Iranistani

Overview
Iranistan is only mentioned briefly in one of the Conan stories written exclusively by Robert E. Howard. The kingdom does not appear on the map created by Robert E. Howard but other artists, scholars and writers have found a place for it to the west of Vendhya and south of Turan, below the Colchian Mountains. Since Robert E. Howard says nothing about Iranistan other than that Kerim Shah originated from there, the information that follows draws extensively from the works of other Conan authors.

The people of Iranistan are described as being black haired and broad in the shoulder. They have a dark complexion and dark eyes. The people of Iranistan are of the same root stock as those of Ghulistan; they are likely a relatively hairy race. Various tribes of Iranistani vary slightly in description. Although the Iranistani population is composed of many distinct tribal units, much of their way of life is essentially the same.

Attraction is a Virtue
Love of art is one common element among the Iranistani. Virtually everything the Iranistani make is attractive. Even the most common items, such as bags to carry produce to the bazaars, are embroidered and decorated. Even the animals are dressed in woven finery. Fine calligraphy and visual arts are displayed in the beautiful trimmings that adorn the buildings. The Iranistani respect both the arts and artists. Poetry and story-telling are time honoured traditions among the Iranistani.

Tribes and Family Importance
Beyond art, the vital importance of family is another common element found in the Iranistani culture. Families are extremely close-knit and a tribe is simply several branches of a single family led by a tribal chief whose word is law. Villages are built around the family unit. These are self-sufficient groups that follow a headman, usually the oldest male in the village, who in turn follows the tribal chief. In the larger cities, the headman is a wealthy landowner who is called a khan. The nomads call their headmen sheiks.

Honor and Hospitality
Iranistani tribes have their own codes of honour that is similar across the entire nation, a code that teaches family honour, pride, and hospitality. Family is more important than the individual. Family defines the individual. Personal honour is also family honour and vice versa. First and foremost is an Iranistani’s immediate family. He is most loyal to his immediate family members, followed by other kin, remote clan members and the king. Pride is another word for personal honour for the Iranistani. Honour and pride define respect for oneself. Insults must be paid for, no matter how great or small. A man refers to an insult as ‘something undesirable in my beard’.

Hospitality is also important to the Iranistani. Generosity is honourable, so food and drink must be given to anyone who comes to them in peace. All guests must be protected; the Iranistani take responsibility for all who are in their homes. Their honour depends on this. This is often called the bond of salt, or eating a man’s salt. Once a person is a guest in an Iranistani’s home, that person is safe.

Fate
The Iranistani people, regardless of tribal affiliation, tend to be fatalistic, willing to follow whatever fate they believe their god, Asura, has given them. Fate is important to the Iranistani and they believe the gods command their destinies, both as individuals and as a nation. They never become depressed at the idea of certain doom; they merely accept it.

Clothing
Iranistani males wear baggy silk or cotton pantaloons and long shirts or striped robes that hang nearly to the knees. These are belted at the waist with wide sashes and accompanied by embroidered vests. The sashes hold weapons and often bristle with multiple knives. Most adult males are heavily bearded. Many wear turbans with a long strip hanging down the back or large sheep-skin caps. Others, particularly the nomads, wear kaffiyehs, striped to identify their tribes. Many of the soldiers wear turbans wrapped around their spired steel caps. The women also wear baggy silken trousers and vests. Veils may also be worn but are not required. Jewellery is worn by many of the women. Armlets, bracelets, necklaces, tiaras, headbands and thin gold or platinum belts are common adornments. Women’s hair is kept long and held in pony-tails by jewelled bands. Everything they wear is embellished and decorated. Iranistani men and women both wear soft shoes with upward-pointing toes. Everything the Iranistani wear, from the basest of clothing to armour and weaponry, is ornate and decorated.

Trade and Economy
Iranistan’s major products include hand-woven rugs, embroidered clothing, silks, wool, cotton, nuts and fruits, wines, opium, hashish, various oils (petroleum and olive), coal, copper, talc, barites, sulphur, lead, zinc, iron ore, salt, slaves and precious and semiprecious stones. As a crossroads of trade between the Black Kingdoms, Turan, Stygia, the Golden Kingdoms, Ghulistan, Vendhya and Khitai, Iranistan has grown wealthy. Turan hungers after this trade and recently captured Zamboula in order to control (and profit from) trade coming from Iranistan headed to the West.

Slaves
Most slaves of the Iranistani are Prisoners of war, or those who were traded to them. The slaves aren't treated very harshly at all, often having better quality of life, then some commoners. They are provided safety, food and shelter by their owners. Some even earn their freedom after a certain amount of time had passed.

Military
Iranistan doesn't have the central organization required to sustain a national army. The king cannot always levy troops from his chiefs, while the chiefs rarely have sufficient resources to manage more than a handful of troops. However, like the city-states of Corinthia, the tribes do work together for their mutual protection. They can raise a poorly coordinated army consisting mostly of nomads and raiders with a small backbone of professional soldiers drawn from the city garrisons. In battle, the Iranistani are brutal, hewing at a fallen foe until little of the remains are recognisable. The Iranistani are skilled at using crossbows or javelins. They tend not to use bows. Although some of the more professional soldiers are quite skilled.

The only professional soldiers of Iranistan are the King’s Slingers. They knock enemies off their horses with slingstones so the demounted troops can be run over by the tribal cavalry units conscripted from the various nomad or hillman tribes of Iranistan. The King’s Slingers are identified by the embroidery on their clothing or headdresses, which are worn over armour and helms. These professional troops fight with slings and scimitars. Their armour is typically mail hauberks and steel caps. Most have ranks in Ride but they are not cavalry and do not ride their horses into combat.

Other soldiers come from the tribes. They fight from horseback with bow and scimitar. In battle, each is expected to use bow, scimitar, and horse to the utmost. Tribal soldiers wear leather jerkins and steel caps. Like the King’s Slingers, the Iranistani soldiers identify their units through the embroidery on their clothing and headdresses, which are worn over armour and helms. The peacock in its pride is a common design among the Iranistani soldiery.

Religion
The northern Iranistani primarily worship the Vendhyan god Asura. This religion, born of enormously complex rituals derived from four great Vendhyan books, celebrates a cosmic order and a belief in cause and effect that extends beyond the physical realm in such as way that failure to perform the proper ceremonies or keep sworn oaths would result in a disturbance of the cosmic order. As a result of this sense of cosmic order and justice, Iranistani believe in a heaven, a hell, and the judgment of souls.

Asura is the chief god of Iranistan and was imported from Vendhya as Iranistan struggled toward civilization. The Asuran religion, with its strong belief in cause and effect, embraces an idea of fate, fate that becomes a grim duty. To the Iranistani, there is no fate but the fate Asura gives. Man has little say in the matter. The Iranistani have flavoured their worship of Asura with their own culture and their innate fatalism steers Iranistani scholars away from attempting to divine the future. As a result divinatory magic styles are not taught to Iranistani worshippers or priests in northern Iranistan. The southern Iranistani follow a variety of more shamanistic, primitive faiths and are not bound by this restriction.

Government
The government of Iranistan is nominally feudal. The king of Iranistan is theoretically supported by the tribal chiefs but this rarely proves to be the case in reality. The tribal lords, if they disagree with the king, simply leave the court and ignore him. If the king wants to enforce his will, he has to send his army out of Anshan to do it by force of arms. The Iranistani will not run from such a fight, for their code of honour prohibits such a thing. They are honour bound to protect what is theirs, be it land, women or personal honour. Royal disputes are settled in this way. Often the royal troops return with the offending chief’s head or with the chief himself, who may then be hung in an iron cage for the birds to slay. However, the king does make decisions for the nation as a whole and protects the various chiefs who are in his good graces from outside invasions. He rarely intercedes on any one side in the case of an internal blood feud. Iranistani code permits wars of revenge.

Nomads and Villages
Villages in Iranistan are comprised of mud-brick houses (although the wealthy might have stone-walled homes) surrounded by a low wall. Nomads in Iranistan use tents instead of houses. The village economy is agricultural, based on whatever a village specializes in, such as grapes and wines, wheat and barley, or various nuts and tea. The men of the village work the fields and the women perform the household duties. Older children herd the animals, a form of wealth for the Iranistani, or help the men in the fields. The civilized villagers and the barbaric nomads have a symbiotic existence. The villagers allow the nomads’ herds of goats and sheep to graze their fields after harvest and again before planting, because the animals’ droppings help to fertilize the ground. The nomads purchase supplies from the villagers and the villagers buy wool, milk, or slaves from the nomads.

Anshan, Capitol of Iranistan
Anshan is the glittering capital of Iranistan and the Anshan tribal lands. Anshan is situated on the Anshan River on a tall mound. Anshan is the chief economic and cultural center of Iranistan, where the king of Iranistan rules. The city produces textiles and Iranistan wood products. Anshan was founded by traders who used the location to transfer goods from Vendhyan, Kosalan, and the Black Kingdom caravans to Turan-bound caravans. The location proved prosperous and soon satellite villages sprung up, growing almonds, junipers, pistachios, grapes, wheat, and barley. This spired city and its surrounding villages boast a population of over 166,660 Iranistani ruled by a powerful king. Kobad Shah was the ruler during the period described by The Flame Knife and could easily raise a heavily armoured infantry army in excess of 10,000, a pitifully small number compared to his stronger ancestors. Thus, Kobad Shah used mercenaries to bolster his army, especially kozaki or Hyrkanian cavalry. Kobad Shah’s son, Arshak Shah, now rules Anshan. This proud city is distinctly civilized and holds to an ancient code of honour as befitting its cultivated culture. The uncouth nomads and outlying Iranistani tribes live by a much more barbarous code of honour.