat to perform the ceremony, despite the disapproval of her newly religiously fanatical grandson, Abd al-Latif.

Ulugbeg’s fascination with seeking knowledge, especially about the nightly heavenly firmament, which he had acquired as a child from the person who was now his principal minister, Vissarion, had persisted into manhood. Such stellar obsession had been exemplified in other new buildings in Samarkand for which he had already been responsible. For example, his splendid local madrassa, which still survives in modern times, was decorated with glazed tiles displaying patterns involving many sparkling stars.

Ulugbeg’s fascination with stars eventually encouraged him to build the new observatory, which was unsurpassed in the world of the time, being equipped with the latest astronomical devices, which sadly did not include the yet-to-be-invented telescope. Observation therefore had to be entirely conducted via the naked eye.

The large round observatory was 48 metres in diameter and 40 metres high and was bisected north to south by a huge marble 60° sextant cut deep into the ground for stability. Such an instrument was used to determine the transit altitudes of stars, which are their maximum angular distances above the horizon. The relevant sights were moved into position on brass rails, enabling highly accurate star tables to be compiled.

Ulugneg’s sextant was by far the largest meridian instrument ever built. Its radius was the height of the observatory, namely 40 metres, which is very nearly equal to the height of the dome of the modern 200-inch reflector at Mount Palomar, California.

Ulugbeg’s interest in astronomy extended to other sciences, especially mathematics. His attitude was summarised by his statement, which was despised by his devoutly fanatical son, Abd al-Latif, that "Religion disperses like a fog, kingdoms perish, but the works of scholars remain for an eternity!"

As a result of Ulugbeg’s patronage, Samarkand became one of the main world centres for relevant scientific thinking and research, with the city’s savants influencing similar work in many other contemporary Eurasian countries. However, he did not just rely on others to do the relevant work.

Ulugbeg was a superb observational astronomer in his own right. He was one of the first people to advocate and build permanently mounted astronomical instruments. He produced fairly accurate tables of the movements of the sun, moon and planets. His equally reasonably precise catalogue of over a thousand stars was also the only such undertaking carried out between the times of Claudius Ptolemy of about a millennium and a quarter previously and Tycho Brahe of over a century later.

Ulugbeg’s attitude towards systematic scientific endeavours was also, given the era, surprisingly modern. He also disliked scientists who accepted his own findings and theories without proper thoughtfulness, possibly through obsequiousness towards him. He reprimanded such people by telling them that they must consider him ignorant. He also occasionally put false postulations to people he believed guilty of such fawning, shaming them by revealing his subterfuge if they accepted his fake reasoning.

In terms of buildings, Ulugbeg did not just concentrate on education and science but also continued the architectural policies of his grandfather, Tamerlane, especially in terms of continuing to adorn Samarkand with resplendent structures. He built splendid mosques, baths, caravansersai, hospices and gardens with lovely pavilions, many furnished with magnificent Chinese porcelain.

At the centre of Samarkand was the Registan, which meant ‘sandy place’ and was an open plaza, ultimately dominated by three great madrassas, one built by Ulugbeg. The still extant legacy of the Timurid prince’s architectural tastes has a majestic portal with lancet arch facing the square. The corners are flanked by high well-proportioned minarets, which were never used in his time by muezzins, as they were said instead to hold up the sky.

The Registan, at the conjunction of six important roads leading to various city gates, was the ancient heart of Samarkand and had existed long before the Mongol invasion as a trade and artisan centre. In the square, to the strains of copper trumpets, public criers advised citizens about the new orders of the rulers.

Today’s Timurid buildings of the Registan are characterised by an extraordinarily lavish use of colour, especially azure, emerald, deep blue and gold. The great domes are fluted, the vast porticoes richly decorated with corkscrew columns and intricately-patterned glazed tiles. The late 19^th and early 20^th century British statesman, George Curzon, later to become Viceroy of India and Foreign Minister, visited in 1899. He was moved enough to describe the scene as "The noblest public square in the world….No European spectacle can be adequately compared to it, in our inability to point to an open space in any western city that is commanded on three of its four sides by Gothic cathedrals of the finest order!"

Besides embarking upon further construction projects to aggrandise Samarkand, at Vissarion’s suggestion, Ulugbeg also sought to honour in other ways his late grandfather, Tamerlane, and honorary grandmother, Shadi Mulk Aka. For example, he changed the single engraved stone, under which the conqueror had told his favourite boy that he wanted to be interred, from marble to the biggest block of precious jade in the world. He additionally donated a huge ornate Koran to the Bibi Khanum mosque.

A principal legacy of Tamerlane, Ulugbeg and some of their Timurid successors is definitely today’s Samarkand. The city remains the unsurpassed architectural jewel of Central Asia.

Still also visible today is the inscription Ulugbeg ordered to be carved into the jade of his grandfather’s tomb. This read, referring to Tamerlane, "When I rise, the world will tremble!"

(Sighişoara, Wallachia [in modern Romania], 2 years later, Summer 1431)

The boy, who will be a main character in an eventual sequel to this saga entitled ‘Seraglio’, which will also involve some of the current principal personalities of this tale, was later Christened after his father. He would become known to history as Vlad Dracula, the ‘Impaler’.

(Munich, Dukedom of Bavaria [in modern Germany], 7 years later, 1438)

Bavaria possessed a new ruler, Duke Albert III. As he assumed power, he confirmed a 57 year-old man in his position of chamberlain.

Johann Schiltberger was more than happy to accept the post. After Tamerlane’s death, being a competent servant, he had moved to the service of the late conqueror’s two surviving sons and a grandson, albeit in a manner not as sexually intimate as for his initial Timurid master. First, the Bavarian served Shahrukh before moving to Miranshah and then to one of his offspring, Abubekr. He next transferred to a Tartar prince allied to the latter, whose name was Chekre.

During his service for these various masters, which lasted for another 22 years, Johann Schiltberger journeyed to and sometimes lived for periods in Samarkand, India, Armenia, Georgia, Persia, Arabia, Egypt, Azof, Rus, the Khanate of the Golden Horde and Siberia. He later recorded these extensive travels in his ‘Reisebuch’, his legacy of written memoirs that clearly names the latter land for the initial time in western European literature, as well as similarly confirming first that the Prophet Mohammed’s burial place was at Medina. They also valuably described the places he visited, including the manners and customs of the indigenous people, plus much contemporary local history

A fresh change of master brought travels to the Crimea, Circassia, Abkhasia and Mingrelia, and finally escape from the neighbourhood of Batum to Constantinople. Here, he hid for a time before securing a return in 1427 to his Bavarian homeland via Kilia, Akkerman, Lemberg, Cracow, Breslau and Meissen. After his return, he became a servant to the man who would later become Duke Albert III.

The effects of the passage of time on an ageing, selective memory caused Johann Schiltberger’s memoirs to contain many inaccuracies and omissions. The latter understandably included his youthful sexual exploits. The writings were also produced from a biased devout western European Christian perspective. However, despite the shortcomings, his travel sketches are still of considerable merit for their era, providing valuable information about past people, places and incidents that might otherwise be lost to history.

Johann Schiltberger’s remarkable life of travel, recorded in his homeland as his legacy to posterity and still extant today, gives the Bavarian every right to be equated with the slightly earlier Venetian, Marco Polo.

(Grand Palace, Constantinople [modern Istanbul in Turkey], 1 year later, 1439)

Riots had broken out in the streets of Constantinople and a huge, unruly and angered mob menacingly advanced towards John VIII Palaeologus’ Grand Palace. The Emperor had become sole Byzantine ruler 14 years previously, after the death of his father.

Because of the regular threat to Constantinople from the Ottomans under Murad II, John VIII Palaeologus had sought help from other Christian states in Europe. However, in order to be successful, he found that he had to try to placate the Roman Catholic Church, which still resented the schism with Byzantine Orthodoxy.

In his cause, John VIII Palaeologus travelled extensively, including to Venice and Hungary and eventually Florence. The Emperor left his faithful Grand Chamberlain, Petŭr, behind in Constantinople in effective and efficient charge of the Byzantine Empire, with the Bulgar occasionally contemplating the strangeness of fate, which had allowed someone who had once been a slave to end up in such a grand position.

In Florence, after protracted and very difficult negotiations, John VIII Palaeologus agreed to a reunion between the Orthodox and Roman Churches, with the latter paramount in the arrangement. However, the treaty was very badly received on his subsequent return to Constantinople and this reaction had led to the current popular unrest.

There were now calls for John VIII Palaeologus to be deposed, with his crown given to one of his younger brothers. However, before gaining the opportunity to assail the palace and probably kill their current Emperor, the outraged mob was confronted by a brave contingent of loyal palace guards, led by the Grand Chamberlain, Petŭr.

Petŭr had earlier persuaded his courageous imperial master not to perform this dangerous role. However, he had only won the argument by suggesting that the Emperor’s appearance, as opposed to that of a respected official who was not associated with the hated treaty, might just further infuriate the mob.

Petŭr now did not use his soldiers to subdue the mob but instead practised his skilled oratory. He addressed the masses, reminding them of their Emperor’s achievements and the reasons for him agreeing to the ecclesiastical reunion, namely gaining allies to protect Constantinople from the increasing threat of the Turks. He thereby calmed the popular temper and was so successful that no further disquieting incidents of this kind were repeated.

Later, as he had done 35 years previously but in far less stressful circumstances and relating to the relevant institution rather than eponymous golden bejewelled object, John again had cause to say to Petŭr "Thank you for saving my crown!"

(Near Varna, Bulgaria, Ottoman Empire, 5 years later, 10^th November 1444)

It is perhaps ironic that the brother of Petŭr and a friend of John VIII Palaeologus should play a key role in thwarting the Byzantine Emperor’s hopes of securing significant European assistance, as Kiril was to feature prominently in the battle of Varna. He, along with Zoran and Teimuraz, were to command the Janissary units that decided the conflict. However, in doing so, they did not intend to break their pledge towards Constantinople because they were instead seeking to protect the domains of their new Sultan, 14 year-old Mehmet II, who had been named after his late grandfather.

Mehmet II’s father, 50 year-old Murad II, was still alive. Despite their master’s bellicose ambitions towards the remaining Byzantine Empire and being ethnically Christian themselves, Vladimir, Kiril, Zoran and Teimuraz had welcomed being in the service of the eldest son of their late beloved Mehmet I, whose tomb in Bursa they still regularly visited. With the considerable help of the important quartet, the Sultan had ruled his empire well, in the process demonstrating wisdom, justice and piety, as well as military competence. He had used the latter attribute to continue his later father’s policies of seeking to re-institute, defend and expand the domains once controlled by Bayezid I.

Murad II, however, was also not obsessed with power. Weary of his exhausting role and of almost constant warfare, he had amazingly earlier in the current year abdicated in favour of his oldest son, 14 year-old Mehmet. However, given the current threat, the new young Sultan had wisely recalled his father from retirement to lead the Ottoman army and would later successfully persuade him to resume until his death his rightful place on the throne.

Vladislav III of Poland, George Brankovich of Serbia, and János Hunyadi of Transylvania led the Christian armies that now attacked the Ottoman Balkan domains in an effort the assist the beleaguered Byzantine Empire. However, their combined armies were annihilated by Murad II’s forces near Varna, which was a port on the Black Sea coast of the Bulgarian homeland of Petŭr and Kiril.

Varna was therefore not to be one of Petŭr’s favourite cities, especially as he had sailed unknowingly from the port 47 years previously for intended slavery in Constantinople. On the other hand, given his subsequent very happy life with his beloved John and the survival of his brother, Kiril, through the later bloody battle, perhaps the place could be forgiven for being the scene of some emotionally painful events.

(Samarkand, Transoxiana [in modern Uzbekistan], 3 months later, February 1445)

"The furthest to travel will be Chief White Eunuch Vladimir and the Janissary Agas Kiril, Zoran and Teimuaz, who used to be your grandfather’s groom," Vissarion advised Little Arman. "They’ll be coming from a city faraway to the west called Edirne," the Georgian eunuch added, "which is in Europe and is the capital of the Ottoman Empire."

"I believe," Vissarion continued, "that their caravan will be collecting Rezan Khan and his Vizier, Haluk, from their home in Persia along the way. However, my friend, Nicolai, will be journeying from the south, from Lahore. He’ll go via Herat, where he’ll join up with Emir Shahrukh and his principal servant, Todo, who’s Teimuraz’s older brother, plus Ahmed and his assistant governor, Krishnan. They’ll all finally congregate here with us and your grandfather in Prince Ulugbeg’s Samarkand palace to commemorate at my late master’s tomb the 40^th anniversary of Tamerlane’s death."

"I suppose," Vissarion then commented, with sadness evident in his voice, "that the occasion will probably represent the last time that Tamerlane’s boys will all reunite in this world!" Little Arman immediately perceived his honorary great uncle’s melancholy and tried to end it by now requesting to be told another fictional tale.

Vissarion was happy to oblige the delightful boy, who was still sitting happily on his lap. As the elderly Georgian eunuch did so, he wondered what further legacies he and his friends would leave to posterity.

(Herat, Timurid Empire [in modern Afghanistan], over 2 years later, Summer 1447)

Shahrukh, who was now 70 and had ruled for 42 years, died peacefully of natural causes in his Herat palace. Consequently, 53 year-old Ulugbeg, still based in Samarkand, assumed sole control of the Timurid Empire.

(Grand Palace, Constantinople [modern Istanbul in Turkey], 1 year later, Summer 1448)

The childless Emperor John VIII Palaeologus had recently attended the funeral of his beloved 64 year-old Grand Chamberlain, Petŭr, when he too sadly died shortly afterwards at the age of 58, some said of a broken heart. The key achievement of his reign had been to keep Constantinople safe from Ottoman conquest. He now was succeeded to the Byzantine throne by his younger brother, Constantine XI Dragases, who had to try to replicate such success.

John VIII Palaeologus was not only mourned by his own people in Byzantium. His loss was also lamented by certain elderly personages in the Ottoman capital of Edirne, who, by playing a passive role whilst their master, Murad II, pursued occasional futile attempts to conquer Constantinople, had considerably aided the late Byzantine Emperor’s substantial achievement.

Chief White Eunuch Vladimir and Janissary Agas Kiril, Zoran and Teimuraz, all now sexagenarians, were, however, fatefully now released from continuing to honour the late Mehmet I’s pledge not to attack Constantinople during John VIII Palaeologus’ lifetime.

(Samarkand, Transoxiana, Timurid Empire [in modern Uzbekistan], over 1 year later, 27^th October 1449)

Ulugbeg had sadly, with a few years of each other, laid to rest in Samarkand two particularly loyal and precious servants. He, of course, did not know at the time that the loss of such invaluable people would quickly lead to his own demise. His own ambitious and religiously fanatical son, Abd al-Latif, still based in Herat and impatient to assume supreme power, now made use of the opportunity to usurp his father.

Echoing some sad aspects of today’s Islam, Abd al-Latif was influenced in his effort by religious fanatics, led by Hodja Ubaidulla Akrar, the leader of the Sufi Nakshbendi order, who considered Ulugbeg’s interest in learning and science to be sacrilegious.

Abd al-Latif rose in successful revolt against Ulugbeg, who was ruthlessly murdered by decapitation in Samarkand in the process. The new patricidal ruler then went on to assassinate his complaining octogenarian grandmother, Gohar Shad, in Herat.

As a symbol of their fanatical hatred of science, the insurgents also razed Ulugbeg’s great observatory in Samarkand to the ground. Fortunately, one of the institution’s resident astronomers, Ali-Kushji, managed to escape with his life and a copy of his late master’s star catalogue, so thankfully preserving this particular legacy of the Timurid prince’s splendid rule.

Tamerlane’s own imperial legacy, his empire, was, however, now to suffer decades of wars and partition under various Timurid princes and others. Nevertheless, certain arts, particularly architecture, literature, including historiography, and miniature painting, continued to flourish.

(Constantinople [modern Istanbul in Turkey], over 4½ years later, 29^th May 1453)

Murad II had died four years previously and so Vladimir, Kiril, Zoran and Teimuraz were now at his 23 year-old son’s side, as the new Ottoman Sultan, Mehmet II, watched the fall of Constantinople. The momentous event ended forever the Byzantine Empire, which had lasted for over a thousand years and traced its heritage to that of the Romans.

Amongst those slain amidst the subsequent slaughter inside the city at the hands of Mehmet II’s half-million troops was Constantine XI Dragases. The Sultan, who, for his achievements in increasing his empire, was to gain Tamerlane’s epithet of ‘The Conqueror’, proved less bloodthirsty 18 years later, after he captured Trebizond.

The grandson of Mehmet I also kindly issued his protective firman to the monks of Sumelas.

(Samarkand, Transoxiana, Timurid Empire [in modern Uzbekistan], over 53 years later, Summer 1506)

The last Timurid ruler of Herat, Badi az Zaman, had recently fallen to the Uzbek armies and now his counterpart in Samarkand, 23 year-old Zahir-ud-Din Babur, was compelled to flee before the invaders captured his great city too. However, long before he was forced to do so, he had honoured a couple of assassinated ancestors.

Zahir-ud-Din Babur had ordered Ulugbeg’s body to be re-interred in the Gur-Emir mausoleum in Samarkand, at the feet of his grandfather, Tamerlane, and near to his father, Shahrukh, cousin, Mohammed, and uncle, Miranshah. Meanwhile, Gohar Shad was laid to rest in her own tomb in Herat under the inscription ‘The Bilkis of the Time’ [‘Bilkis’ meant ‘Queen of Sheba’].

Amongst the precious possessions Zahir-ud-Din Babur later took with him, after being compelled to flee Samarkand, were many historiographical scrolls, which described the life of his own great-great-great grandfather.

(Panipat, India, 20 years later, 21^st April 1526)

The new possessor and soon-to-be further up-dater of Vissarion’s biography of the conqueror, 43 year-old Zahir-ud-Din Babur, possessed a formidable ancestry. His paternal line meant that he was the great-great-great grandson of Tamerlane, whilst his maternal lineage could genuinely be traced back to Genghis Khan. However, he had recently been displaced from his Central Asian patrimony based at Samarkand by invading Uzbeks, which had forced him to relocate to Kabul [in modern Afghanistan].

Judging the Uzbeks too strong to counterattack, Babur then decided instead to regain an empire by invading the more weak northern India from his new base at Kabul. He justified doing so by claiming to have inherited his rights to the lands in two ways, one being Tamerlane’s earlier temporary conquest.

Consequently, Babur eventually faced the current Sultan of Delhi, Ibrahim Lodi, and his ten times bigger army on the battlefield of Panipat. However, skilful marshalling of his much smaller forces brought swift victory.

Babur had cleverly modernised Tamerlane’s concept of a co-ordinated composite army. His horse archers were commonplace but his innovative mobile field artillery and men bearing muskets had ever been seen in India before.

The new weaponry wreaked havoc on the attacking enemy, who had been brought to a halt before Babur’s well prepared defences. Caught between deadly gunfire and showers of arrows, Ibrahim Lodi’s massive forces were devastated, with most, including the Sultan, left dead on the battlefield.

Babur went on to succeed in his aim of establishing an Indian empire. His great Mughal dynasty, which benefited from a succession of highly competent leaders, was to become one of the wealthiest states of Eurasia, with Timurid influence in the region consequently remaining significant for centuries afterwards.

For example, the great domed mausoleums of the Mughal rulers were based on those of Samarkand and other Timurid cities. This was especially evidenced by the Taj Mahal in Agra, which was built by Shah Jahan to commemorate his deceased wife.

Babur’s second claim to suzerainty over northern India had related to another aspect of his lineage. As well as being able to trace his ancestry to both Tamerlane and Ghenghis Khan, he was also proud to know that one great grandfather had been Ahmed, son of Mahmud, last of the Tughluq Sultans of Delhi.

As well as restoring Timurid control, Babur and his able successors believed that they had also rightly returned the Tughluq bloodline to power in India.

(Tehran, Persia, almost 400 years later, February 1921)

A successful coup d’état was taking place in Persia against the government of the then Qajar Shah and a certain warlord assumed the post of chief of the armed forces. He subsequently became the unchallenged strong man of the new regime.

(Constantinople, Turkey, 2¾ years later, October 1923)

Constantinople had not yet been renamed Istanbul. However, the undisputed national leader, Kemal Ataturk, whose paternal bloodline would later be traced back to Tamerlane’s era, had already implemented other reforms. In this month, he abolished the Sultanate and declared Turkey a republic.

(Tehran, Persia, over 2 years later, 12^th December 1925)

The Qajar dynasty was deposed and the warlord who had become prominent because of the successful coup almost 5 years previously now became the first of the Pahlavi Shahs of Persia, which was later formerly renamed Iran. His own paternal bloodline, as well as traditional family appellation, would also one day be traced back all the way to Tamerlane’s era.

After Haluk had killed Ahmad Jalayir, having secured his vengeance and ended the devastation being inflicted on his homeland, he had returned with Rezan to Persia. Here, he was to help his friend wisely rule his own tribal territories until their deaths many years later.

Rezan’s legacy was his genes. He dutifully married several times to ensure that he produced sons who could succeed him. His family line remains extant today, although sadly some male descendants exhibited more of the unpleasant characteristics of the Persian’s father, Reza, than those of the son.

Despite his father’s faults and because of his paternal ancestor’s contrary aptitudes, Rezan sought to follow family tradition by naming his own senior son Reza. Their names should then have interchanged through successive generations, although somehow this practice was lost in favour of just one appellation.

The warlord who became in the 20^th century the first Shah of Persia of the Pahlavi dynasty was one of Rezan’s direct descendants. His name was Reza Khan.

(Samarkand, Uzbek SSR, USSR [modern Uzbekistan], 15½ years later, 21^st June 1941)

Ulugbeg had had an inscription carved into the jade of his grandfather’s tomb. This read, referring to Tamerlane "When I rise, the world will tremble!"

By 1941, Uzbekistan had for 17 years been a constituent republic of the USSR. On the night of 21^st June 1941, a Russian named Gerasimov began a respectful scientific exhumation of Tamerlane’s remains.

Within hours, early next morning, Hitler’s armies had crossed the Soviet frontier, signalling the beginning of ‘Operation Barbarossa’ and the Nazi invasion of the USSR.

(Embassy of the Republic of Georgia in a certain Asian country, over ½ century later, present day)

The popular Foreign Minister of the Asian country was making a courtesy call to the Georgian embassy. However, he was motivated to do so not by matters of state but entirely by friendship, as was exemplified by the fact that he took his pretty 10 year-old son with him.

The Foreign Minister’s popularity within his country was related not only to his competence but also to his appearance. Many people, especially ladies, considered his features, which included brown hair and eyes, very alluring. However, to the great disappointment of some women, who would have literally loved to indulge in an affair with him, he remained resolutely faithful to his adoring wife.

The Foreign Minister had never met the new fair-featured Georgian ambassador prior to the presentation by the latter of his diplomatic credentials a few years previously. However, their first meeting somehow immediately sparked a mutual affinity, which quickly developed into close friendship.

After arriving at the Georgian embassy, the Foreign Minister was informed that the ambassador was currently in his private quarters. As was now common, the important guest and his young but oldest son needed no escort to walk to the relevant rooms.

The Foreign Minister discovered his ambassadorial friend sitting at a desk, writing in his diary with his back to the door, apparently oblivious to the fact that he now had guests. As usual in such circumstances, the older of the visitors now allowed his young son to play a customary game.

The boy very carefully and silently approached the ambassador and then gently placed his right hand on the man’s left shoulder. Despite the gentleness of his touch and the fact that he had never yet managed to surprise the diplomat in similar circumstances, the 10 year-old visitor still harboured ambitions that the envoy would jump in surprise.

The boy believed that the ambassador could not possibly have detected by normal human means his extremely furtive approach. However, the diplomat simply carried on writing, reacting to the touch only by whispering, without looking to see who had arrived, "Hello, Little Arman!"

"Damn! Despite my best efforts," Little Arman announced in response, with clear exasperation evident in his voice, "you still sensed me coming. How do you that, Uncle?" The 10 year-old had asked the same question many times previously and had always received the same answer. However, as he liked the reply, he never tired of enquiring.

Little Arman was rewarded for the question by a turn of his honorary uncle’s head and the appearance, sparkling in the sunlight streaming in from a nearby window, of peerlessly sensual, shining blue eyes. The diplomat’s refined face then exhibited one of his famous, completely disarming smiles.

"As usual in such circumstances, Little Arman," Vissarion declared, patiently happy to satisfy the boy’s addiction, as he had done many times previously, "I didn’t detect your approach with any of my normal senses. Something else deep inside instead happily told me that you were close!"

"What do you think causes such feelings?" Little Arman, who shared his father’s forename, as was customary for all of the oldest sons in his family, yet again asked, to receive his usual delicious reward. Vissarion’s disarming smile grew broader, before he obliged the boy by responding with one word, namely "Love!"

Little Arman’s grip on his beloved ‘Uncle’ Vissarion’s shoulder immediately became tighter on hearing this word, and dampness invaded his young sensuous brown eyes. The boy therefore decided to move quickly onto a different subject before he became too embarrassingly emotional.

"Oh, please, Uncle, please tell me one of your stories," Little Arman requested, whilst extending his arms to Vissarion. The boy’s common gesture was well known to the ambassador, as it inevitably indicated that the child wanted to sit again in the great storyteller’s lap to listen to one of the diplomat’s famous tales or recitation of amazing facts.

Vissarion was not the type of person to deny the boy either his time or such a treat and so Little Arman soon found himself in the protection of the comforting lap of the ambassador. The diplomat then smiled to acknowledge the presence of his other friend, the Foreign Minister, who returned the compliment, whilst furtively nodding to indicate that he did not mind waiting until after the imminent tale had been told to start his own conversation with his Georgian friend.

Vissarion subsequently proceeded to advise his fascinated young listener about another alleged exciting adventure of Tamerlane’s boys, although his description was carefully censored for such young ears. The ambassador, who was originally an academic specialising in history, was able to do so because his friend, the Foreign Minister, had arranged access for him to the national archives, where he had discovered ancient manuscripts written, with amazing coincidence, by a namesake.

Both the Foreign Minister and the ambassador were proud of their bloodlines. The former correctly claimed that one of his paternal ancestors had been a renowned Timurid general of Armenian heritage, whilst the latter was a direct descendent of Alexander the Great of Georgia. The latter King had honoured a certain cousin by naming his first son Vissarion, which had thereafter become a common family practice.

(Samarkand, Transoxiana, Timurid Empire [in modern Uzbekistan], over 5½ centuries previously, Winter 1445)

The 68 year-old man, evidence of whose immense youthful beauty was still discernible amidst his ageing features, had again been inscribing on parchment placed on his desk. The reunion earlier in the year of Tamerlane’s famous boys and their friends to commemorate the 40^th anniversary of the conqueror’s death had been very emotional but had also been spiritually satisfying.

The 68 year-old man had recently retired to his quarters to write what he believed would be the very last updates to Tamerlane’s biography. Later, a very pretty 11 year-old boy, with brown hair and eyes, once more quietly entered the palatial room and deftly crept from behind towards the elderly writer.

The young visitor very carefully and silently approached the old man and then gently placed his right hand on the 68 year-old’s left shoulder. Despite the gentleness of his touch and the fact that he had never yet managed to surprise the writer in similar circumstances, the 11 year-old intruder still harboured ambitions that the sexagenarian would jump in surprise.

The young visitor believed that the writer could not possibly have detected by normal human means his extremely furtive approach. Little Arman was, on this occasion, to be proved correct in his conjecture but not in a way that he would have wanted.

Vissarion’s sitting form reacted to the boy’s touch by slumping forward, with his once peerless face crashing onto the table before him. Clever Little Arman knew, before the elderly Georgian eunuch’s head even struck the wooden surface, that his beloved honorary great uncle was dead.

(Embassy of the Republic of Georgia in a certain Asian country, over 5½ centuries later, present day)

Having listened to Vissarion’s exciting story about how their namesakes had once successfully hunted a huge ferocious bear so that their bed could be warmed by the beast’s fur, Little Arman had diplomatically retired to an adjacent room to watch television. He therefore allowed his father to talk privately with the Georgian ambassador.

The television programme that Little Arman was watching was not of the type to which many children would be attracted, as it was about astronomy. However, the 10 year-old had begun to have a fascination about the stars, ever since his ‘Uncle’ Vissarion had introduced him to the subject. The ambassador had claimed to the boy that he must have inherited his own infatuation in his genes.

The presenter of the programme was talking about the moon. Little Arman noted in awe, having recalled one of the ambassador’s earlier stories about a certain boy’s adventures on planet Earth’s solitary satellite, that the television astronomer referred, amidst his interesting discourse, to a crater called ‘Ulugbeg’.

Little Arman immediately appreciated, from the ancient tale that he had been told by his honorary uncle, that a certain prophecy had been realised.

(Istanbul, Turkey, same time)

A researcher at Istanbul University was attempting to trace the paternal lineage of Kemal Ataturk, who had restored, modernised and secularised his country in the wake of defeat in the First World War. He had succeeded in linking the great statesman to one of the grandsons of Mehmet I, thereby ironically establishing direct family ties between the Ottoman Sultans and the person who, in 1923, would ultimately depose them from power in Turkey.

The direct link between Mehmet I’s grandson and the Sultan was, however, through the maternal line. The paternal lineage now strangely went back through a foreign Christian, who had originally emanated from Georgia before embarking upon an unusual and fascinating military career. He had become a renowned Timurid general before then uniquely transferring equally successfully to the service of the Ottomans.

The rescue by Arman of a little heap of rags from starving destitution in Tiflis [modern Tbilisi] in Georgia, and the subsequent survival of the boy’s balls through several later grievous dangers, had eventually enabled his seed to procreate fatefully. In gratitude for faithful service and friendship, Sultan Mehmet I had allowed the foreign general to marry one of his daughters, with whom he sired many children.

Kemal Ataturk’s direct paternal ancestor was named Teimuraz.

(Embassy of the Republic of Georgia in a certain Asian country, same time)

The Foreign Minister, who was also conversant with the envoy’s discovery in the national archives, began the adult chat by asking a question.

"Why," Arman Senior asked, "did our namesakes support such an apparent monster as Tamerlane? I know that the conqueror is regarded as a national hero in Uzbekistan but some historians accuse him of being responsible for millions of deaths, making him almost as bad a bloody tyrant as Hitler and Stalin!"

"Well," Ambassador Vissarion responded, "you have to consider Tamerlane in the context of the cruel times. Harshness towards vanquished enemies was commonly inflicted by most victorious leaders and the scale of the slaughter perpetrated by the conqueror was a reflection of both his immense success and his political need to intimidate."

"I’m also sure," the ambassador advised, "that our namesake’s first motivation for serving Tamerlane was acute fear for their own lives. After all, they were only 10 year-olds when they were forcibly enlisted into his service and they had just endured the trauma of seeing many of their own people, including their families, massacred by the dreaded conqueror. Vissarion had also suffered the horror of castration."

"However," the ambassador continued, "I believe, from reading between the lines of my namesake’s biography of Tamerlane, that the motivation of Vissarion and Arman gradually changed. They began to realise that, although they could never alter his ways completely, especially his desire for conquest, they could exert a significant moderating influence over their master. Such sway probably saved many, many lives."

"One emotion, though, undoubtedly became supreme in our namesakes’ relationship with Tamerlane," Ambassador Vissarion added perceptively, "and it was eventually to subsume all others!" "Oh," Foreign Minister Arman next enquired, "what was that?"

As the original Vissarion often once did in slightly different circumstances with three Armans of successive generations, the ambassador revealed one of his disarming smiles before answering with one word, namely "Love!"

(Samarkand, Transoxiana, Timurid Empire [in modern Uzbekistan], over 5½ centuries previously, Winter 1445)

Little Arman was not alone in Vissarion’s quarters for long. The 11 year-old boy was soon joined by his grandfather, who had rushed to the rooms as soon as certain deeply alarming feelings had begun to pervade his soul.

Arman Senior arrived whilst loudly yelling Vissarion’s name repeatedly. The 68 year-old Armenian then stopped his worried shouts, as soon as he confirmed what he already knew would be present, namely his beloved friend’s lifeless form.

Despite their copious tears and after comforting each other, the two Armans could not later resist the temptation of looking to see what Vissarion had been writing. Their mutual lachrymation then substantially increased when they read the words.

Vissarion had written an extra line, after finally concluding the updating of the biography of Tamerlane and his boys and after somehow appreciating that his own life was to be imminently forfeit.

Vissarion’s final written words advised: "Having served my purpose in this life, I now go to winter forever with my master and be for eternity one of Tamerlane’s boys!"

THE END

of

‘TAMERLANE’S BOYS’

by Pueros

(Some of the principal characters will sometime return in a sequel entitled ‘Seraglio’.)