Tamerlane's Boys 28

(Samarkand, Transoxonia, Summer, 1394)

Shadi Mulk Aka, Tamerlane’s Eldest Queen, or ‘Bibi Khanum’, had poisoned her husband’s boys 2½ years previously, as a lesson to the dreaded conqueror that she was not to be neglected when he was in his capital of Samarkand. Happily for the young males concerned, the formidable woman had later arranged for Vissarion, Arman and Nicolai to receive the antidote in order to terminate their agony, and slow progression towards excruciating death, in return for concessions from her alarmed spouse.

Given such a challenging main wife, it is perhaps understandable that Tamerlane preferred life on campaign rather than in his capital, which nevertheless was being seriously aggrandised, with the help of some of the best contemporary artisans, captured during his conquests. Shadi Mulk Aka was also supposedly involved in the building projects, having been given responsibility by her husband for overseeing the construction of what was planned to be the world’s biggest mosque. However, the Queen was less than enthusiastic about the work, despite her devotion to Islam. The Bibi Khanum rather naturally resented the fact that her spouse had vengefully and provocatively declared his intention to dedicate the sacred place to the salvation from death at her jealous hands of Vissarion, Arman and Nicolai, two of who were Christians.

As a result of Shadi Mulk Aka’s understandable grievance, work on the construction of the great mosque was exceedingly slow. 2½ years after the commissioning of the building, little more than the foundations had been laid, with the Queen providing her husband with a variety of false reasons for the lack of progress. Not wanting to have any further arguments with his redoubtable wife, Tamerlane ruefully accepted the situation.

In fact, only after Tamerlane withdrew his proposal to dedicate the mosque to three of his catamites and substituted the notion of constructing the building in honour of his main wife did the project gain momentum. Such a decision was still 4 years in the future, by which time the conqueror had decided that there were more appropriate resplendent monuments to rejoice the time that his lovely boys had spent with him in this world.

The time lag, however, proved unfortunate because Shadi Mulk Aka’s resentment about the role of the catamites in her husband’s life not only consequently continued to fester but also began to seep round the conqueror’s extended family. Dangerously for Tamerlane’s boys, such animosity towards them began to be shared amongst their master’s sons and grandsons, products of his many diplomatic marriages.

Despite his sexual preference for young males, the conqueror’s libido and spermatic potency were such that he had never failed in respect of his conjugal duties towards his wives, whenever he bothered to see them, and the continuance of his male line. However, such virile productivity was soon to prove greatly troublesome for Tamerlane and his boys.

(Forests of southern Rus, Summer, same time)

Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo was initially very sceptical about Nicolai’s announcement that the 13 year-old was one of Tamerlane’s famous boys. Scandalous news of the perversely sinful existence of these young catamites in the life of the dreaded conqueror had spread to both distant Muscovy, where the man had just visited, and even more faraway Castile, where he served the local King, Henry III, in his capital of Toledo. However, he wondered how one of these infamous children could possibly find himself alone, apart from an even younger companion, and seriously wounded amidst the vast and dangerous forests of southern Rus.

The last anyone had heard of the notorious conqueror, he had been subduing uprisings in Persia to consolidate his hold on the troublesome country. The apparently terribly cruel scourge, of both Christians and Muslims alike in the lands he attacked, was therefore thankfully far, far away from the current location of the Spanish diplomat and the boy who claimed to be one of Tamerlane’s.

Surely, Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo conjectured, any recent move by Tamerlane north into Rus would be well known by the local people, and therefore by the Spanish diplomat. The populations of the various principalities feared the conqueror even more than they did the Golden Horde. At least the latter, if paid their tribute, guaranteed peace and the conduct of lucrative trade, whereas the former had an appalling reputation for devastating those countries that he invaded.

In fact, local current perception of Tamerlane’s attitude to his conquests was outdated. In his early years, when he had been more robber baron than ruler of an empire, the dreaded conqueror had tended to concentrate on looting and pillaging, with his men also enjoying much raping. However, as the territories he controlled expanded substantially and his own maturity in his new role grew, he exhibited increasing discernment in respect of such treatment, allowing brutality only to take place in respect of resistant or rebellious communities. He had adjusted his policy for two main reasons.

First, Tamerlane’s forces, which were relatively small in global terms, were incapable of effectively garrisoning all captured lands and also embarking on further conquests. He therefore needed the acquiescent acceptance of the conquered to his suzerainty. He now secured such concord by gentle treatment, if the target communities surrendered meekly to his will, plus the reward of keeping the local administrations of deposed potentates largely in place. However, he maintained his fearsome reputation by contrasting such generosity with the terrible examples presented by the butchery inflicted on recalcitrant peoples.

Second, Tamerlane’s developing power and maturity caused him to want to covert himself into, and be seen by posterity as, a great warrior and leader, and builder of a lasting, prosperous empire. He wished to be someone who would emulate, if not surpass, the previous achievements in his part of the world of Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan. To do so, the conqueror increasingly appreciated that he could not continue to act as a glorified robber but instead had to demonstrate the virtues of a gloriously resolute but fair despot, who presided over stable affluence by crushing opposition and ruling proficiently, especially in respect of protecting trade. He therefore had to be, and be seen to be, someone who presided over an efficient bureaucracy and was morally ethical in respect of his increasing numbers of subjects, whilst also exceedingly hard with enemies, both within and outside his domains.

There was, of course, someone in Tamerlane’s life who had, over recent years, accelerated his master’s revised attitude. He was now the conqueror’s wisest counsellor and also by far the youngest and most beautiful, for his name was Vissarion.

Unfortunately for the peoples of Rus, they had only known Tamerlane at his worst. When the conqueror had wreaked havoc in their lands 3 years previously, he had caused much distressing devastation, and not just in respect of the Golden Horde, against whom he was vengefully campaigning in retaliation for Mongol incursions into Georgia and the kidnapping of Vissarion and Arman.

The campaign had eventually effectively been won by Tamerlane a month after the escape from Mongol captivity by Vissarion and Arman, and the advent into his life of the boys’ rescuer, Nicolai. After perpetrating much local vengeance against the Golden Horde, the conqueror, with an army of 100,000, had subsequently rapidly advanced to meet Toqtamish’s reduced forces near Samara [modern Kuibyshev] on the River Volga.

The battle had developed into a rout of the Golden Horde’s army, although the leader had escaped with some remnants. This good fortune subsequently allowed the devastated Mongols to re-group as best they could and seek revenge, leading directly to Toqtamish’s cunning but ultimately unsuccessful plot to use Nicolai to entrap Tamerlane in the southern Caucasus 2 years later.

Tamerlane’s withdrawal from Rus after his great victory had caused great jubilation within the local principalities, who had all feared that the dreaded conqueror might now turn more of his awful attention onto them. Rejoicing was particularly joyous in Muscovy, where, in the capital, Moscow, the people somehow contrived to confer responsibility for the apparent miracle on an icon of the Virgin Mary.

In fact, responsibility would have been more righteously applied to the copious plunder that Tamerlane and his army had accumulated and with which they felt compelled to return to their homelands, having accomplished the aim of punishing the Golden Horde. Of course, amongst the conqueror’s personal booty from his campaign in Rus was the beautiful young Muscovite, Nicolai.

Nicolai somehow managed to perceive Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo’s uncertainty about the announcement regarding the young Muscovite’s supposed status. He therefore proceeded to advise the bearded Spaniard, whom he instinctively trusted, not least after the man had nursed him back to improving health, about the reasons for his current, rather unusual circumstances. In the process, the 13 year-old converted the Castilian emissary to full acceptance of him as one of Tamerlane’s boys.

Many of Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo’s so-called civilised, Christian countrymen would have at least frowned at meeting a catamite, especially one pertaining to the allegedly most bloodthirsty pagan barbarian in the world. However, this particular Spaniard responded to his acceptance of Nicolai’s true status with a smile.

Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo had always been interested in different countries and cultures. Such regard had caused him readily and regularly to volunteer to venture abroad on missions for his royal Castilian master, including the latest expedition to Muscovy.

Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo had undertaken the long and potentially dangerous ambassadorial mission to Moscow, in a world full of unknowns and perils and accompanied only by a few loyal and hardy servants, ostensibly to facilitate commerce. The establishment of better supplies of, and trade routes for, valuable furs from Rus and Siberia, which had become very fashionable in Spain, had been his latest prime diplomatic objectives. However, the emissary’s real personal motivation had been his appetite for knowledge, travel and adventure.

Consequently, of all the Spaniards that Nicolai could possibly incongruously and almost unbelievably meet in the middle of the dense, dark, dangerous forests of Rus, Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo was undoubtedly the best. The Castilian’s interest in other countries and cultures came with a very open-minded and liberal attitude to local customs and practices, including some that were abhorred by many fellow contemporary Christians, at a time when the Inquisition was beginning to gather pace, especially in his homeland.

Although heterosexual, Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo was therefore not in any way disgusted by nursing back to a semblance of health a young catamite, even one pertaining to the notorious Tamerlane. Instead, the emissary’s inherent curiosity about the feared conqueror and his people caused the Spaniard to regard his salvation of the very pretty boy’s life as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to further his insatiable quest for knowledge about the world and its societies.

(Delhi, India, same time)

Mahmud Tughluq, in his capital of Delhi, had just endured another awkward audience with Tamerlane’s ambassador. Although the wording on both sides of the verbal exchange had never strayed from being diplomatic, the mutual underlying antipathy and anger of both men towards each other was barely disguised.

Nevertheless, Prince Ahmed, who had been present with his ever faithful, similarly aged, supposed eunuch, Krishnan, afterwards regarded his father with extreme pride. The 7 year-old believed correctly that Tamerlane’s ambassador had departed the scene suitably chastened, having experienced clear defeat and humiliation in the recent argument about the treatment of the local Hindus, Sikhs and members of other indigenous religious creeds.

Naturally, Ahmed was not to know at the time that the verbal exchange would be reported in a totally different light to Tamerlane by the fanatical and vengeful ambassador. The boy also did not appreciate that the libel would be one more significant milestone on the road to disaster for his family and people.

Nor did Ahmed realise that his salvation, at least for now, of Krishnan’s balls would one day be personally highly significant to the prince, amidst all of the bloody mayhem to come.

(Edirne, Ottoman Empire, same time)

"Will you kill your brothers and their sons when you succeed your father, the ‘Thuderbolt’?" Vladimir asked nonchalantly of Mehmed, whilst referring to Bayezid I’s nickname [‘Yildirim’ in Turkish], which had been gained by successfully accomplishing military campaigns with great bravery and speed. The pair of 5 year-olds was currently playing happily with toy soldiers in the prince’s resplendent but secluded quarters in the Sultan’s large palace, located in the current Ottoman capital of Edirne [ancient Adrianople], in the southeast Balkans.

Constantinople was still over half a century away from being taken by the Ottomans from the Byzantine Emperors. The Slav eunuch, Vladimir, was actually to feature prominently in the defeat of his fellow Christians and the capture of that great city, whilst ensuring, for his Muslim masters, Turkish hegemony over southeast Europe and southwest Asia.

As well as Bayezid I’s nickname, Vladimir’s question also referred to the not infrequent practice indulged by successors to the Sultanate of massacring their brothers and their siblings’ male offspring. It was customary for Ottoman rulers to have several wives and many, sometimes thousands of, concubines, and not just to satisfy their sexual needs, as possessing so many women was supposed to guarantee healthy masculine heirs.

It was considered no impediment to inheritance for the eventual successful nominee for the Sultanate, who was not always the oldest but was rather chosen by his father as being the most able, to be the product of a liaison with a concubine, as opposed to spouse. As a result of such traditions, much conspiratorial manoeuvring invariably took place over the years between those women of the household and harem who possessed sons by their sole permitted lover. The main aim in life of such mothers was to secure the succession for their male offspring, not least because the alternative might be their child’s ultimate demise. The constant plotting was certainly aided by the luxurious but closeted environment in which they lived, hidden away from the rest of the world and well guarded by formidable black eunuchs.

Many of the brothers of the winner of this familial contest were naturally, given the palace circumstances, not of the same mother but, even if they had been, this would not have saved them and their sons from execution if the successful successor to the Principate so chose. Such bloody culling was designed to ensure that no internecine family strife was caused by ambitious siblings and their offspring.

Mehmed was only 5 years old but had already been declared ‘first son’ and heir to Bayezid I, despite the fact that the boy actually had three older brothers, namely Suleyman, Isa and Musa. However, their father had nominated his youngest male child as his successor for two reasons.

First, Bayezid I apparently disliked some of the developing characteristics of the older sons. Second, and probably most importantly for the incumbent Sultan, choosing an infant as his nominated heir hopefully meant that the youngster concerned was, at least for a while, not tempted, perhaps in alliance with important officials and generals who were in someway dissatisfied with their lots, towards facilitating the succession sooner rather than later. Patricidal ambitions of impatient offspring of important rulers were by no means unknown in the contemporary world.

Bayezid I had apparently carefully weighed up the dangers for him and his fourth son of spurning and therefore annoying the older boys against the perils the young trio could pose, to him and his empire, if one had been declared his heir. The Sultan’s nomination had been made despite Mehmed’s tender age and the impracticality of the arrangement if the current incumbent of the Ottoman throne died early. The latter scenario was not inconceivable in this unhealthy era, when bubonic plague, other nasty pestilences and warfare were common.

Bayezid I was currently 34 years old, having been born in Edirne to his mother, the Sultana Gulcicek Hatun. He had succeeded his father, Murad I Hudavendigar [the ‘God-like One’], half a decade previously on the battlefield of the ‘Field of Blackbirds’, or ‘Kosovo Polje’.

The Muslim Murad and his Ottoman forces had won the battle against the Christian Serbs and their King, Lazar, and allies, the Bulgars. The conflict had been one of the most significant and bloodthirsty in history, culminating with the beheading on the battlefield, in front of the victorious Sultan, of the captured Serbian monarch.

Murad, however, did not long outlive his opponent. Whilst some fighting still raged, the Sultan was assassinated in his tent by a poisoned knife held by a Serb knight, Miloš Obilic, who was supposedly treacherously offering changed allegiance. Nevertheless, the ultimate outcome of the battle led to the absorption of the bulk of the Balkans into the Ottoman Empire, subjugation that would last for half a millennium.

Murad had been substantially responsible for changing his Osmanli tribe into imperial overlords, amidst the further expansion of his realm into Europe from Anatolia. Although Constantinople had resisted efforts at conquest, the Sultan had nevertheless forced the Byzantine Emperor, who was now ruling over little more than his ancient city, to pay tribute.

Meanwhile, Murad established his own capital on the European mainland at Adrianople [named after the Roman Emperor Hadrian], which he renamed Edirne. He also created important civil and military institutions, which were to last as long as his empire. Amongst the latter were the Janissaries, the renowned corps of bodyguards.

The Janissaries comprised Christians, primarily Slavs and Greeks, forcibly enlisted into training whilst boys between the ages of 7 and 14. The enlistment mechanism was the ‘devshirmeth’, which was basically the human taxation of subjugated peoples.

The young boy recruits were subsequently subjected to a lengthy and very harsh training regime, conducted under strict discipline in almost monastic conditions in ‘acemi oglan’ schools. For all practical purposes, the formidable Janissaries belonged to the Sultan. They were taught to consider the corps as their home and family, with the Ottoman ruler their de facto father. They were also expected to remain celibate for life and were encouraged to convert to Islam, which most did. Only those who proved strong enough eventually earned the rank, at the age of about 25, of a true Janissary, who, unlike a free Muslim, was expressly forbidden to wear a beard, only being permitted a moustache.

Despite the unsettling circumstances of the boys’ initial recruitment and subsequent harsh training, the severe induction regime worked exceptionally well in respect of producing fearsome soldiers. The Janissaries became renowned for their formidable military capabilities in the Sultan’s service.

In return for their loyalty and their fervour, Janissaries gained privileges and benefits. Although they always lived as single men in barracks, they came to enjoy respected social status and high living standards, helped by good pay and exemption from taxes.

As Mehmed conversed with his intimate slave and best friend, Vladimir, the young prince answered, in response to his fellow 5 year-old’s question in respect of his male siblings’ destinies, "No. I’d let them live. I don’t like the idea of ordering the murders of my own brothers!"

"But," Vladimir next asked, "how would you ensure that they didn’t kill you?" "Because," Mehmed announced confidently and with remarkable maturity for someone of his tender age, "I’d have the best general the Janissaries have ever known to protect me!"

"Who would that be?" Vladimir naturally enquired.

"You, of course!" Mehmed declared, whilst displaying a sweet smile on his very pretty 5 year-old face.