Tamerlane's Boys 27

(Delhi, India, Summer, 1394)

Tamerlane’s permanent ambassador to the his fellow Muslim, Mahmud Tughluq, Sultan of Delhi, had been granted an audience with the bearded, middle aged local potentate, whose eldest son and heir, Ahmed, was also present. The boy’s father had recently decided that it was about time that the 7 year-old began to learn matters of state.

Standing next to the enthroned Ahmed was his similarly aged personal slave, Krishnan. The young Hindu had apparently recovered well, at least physically, from his gelding, perpetrated 2 months previously in a tiny cell within the dark, dank bowels of the Sultan’s huge palace.

Once more, Tamerlane’s ambassador berated, albeit diplomatically, the Sultan for not making enough efforts to convert to Islam his subjects, who were mainly Hindu like Krishnan. The emissary actually castigated without authority, as his master, the feared conqueror, could not care less that Mahmud Tughluq was being negligent in introducing infidels to the true faith.

Since the happy advent of the Christians, Vissarion and Nicolai, into his life and bed, Tamerlane had reconsidered his previous affinity for Islam. Such dedication had, at times, been apparently fanatical and he was once quoted as declaring that that "Plunder in warfare is as lawful as mother’s milk to Muslims fighting for their faith!" However, in truth, the conqueror had only exhibited such devotion as an excuse to embark on his exciting and lucrative conquests.

After all, campaigning on behalf of the Islamic God had brought superficially devout Tamerlane acclaim and allies amongst the loyal faithful, as well as forgiveness for his apparent occasional military excesses, such as the towers of 70,000 skulls of fellow Muslims outside Isfahan. His military excursions had also delivered much wealth to his core homeland.

Tamerlane had been born in Kesh [modern Shakhrisabz in Uzbekistan], and his kin emanated from the tradition loving Turkic Chaghatay Khanate, which straddled Transoxonia [roughly modern Uzbekistan and southwest Kazakhstan] and Turkistan [modern Turkmenistan]. The name of the former territory derived from Alexander the Great’s conquest, representing the Greek for ‘Across the (River) Oxus’.

Chaghatay Khanate was named after one of Genghiz’s sons and, despite absolute local power eventually coming to rest in Tamerlane’s non-Mongol hands, there was still a Khan in place. However, he was a puppet, allowed by the dreaded conqueror to preside formally over boring state ceremonial back in Samarkand in order to allow the real ruler to go campaigning.

Real power lay with the usually travelling Tamerlane, who formerly accepted no higher title than Emir, which was rarely used either by his subjects or himself. He rather enjoyed instead being termed ‘the conqueror’, especially when the appellation was prefixed by adjectives such as ‘dreaded’.

The local tribes of the Chaghatay Khanate had been slower to convert to Islam than their Mongol cousins and, even after conversion, many remained attached to the non-Muslim customs of their steppe ancestors, including heavy consumption of alcohol from vessels of jade. The latter, prized mineral, mined in the Kunlun Mountains of Tibet, was particularly beloved by Tamerlane and his people.

A certain Spanish ambassador to Tamerlane’s court [about whom we shall become well acquainted] wrote that "The man who drinks very freely and can swallow the most wine is considered a hero!" Meanwhile, other, more pious Muslims frequently criticised the local tribes of the Chaghatay Khanate for revering the ordinances of Genghiz Khan more than the Holy Law of Islam. However, naturally none did so personally to the greatly feared conqueror’s face.

Tamerlane’s despotism had eventually been accepted by his Chaghatay subjects, who were happy at the glory and wealth he gave them and consequently appeared content to agree with the conqueror’s historian, Nizam al-Din al-Shami. The latter wrote that "One hundred years of tyranny and oppression by kings is preferable to two days of trouble and popular revolt!" Public compliance had been assisted by consideration of the leader amidst the masses as being a faithful instrument of God, and amongst the more selfish growing, prosperous urban classes, as being a stimulator and protector of lucrative trade and punisher of corruption.

Tamerlane’s ambassador to the court of Mahmud Tughluq was, in contrast to his master, a real Muslim fanatic. He was therefore also an unwise choice for his current post because the Sultan of Delhi was content not only to display tolerance towards Hinduism and other local Indian religions but also to incorporate some of their rituals into his own worship.

Mahmud Tughluq’s attitude had enraged Tamerlane’s ambassador, who responded by constantly petitioning that the Sultan crush the other faiths to allow Islam to reign supreme over the people’s beliefs and souls. However, the ruler of Delhi correctly dismissed such demands as personal hatred for other creeds rather than the genuine requests of the man’s master, the greatly feared conqueror.

Mahmud Tughluq would undoubtedly have adopted a different policy if he had believed that the ambassador was being truthfully indicative of Tamerlane’s desires. Even though the dreaded conqueror was currently apparently consolidating his empire in the west, the Sultan wisely wanted to provide him with no excuse to begin looking at the possibility of extending his influence in the east.

Unfortunately for Mahmud Tughluq and his city, Tamerlane’s ambassador was not to be easily dismissed as ineffectual in terms of his personal extreme prejudices. The emissary, infuriated by what he considered to be on-going evil sacrileges perpetrated by his host, began to return vengeful letters to his master. The written communications were gross distortions of the true situation in peaceful, prosperous Delhi, as well as highly slanderous about the Sultan, particularly in respect of the latter’s attitude to the conqueror.

Anyone reading the letters would have believed that Mahmud Tughluq was a heretical affront to Islam, who also regularly demeaned and insulted Tamerlane. In fact, nothing could have been further from the truth.

Mahmud Tughluq was a potentate whose benevolent rule revealed all of the good parts of Islamic philosophy and none of the bad, apart perhaps for his disregard, based on cultural tradition, for the importance of the testicles of the non-Muslim male slaves of his inner household. He also not only rightfully deeply feared Tamerlane but also respected him highly, with not a word of disdain of the conqueror ever leaving his lips.

Nevertheless, the letters of Tamerlane’s ambassador would besmirch Mahmud Tughluq’s reputation back at the conqueror’s travelling court. Even Vissarion was hoodwinked and angered by the emissary’s false accusations.

Over the next few years, resentment about the Mahmud Tughluq’s perfidies would build up slowly until, one day, Tamerlane’s fearful temper exploded. That day would prove to be tragically fateful for the Sultan and his beloved Delhi.

(Forests of southern Rus, same time)

Nicolai lay in a little tent, which was efficiently camouflaged amidst thick bushes amongst the dense forest greenery. The 13 year-old prayed to his Christian god that the Mongols, who would undoubtedly return, led by Toqtamish, to the environs, would not detect his hidden presence in the locale.

Nicolai was, of course, well acquainted with Toqtamish, including his huge and obnoxious cock, having endured Mongol captivity and the man’s sexual attacks whilst in the southern Caucasus during the previous summer. The brave boy was determined not to repeat such a fate, with his unflinching resolve now illustrated by the knife he held in his hand, ready to strike at his own heart if the enemy discovered his hiding place.

Nicolai’s resolve was strengthened by not only an undoubtedly correct perception that Toqtamish would believe that he had unfinished business to conduct with the boy but also by recognition that the Golden Horde in general was renowned for being notoriously ruthless. For example, they had helped to spread the bubonic plague, which originated in the steppes of central Asia, by campaigning across vast areas and by perpetrating barbaric acts when besieging places like Kaffa. The latter was a prosperous Genoese port colony, on the Crimean Peninsula of the Black Sea.

Almost half a century before Nicolai received his grievous wound in Rus, the Mongol host, backed by some forces from Venice, which, at the time, competed with Genoa for dominance of the lucrative trade routes between Europe and the east, laid siege to Kaffa. However, by the following year, the city’s besiegers began to die at an alarming rate of the plague, which they had brought with them.

The Mongols and their allies eventually had no choice but to call off their siege, but only after they perpetrated one last act of awful revenge against the defiant Genoese colony. Using the catapults that were designed to throw boulders and fireballs over the walls of fortified cities like Kaffa, the vengeful besiegers literally launched an early grotesque example of germ warfare by hurling the plague-infested corpses of their own dead warriors into the port.

The Genoese quickly dumped the bodies into the sea, but sadly the damage was already done. Due to the squalid conditions forced upon Kaffa by the siege, the city was ripe for the rapid desolation inflicted by the rabid plague.

Worse, four Genoese galleons, crowded with refugees, believed incorrectly to be untainted by the disease and hoping to escape the quick spread of the fatal pestilence in their city, departed from Kaffa for Italy. Unfortunately, they inadvertently took the plague with them to the heart of Europe, where it was to spread and kill millions, devastating whole nations and economies.

Arman had reluctantly accepted Nicolai’s suggestion that he leave the badly wounded 13 year-old behind, as the small contingent of Tamerlane’s cavalry took the chance of continuing to escort the Muscovite’s younger brother, Yaroslav, to his still distant home city. However, the 17 year-old Armenian had not only just left the boy in as comfortable a state as possible, having personally tended and dressed his arrow wound and supplied him with plenty of provisions, but also left someone with him in order to look after his further future needs.

Arman had wanted to leave a cavalryman behind but Nicolai obstinately rejected the proposal. The young Muscovite forcefully told the young Armenian that he should not spare even one warrior, as he sought to accomplish his dangerous mission of returning Yaroslav to Moscow, through vast stretches of hostile territory.

Arman had initially threatened to disregard Nicolai’s rejection but his tactic was defeated when the 13 year-old’s declared that he would therefore remount his horse and accompany the cavalry unit to Moscow, which everyone recognised would probably prove fatal, given the state of the boy’s wound. In the end, the pair of squabbling friends was handed a solution to the problem by Teimuraz, who volunteered to stay with the young Muscovite.

Both Arman and Nicolai refused Teimuraz’s offer at first, believing that the job was unsuitable for a mere 11 year-old. However, the boy, who was a Georgian like Vissarion, proved as obstinate as the young Muscovite in his stance.

"I’m not moving from this spot," Teimuraz announced, "even if Nicolai remounts his horse. So, he might as well not do so and stay with me instead!"

As a consequence of these verbal manoeuvrings, Arman and Sibur continued to escort Yaroslav towards Moscow with their full complement of cavalry, having, amidst a tearful and emotional departure, left both Nicolai and Teimuraz behind. The young Armenian and his lover had pledged by their Muslim God that they would return, after successfully completing their mission, to collect both brave Christian boys. Hopefully by then, they also suggested, the young Muscovite would be fully repaired and ready to return to Tamerlane’s undoubtedly eagerly waiting arms.

Everyone, of course, nurtured serious, secret, worrying doubts as to whether such a pledge could be redeemed.

(Delhi, India, later same day)

"Take off your trousers and join me in the bath," Ahmed suggested to his best friend and personal slave, Krishnan, after he had permanently dismissed his coterie of black eunuchs, who had normally previously supervised the bathing of the 7 year-old heir to the Sultanate. "It should now be safe to do so," the boy advised, "as I’m not expecting anyone else to come to my quarters for quite a while!"

Krishnan was happy to accept full, future responsibility for Ahmed’s bathing, grooming and dressing. He therefore complied contentedly with the suggestion of his friend and master, and soon a pair of naked, pretty boys was frolicking excitedly together in the bath’s warm, soapy and perfumed water. However, the sad moment later eventually came when the liquid environment began to cool and the two 7 year-olds decided that it was time actually to wash themselves.

Krishnan and Ahmed sponged each other’s comely bodies, the co-operative system being more practical in order reach the awkward bits of their respective delectable forms. As the Muslim Sultan’s young heir later arrived at his Hindu’s friend’s genitalia, both boys smiled conspiratorially.

Krishnan felt his smooth genitals being rubbed by Ahmed’s sponge and, as now commonly happened in such intimate circumstances, the young Hindu’s small, slender cock rose to match his Muslim friend’s already erect, similarly sized penis. "Hmmm," the Sultan’s 7 year-old heir then commented, as he then began to cleanse his friend’s scrotum, "I’m glad I saved these!"

Ahmed was, of course, referring to Krishnan’s balls, still happily residing inside the young Hindu’s intact scrotum. "I’m therefore also glad," the young prince remarked, "that the castrator who was about to geld you was susceptible to bribery."

"I still think that he grossly over-charged you," Krishnan observed, rather selflessly, given that he was talking about the salvation of his own boyhood. "Well," Ahmed replied, "you have to consider his circumstances. After accepting my gold, he’d want to retire from his trade and move to live somewhere where he’d never be found, just in case the deception was discovered later. He’d fear being punished and so the money therefore had to set him and his young assistant, who’s probably also his catamite, up comfortably for the rest of their lives."

"I suppose you’re right," Krishnan conceded, as Ahmed completed his scrotal cleansing and began to sponge his friend’s legs, "and let’s hope that the deception is never discovered, as I’ll then certainly lose my balls!"

"Fortunately," Ahmed reminded his friend, "living permanently with me in my quarters, as my personal slave, means no-one else need ever see you naked." "Unless I sometime need a doctor," Krishnan worried.

"Let’s therefore hope," Ahmed retorted, in an unfortunate attempt at sarcastic humour, which was designed to cheer his friend but actually caused the opposite, "that you never fall ill, or your malaise might have fatal consequences for your balls!"

(Forests of southern Rus, 2 days later)

"Shhhh!" Teimuraz quietly commanded of Nicolai, as he returned to the tent in which the wounded boy was still lying, bravely enduring the pain of his wound, which his younger companion competently cleaned and redressed daily. "The Mongols are back," the 11 year-old Georgian then whispered to the 13 year-old Muscovite, "and they’re led by Toqtamish. I remember his ugly face from when I saw it last, in the southern Caucasus!"

"What are they doing?" Nicolai asked in similar low tones. "Checking tracks," Teimuraz answered. "Well," the young Muscovite commented, "let’s hope that ours have been covered competently, or I’ll soon be using my knife!"

Teimuraz had argued fiercely with Nicolai over the last couple of days about the young Muscovite’s intention to kill himself, if he was found by the Mongols. However, the 11 year-old had failed to dissuade the brave and resolute 13 year-old from such action.

As Teimuraz now heard the hooves of horses, on the nearby trail through the forest, the 11 year-old silently prayed with extra vigour to his Christian God that he and his companion might escape imminent discovery.

(Forests of southern Rus, 1 day later)

Teimuraz was again very worried but not, this time, because of the ominous sound of horses’ hooves nearby. The previous day’s fears about being discovered by Toqtamish and his warriors had eventually proved unfounded, as the now much bigger military contingent of the Golden Horde had not lingered close for long. Finding the tracks deliberately left with organised clarity by Arman and his colleagues, in order to lure the returning enemy quickly away from the scene, the Mongols had speedily set off in pursuit of the intruders into Rus. After all, they had no reason to believe that one of Tamerlane’s famous boys was secretly camped there with a younger companion.

Teimuraz was instead currently very concerned for Nicolai’s health. The 13 year-old Muscovite had lapsed into a coma, whilst his breathing had become almost inaudibly shallow and, judging from the boy’s fevered brow, his temperature had reached alarming proportions.

Teimuraz feared that Nicolai was about to die on him. The 11 year-old was so emotionally overcome by this dreadful thought that he could not prevent himself from beginning to cry. The young Georgian’s mission to nurse his patient back to health now appeared doomed to imminent failure, which, more selfishly, would also leave him isolated and alone, devoid of human companionship, in the dark, potentially dangerous, dense forests of Rus, in which the howling of wolves could be regularly heard.

Teimuraz’s crying subsequently prevented him from detecting the noise he most feared until it was too late. By the time the 11 year-old appreciated that horses were once again on the forest trail nearby, the rider of one of these steeds had heard the boy’s sobs and was trying to discover from where they were emanating.

To Teimuraz’s immense horror, the leather entrance flaps of the small tent, which he shared with the unconscious Nicolai, were soon parted, revealing a clearly inquisitive, bearded man in unusual dress.

(Forests of southern Rus, 1 day later)

Nicolai’s beautiful blue eyes, which were peerless, with the exception of the similar pair possessed by Vissarion, reintroduced themselves to the world of the living again, much to Teimuraz’s relief. The 11 year-old Georgian had not been able to speak with the inquisitive, bearded man in unusual dress, as they shared no common language, but had instead managed to communicate with the adult reasonably effectively through gestures.

Teimuraz had thankfully quickly realised that the man not only meant no harm but also offered probably the last chance to save Nicolai’s life, after the latter’s worrying relapse into coma. The 11 year-old Georgian’s opinion was reinforced when the adult, apparently rapidly recognising that he had a very sick boy on his hands, went about the task of trying to remedy his young patient’s obvious grievous ills with great confidence and skill.

The bearded man in unusual dress removed the current dressing from Nicolai’s chest wound and thoroughly cleaned the area with some strange-smelling liquid, which he obtained from a little glass bottle originally carried in his saddlebag. The adult then applied some ointment, secured from a similar source, and applied fresh, clean bandaging. He subsequently completed his remedial ministrations by gently forcing some medicine down his young, unconscious patient’s throat.

The eventual results of the man’s delicate, skilful attentions were the gradual normalisation of Nicolai’s breathing and temperature, and ultimately the opening of the boy’s immaculate, beautiful blue eyes. The young Muscovite’s rosy lips also then parted, not only to accept much-needed water to quench his desperate thirst but also to speak.

"Who are you?" Nicolai asked, of the bearded man in unusual dress, in the Turkic dialect he was accustomed to speaking at Tamerlane’s court. However, the adult clearly did not recognise what was being said. The young Muscovite therefore repeated his question in own native Russian tongue, which Teimuraz could not understand.

Although the bearded man in unusual dress was obviously a foreigner, Nicolai guessed, as they were currently in Rus, that the adult might at least know something of the local language. The young Muscovite was to prove correct in his speculation.

"My name is Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo," the man now replied in decent Russian, "Chamberlain to King Henry III of Castille, currently returning from an embassy to the court of the Prince of Muscovy." "What are you doing here in the middle of nowhere?" Nicolai, perhaps only naturally, next enquired.

"I’m returning home," Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo replied, "via the port of Azov on the Black Sea to the south, where a ship awaits me to take me into the Mediterranean, via Constantinople, and eventually back to Spain. Who, may I ask, are you two boys and what are you doing here, in such apparent dire straits?"

"He’s my friend, Teimuraz," the blonde, blue-eyed, 13 year-old patient rather proudly advised, "and I’m Nicolai, one of Tamerlane’s boys!"

(To be continued in chapter 28 – ‘Capitals’)