Parthian History

[Kaiser Kirk]

I am a history buff.
Ages ago, I started trying to do a map series showing how the "Parthian" Empire's extent has changed over time.
These are loosely based in history, modified for Navalism.
Unlike "our" history - Client states get absorbed, buffer states gobbled up...and Parthia endures.

One of the allures of running an "Ancient Empire" is an excuse to read about it.
Parthia is a poorly known Empire - more an Imperial Confederation that lasted 500 years.
It occurred far enough back in time, that substantial differences from "our world" conditions on the Iranian Plateau could be justified.
Yet it occurred after the introduction of Greek influences under Alexander the Great.

Like the Persians, the Parthians start as a nomadic Iranian (aka Aryan) people who move down to Iranian Plateau much later than the Persians/Balochs/etc.
While all Persians used bows heavily, the Parthians were reknowned horse archers with a powerful bow and a "retreat while firing" tactic called "Parthian Shot"
Scythians were an associated tribe, on the shores of the Black Sea, and their burials of armed warrior women has led to suggestions
that they were the source of the "Amazons" legends.

Major differences is the historical conquests of the Muslims, Mongols, and Turks  are in Navalism temporary.
The key to making this plausible is to dispense with the civil wars and infighting that critically weakened the various Empires that fell.

A single lineage has persisted, and the mutual trials weld the nation together under that dynasty.
As various crisis have come - such as Succession problems, civil wars, Muslims, Mongols and Turks - oh my !  They adapt and change.

Prospering from Silk Road trade, they have wealth, and bridge India to the Mediterranean.
Long term planning for hydraulics and wood supply has kept the steeper hillsides forested and productive, while underground aqueducts "Quanats" bring water to the farms.
Royal Roads have bound the nation together.  A pinnacle of science in the middle ages, they have kept their intellectuals vital and prosper.

Anyhow, I'll roll these maps out in sequence, and eventually move them to my Encyclopedia

[Kaiser Kirk]

Map 1.

Cyrus the Great.
Cyrus unified the Persians, and conquered the Median Empire, Lydian Empire and Neo-Babylonian Empire.  His son then conquered Egypt.
The Cyrus Cylinder is an early declaration of values and aspirations.
Cyrus by legend freed the Jews from Babylon and returned them to Jerusalem and rebuilt the temple.
Cyrus crafted lasting laws, "satrapy' provinces, infrastructure - all the elements to create a lasting empire.
This was the Empire that Alexander the Great defeated and seized two hundred years later.

The later Achaemenid Empire traced it's Dynastic right to Cyrus,  as do the Parthians

[The Rock Doctor]

This is good info to know. 

Going through a similar exercise for the Vilnius Union a couple years ago was helpful for me to understand what I was playing.

[Kaiser Kirk]

Thank you Rocky.
I find it an interesting exercise.

Many of the historical empires have great differences in their mapped borders.
A big chunk of the problem is Vassals / Client statesm so I'm bundling those into
the Various Empires.

Also, since I don't want/need 24 maps (1 per century) I need to space them apart a bit.

This Map

This map is of the maximal extent of the Achaemeniad Empire.
Tracing their line to Cyrus, Darius the I founded his own dynasty.

This is the Persia the Greeks battled
A line on Wikipedia indicates that someone calculated that it had 44% of the world's population,
and so was the largest in History by that measure.

Considering the population density of tribal peoples versus those in irrigated cities, this is not entirely unreasonable.

Under Darius III the Empire fell to Alexander the Great,
as the well trained and equipped forces of Macedon and the Greek City states
proved greatly superior in battle.

[Kaiser Kirk]

Alexander the Great
Conquest of Persia 334-323 BCE

Alexander the Great pitted the superior troops of the Greeks and Macedonians
against the generally lightly armored and missle-heavy troops of the Persians.

At that time the Persians tended towards a shield wall of wickerwork shield backed by archers.
Reports are that their bows were not particularly special. They had long taken to using Greek Hopilites
as mercenaries, to serve as the "Heavy Infantry". There was also the famed Immortals.

Alexander reportedly won every battle he led.
I've done extensive reading on the first, the Battle of the Granicus, to do a report in a military history class,
and strongly think the tale of that battle has been edited to leave out a failed first day assault,
which 1 of 3 sources hints at.

Alexander died suddenly in 323 BCE, and his Empire fell apart in Civil War.
Several of his generals establish their own kingdoms

Seleucid Empire
The Seleucid Empire is the largest of these, but most of the focus goes to fighting the other heirs of Alexander.
This leaves the Eastern edge of the Empire to smaller Kingdoms.

Parthia
Eventually in 247 BCE the Satrap of Parthia declares Independence as the Kingdom of Parthia.
The nomadic Irandian Parmi tribe, which has moved into the Satrapy,
in 238 BCE then depose the new King, taking it for themselves.

This is the beginning of the Arascid Dynasty. Who claimed a maternal link to Darius, and thus Cyrus.

East of them the Bactrians will also declare independence.
Both will wind up battling the Seleucids to stay independent.

The Parthians will expand slowly until Mithridates I 172-132 BCE.

[Kaiser Kirk]

The Seleucid Empire continues to focus on the West.
The Mauryan Empire slowly decays and collapses.

East of the Seleucids :
The Parthians claim bits of the North,

The Iranian Nomads of the Saka-Scythians push south
through the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom and into Seistan (aka Sakastan)
in Western Mauryan Empire, and push across the Indus

The Great Yuezhi Confederation push into the Greco-Bactrians,
and displace them from Bactria.
This relocates the Greeks southwards themselves and place their capital in Kabul.
They then become the Indo-Greek Kingdoms.

Parthia
172 BCE, Mithridates I takes the Parthian Throne, he is the first to be called "King of Kings".
By 132BCE, he has conquered all but a portion of the Seleucid Empire, pushed into the Yuezhi lands,
and reached the Indus, displacing the Indo-Scythians

Early Parthia has been referred to as a Confederation of Kingdoms and was rather tolerant of differences.
This made it weak, as there were large political units with their own armies which could revolt.

There was also no set line of succession.
This was an inducement for different brothers to rally different Nobles to their side and
indulge in Civil wars and revolts.

Historically it was during of those in 224AD that a Kingdom revolted.
Artabanus IV, the last of the Parthian Kings, died in battle against the Sassinid Rebels.
After which the Sassanian Empire replace the Parthian.
In Navalism, Artabanus IV does not fall, and wins the battle.
Then takes the opportunity to reform the Confederation into an Empire.

Repeatedly in Parthian and Sassanian (successor) history the brother who seizes the throne then
eliminates his siblings. At one point this led to a pair of Queens as they had run out of most of the male line.
In Navalism , that is "Fixed" with the Succession Laws under Queen Boran in 631AD.

Parthian Army
A core of heavily armored noble on armored horses - the Greeks called Kapheractoi
These used recurved bows, large lances, javelins, battle axes,  swords and even lassos....but needed Estates to support them.
Lighter cavalry was bow and axe armed.  There was both light and heavy infantry, but cavalry was dominant.




Greater Iranian Peoples

The Parni (Parthians) are - like the Persians/Baloch/Pashtun/Saka/Scythians/Samartans/Massagaeta//Yuezhi/Alan, Etc
part of the Greater Iranian Peoples (Root of Iran = Aryan), speaking related languages.
They seem to have risen on the Pontiac Steppe between the North Caspian and Aral Seas.
They may have domesticated the horse, and bred horses of such renown that the Greeks and Chinese sought them.
As mentioned, their warrior women likely gave rise to the legends of the Amazons.


Some Pamiri (an Iranian people) Children, Modern Tajikstan. 
Chosen because Parni and Pamiri look close in English... which is a poor rationale...


Borrowed from Wiki : By Math920Me - Badakhshan Autonomous region

[Kaiser Kirk]

The Last map likely should have shown the presence of the Roman Republic in Macedon, expanding East.

Ptolemaic Egypt has allied with Rome against the Seleucids, and captured their southern territories,
but has itself become a client state.

In 87BCE, the Parthian Client state, the Kingdom of Armenia, finished off the Seleucids and took Syria.
They then allied with The Kingdom of Pontus in the Mithridatic wars.

In the End, Pontus fell and lost most of it's territory, while both Pontus and Armenia became Roman Clients (puppets).

First Roman-Parthian War
In 55 BCE, The Triumverate that ruled the Roman Republic - Julius Caesar, Pompey, and Marcus Crassus, met.
Marcus Crassus was the richest man in Rome...and made governor of the rich province of Roman Syria.

Crassus start plotting a campaign to invade and Plunder rich Parthia, with aid from the turncoat Armenian King.

The Parthian capital had been moved in 58 BCE to a new city - Ctesiphon- near ancient Babylon and modern Baghdad. There is green dot for it :)
Starting in 57BCE, Parthia was involved in yet another succession war.

So in 54 BCE, Crassus invaded the Parthian client Orshoene, and then in 53 BCE invaded Parthia with roughly 40,000+ men, aiming to sack the capital.
It was expected to be easy since they had beaten Pontus and Armenia that way.

The Parthian General Surena had only about 10,000... all cavalry and 90% horse archers. With camel trains loaded with arrows.

The Romans lost ~20,000 slain, 10,000 captured, and ~10,000 fled. 7 Legions destroyed, with several Legion Standards lost.
At a Parley, Crassus was slain. Supposedly Surena poured molten gold down his throat to mock his greed.

The Loss of Crassus and the Legions destabilized the Triumverate and weakened Rome, and may have led to the Civil War (49-45BCE) that effectively ended the Roman Republic.

The War would continue successfully until 39BCE, then they were driven back.
In 34 BCE, Mark Antony proposed a marriage alliance, and used it as a trick to capture and execute the Parthian King,
The war finally ended in 20BCE, with the lost Standards returned in exchange for a kidnapped Prince. The Romans treated this as a triumph.

In Navalism it marks the first of the various Roman-Parthian Wars which sees it's most recent version in the ~1876 general war.

Results
After the battle, Parthia reclaimed Armenia and replaced the King in 52 BCE.
As of 12 AD, they placed a member of their own Arsascid dynasty on the throne.

Arsacid Dynasties
Eventually Arsacids will rule the following states : ...which is why distinguishing between Parthia's sub-kingdoms and it's clients is hard.
Parthia
Armenia
(Caucaus Mtns) Albania
(Caucaus Mtns) Iberia
Media
Hyrcania
Indo-Parthians (took over Indo-Scythians)
Merv
Persis
Hatra
Meshan
Elymais
Characene
Orshoene
Adiabene
Korduene


Kushan Empire
The five Yuezhi tribes united in 30BCE to form the Kushan Empire,
which eventually made the Indo-Scythians into their Satraps. 

In India
The Indo-Scythians have split into the "Northern" and "Western" Satraps,
and eliminate the last Greek Kingdom in 47 BCE.

The native Indian Kingdoms have splintered, and only two are of large size.

Other Map Elements :
Between 200-100BCE, the Han Dynasty set up forts along the Silk Road,
and the Han have established the "Western Protectorates"

Sri Lanka is shown as "Indo-Scythian", which is wrong.
Sinhalese is part of the Iranian language family,
but came when Indo-Aryan settlers arrived in 543BCE.

The Kingdom of Aksum has come into being and claimed the throat of the Black Sea.

[Kaiser Kirk]

117 AD
The Roman-Parthian war of 58-63 BCE was followed by a long peace.

However, both sides meddled with each others client states and backed various sides in Civil Wars until Parthia's historic demise in 224AD.

114-117 AD
50 years later, in 113 AD, the Parthian Emperor appointed a new Armenian King.
Emperor Trajen of Rome decided it was time to solve the "Eastern Question".

There is a reason Roman Legions are regarded as the best troops of the Ancient World.
The Roman armies were Victorious, and sacked the Parthian Capital of Ctsetiphon (near Baghdad)
and made Mesopotamia, Armenia, Iberia and Osserene all client states.

However Trajen overextended the Empire, so his successor Hadrian pulled back to good defensible boundaries ...and struck Peace with Parthia, returning the lost lands in 123-124AD.

In the Northern Caucus the Kingdom of Alania was born from Scythian nomads who settled down.
Other Scythians formed the Samaritan Confederation.

In India, the Indo-Scythians have been fractured, with the Northern Satraps conquered by the Kushans, and the 'Western Satraps' have a member of "House Suren", one of the 7 Parthian Great Noble Houses on the throne.  This was known as the "Suren" or Indo-Parthian Kingdom and lasted 19-224, when they were split between the Kushans and Sassanians.

Wiki says Suren declared independence from Parthia in 19AD...which poses the question of just when that area had been reconquered...unsure.

[Kaiser Kirk]

This map comes from Wiki and is an interpretation of a 1st century Roman narrative of trade routes and cities.
It is still of interest.

It does not show the silk road through Parthia, which went from the area labeled "Bactria" west,
passed south of the Caspian Sea- through modern Tehran- and then west to Constantinople. 

Trading along the "Silk Road" seems to have gone back to 2000BCE or more, but only with the Han guardposts in the Tarim basin was the route secured.

It should be noted that it believed the maritime trade routes extended to China,
but the prevailing wind patterns meant that - for the ships of the time- it was a once-year trip for ships.
There is evidence that Rome established a tradeport in Southern China, or Vietnam, and there are historical complaints of Rome's hard coinage all going to buy Silk and other goods.
Coincidentally, Gilian on the south shore of the Caspian, has been growing silk since before the 15th Century. $$$

[Kaiser Kirk]

224 AD
Part of the reason we did not go with a Fantasy world map and made up kingdoms, is we wanted "Real History" to provide a sort of setting for what we do.

So N7's history is assumed to be much the same as "Real History", but with departure points.

A critical departure point is 224 AD.
In "Original Time Line", the Parthian Emperor was defeated and killed by a rebel King, and so after five centuries, Parthia vanished and the Sassanian Empire was born.

N7, the battle went differently, the Emperor slew the rebel.
Then, instead of the Sassanians conquering the Suren Kingdom, the Emperor does.

Further, The Emperor goes on and reformed the government, reducing the power of the various Kingdoms to more civil affairs, limiting the Fuedal armies and building an Imperial regular army, forming a true Empire.

That doesn't solve the succession war problem, but makes Parthia a stronger state than historic. 





There was some conflict in between 117AD and 224 AD...

161-166 AD
Emperor Hadrian's policy of retreating to more defensible lines gave back Mesopotamia, Armenia, and Adiabene (Kurds). The Parthians launched a war that was initially successful, but by 165 the Romans sacked Ctsetiphon again.

195-196 AD
The Romans decided to invade, sacking Ctsetiphon for the 3rd time.
At this point I would think the Parthians would have gone back to the old, safe capital, but no.

208-213 AD
The Parthians engaged in ..yet another...succession war between brothers Volsages VI and Artabanus IV.  Volsages VI took the throne in 208, and in 213 Artabanus revolted. By 216 Volsages lost, and took the Kingship of the Ctsetiphon and Median areas (Baghdad-Mosul).   

During this time period, in 212AD, Ardishar of house Sassan, siezed control of Pars and started conquering outlying Satraps.

213-217 AD
and so the Romans under Caracalla once again launched a war.  Artabanus IV defeated Volsages, and then rebuffed the Romans. The war culminated (after Caracalla's assassination) with a bloody battle at Nisibisi (SE Turkey) and the Romans paying 200million sesterces in reparations.
On the eve of Nisibisi, the Roman Emperor supposedly said

"You see the barbarian with his whole Eastern horde already upon us, and Artabanus seems to have good reason for his enmity. We provoked him by breaking the treaty, and in a time of complete peace we started a war. [...] This is no quarrel about boundaries or river beds; everything is at stake in this dispute in which we face a mighty king fighting for his children and kinsmen who, he believes, have been murdered in violation of solemn oaths. "

224 AD
Artabanus IV and Ardishar I met in the Battle of Hormozdgan.
Historically, Artabanus IV was slain.
In Navalism, Ardishar I dies, and with that the Sassanian Empire never happens.

This leads to Artabanus IV reforming the Parthian Imperial Confederation into the Parthian Empire.
That still left the succession problem....

But the revitalized Empire can conquer the "Independent" Kingdom of Suren in 226, and take advantage of the disintegrating Kushan Empire to
reclaim Bactria, Khwarzam,  Sogdia and upper Peshwar....and so regains control of the junction of the Silk Road to India and Constantinople around Samarkand.

[Kaiser Kirk]

Skipping forward 4 centuries, some things get glossed over.

As I recall, In Navalism, the Byzantine Empire got it's start in the 235-284 Crisis of the 3rd Century, in 284AD, when the rebel Palmyrene Empire takes the East.

The Byzantine-Parthian Border is about the same, despite many, many wars.
232-244, 258-260, 296-298, 337-363...

~384-87 there was a Peace agreement, as Allanic (i.e. Samaritian and Alans) /Germanic/Hunnic barbarians start impacting the Romans, while Huns attack Parthia.  Some Alannians accompany the Vandals on their Tour of France, Spain, and Rome.

There were some short wars in the 400s, in 440 and then 441-442,
but basically the two sides took a century off thenresumed squabbling.
502-506, 524-525, 540-562, 572-591,

For Parthia, there were some victories, and some defeats. In 298 both the Capital and the Royal Harem were lost...devastating.  There were some victories – a couple slain Roman Emperors, and after the shattering victories of Barbalissos and Eddessa. Barbalisso seems to have been the annihilation of a 60,000man Army, the Romans don't talk about it. At Eddessa, Roman Emperor Valerian was captured and the captured Romans put to work as engineers. Some legends say the Emperor was used as a footstool, others he was kept in luxury. Either way, a live but absent Emperor caused problems for the Roman political system.

(Classic Persians do not seem to have done slavery except as a temporary measure for criminals, or prisoners of war, and liked to ransom the prisoners back). 

The Parthians have expanded into the Kingdom of Alania in North Caucus and the Arascid Dynasty rules it.

The Iranian nomad kingdoms of the Steppe have been pushed West into the failing Roman Empire by first the Vandals/Goths and then the "Hephthalite Huns"*.

From 450-560, "Hephthalite  Huns" capture the Bactria-India corridor taking Northern India and collapsing the Gupta Empire. The Sassanians retake in 588-589.

The Indian Dynasties are unstable, but unite in 528 to defeat the Huns. Afterwards the Gupta Empire falls and the Chalukya, Vishnukuninda and Maitraka Empires ruled much of India.

*Note on Huns : Who exactly the Huns were is unclear.
Nomadic tribes near China got pushed west, and what China called them was not what others did.

The Xiongnu seem have been the Yuezhi, and the Eastern group of the Iranian horse nomads.

The Chinese recorded that the Huns were descendants of the Yuezhi, but they may have been the first Turkic tribes that had already moved into former Yuezhi territories. Or a mix of those people. I'm favoring the last.  Once the Turkic peoples arrive, there should no longer be language/religion/cultural linkage between Parthia and the nomads.

[Kaiser Kirk]

I could skip to the Muslim Conquest of 636-651,
But I want to highlight the 26 year long 602-628 war
that left both sides exhausted and weak.

The 7th Century report that in 615, Byzantine was ready to surrender and become a Client State,
or the 626 Siege of Constantinople....either of those events that really could have shaken history.
Had Constantinople fallen, then the Parthians would not have had a 628 coup, and fallen into Civil war.
They would have had a decade to rebuild prior to the Muslim expansion.

The timeline is fairly simple :
602  : Parthia under Khasrau II (Khosrow II) goes to war.

614  : Capture of Jerusalem, restoration of Jewish rule as promised when they fled to Parthia during Hadrian's purge ~135-138.

615  : Byzantine Emperor Hercaclius - by one report- was willing to make Byzantine a Client State in exchange for Peace. 
The Parthians apparently turned them down, going for full victory. A historical case of overreaching.

618  : Capture of Egypt.
Somewhere in here Rhodes and some Aegean islands are captured as well. Emperor Hercalius considers moving the capital to Carthage.

626  : Parthia sieges Constantinople. Khasrau has arranged for the Avars to attack from the West, Parthia from the East.
Parthia has advanced siege equipment, but no navy in the Bosporus. The Avars can not breach the walls.  The alliance fails to take Constantinople. 
The effort overextends Parthia.

627-28 : Plague of Sheroe devastates west Parthia, killing up to half the population.

627-28 : The Byzantines advance against a weaker Parthia. Several of the Great Houses of Parthia collaborate in a Coup, capturing and executing Khasrau II.

A peace deal is arranged reverting to the old border.
Both Empires are now exhausted and devastated.

628-632 : Three factions fight a civil war in Parthia, 14 kings are declared in 4 years. Rivals are ruthlessly eliminated.
By 632 there are two factions and they are running out of male members of the Dynasty. The faction leaders bow to pressure from within and unify.

[Kaiser Kirk]

Parthian History II

Unfortunately, the primary .doc I had seems to have a little corruption problem.

This is the longest of the history thread, and at the end gets into those dreaded dates.
I'll arrange it with narrative stuff first,
then put in the map (with the wrong title box)

Then I'll do the gritty date breakdown that most people that take history classes complain about.
because...well...to me it's important part of my Empire's foundation.

Unfortunately, the primary .doc I had seems to have a little corruption problem.
So I had to do a bit of rewriting.
A remarkable amount is much like "real world" history.

Parthian must die

Real world vs. Navalism
In the Real World, the Arab conquest of Persia brought unity to an otherwise rich and educated land,
which then became a source of wealth, knowledge and troops. The Arabs then were able to both hold
the Levant and expand across North Africa, invading Iberia in 711.

In Navalism, the "Fall" is more of a swinging door.
636-715, the Arabs expand, and then 715-750ish, the door swings shut again.
This means shortly after the Arabs land in Iberia....a great deal of their resources are cut,
allowing the late 700s unification of Iberia per the desire of the first Iberian player.

This rather meant that Parthia had to fall.
Not really desirable from the point of the Parthian player.
Byzantine also had to loose the Levant temporarily, and Jefgte wanted to keep Anatolia,
not just the Western half,  which doesn't make a significant difference.

So to make the "swinging door" I wanted some plausible places the Parthian state could endure.

Historically, I found 4 areas that could be reasonable holdouts :

Gilan
is a strip of territory on the South Side of the Caspian Sea, warded by mountains to the South,
which historically was never conquered by the Arabs. (Actually under the Buyid Dynasty 934-1062, they conquered Persia ). 

Alania
The Alans were Iranian nomads, most went west with the Vandals and toured Europe. Some settled  North of the Caucus Mts. 
Their monarchs apparently had a Arascid bloodline. Historicaly, they pledged to the Hunnic Khazars, but combined they
rebuffed the Arabs at the passes.

Chorasmia
The area of Khwarazan, under the Iranian Afrigid Dynasty would be a Parthian client Kingdom and was just south of the Aral sea.
The Arabs pushed in in 712, but did not fully conquer it until 995.

Kabul
Kabul was raided in the 642s, but was not conquered until 870AD

In the End
746 : With Parthia restored, Victory is declared by Queen Atossa.
This ends a period of 110 years, where the Arsacid Dynasty served as the unifying force for the
Parthian people and resistance. For Parthia, a certain nationalism, a concept of loyalty to the Nation, is born. 
Under the Caliphates, the non-Muslim religions were all discriminated against, and while
Zorastorian returned as the primary religion,  tolerance of other formerly repressed ones increases.
The intolerance of the Muslim would last until the 1600s. The return of nobles families from the Tang lands
also introduces Chinese ideas, particularly of a bureaucracy and army based on merit and promoted by tests.


How did it happen
How did desert tribesmen defeat two of the Great Powers?
The 26 year war between the two was a large part of it.
The plague that killed ~half the Parthian population in the west was a large part of it.
The Parthian Civil war destroyed them internally.

As Byzantine did not suffer the last, it was able to hold Anatolia (better than historic).

The MAP...with correct titleblock 



So what happens in Navalism ? (very long)
The Arab conquest happens much as historical.
A defeat by the Byzantines in 632 is followed by a victory in 634.
The Byzantines and Parthians then agree to coordinate, but the Arabs first inflict a crushing defeat
on the Byzantines at the Battle of Yarmouk, and then defeat the Parthians in
636 at the Battle of Al-Qidisayyah, followed by the siege and sack of their capital Ctesiphon in 637.

In Navalism, The Parthian Civil War (628-632) has settled on Queen Boran as Regent for Prince Yazdegerd III (b624).
Queen Boran passes the first version of the Succession Law, providing for an appointed 4-deep line of succession
(to stop succession wars), limiting legitimate kings to the Arascid line (to stop coups), and prohibiting marrying
into either close family or the "Great Noble Houses", to keep them from claiming bloodright and backing
candidates of their choice.  Rather client kingdoms, foreign kingdoms and minor nobles became marriage partners.

636-640 : The Arabs did not press pass the "Persian Gates" of the Zagros mountains, but pushed North, seizing Armenia,
and pressing to the passes guarding Byzantine Anatolia. They siege Alexandria and take the Egyptian delta.

642 : The battle of Nahavand saw the destruction of the Parthian reserve army. King Yazdegerd III retreats to Merv. 
Once turning 14 his regency ended, and he named 4 successors, including Ex-Queen Boran, who has retreated to Gilan.
Note : Here Boran takes the place of Bav (Bav, who was alleged to be a grandson of the Sasanian prince Kawus, brother of Khosrow I),
who supposedly fled there and led the local resistance.

640-651: The Arabs press into Anatolia, sack Alexandria, loose it in 646 and take it back, taking North Africa. 
They raid to Kabul, push into Seistan (SE Parthia) and are rebuffed. Outside the City of Merv, in 651, they defeat
King Yazdegerd III, and he drowns at a river crossing in the retreat. Yazdegerd's two  sons and daughter are dispersed.
The eldest, Prince Peroz, age 11, along with Courtiers, is taken to Tang China, while Bahram goes to Kabul and the
Daughter Sharbanu to Gilan, where Queen Boran, now 39, resumes the throne per the Succession law, and begins to
coordinate the efforts of the various holdouts.

651-711 :
Revolts and two Internal succession wars slow the Arabs, leading to the rise of the Umayyads, who kill
Muhammad's grandson in the 680 battle of Karabala and seize control. 

By the late 680s they resume expansion,  conquering Siestan in the 680s, and defeating the Byzantines at Sebastopolis in 692.

During this 60 years, Queen Boran builds an intelligence and alliance network, but passes, with
Queen Sharbanu taking the throne and continuing the coordination, followed by Queen Atossa.
Prince Peroz is made a Military Governor of the Tang West, where he can resist the Arabs.
Peroz dies in 679, and his son Narsieh takes his place. Bahram dies in 710 and his son Khosrau leads Kabul.

712-715:  Arab forces go on the advance again. Arabs invade Iberia, the Sindh along the Indus,
in 712 launch large raids into the Afrigid lands, and push East into the Ferghana valley where in 715 they are defeated by the Tang. 

717-744 :
News of the Arab raid deep in their territory, lead the Tang to decide to materially aid the Parthians.
Prince Narsieh leads a small Parthian contingent at the 717 battle of  Nahanshan where the Tang again defeat the Arabs. 
Narsieh gets support from Afrigid lands and the combined army retakes Bahlk and expands the territory to Kabul,
where his younger cousin joins him. 

Queen Atossa, having succeeded Queen Boran & Sharbanu in the middle of the intellegence web,
coordinates the efforts of the brothers, while encouraging long planned revolts elsewhere.
The Umayadd Caliphate was intolerant of it's diverse populace, making the revolts easier to spark.
The Byzantines are made aware of the Parthian progress, and launch a campaign to retake the Levant.

Overextended, and beset on several sides, the Arabs fight hard, putting most forces on the Byzantine front
to protect the rich lands of the Levant and Mesopotamia. They loose control of North Africa and progressively
more of Parthia. The Umayadd Caliphate fell into a civil war in 744-746,
at which time the caliphate is reduced to the Arabian peninsula.

746 : With Parthia restored, Victory is declared by Queen Atossa.
This ends a period of 110 years, where the Arsacid Dynasty served as the unifying force for the Parthian people
and resistance. For Parthia, a certain nationalism, a concept of loyalty to the Nation, is born. 
Under the Caliphates, the non-Muslim religions were all discriminated against, and while Zorastorian
returned as the primary religion,  tolerance of other formerly repressed ones increases.
The intolerance of the Muslim would last until the 1600s. The return of nobles families from the Tang lands
also introduces Chinese ideas, particularly of a bureaucracy and army based on merit and promoted by tests. 

Tang Help : The Tang did make a "military command of Persia" and Peroz and his sons in charge of combined forces.
Later they sent an army in 679, , but it did not advance far before being needed against the Huns.

Ctesiphon : The Parthian Capital, which they relocated to, and then had sacked by Rome 5 (!) times,
while their older capitals remained untouched. Located near ancient Babylon and modern Baghdad,
in Navalism it was lost to Byzantine for the last time in the ..1700s?

[Kaiser Kirk]

~1186 AD

Original Timeline
In "Original Timeline" the period between 750 and 1100 saw a large number of Muslim kingdoms rise and fall in this area. Frequently there was one in "Iran" which fought with the Arab one in "Syria", and then one in "Afghanistan" which would expand to control the Silk road from Samarkand area down to Northern India. 

These were usually "Persian" or Iranian Muslim dynasties. The Turks continued to make inroads, but even if they took the throne, they would adopt Persian ways and intermarry.

"Original Timeline" the 1071 Battle of Manzikert was a game changer, breaking Eastern Anatolia off from the Byzantine Empire. Seljuk Turk dominance helped lead to the First Crusade 1096-1099.


Navalism
Here... Parthia after 740AD is much stronger and more unified.
So the various Kingdoms that came and went become instead "Parthian" and their history gets shoehorned into Parthia's.  That includes the "Samanid" and "Buyidd" in the 900s, the  "Seljuk Turks" and "Ghaznavids" in the 1000-1100 period and the "Khwarzarian Sultanate" and "Ghorid Empire" in the 1100-1200 period...and even the "Kilwa Sultanate" - founded in East Africa in the 900s by a Persian prince from Shiraz.

Traditionally, Parthia has had to balance three fronts. To the East, the Indus, a natural barrier, and the passes of the mountains meant that frontier was more stable. To the North, the Steppe Nomads changed from Iranian to Turkic peoples, but each group exerted pressure on that order. The Western border always faced the rich empires of the Mediterranean world, and consumed the most resources.

The 1071 Battle of Manzikert  saw the Byzantine army destroyed and Emperor captured. This allowed Parthia to temporarily conquer much of Anatolia and exact favorable terms, reclaiming it's boundary on the Euphrates in Syria. With the Western border "safe", campaigns North India then extended the Parthian lands to conquer the Pala Empire and include Bengal.

Here, Jefgte's Byzantine looses the battle, but not Anatolia and the Levant (having reconquered that in the 700s). With Byzantine in control of the Levant, there are no need for the Crusades as the two "sides" of Christian vs. Muslim.... don't effectively exist there.  Most of the time, OTL history is re-enacted by the Navalism powers in that setting. In some cases there is no effective Navalism proxy for the OTL warring parties, and so the event does not occur.

[Kaiser Kirk]

Khan ! [/u]

Historical background
Ghengis Khan changed the world. Like the Arabs, the Mongols were Muslims. Conquering China, he brought their technology and siege engineers to the West. Conquering Persia and the Middle East, he blazed into India, Conquered the Russian Steppe and destroyed the Armies of Eastern Europe before he died in 1227.  A

In Navalism, his Empire lives on in the form of the Golden Horde, the single largest land power in the game. So Kahn must conquer, and to do so, Parthia must fall.

Kahn's armies are infamous for the use of massacres to strike terror and convince the next target that surrender was the best course of action. If a city did not immediately surrender to his heralds, there was no mercy taking the artisans, some women, and slaying the rest. Soldiers were turned loose in cities with orders to kill so many people. Revolts met the same result.  Estimates of the dead range from a low of 20,000,000 to a high of 57,000,000.

Estimates on the effects on the Iranian plateau are vague, but wiki lists the possibility of the the population dropping from 2,500,000 to a tenth – 250,000, another source says ¼ survived. Legend has it the city of Nishapur (>1mil) was annihilated, and pyramids of heads were made, as his son in law died there. The northern third of the Iranian plateau was devastated.  Chinese censuses showed a drop of roughly 50%. After this period it seems a number of Turkic people drifted off the Steppe and settled in Iran and the Caucus, illustrating the population replacement.

Parthia and Navalism

From the highpoint of 1186 to destruction by the forces of Genghis Khan in 1219-21 is only 33 years. If one counts from 1071's Battle of Manzikert it is 48 years.

Historically, the Khwarzarian Empire was weak and disunited.  Here Parthia is strong, what happened ?

Time and time again, in many monarchies, such as the Chinese and Japanese, and even the British, we see the Monarch become a figure head, while the Bureaucrats or Ministers wind up exercising defacto control. In the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth, the Election of the Monarch became a source of corruption, and the Monarch lost direct power as a result.

This is easy if the Monarch is very young, or enfeebled,  or perhaps indulgent. Perhaps rather than fret about the details of running a vast empire they are happy to delegate and instead go "visit the harem"...which is a euphemism for...visiting the harem..

'Magna Carta-ish
So, in 1072, the Emperor has died and his young successor wants to bring glory to his own name. So, probably to finance the war on the Pala empire, and to head off a Noble's revolt the  Emperor signs something of a Magna Carta. While he is off conquering the Pala Empire, the day-to-day running of events now is handled by a Council of Ministers and Taxes agreed on by a House of Lords. On his death, he has named his young (14) son as next in line of succession. While his son is widely seen as overly indulgent, this makes his crowning more welcome. Indeed, while by now the Arascid Dynasty is widespread and has many competent members, these are all avoided by the Council in picking the line of succession.

So in 1093, the next Emperor becomes a happy drunken figurehead. He is happy to allow the Council to nominate the successors, and the reign is cut short by disease. So a pliable new Emporer, an uncle who bribed his way into the succession, appears in 1094. He lasts two decades until 1015. The next Emperor tries to reclaim the rights lost, and has a "hunting accident" in 1118. His successor, another 14 year old, is more pliable.

Result
As a result, the idiot that kills Genghis Khan's Herald and returns the head is the Prime Councilor, not a member of the Arascid family, but an effective usurper. 

The war that follows sees Genghis Khan's army destroy much of Parthia and kill the Grand Council and Emperor. With that accomplished the Horde turns to attacking other areas.

The Parthian state is much stronger than the historical Khwarzarian, and does not disintegrate in the face of the Mongol onslaught. The succession law's order of blood ensures the Crown is not a source of division. Like the Arab Conquest, many areas remain unconquered, and are led by members of the Arascid dynasty. Shielded by mountains or deserts, they are difficult for the Mongol Cavalry to attack. Linked by the old intelligence networks, a Mongol assault in one area would rapidly lead to Parthian counterattacks in others.

The Mongols do not spare the Byzantine Empire, sending massive raiding armies into Anatolia in 1243, and the Levant in 1244. In 1255, they returned to the Middle East, bent on conquest.  In 1258, the Mongols sack Parthia's capital Ctsetiphon (Baghdad). The Mongols continue to advance into the Levant and Parthian Amenia, and the Byzantine client Georgia. They are defeated by the Byzantines at the 1260 Battle of Ain Jalut.

The Mongol Khan, Mongke Kahn had already passed away in the winter of 1259. A civil war breaks out inside the Mongol Empire. The the Mongol field army defeated by the Byzantines and their Georgian Client state, who then expand into Parthian Armenia and Syria, the distant mongol commanders can not send fresh troops as they are needed for their civil war. The Parthians seize the opportunity to liberate their own country. Much of Parthia to be reclaimed by 1266, excepting the Transoxus-Afghan-Punjab arm of the Silk Road. 

All of which – by a complete coincidence- the Arascid dynasty can blame on the Ministers and Great Nobles usurping power.  The leadership of the dynasty is reforged, and those that did not view them selves as Parthians first and their tribe second...certainly do now.  Ironically, most of the true "Parni tribe" Parthians lived in the areas depopulated, so the scattered remaining members are rare and either mercantile/guild or nobles lineages.

Parthia survives, but is diminished. The Byzantines were able to "liberate" and keep the western territories from the Mongols, the recently conquered Pala Empire was lost, and many of the more distant territories either became independent or were lost to neighbors during Parthia's desperate 45 year struggle for survival.