Romance of Anaïs
By Mel West
Including the history of the rare elixer derived from the horn of the Unicorn,
as remembered by the West Family of Somersett and their estate of Lady Elizabethe la filroy de Poitiers
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Chapter 11
The Winepress of God: the dispute over Jesus's divinity, its wars (which continue) &
Sir Nascien's rescue of the Mandylion; also including Teachings from the Lost City of Tabue
No man allowed the Jewish Scriptures to be a lamp to his feet more than Sir Nascien, the protégé of Sir Gwain, as he followed Sir Gwain's capsules of Scriptures from the Cave of the Unicorns. Within his belongings were some Tiny Books From the Cave of the Unicorns which Sir Gwain continuingly updated. The Tiny Books outlined the strategy of the Jewish Scriptures (Old Testament) in 
bringing forth the Messiah (called the Light or Truth of God) who would one day rule, as the Son of David, from Jerusalem. Earlier we discussed how Chief Giant Ysbadden had a purse filled with illusions which he used time and again to fend off intruders to Joseph's Well. Sir Gwain's Tiny Books--from the chest of Merlin--were like Ysbadden's purse, but they contained recycled realities which are released now again this day! May those who have ears hear...
The Light intensifies in the days called the Last Days, when a Winepress is seen. This is in part what the Scriptures say of this Winepress, how a long war is enmeshed between the King of the North and the King of the South, listed in Daniel, how, by overspreading desolation from east of the Euphrates River, the world's kings are hooked in warfare in the theater of Israel. We quote:
Zephaniah 3.8 Therefore wait ye upon me, saith the Lord, until the day that I rise up to the prey: for my determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the Kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignation, even all my fierce anger: for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy.
3.9 For then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may call upon the name of the Lord, to serve him with one consent.Zechariah 12.2 And I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about..
12.3 And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.
12.8 In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and He that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the House of David shall be as God, as the angel of the Lord before them.
12.9 And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
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Isaiah 30.27 Behold the name of the Lord cometh from afar, burning with his anger, and the burden thereof is heavy..
30.28 And his breath, as an overflowing stream, shall reach to the midst of the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity: and there shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people, causing them to err.Jeremiah 25.32 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth.
25.33 And the slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried: they shall be dung upon the ground.
25.34 Howl, ye shepherds, and cry: and wallow yourselves in the ashes, ye principal of the flock: for the days of your slaughter and of your dispersions are accomplished and ye shall fall like a pleasant vessel.
25.35 And the shepherds shall have no way to flee, nor the principal of the flock to escape.
These Scriptures began with a Curse against Israel, how God would scatter them to all the nations of the world, to be set at derision, abused, and put to death in judgment for their sins; then, say the prophets, the Children of Israel will be restored to their land [which has now occurred], and God will then take out his wrath against all those nations who had persecuted and been against Israel. In that time the Scriptures proclaim the nations will be gathered and put to the sword as in a Winepress. In that day the nations will have a hook in their mouth which will mislead them, and they will be drug into a great Valley of Slaughter (called Hinom) leaving the dead unburied from one end of the earth to the other. When the nations are crushed in the Winepress the Messiah appears:
Isaiah 63.1 Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save.
63.2 Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat?
63.3 I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment.
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63.4 For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come.
63.5 And I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me; and my fury, it upheld me.
63.6 And I will tread down the people in mine anger, and make them drunk in my fury, and I will bring down their strength to the earth.Revelation 19.11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.
19.12 His eyes were as a flame of fire and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.
19.13 And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.
19.14 And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.
19.15 And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the Winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.Ezekiel 38.2 Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him.
38.3 And say, Thus saith the Lord God, behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal:
38.4 And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth..
38.5 Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:
38. 9 Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many peoples with thee.
38.14..In that day when my people of Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know it?
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38.18 ..and it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the Land of Israel, saith the Lord God, that my fury shall come up in my face...surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel;
38.20.. all the men that are upon the face of the earth shall shake at my presence.. every wall shall fall to the ground.
38.22 And I will plead against him [Gog] with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.
38.23 Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself; I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the Lord.
Sir Nascien Visits the Land of Gog
When Sir Nascien visited the Emperor of Byzantium, who was then Constantine IV, it was a time when the principal gears of the Winepress were being enmeshed.
The Winepress is a Set-up of sorts.
The press is prepared and readied for the gathering. The gathering is done with a hook which will mislead the nations — through false shepherds. The hook has to do with Vanity, and the ultimate vanity is to picture a man as equal to God. Serving God is the Messiah whose house is as the angel of God before men, who will judge vanity, as his God gathers all the nations to the Winepress.
Looking down upon the earth at the time Sir Nascien entered Constantinople, the Winepress can be seen in the lands around the Mediterranean, with the northern side of the press being Europe, the southern side being the lands of the Middle East and North Africa, and the torque being peoples from the north and east. Pushing the peoples of the north and east into the Mediterranean basin would engage the gears of the Winepress, centered over Jerusalem. Closing the two sides of the Winepress would be the Western Roman Empire [sic. the kings of the north] led by the Franks and the Eastern Roman Empire and the Arabs who would soon overflow it. The vehicle forcing the closure of this Winepress over Jerusalem as history shows — was the controversy over the Divinity of Jesus, being focused on the Heretic desire to kill those who will not believe in their god Jesus Antijude. This controversy drives the Winepress to this day, and it is now seeing its final fruits. The inertia of the Winepress engages with Sir Nascien's further mission into the fields of Gog of Magog (Russia), midst its first rulers called the Khazars, a Turkish group who converted to Judaism.
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How the Khazars Changed the World
The Khan of the Khazars ruled from what is now the eastern borders of Rumania and Bulgaria east to the shores of the Caspian Sea and south to the Crimea, the shores of the Black Sea and to the Caucus Mountains, and north to Kiev and as far as Moscow. Their capital was originally placed in a strategic defile called Darband, where the Caucus Mountains, stretching from the Black Sea, touched the Caspian Sea.
Mahomet (Mohammed) died in 632 A.D. Ten years later the Umayyed relatives of Mahomet and the heirs of Mahomet's daughter, who rallied under Mahomet's son-in-law and cousin, Ali, came to blows over the Inheritance of Islam, with Ali being murdered in Baghdad, where he had gone to receive the crown of that Caliphate and leadership of the Moslems. His rival, Muawija, was made Caliph of the Umayyads of Syria, and it is this caliph who sent armies from Damascus to challenge the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire and west to conquer the broken remnants of the Roman Empire. We may view him as a man facing Britain from Damascus , whose outstretched arms — or pincers — would gather the entire world from the borders of Afghanistan and India on the east to Africa, Europe and Britain in the west.
Within a hundred years of Muawija's outreach--his pincers continued under his successors--a Frank named Charlesmagne, the grandson of Pepin whom we previously mentioned, looked down on Jerusalem and stretched his arms east and west towards the Arabs. Charlesmagne was crowned Emperor of the Franks on Christmas day 800 A.D., at which time the old Roman Empire, represented by Byzantium, was groaning, caught between the Arab pincers to her south and east and the Frank pincers to her north and west. Directly to the north of Constantinople, spreading across the steppes of Russia were the Khazars who themselves were being pressed to their south and west against the Arabs and against the Franks by two forces: The first force was a stream of more Turkish tribes who were being pressed westward by the Chinese emperors. As they moved westward they pressed the Slavs who themselves, with the Turkish tribes, including the Magyars (Hungarians), pressed against the woodlands of Eastern Europe. Among their tribes were the Slavs, including the Croats and Serbs, and the Bulgars, who occupied a region near the present state of Bulgaria and also another region by the Ural Mountains. Other tribes under the Khazars were the Avars, Burtas, Kabars, Morovians, the Ghuzz, and a crazy group called the Pechenegs to the east of the Khazars. How these groups interplayed from the time of Sir Nascien's visitation until now is best viewed as a Winepress.
The Winepress
It is the crushing movements of the peoples from inner Asia who set the gears of our history.
This part of our petite histoire covers the period 681 A.D. to 812 A.D., when Charlesmagne died. It describes the rise of the Carolingian Empire (the Franks), at the expense of the Byzantine Empire; the rise and fall of the Umayyad Empire, also at the expense of the Byzantine Empire; and the rise and fall of the Khazar empire of the Jews in the north, also to the detriment of the Byzantines.
Let us review for a moment the protagonists opening the scene in this part of our adventure:
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A.D. 632 Mahamot (Mohammed) died
1)Mahomet his heirs through Ali — Ali and his son, Muhammad, were murdered, and his heir Abu Hashim, died childless —
2) the Fatimid Caliphs, Emirs of Medina, all Sayids, the Agha Khan (a Turk later to be mentioned) and the Hassanites — including in part the Sheriffs of Morocco, Imams of Yemen and the King of Jordan; and
3) the Abbassid Caliphs who would rule out of Baghdad and later Cairo and supersede the Umayyads. The Abbassids stem from Al-Abbas, a brother of Mahomet's's father, whose name was Abdullah. Ordinarily the direct descent of the Temple or Káaba was from Zaid down to Amr-Hashim and to his grandsons, including Al-Abbass and Abdullah. But Amr-Hashim died in Gaza at age 25, leaving his inheritance to his small child Abd-Al-Muttalib, who was cared for by his uncle, al Muttalib. The other brother of Hashim, Abdul Shams, had children and could claim the inheritance as a brother to the crown in deference to the small child of Hashim, Abd-al-Muttalib. The Umayyad claim through Shams was not unusual, and we shall encounter a similar claim midst the heirs of Byzantium dating from the same period, where the crown was passed brother to brother before descending to an emperor's son.
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How the Winepress Was Set in Motion
The above list includes the formative vehicles of the Winepress which would bring the downfall of the Roman Empire, as represented by Byzantium, and form the modern Western World as we see it. In our earlier book we mentioned how the movements of nomads out of the Russian Steppes pushed first the Gauls into Western Europe, followed by more Germanic tribes, including the Visigoths and the Vandals who sacked and burned Rome, leaving control of the Roman Empire to Byzantium. After Alaric of the Visigoths sacked Rome in A.D. 430 all of the Western part of the Roman Empire fell into confusion. Following behind the heals of the Gauls were non Gallic tribes called Slavs who themselves were stopped in their penetration of Europe in the Balkans and on the Polish-Lithuanian frontiers. Following behind their heals into the Balkans were the Turkish and Hungarian tribes. These included the Bulgars, the Magyars and Avars, to name a few. At the time of Constantine IV the lands around the Balkans were being identified as Slavenia and over it emerged the Kingdom of the Bulgars.
At this time the Franks were expanding into the void left by the Roman Empire. As Byzantium weakened, relaxing its hold on the West, the Franks moved eastwards into Slavenia, the lands of Poland, Lithuania, and the Balkans. Between them and Constantinople were the Greeks, Slavs, and Bulgars; and beyond them, in now what is Hungary, a new flood of Avars and Magyars arrived. They would subsequently establish the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
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Here the Winepress is complete, with the sides north of the Franks, and the sides south of the Arabs. In the east the two sides engaged the Byzantine Empire and directly above it the Khazar Kingdom whose destiny plunged the world into its [still continuing] bloodshed. With arms stretched east and west across Russia, like wings of a butterfly, the Khazars, the Kingdom of Jewish Turks, became a sacrifice over which the world still shudders: as they were the Jews whom Hitler sent to his heinous ovens and pits!
The Winepress stabilized relative to the strength of the Khazar Kingdom. When the Khazars fell, so too did Byzantium fall, allowing the Arabs to penetrate as far into eastern Europe as Poland; then they ruled over an empire stretching from Eastern Europe around the Mediterranean World, through North Africa into southern France. Following this more waves of Turks from Eastern Asia, beginning with the Seljuks, conquered the lands formally held by the Arabs. Rule by these tribes--the Seljuks, Kurds, Mamelukes and the Ottomans, lasted from 1055 A.D., when they took Baghdad, to 1922 A.D., when their empire was dismantled after the First World War. The Ottoman, Empire began in A.D. 1290.
The Prime Mover
Every engine needs a prime mover, and we can speculate as to why the nomadic Turks, the Bulgars, and the Slavs, all began flooding into Europe. No doubt much of this is due to climatic changes, where the earth has been drying up as it were since about 4,000 B.C. Since that time the deserts of the world have been occupying fruitful lands as they fanned north and south, driving people of all races ahead of them. This drive has intensified, as can be seen in Ethiopia, the Sudan and Somalia, whose peoples are fleeing in the front of the whirling sands of the Sahara. Similar famines and migrations occurred in Inner Asia. For instance, the years after the Trojan War, circa 1200 B.C., say the Homeric traditions, the Trojans and Lydians of Anatolia suffered a long drought and famine, causing them to flee to Rome, France and Britain. Once green pastures began turning to dust.
In the Far East was China which repelled attempts by migrating hords to penetrate its western frontiers. In a manner of speaking, China acted as a piston forcing the nomads of Inner Asia to the west. A push against one tribe would push another before it, and so on, until the Khazars pressed into the Russian Steppes, pushing Avars, Bulgars, Slavs, and Magyars ahead of them. They in turn butted up against the Greeks, Italians, Gauls and other Indo-European Tribes who had already occupied the European frontiers of our Winepress.
In 700 A. D. when the Franks were expanding and when the Arabs were attempting to penetrate Europe through both its eastern Gate of Byzantium and its western Gate of Spain, the Khazars were also expanding their hold on the western frontier of Asia.
Marriage Alliance
To fortify his stronghold, Byzantium, Constantine IV saw the importance of the Khazars as a buffer against the Arab thrusts through the Caspian Sea corridor at Darband. A marriage alliance was arranged, sealing off the Arabs from that front. To the northeast was the stronghold of the Bulgars who paid tribute to the Khazar Khan. The Bulgars ruled the Avars and the Slavs and were a bastion against Germanic and Frankish tribes pressing towards Constantinople (united under Charles Martel) who, under Charlesmagne, set the foundation of the Holy Roman Empire in 800 A.D.
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In the middle of the Winepress only Byzantium could lose, for it was set upon from all three sides.
Pressing against the Franks and making a rather confusing mess of the entire works were a northern group of Germanic peoples called the Normans, or Northmen, who bolted into two groups. The Western Branch, formed out of the Danes and Norwegians, pillaged first Britain and Ireland while Angles and Saxons from German territories were also taking possession of Britain in the void left by the fall of the Roman Empire. They in turn pushed the Gauls (called Walis) into the western part of Britain, in Cornwall and Wales, and Brittany in France. The Normans eventually conquered Northern France, Sicily, Malta, etc.; in 1066 A.D. under William the Conqueror they took Britain.
The Eastern Branch of the Normans, from Sweden, called the Rhus, sent their ships into the lands of the Volga River. Being both raiders and traders of pelts, etc. they came in contact with Slavs on the Dneister river and the Bulgars on the Volga and other tribes under Khazar control. They followed a practice of occupying islands adjacent to the land which they would raid. In England they occupied the Island of Wight from which to launch their raids and extend their dominions; in the same manner they occupied an island at the mouth of the Loir River in Brittany, and so on, as they island hopped around the European theater to Sicily and ultimately to Iceland and Greenland.
Following this pattern, the Normans established a trading post on an island in the Dnieper River, known as Kiev, named after the Rhus brothers who founded it. Prior to this they settled Novgorod, another island armory.
The Russian Connection
The Rhus (called Varengians) penetrated the Khazar and Slavic areas on long ships carrying as many as 100 men each. By 900 A.D. their forces were formidable and a factor the Khazars had to seriously deal with, often including hundreds of ships (one armada had 500 ships).
Perhaps because of Rhus pressures, at least in part, the Khazar capital was moved to Itel on the Volga River where it enters the Caspian Sea. The splendor of this white city was all the Rhus needed to focus upon, sending raid after raid to that fortress which guarded from the north the rich cities of the southern Caspian Sea in Persia and blocked the Arab route to the north and controlled the trade routes to the far east.
An Arab historian who quoted Ibn Rusta (circa 905 A.D.) said this of the Rhus at Novgorod:
In this island there are men to the number of 100,000 and these men constantly go out to raid the Slavs in boats, and they seize the Slavs and take them prisoner and they go to the Khazars and Bulgars and sell them there. They have no cultivated lands, nor seed, and plunder the Slavs. When a child is born to them, they place a drawn sword in front of him and his father says, "I have neither gold nor silver, nor wealth which I can bequeath to thee--this is thine inheritance; with it secure prosperity for thyself.
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In 860 A.D. the Rhus (Vikings) sailed into the Black Sea in two hundred boats and plundered the monasteries and suburbs on the banks of the Bosphorus around Constantinople. The city was saved, as the Russians retreated when they saw the returning Byzantine army and fleet. This attack, some historians believe, was intended to be part of a simultaneous attack from the Western Norsemen from Jutland against Constantinople. We mention this to show how quickly their strength grew from their initial settlements from the eighth century onwards.
Historians agree that both Constantine IV and Charlesmagne share the unusual position of charting European history. They both held off the Normans and the Arabs. Had they failed in their efforts, the picture of the Western World would have been entirely different, certainly Moslem. This overview should lend more meaning to the works of Sir Nascien in his adventure in the court of Constantine IV.
How the Khazars Saved Byzantium
Constantine IV died right after Sir Nascien's work in forming a peace treaty between the Umayyad Caliph of Damascus and Byzantium. As mentioned, it had been the custom of the Roman Emperors to name their brothers as co-regents first and then their own eldest child second. But Constantine IV changed this practice by having his two brothers' noses cut off and sent into exile (san nez) into monasteries. Maiming--blinding, cutting off hands or feet, cutting out the tongue, and cutting off the nose — was a common practice of the emperors in eliminating their competition. It was more humane than murder, we suppose.
Constantine's son, Justinian II, was named as co-regent with him after his brothers were exiled from the palace. Justinian was not as prudent and well liked as his father and there were many plots against him. Finally, Leontius, the emperor's Strategus of a new theme of Hellas, rebelled against him and took control of the government in 695 A.D. Following custom, he had Justinian's nose cut off and sent him in exile to the Crimea, in Cherson.
The Crimea was Khazar territory and after a while the Khan of the Khazars took sympathy upon Justinian II and set to help him regain his throne. During Justinian's exile Byzantium was under the rule of Tiberius II (698-705 A.D.). Tiberius was a weak ruler, in contrast to Constantine IV, and under him the exarchates of Carthage and the rest of North Africa fell to the advancing Arabs. By 711 A.D. the Arabs mastered the North African coast and right after that took Spain, setting their capital at Cordova.
Tiberius II attempted to kill Justinian II in exile, as Justinian still had popular support.
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Having removed himself from the government after Constantine IV died, Sir Nascien took a small villa on a Princess island. Hearing of Tiberius's plot to kill Justinian, and still being held by fealty to Justinian, Sir Nascien was bid to warn the emperor in exile of the plot against him. He purchased a passage to the Crimea by boat and arrived there soon enough to pass word to the Emperor, allowing him enough time to escape further into the Khazar territory. Arrangements were then made by the Khan of the Khazars, named Bazir, to send Justinian II to the Khan of the Bulgars, whose name was Tervel. With his alliance with the Khan of the Khazars was a marriage between Justinian and the Khan's lovely sister Theodoar. The newlyweds and Sir Nascien and many other followers with them moved on to Phanagoria (present Taman) on the eastern shore of the strait of Kerch where they made preparations for the invasion of Byzantium with the aid of the Khazar armies. But in the meantime Tiberius II had heard of the ruse and attempted to bribe the Khazar Khan into turning over his new brother-in-law to him. Theodoar caught wind of the bribe and warned of the two henchmen come to assassinate him, whose names were Papatzes and Balgitres, Justinian strangled each of them with a cord as they each were summoned to his quarters.
In the autumn of 705 A.D., aided by the Bulgar King, Justinian II appeared before the gates of Constantinople in front of a formidable army, including 15,000 horsemen, of Slavs and Bulgars. The walls of the city were no less impregnable to his troops than any other, so for three days he waited outside the city for his loyal supporters to open the gates. There was much dispute within the city and initially Justinian's attempt to regain his throne was met with scorn and derision. He was, after all, remembered as Justinian Rhinometus, whose nose was cut off. But by then the usurper Leontius had also had his nose cut off by Tiberias II when he usurped the throne, and, together with the brothers of Justinian and God knows how many others, noseless pretenders had no doubt become such a common sight in Constantinople the indignity of going about with one's nose cut off must have been somewhat ameliorated. Anyway, it didn't bother Justinian II nor his wife, Theodoar, who adored him so much he subsequently named her as co-regent when he regained his throne. After Justinian II the practice of nose-snipping was discontinued against deposed rulers though a set of nose pinchers remained in most purses.
Justinian II ruled this second time from 705-711 A.D. After he regained his throne the usurpers, Leontius and Tiberius II, were executed. Justinian brought his wife to Constantinople and made his son, Tiberius, co-Emperor.
Although he was very pious, Justinian II was not a righteous emperor. All of those who had stood against him he purged from his government and army; and his latter reign became a reign of terror and mass executions. As a result, many of his most competent administrators and generals were done away with. This is just what the Arabs needed to make inroads in Anatolia. In 709 A.D. they hit Tyana, one of the most important fortresses on the Cappadocian frontier, and lacking competent leadership that fort of Byzantium fell.
Justinian's thirst for revenge against those who betrayed or scorned him continued. He sent an expedition to Ravenna in revenge for their hostile attitude towards him, and he sacked and pillaged the city and took its most eminent citizens back to Constantinople in chains and executed them. The Bishop of Ravenna was punished by having his eyes burned out. Not satisfied here, Justinian II then turned to Cherson, where he was exiled in the Crimea, and took similar measures against that city. The city revolted, together with many of the officers of Justinian's imperial army and navy. The Khan of the Khazars supported the rebels and an Armenian, Bardanes, was there proclaimed Emperor, under the name of Philippus, in 711 A.D. When Philippus appeared before the gates of Constantinople there was no one in the city who was left who would support Justinian II, and the deposed emperor was killed by one of his own officers. His severed head was sent on to Rome and Ravenna for public display, his son and heir was murdered, and his pregnant wife returned to her father, Bazir the Khan, at Itel on the Caspian Sea, where Sir Nascien and Sir Caldemoore had just engaged themselves in the crazily mixed up wars of the Khazars along the lower reaches of the Volga against the Khan of the Ghuzz (Oguz). The Khan had broken his alliance with the Khwarizites, who were then being attacked by the Pechenegs, who — to strengthen their forces — had formed a fragile alliance with the Rhus chief, Hrörekr (Rurik), from his island camp of Holmgrad in lake Ilmen near Leningrad — later to become the city of Novgorod.
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When the Western Vikings began penetrating Britain from Denmark and Norway, the Eastern Vikings (Rus, Rhus) began sending their trading and pillaging convoys out of the Gulf of Finland up the river Volkhov into Lake Ilmen, where they set up their fort and trading post (Novgorod). From here they could send expeditions south, either way down the Dnieper River to the Black Sea or the Volga River into the Caspian Sea and the rich cities of Persia and the Bazerbaijani, Shirwani, Tabaristani and Jurjani. To obtain access to Cherson and the cities of the Crimea and Black Sea, or the cities of the Caspian Sea, the Vikings had to pay a 10% duty to the Khazar Khan on all goods they carried.
The Rhus, or Vikings, preferred the Dneister route, however, since it avoided the terrible Bulgar territories of the upper Volga and Urals, who themselves might extort some extra tax in order to pay for their own tax to the Khazar Khan which was accessed as one highly prized sable fur per household (they lived in fur tents). Sable fur was the preferred fur worn by the kings of Europe. In as much as the Bulgar cities were large, being as many as 50,000 round tents — many carried erect on huge wagons — the annual tribute of furs paid to the Khan of the Khazars was enormous and formed a very sizable basis of trade between the kings of Europe and the Middle East. In addition to this tribute, first from the tribes of Bulgars, Huns, Magyars, Slavs, etc. within his sovereign territories, the Khazar Khan realized an even more lucrative income from the large caravans which passed through his territories on their way to China (Chang-an). These caravans were also quite large because of their long trek, being often of 5,000 men and 3,000 pack animals. Of these regular caravans the Khazar Khan realized a 10% duty, making his treasuries in Itel very rich indeed. In addition to this, of course, was his control of the trade in Unicorn Horns which were spiral in form, three to five feet long, ivory like a tusk, which were often carried in the packs of the Vikings as they came south into the Khazar territories. Many of the Unicorn Horns originated near Iceland and Greenland — some near Britain — and it was these which dressed European Castles in the years to come. One Unicorn Horn was worth far more than its weight in gold, and generally they were displayed with gold and silver-jeweled sheaths around them. Truly the Khazars were rich! While the Byzantine Emperor sealed his letters with two pieces of gold, the Khazar Khan sealed his letters with three pieces of gold, as befitting the riches of his Kingdom!
The Khazar cities were themselves quite large. While many lived in tents — a tent could hold as many as 1,000 people — the Khan himself lived in a Brick palace. Many houses of the populace were made of mud and wattle construction, round, in imitation of their tents, with foundations set deep in the ground. Some cities stretched several miles, with houses connected by galleries to huge cattlesheds, sheep-pens, and many columned stables, which were about ten feet wide by 40 feet long. These towns were usually occupied only in winter. In the spring they would pack their tents and move into their cornfields and vineyards or after their sheep and cattle, moving through the steppes of Russia. However, the Capital of the Khazars, Itel, was a permanent settlement which was split into two districts. One side of the river contained the Khan's palace and teak-roofed buildings for his harem of eighty-five wives or so, and his synagogues and market; and the other side of the river housed the Moslems and their mosque whose minaret reached higher than any other building. At the market was a slave market, consisting of Slavs from the northwest traded through the Rhus.
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In 921 A.D. an Arab mission of Ahmad ibn-Fadlan recorded various aspects of the cultures of these peoples. Because of the cold he says:
"So each of us put on a Kurtak, [camisole] over that a woolen Kaftan, over that a buslin [fur-lined coat] over that a burka [fur coat]; and a fur cap, under which only the eyes could be seen; a simple pair of underpants, over them a linen pair, and over them the trousers; house shoes of Kaymuht [shagreen leather] and over these also another pair of boots; and when one of us mounted a camel, he was unable to move because of his clothes."
Then of the territories of the Ghuzz he writes:
"They are nomads and have houses of felt..They have no religion which would link them to God, nor are they guided by reason; they do not worship anything. The course of action they adopt is decided by taking counsel among themselves; but when they have decided on a measure and are ready to carry it through, even the humblest and lowliest among them can come and disrupt that decision...Their women wear no veils in the presence of their men or strangers. Nor do the women cover any parts of their bodies in the presence of people. One day we stayed at the palace of a Ghuzz and were sitting around; his wife was also present. As we conversed, the woman uncovered her private parts and scratched them, and we all saw it. Thereupon we covered our faces and said: 'May God forgive me!' The husband laughed and said to the interpreter: ''Tell them we uncover it in your presence so that you may see and restrain yourselves; but it cannot be attained. This is better than when it is covered up and yet attainable.' Adultery is alien to them; yet when they discover that someone is an adulterer they split him in two halves. This they do by bringing together the branches of two trees, tie him to the branches and then let both trees go, so that the man tied to them is torn in two."
Holding Byzantium together, as it were, was the Khazar Khan, whose strong hands over the Ghuzz and others like them and alliance with Byzantium at that time, cannot be undersold. To strengthen this alliance between the Khazars and Byzantium certain marriages between Khazar princesses and the Byzantine Emperors continued long after the initial marriage of the Khazar princess Theodoar (who incidentally set a new dress style in the palace through her exotic robes) to Justinian II. For instance, Constantine V (741-775 A.D.) married a Khazar Princess , La Fleur, baptized Eirene, and their son, Emperor Leo the Khazar, married the empress Irene, previously mentioned, who was courted by Charlesmagne after Leo IV's premature death the 8th of September 780 A.D. Leo's widow, Irene, was regent in deference to their young son, Constantine VI, whom she later deposed and killed, and reigned over Byzantium as its first empress, usurping powers only previously granted to men. She was deposed after a short reign (797-802 A.D) and replaced by Nicephorus, the Logothete of the treasury (exchequer). After this the Byzantine throne saw a period of instability until Michael II came to the throne, setting his dynasty called the Amorian (820 -867 A.D.).
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Now the widow of Justinian II, whose name was Theodoar, remarried one Höleg or Oleg who joined the Khazar Court and helped establish the Khazar settlement of Sarkel which guarded the Khazar Way between the narrow band of land between the Dneister and Volga rivers. The Khazar Way was a short land bridge by which the Rhus could transport their armadas from the Dneister to the Volga. The huge wagon tracks where they transported their ships can still be made out there, as also in Malta. The Rhus used the Khazar Way because it allowed them to enter the Volga River and from it the cities of the Caspian Sea out of harms way from the Eastern Bulgars. In this place, in fact, many caravans passed on their way into inner Asia.
It was Khazar custom to have a Double Kingship, one called the Bek and the other the Khan. The Bek was like the Mayor of the Palace of the Franks or the Magister Officiorum previously mentioned. The Khan was the highest officer and unlike the Bek he could not be approached or even seen by the populace. Only high officers of the Khazars and foreign emissaries could directly see the Khan. All decisions coming from the Bek were mostly initiated by the Khan or approved by him. He held absolute power over all in his realm and sat on a throne and in a pavilion both of gold. Only a Jew could become a Khan and generally he was elected from the nobility who derived their lineage from Asena.
Associated with the Khan's aura was the ritual of Regicide. Upon his coronation, each Khan was asked how long he wished to reign as a Khan of Asena. Whatever he said, the time expired, the Khan was strangled and a new Khan elected. Asena was descended from Japheth, of Togarma (see Genesis 10.2-3), whose offspring were the Uigur, Dursu, Avars, Huns, Basilii, Tarniakh, Khazars, Zagora, Bulgars, and the Sabir.
When Theodoar remarried, her son by Justinian II married into the Viking clans, out of whom came the Rhus chief Rurik, and his scion Oleg, who cut off Oskold and Dir, the founders of Kiev, and who annexed the city of Kiev to the Rhus domains. From them came the Grand Prince St. Vladimir, who founded the Rostov dynasty of Kiev and converted to Christianity, whose son was Prince Iurii Dolgorukii, (who reigned from 1090-1157 A.D.), whose son was Andrei Bogoliobskii (who reigned from 1110-1174 A.D.), and from whose loins came Anna of Kiev, the mother of the Angovan Dynasty of the Franks and Grail Queen over the Sons of David. Her son, Henry VI, claimed both the thrones of France and England due to his Angoven/Etheling lineage.
Henry VI is a scion of Ethelwulf who was the son of Egbert, Egbert of Ealhmund, Ealhmund of Eafa, Eafa of Eoppa, Eoppa of Ingild; Ingild was the brother of Ina, King of the West-Saxons, who held that kingdom thirty-seven winters and afterwards went to St. Peters, where he died. And they were the sons of Cenred, Cenred of Ceolwald, Ceolwald of Cutha, Cutha of Cuthwin, Cuthwin of Ceawlin, Ceawlin of Cynric, Cynric of Creaoda, Creaoda of Cerdic, Cerdic of Elesa, Elesa of Esla, Esla of Gewis, Gewis of Wig, Wig of Freawine, Freawine of Frithugar, Frithugar of Brond, Brond of Balday, Balday of Woden, Woden of Firthuwald, Firthuwald of Freawine, Freawine of Firthuwulf, Firthuwulf of Finn, Finn of Godwulf, Godwulf of Geat, Geat of Taetwea, Taetwea of Beaw, Beaw of Sceldwa, Sceldwa of Heremod, Heremod of Itermon, Itermon of Hathra, Hathra of Hwala, Hwala of Bedwig, Bedwig of Sceaf who was the son of Noah who was born in Noah's ark. And Noah was the son of Lamech, son of Methusalem who was also on the ark, who was the son of Enoch, son of Jared, son of Malalahel, son of Cainon, son of Enos, son of Seth, who was the son of Adam, who was the first born son of God.
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The Mandylion and the Khazars
The Mandylion colorized, from the Shroud of Turin
There were many groups of Ebionites living in the territories of the Khazars, along with a few Jews who had migrated originally from Israel. As mentioned the Khazars were Turks who converted to Judaism. When Constantine died Sir Nascien lived in the Princess Islands; then he stayed in Cherson where he served the Khan during the first years of Justinian II; then from 705 to 711 A.D he fought the Kwazarism, then he returned to France.
Sir Nascien and Princess Anaïs
While in France Sir Nascien stayed in Poitiers where King Constantine maintained his summer palace. By that time Princess Anaïs had grown up to be a very beautiful lady whose courtly manners were mimicked by the other ladies in the County of Anjou. Over her beautiful white, billowing breasts she wore that same lucky, flashy brooch captured by Sir Parzival, and if it were not her gently rising and falling breasts as she nervously positioned herself each morning in the parade grounds--in order to catch Sir Nascien's eye--it surely was her well formed, pounting lips and enticing eyes which drew him to her.
After two months of avoiding her darting eyes, Sir Nascien came into range sufficient for her to snag him. She was quite a clever lass, we must say, for failing the effectiveness of her beautiful gowns and rosy makeup in cornering him, she one morning decided to ditch her gown and exchanged it for the apparel of Chulrich, one of Sir Nascien's pages. As Sir Nascien entered the field in his smart green cloak and began dressing for the May Day joust of 711 A.D., she substituted herself as Chulrich. Having helped Sir Nascien with his Armor, the Sword and Shield of Aravat, and as he stepped onto his mount, Gryngolet with the read ears, she doffed her cap hiding her lovely auburn locks and revealed herself to him and offered him a piece of her white samite sheath to wear on his right arm during the tournament. She told him that the sheath was that sheath she wore next to her body each night as she dreamed of him! Astonished, abashed, yet afraid to offend the sweet princess, he accepted the bauble, and while the grandstand murmured took most of the prizes in the tournament. Many knights from Britain attended the Joust, and a few brought news of the declining state of affairs in the once noble state of Quaken-Bush and the policies of hated King George of Quaken-Bush (thankfully now dead due to his long bout with his itchy, scaly skin) continued. Before filthy George died Minister Gory Vitellus finally arrived at the idea of flooding the Cave of the Harpies with buckets of water, involving ten thousand troops handing buckets from the Heretic Monastery's well. Since the landing at the mouth of the cave was higher than its innards, the king was forced to stand at the mouth as water poured down upon him: washing both his filthy skin and the muddy, cement-like Harpy dung — containing every kind of itch, filth and disease known to man — down into the seemingly bottomless pit of the cave.
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When Rude King George finally stood shivering from the icy waters on a small ledge of sulphur above the stinking waters, a final dose of pure alcohol showered down upon him and he was then ordered to climb into a converted wine cask filled with oils of mead and cayenne which burned away the remaining filth upon him.
He returned to Quaken-Bush with great pomp and ceremony, though the rising population of the poor jeered him both inside and outside the gates. As they entered the city gate a poor, starving child was offered up to George's multi-hued carriage with its twenty porters on either side and ten footmen forward and behind. There were about ten thousand starving, homeless people outside the gate at the time — God knows how many still survived within the city — and at the coast there were now another 150,000 who had been made homeless by a recent storm. King George made quite a display of that hapless child, holding him up to the crowds from his carriage, saying what he had done for it he would do for all the poor. After he entered the palace the child was sent down to the castle's kitchen with the other slaves, and that is the last anyone ever heard of him. The poor, of course, were begrudgingly addressed for a few days and then after that ignored because of the continuing scramble for riches in King George's infamous kingdom. The scramble for money, with it power, involved all the people in Quaken-Bush — about which historians still marvell — so in love were they with money! For it was a fact that the more poverty that King George brought to the Kingdom the more the wealthy patrons of George needed money and ignored the despair of the masses. One would think that the piling up of the poor outside the gates of his palace might one day play upon the conscience of his government and people, but the reverse of this actually happened. Now that King George was out of the Cave, there was talk of pushing the homeless into it. They believed the poor might draw the Harpies, from their worn roosts on the walls of the city, to the cave; but first they felt they needed to wait for the waters in the cave to subside.
How Crude King George Died
The dryer air outside the cave didn't suit King George well. Within two months of his salvation he scratched himself to death. The dank, putrid air of the cave had helped to protect his alligator-like skin from the lice and the itches of the Harpy Dung. It was the high mineral content of the seeping stalactites dripping down from above his head which more than anything allowed him to survive his long captivity. The leeches didn't discover this, however, until long after George had been buried.
When the poor finally realized they had rights and rebelled against the inhumane government begun by King George and his predecessor, King George's body was ripped from its tomb and hiding place and thrown out on the street. By then all of the descendents of King George were so frightened at the rebukes of the people, they abandoned their dishonest estates and changed their names. Since the day King George's tomb and body was vandalized, 'til now, no one of his descendents has admitted being related to him.
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George's Hateful Plans to Stir up the Arabs
News of Sir Boors' failed mission in Constantinople returned quickly to King George before he died. In a last ditch effort George ordered Ogmios of Ocoui, Sir Boors's chief spokesman while Sir Boors was in isolation, to proceed to Damascus where he believed the Umayyad Caliph might be enticed into war against Byzantium and their ally, the Khan of the Khazars. In this mission a great amount of tribute money was sent to Damascus by King George, through the Umayyad merchants at Cordova, who occupied that city in 711 A.D. Reusing an old scam, he offered to build a castle in Brittany from which he would launch an attack against Provence and, in the process, conquer the territories of Toulouse around the Garonne River. From this exercise, he claimed he would turn Aquitaine, Navarre, and his castle near Tours over to the Umayyads. As in his earlier scam, he never intended to build a castle near Tours and instead he used the moneys he borrowed from the Egyptian Caliph for the castle to erect a new castle, called White Castle, on the border of Somerset. Still flinching from the white lamelablanche stone which hit him in the nape of the neck when he attempted to build the perfect white Tajma Hall in the sky--he had a dreadful tick — he continued to have aspirations of building a beautiful Tajma Hall in the sky. White Castle, of course, bore no resemblance whatsoever to the Tajma Hall, as anyone today can see, but what did King George care? He was a fraud anyway; what would he care of making another fraud? As kings go he was no doubt the sleaziest king ever to walk this earth--the filth from the Harpy guano aside. His pat comment when asked whether he would follow up a promise was always, before the Promise, Read my lips, and after the promise failed to be realized, he always retorted, "No one expects any promises to be fulfilled anyway! " These are true sayings of Rude King George as all the chronicles of his times attest. We can understand how – insatiated with greed — the people of Quaken-Bush could accept his lies but are perfectly nonplused that the kings of Europe tolerated them.
Under his underlings the policy of lying as a matter of statecraft continued, until it caught up with them, one lie impinging upon another, and finally falling in the halls of the majestic Emperor of Chang-an, whose name was T'ang Teh-tsung. In disgust of the Westerners he launched a war on his western borders, forcing out Westerners and, in turn, causing the Huns of Chang-an to flee into Pecheneg territory, who in turn attacked the Ghuzz. The Ghuzz attacked Khan Joseph, and, because of his weakened front along the Caspian Sea, the Arabs penetrated the Khazar lands. The Khazars in turn began to move westward while the Magyars (Western Huns) sought refuge in the fields now known as Hungary, named after them. This account of the Emperor T'ang Teh-tsung's rebukes about 713 A.D. comes from the diary of Princess Yuri-rita who ended up in the emperor's court after a long chase following in the tracks of her espoused and beloved courtier, Sir Caldemoore, the Red Knight. The reports of Rude King George's crudeness had been well known in Chang-an, and when Sir Caldemoore arrived in his court in 713 A.D. with a band of Khazar Jews and Afghans, including a group of Nestorian Jews, the emperor mistook them for the Heretics. "If King George could not be trusted who among the West could be trusted?" the Emperor asked. In fact, all of George's allies, the Seven Kings of Pansnance — like the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah — were recorded in the Chang-an chronicles as beasts.
This even reflected upon King Constantine of France and the Franks, although he had nothing to do with the Seven Kings of Pansnance. In any event, the time of the late eighth century was a delicate time in the history of human affairs; and King George's hateful, abusive, rude, discriminatory, and lying ways — as shocking and horrifying as they were — served to bring about a new era. Out of his debauchery man would learn to appreciate good and avoid evil; and this would be a lesson to us in the future who might find ourselves in similar circumstances under the despairful burden of another King George of Quaken-Bush and his greedy, corporate hegemony. It is a truth, though not a welcome truth, that King George became a standard by which we could all measure and identify evil. A wolf in sheep's clothing, the world finally learned through King George the Rude, the truth about the liar whom the Old Testament Scriptures named, Beliar. George spoke of riches but brought only riches to himself and poverty to the world; he spoke of peace but brought war; for hope he brought despair.
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Gryngolet Dies
After the May Day tournament Sir Nascien began courting Princess Anais. In the year 714 A.D. they married and a marvellous thing happened several days after their wedding. As Sir Nascien entered the stable where Gryngolet with the red ears was kept, he heard a commotion and crying at the far end of the keep. The pages were steeped in the greatest alarm. As he hurried to Gryngolet's bronze studded stall there, laying in the straw, was his beautiful black steed. Gryngolet's alert red ears were drooping and his carmine hooves twitched in the straw of the stall. He died. He was twenty-one years old and as powerful as a three year old until the end.
Miracle of the Unicorn
During Gryngolet's last moments a beautiful, perfectly white winged Unicorn, with a gilded edged white saddle, draped with a white samite covering, with blue eyes and blue eyelashes, appeared in Gryngolet's stall. He was about the size of Gryngolet, but a bit narrower in the chest. He was that same steed born from Gryngolet's affair with the Hippogriff. Princess Anaïs was brought to the stall after the Unicorn arrived, and she confirmed it was the foal of her Unicorn, as it had the blue eyes and blue eyelashes of the one in the Dolorous Tower.
The Princess and the Unicorn behaved like they were old friends. Unicorns are the most unusual beasts in nature, as they not only are quite discerning when it comes to truth and falsehood (the point of these books) but also they can speak and can change form, appearing even in the likeness of a son of man. The Unicorn's horn was treasured because of its curative qualities, and its powder was in the possession of many kings of Europe. It served as a remedy against poisoning, gout, and a host of maladies; and Kings would carry their powder in small gilt, enameled boxes, from which it could be sprinkled in their water and food before consumption.
When she saw the Unicorn, the Princess discerned it was time for her Prince to leave--though she was with child. This seemed to be the custom of the times. Had not Sir Lancelot gone off on his errant mission, leaving the Princess of Ireland with Galahad yet in her womb? Had not Sir Gahmuret left Parzival when Parzival was yet in his mother's womb?
Princess Anais had not yet revealed that she was then pregnant to her new husband. Her condition was not yet noticeable, and certainly her tiny waist refused to reveal it. She remembered riding upon her Unicorn as a child and when she saw the Winged Unicorn she could not help herself--she had dreamed of it for many years--and jumped upon its white saddle. The beautiful white steed vaulted through the gate of the stall and fluttered out into the courtyard of the castle and into the sky, only to return the Princess moments later to the startled, gathering crowd. Friars were crossing themselves, thinking they saw the Virgin Mary landing! Then the Princess was helped from the mount and her Unicorn stalled. Two days later Sir Nascien appeared on the parade grounds in a new attire, wearing perfectly white armor with sable and black stitching. His shield now appeared with a silver, sable background with a black bend upon it. In a pack mounted on the steed's haunches was the Emerald Green Armor of the Green Knight which he then delivered for storage to Sir Gwain in the Cave of the Unicorns and then, leaving the Cave with new scripts, he flew over Geneva and past the forbidden Rhaetian Forest where the Hippogriffs roam.
They lodged with the Bulgar King Isperech, and then went on to a place called Aleppo, where the Caliph of Damascus was outfitting his troops for an assault on Byzantium and the Khan of Khazaria. Unbeknownst to him Nebuchednezzar II had been outfitting a new army (his crack troops were years earlier massacred by the Seven King's of Pansnance) — more dedicated this time to waging war for God and against the Jews. The Khan of the Khazars, of course, was not the least bit happy over Nebuchednezzar's resurgence and sent his armies to the Defile of Darband on his southern flank.
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The Siege of Edessa
At the same time, hearing of the buildup of the Arab forces in Syria and Babylon, Emperor Leo III (717-741 A.D.), the father of Constantine V mentioned earlier, who married the beautiful Khazar Princess Theodoar, began moving his troops to his eastern frontier near Mosul. In the middle of this confrontation was the fortified town of Edessa (Urfa) in Turkey, to which our story now turns, for it not only was in a strategic position to the Caliph of Damascus but also to the Byzantine Emperor and Nebuchednezzar II in Babylon. Not only was it a strategic site but also it possessed one of the most treasured relics of Christ, of which, interestingly enough, all parties to the coming conflict wished to possess. A Second Arab war followed, engaging Byzantium, lasting from 722 A.D. to 737 A.D. — out of which, in the Battle of Ardabil in 730 A.D., the Khazars came out losers. It all began as the Heretics brought the entire controversy of Jesus — his gold, and his glory--to Edessa.
Monotheism and the Mandylion
Justinian II was a very devout emperor in spite of his other failings. As mentioned, the Byzantine Emperors, and their [Greek] Orthodox Church, took a more Judaic view of scriptures, agreeing in part with the Jews and the Moslems that neither God nor his Messiah ought to be portrayed in any form, stone, wood or pictures. For this reason, because the church was controlled out of Byzantium, during the first part of the Christian era there were no pictures made of Jesus or his Apostles and other saints of the church. In spite of the ban against idols and all the arguments between the Western Church centered at St. Peter's church in Rome, under the heavy hand of the Pope, there were a few items touched by Jesus which were not considered idols. They were the crucifix, the crown of thorns, Christ's Robe, and most particularly a relic called the Mandylion, which was a linen sheath in which Jesus was purported to have been draped in the tomb and which miraculously assumed an impression of his likeness. A copy of this likeness was placed over Justinian II's throne in Constantinople.
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The original of the Mandylion was hidden away in the main gate of Edessa. Copies of the Mandylion were scattered about, one ending at Jerusalem and another with Charlesmagne. The one Charlesmagne had was eight feet long and was later destroyed in the French Revolution. Other copies include portraits in the Hagia Sophia mosque in Constantinople, a church in Berlin, and another in Italy. Some versions are about the size of a facial napkin--like that which Saint Veronica used to wipe the forehead of Jesus as he stumbled under his cross. The original, now called the Shroud of Turin, is about fourteen feet long and carries a negative photographic impression of a man whose features were the prototype of all the Mandylion copies. The common claim behind the Mandylion images — paintings or otherwise--was that they were not made by human hands, as in the case of one impressed upon a tile, thereby making them exempt, as it were, as idols. For idols are images of gods made by human hands. The heretics were not effected by this argument in any way, because they used idols in the normal course of their worship, both in their churches and around their necks as amulets protecting them against evil.
After the death of Justinian II, in 711 A.D., Byzantium went through an idol destroying period, called the Iconoclast Crisis, until 843 A.D. Paintings, statutes, and all other images were ruthlessly sought out and destroyed throughout the Eastern Empire to the applause of the Arabs.
As mentioned earlier, Ogmios of Ocoui had been sent a message to leave the court of Byzantium and move on to the Emir of Babylon with the intent of stirring up more trouble with the Saracens and, in turn, Nebuchednezzar II (an upstart general not related to the Abbassid line) whom the Seven Kings of Pansnance, originally led by Rude King George and now Gory Vitellus, were using as a dupe to control all of the Middle East. They would be led into battle against themselves, and the Seven Kings of Pansnance would snip off their share of the lands and peoples destroyed from that Arab war.
It took quite a bit of finagling for the Arab's to wage war against each other, for it is written in their Koran that no Moslem is to wage war against another Moslem nation. The argument for war had to override this law in the Koran, as is with most designs undermining laws to justify evil.
Vanity is the King of most people--not God--and in Babylon a new faction called the Abbassids, previously discussed, were gaining power and influence over Mecca and through Mecca the entire Arab world, which at that time now stretched over North Africa and Spain.
As a result of Ogmios of Ocoui's mission on behalf of the Heretics, the Arabs had their sights on Tours and the Valley of the Loire in France, and laid plans to extend their battle front there and, at the same time, set themselves to overthrow the Umayyad Caliph in Damascus. Ogmios's embassy switched to Baghdad, since the resulting Second Arab War under Caliph Maslama (August 717 A.D.) with Constantinople had drained the Umayyad Dynasty in Damascus and transferred power to Baghdad and the Abbassid Caliphs. In addition the winter of 717-718 A.D. was particularly severe, with large numbers of the Arab army perishing, only to succumb to a terrible famine. The Bulgars finally broke the Arab siege, and, exactly a year after the siege began, Caliph Maslama packed up and returned home. Land wars with the Arabs continued against Emperor Leo III each year without success. Leo III reigned from 717-741 A.D.
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In the spring of 722 A.D. a 100,000 man Khazar army approached Dyarbekil on its way to Edessa and Mosul. Camped before the walls of Edessa to the south were another 100,000 Arab troops, and approaching from the east were another 50,000 Abbassid troops waiting, as it were, like wolves, hoping to clean up after the coming confrontation. Among them was Ogmios of Ocoui, still dragging his chronicle which was once a eulogy to the Heretic Prelate Willifrigt but now containing all kinds of interesting historical notes and points of interest. He was well received by the Saracens because of the important geographical information in his books.
Edessa was a formidable city and had last been penetrated in the sixth century. It has the fame of being the first Christian city. Its King Akbar, who lived during the time of Christ, was among the first to convert to Christianity. According to the story Akbar was a leper and dying. Hearing of Jesus's miracles he sent a letter to Jesus, requesting him to come and cure him from his ills. A letter was sent back from Jesus apologizing that he could not come because of needs in Jerusalem. But Jesus said in his letter he would send one of his disciples to him. Shortly thereafter Jesus was crucified, and Thaddeus, a disciple, was elected to deliver on Jesus's promise and went to Akbar. He carried with him the Shroud left in Jesus's tomb, which had an impression of Jesus on it. The Shroud was folded so that only the impression of Jesus's face showed in the protective bronze-latticed container in which it had been placed. There had already been some miracles associated with the Shroud, and the Church in Jerusalem believed that it could heal Akbar as well.
King Akbar was instantly cured when he was exposed to the Shroud. After that many miracles occurred in Edessa, and the Shroud, now called the Mandylion, was placed in the altar of a church built especially for it. Since then the city had a tradition, which spread with all the disciples throughout the world, that as long as the Mandylion stayed in Edessa the city would be protected by it.
Centuries and wars passed by, always leaving Edessa unscathed, until one day there was a great flood and the cherished Shroud had to be moved from its place. Then in the sixth century after the flood the city was about to be overrun, and the king ordered that the Shroud to be hid. The Patriarch took the Shroud with a candle and placed it in a niche high in the city's gate, where the god of the Port used to reside, and sealed up the niche with the lit lamp and Shroud enclosed. It was not moved again until 722 A.D. when Sir Nascien, upon his Winged Unicorn, and the Arab armies stood before the city.
The Unicorn had exceptional discernment; in the evening before the battle he led us to the place where the Mandylion was stored.
The Patriarch, named Anastasios, had a dream of a white knight coming to the niche and rose to investigate it. He saw Sir Nascien in his shining white armor and helped him carefully remove the Mandylion from its niche. They replaced it with the one-sided copy which subsequently ended up in the possession of Charlesmagne. Sir Nascien then flew away with the treasured Shroud to a lovely place on the Black Sea called Cape Sinop which was a fortified place the Khazars held jointly with the Pontic Theme of Constantinople. The land along the sea at Sinop had gently rolling, oak covered hills which led up to a great mountain range. About two miles down the beach from Sinop the mountains plunged directly into the sea, leaving high hanging valleys as one sees in the Austrian Alps. The Mandylion stayed there until it was moved to Constantinople in the tenth century. After the sack of Constantinople in 1125 A.D., by the Crusaders of all people, the Mandylion was rightfully carried to Poitiers with many other relics to the House of Anjou.
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After leaving the Mandylion and Patriarch Anastasios in Sinop, Sir Nascien flew back to Edessa to aid in the battle of the Khazars against the Saracens from Damascus. He landed where the battle was in full force in a marshy area north of the city, where the river made a quick turn to the southeast. Few of the heavily armored knights on either side were effective in that area, and the bog was full of screaming men and whinnying mounts. Because Sir Nascien's steed had wings (and a dreadful horn) he was able to swoop down on the Saracen chargers escaping from the marsh, running through one after another with his lance. Only well into the battle did he draw his sword, and that was after he split his lance on a Teil tree, piercing a Saracen's shield and body beforehand, nailing him directly to the tree. He drew his sword and began hacking at steel in every direction. Chips of wood from the shields and shreds of steel flew as one might see in a contest of twenty woodsmen cutting up one tree. Never had the Saracens seen the like before, and in panic they all flew into the center of the marsh where most of them drowned. As they retreated they let fly all of their arrows as if in one last desperate, hardouin move. Sir Nascien was hit from several sides and his armor looked like a pin cushion. But one arrow hit him in his right thigh, piercing even the scabbard of his Sword of Aravat, and because of his wounds he was carried from the field. He was bandaged in Edessa and treated as best they could from rubbings of the Unicorn Horn, until his fever broke, and then put back on his way, to return to his wife and son in Anjou, where he ruled as Grail King for several years more.
Causes of the Arab Wars
The causes of this war which ended in the Khazar defeat in A.D. 730, driving them back into the steppes from their anchors in Syria near Mosul, are the same causes which continue to plague humanity until now. They all boil down to disputes over Jesus's divinity which the Roman Empire, under Constantine, hoped to resolve in the Council of Nicaea but only added to the confusion. To understand the extreme forms of disagreement which still affect us today, it would be helpful to look at the issue from the Khazar, more open minded point of view.
The Khazars were Turkish peoples who converted to Judaism. They observed the Jewish law and did practice circumcision. A story involving the Khan Joseph, speaking of attempts to convert his people to either Christianity or Islam, perhaps best expressed the story of the Christian-Islamic differences. Khan Joseph's rabbi told him that an envoy of the Christians would have him and his people become Christians. He received the envoy and discerned that the Christians used the Scriptures but did not practice them. The Khan was well versed in the Hebrew Scriptures. Of course those Christians of the envoy were followers of Slues and their practices bore in fact little resemblance to the Scriptures. Their habit of using the Messiah in a manner which had no bearing to the Scriptures (which created the Messiah) just made no sense to the Khan, so he quickly dismissed the envoy. Conveniently, the Arab who was then on his way to tell the Khan about Islam was killed, so the Khan had no opportunity to judge Islam.
The Arab argument nontheless was later sent to the Khan who was then so pressed with war he had no time to look at it. The letter said, "My lord, our Great Khan, may God keep you forever! The Quoran has no life but to confirm the Jewish Scriptures. Though evident in many areas, we need only use one example by your Grace's permission:
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AL-AHQAF 46.12 .. the Book of Moses was revealed, a guide and a blessing to all men. This book confirms it.
'Lord, one cannot confirm something while opposing it. Can two walk together except they be agreed? As God is to my Lord the Khan so too are the ways of the Jewish Scriptures to the Quoran.' In this the Khan could not object.
The Koran, of course, also confirms that Jesus is the Messiah, something the Khan did question but which was discredited by the action of the Heretics in making Jesus a god, called Antijude, in opposition to the Scriptures which created him. Because of the Christian Heretics and hypocrites, the Imams of the Koran and the Khan could never get together, leaving only in the Khan's mind a Jesus as a god who abrogates the Jewish Scriptures. We know for a fact that many an apostle of Islam was turned back by the Khazar's Khan because of this. They had to advocate Jesus (as the Ebionites had advocated him) because of the Koran's endorsement of Jesus Messiah in many places. We need only cite one instance here:
IMRANS 3:45 The angels said to Mary: "Allah bids you rejoice in a Word from him. His name is the Messiah, Jesus the son of Mary..."