Surenid succession dispute of 1731
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The vagaries of the right to sit upon the throne in the Suren Confederacy gave rise to a disputed succession during 1731 AN. Whilst the durbar convoked to arbitrate the dispute ultimately ruled in favour of the Crown Prince, as expected, the failure to conciliate the provincial nobility would see the majority of satraps throw their support behind pretender claimant during the ensuing Surenid civil war.
Background: the death of Surenšāhbanu Mitradokht
On the 12th day of the 1st month of 1731 AN, the reigning monarch Surenšāhbanu Mitradokht of the Suren Confederacy passed away at the age of 86. Her death marked the end of a tumultuous 35-year reign that saw the Confederacy embroiled in multiple conflicts, including the Third Euran War and the brutal suppression of the Bitter Spring revolt.
Circumstances
Few official details were released about the cause of Mitradokht's demise. According to court chroniclers, the Shahbanu had been in visibly declining health for several months prior. She was reportedly bedridden since late 1730 after suffering a severe coughing fit and respiratory distress.
Rumours swirled that Mitradokht may have been a victim of the lingering radiation sickness that plagued the region from the Babkhan Holocaust over a century prior. Skeptics questioned if her death was simply due to complications from old age and the stress of ruling through the chaotic events of 1730 AN. Accusations also surfaced that she had been in fact poisoned by a faction within the court.
In traditional Zurvanite fashion, all of the Shahbanu's personal effects, clothing and items she came into contact with were burned as per funerary rites. Her body was prepared for an elaborate ceremony combining ancient Babkhan rituals and Mazdian burial rites overseen by the Zurvanite high priesthood.
The preparations took place under a veil of secrecy enforced by the loyalist 7th Cavalry Division. A period of strict mourning protocols commenced across the Confederacy during which normal administration ground to a halt.
Succession
With no appointed heir named during her lifetime, Mitradokht's death triggered a succession crisis. As per the customs and tradition of Imperial Babkhan monarchy, the throne would pass to the eldest surviving member of the House of Suren. However, internal feuding between the various branches of the dynastic clan had left the direct line of descent unclear and rife with internal conflicts.
The complex web of marriages between members of different clan factions, as well as the systematic disinheritance of rivals, had muddled what should have been a straightforward hereditary succession. Multiple pretenders to the Shahdom emerged in the ensuing power struggle.
In the interim, a regency council comprised of powerful satraps and the highest ranks of the military and clergy took charge. Their first priority was maintaining order and stability in the aftermath of the Bitter Spring crackdown. However, internal divisions quickly became apparent on the crucial question of determining the new Surenshah.
With the situation growing increasingly unstable, Constancian observers predicted a high likelihood of civil war breaking out if a generally accepted Surenshah was not enthroned soon. Having depended on Mitradokht's ability to hold the fractious Confederacy together through her personal prestige, the foreign allies with interests in the Confederacy found themselves in a precarious position.
The claimants
As Mitradokht's health deteriorated in her final years, attention turned to the question of succession. The leading contender emerged as Dāryuš Vištāspa of the Suren, the Crown Prince and Mitradokht's nephew. Born in 1686 AN to Dāryuš of the Suren and Bānū Aspadanadoḵt, Dāryuš Vištāspa had been spared from execution upon Mitradokht's ascension and had risen through the ranks to become Chief of Staff for the Surenid Armed Forces in 1722 AN.
However, Dāryuš Vištāspa's claim was immediately challenged by Mirza Rustaham Sūrēn, a distant cousin through clan membership who served as governor of the Trucial Isles. This set the stage for a struggle within the Surenid court, with various factions aligning behind the two claimants.
The Vištāspa Faction
Dāryuš Vištāspa's primary supporters included:
- Bab-e Dīvān - The executive council headed by Astabadh Rashid Sanook, which sought to maintain continuity and stability.
- Euramehr Arteshbod Ardashir Ghul - The powerful Defence Minister who commanded significant loyalty from the military ranks.
- Mobads and Herbads - The Zurvanite clergy, who favored Dāryuš as the legitimate heir to preserve the dynastic line.
Dāryuš could also count on the backing of the Euran Economic Union and the Trans-Euran Command of the Raspur Pact. As the clear favorite of the Pact, his ascension would ensure the continued influence of the Committee of Euran Salvation over the Suren Confederacy.
The Rustaham Faction
On the other hand, Mirza Rustaham Sūrēn's challenge rallied support from elements disgruntled with foreign domination and the present government's close ties to the Raspur Pact. His supporters included:
- Provincial Nobility - Satraps and landowners resentful of centralised government control, who saw Rustaham as a means to assert more autonomy.
- Babkhan Nationalists - Groups like the remnants of the Babkhan Restoration Movement, who sought to expel foreign influence and revive Babkhan identity.
- Disillusioned Military Officers - Sections of the officer corps unhappy with the regime's suppression of the Bitter Spring protests.
While lacking the clear legitimacy of the Vištāspa claim, Rustaham's faction capitalised on deep-seated grievances against the prevailing hegemony and the repeated use of force against the Surenid populace by Mitradokht's regime.
The interregnum
With his military credentials and direct lineage to the Suren dynasty, Dāryuš Vištāspa was still seen as the most viable candidate to assume the throne. However, Rustaham's challenge added a new dimension of uncertainty to the transition of power.
Concerns remained over Dāryuš' ability to navigate the complex web of Constancian influence while addressing the simmering discontent among the Surenid populace. A heavy-handed crackdown could reignite widespread unrest, while excessive concessions to nationalist sentiments risked alienating the vital economic and military backing from allied powers that had propped up the regime thus far.
Character of the Regency Council
The composition of the Regency Council itself was a delicate matter. It had been declared on the day the throne fell vacant, at the initiative of the Satrap of the Suren Ostan, Sardar Nur Mir, who had the advantage of being resident in Surenshahr. Whilst the Grand Vizier, Rashid Sanook, could have acted decisively to condemn the presumption and recognise the Crown Prince as heir immediately, he had instead vacillated and the moment was lost after the Shahbanu-uz-Spādānām of Aspadana and the Sardar Rustam Mir of the Ḡur Ostan publicly recognised the legitimacy of the Regency Council.
Dāryuš Vištāspa, whilst distracted by the preparations for the mortuary rites required by his aunt, at least had the presence of mind to invite himself onto the council.
So too had the Moabadan-Moabad, Adur Ghilani, a priest who had some how attained the highest office in the Zurvanite religion after his predecessor, Ādurbād-ī Zandzadeh, had promptly quit Surenshahr with the demise of Mitradokht. Whilst there were plenty who would subsequently question the irregularity of his assumption of office, Adur had the support of the mobads present in the capital, and was thus able to have himself acclaimed. From this position he had deftly talked his way into the Bab-e Dīvān. Similarly it had been impossible to turn Adur, who had a certain physical presence, away from the Regency Council, for after all the legitimacy of kingship had relied upon "receipt of the immutable blessings of Zurvan, and the sublime grace of the highest divinity".
More concerning was the extent to which the military of the Suren Confederacy had decided to make their presence felt. Not only the Euramehr Arteshbod, Ardashir Ghul, but also the generals, Zahedi Khan, Mihrab Khan, Rashan Khan, and Durmish Khan, had arrived swiftly in the capital with their armed retinues.
Other members of the Bab-e Dīvān had prudently decided against entangling themselves in the formation of the regency, and instead focused their energies, diligently, upon the needs of their departments.
Dāryuš Vištāspa and Ardashir Ghul found themselves in a paradoxical situation, where the former served as chief of staff to the Euramehr Arteshbod but the latter owed deterrence to the Crown Prince whom he himself acknowledged as the heir apparent. Whilst they should have been in common cause, the question of the presidency over the regency council now laid between them as a source of contention.
The Majles-e Suren meanwhile, as the main bastion of the N&H in the Confederacy, sought to assert for itself the right to convoke a durbar, under the auspices of the Humanist Movement, where the succession might be confirmed. Such a notion found favour, naturally, with neither the satraps, the generals, nor the priestly caste, who while all in favour of a durbar, wished for it to be convoked under their terms. In this manner was the second month of 1731 AN lost to fruitless argumentation.
Slaughter in Surenshahr
There then occurred in the third month of 1731 AN, in the squalid quarter of Surenshahr known as Kushanpur, a series of brutal incidents unfolded which would have grave ramifications for the succession. Three young boys were tasked with watching over a herd of goats, and as the animals grazed in the marginal land on the edge of the district, one of the boys, it is alleged, idly remarked: "Let us find out the way how people are hanged."
While one lad clambered onto the shoulders of another, the third set about fashioning a crude noose from the rope used to tether the goats. In morbid curiosity, he draped this over a low branch, and the two others obliged him by having one thrust his head through the loop. But rather than a mere demonstration, a sudden gust of wind caught the trailing end of the rope and swiftly tightened the noose. The boy being used as a mount slipped free, while the other dangled in the air, choking. By the time the two had raised the alarm, their friend had perished. However, there are those who maintain the pair then deliberately pulled the rope tight, intending merely to frighten their friend with a cruel prank. But the rope rapidly constricted, and they realised too late that they had gone too far when the boy began choking in earnest. Panicking, the two fled, leaving their companion to strangle slowly on the rope. By the time the two had summoned enough courage to raise the alarm, their friend was indeed deceased.
On the following day, the bereaved father arrived seeking his missing son, only to have the gruesome truth revealed. In a rage, the man drew a knife and slew one of the two young culprits on the spot. He then dragged the body away to a secluded spot and hacked out the dead boy's liver and took it home to consume at the evening meal, callously serving it to the killer's own parent.
When the shocking deed became known, a vicious cycle of retaliatory killings erupted between the two families involved. As word spread through Kushanpur's warrens, other long-standing grievances were revived and neighbourhoods descended into communal violence. Within days, the winding alleys became battlegrounds for gun battles and arson between Umraid and Zurvanite households.
The spreading conflict soon overwhelmed the city authorities and gendarmerie. With rumours swirling of aid being funnelled to the warring factions from outside instigators, the Bab-e Dīvān declared a state of emergency. Elements of the 7th Cavalry Division were once again summoned from their cantonments in an attempt to restore order through overwhelming force.
But the heavy-handed crackdown only added fuel to the fires. Protests erupted across Surenshahr denouncing the rising death toll and undiminished sectarian violence. The city had descended into virtual siege as the Regency Council grappled with the escalating chaos, further distracting from the critical matter of the succession.