Dramatis Personae
The Invulnerable Rostam, Spahbed of Adurbadagan (Randy's past life)
The Beautiful Fabia, Byzantine Empress Consort (Theresa's past life)
The Wily Hormuzan, an Iranian aristocrat (Howard's past life)
The Eunuch Staurakios, a Byzantine (Stevens' past life)
The Treacherous Nasr, Umayyad Governor of Khurasan (Niall's past life)
The Jealous Khalid, a Muslim military leader (Ken's past life)
Setting: It is the final third of the Early Muslim Conquests. Fifty-four years have passed since the death of Muhammad, twenty-five years has ended since the fall of the Rashidun Caliphate. Now the Umayyad Caliphate continues the conquests of their predecessors in the name of expansion.
Chapter One
It was absurd to ideate the earth deceasing on such a balmy fall day. Yet the storm of Muslim steeds continued to come through Europe leaving conquered cities and destroyed armies in their trails. Muhammad had never personally led the expansion but for those who lived in constant dread of Muslim armies conquering their lands, they wished the expansion had ended with Muhammad's death. For those who carried out the expansion, they wished it had ended with Muhammad's death as well.
Sons whose fathers had carried out the conquests before them found themselves tired of it as quickly as their fathers had been after over two decades of doing so. In Khurasan, Nasr sighed as he looked into a pond. In order to preserve his life against political rivals and general enemies Nasr had been forced to be treacherous.
"Whoever thought I'd be jealous of the dead." Said Nasr's companion Khalid. "If I ever see Al-Masjid an-Nabawai again, I'm going to take my entire force to sack it! Burn it to the ground! I curse the day that Gabriel visited Muhammad! If he had never unified Arabia into a single polity that required expansion I'm sure I'd be very happy right now."
"Don't let anyone hear you say that, Khalid." Commented Nasr.
"First defeat we get, I'm going to march over to the nearest Christian mosque and ask their clergyman to baptize me!" Khalid grabbed a rock. "Better Muhammad had remained a merchant!" He threw the rock into the pond. "Better Amr ibn Hisham or Abu Lahab or Umm Jamil had succeeded and Muhammad failed! I know then I wouldn't be sent marching off to conquer people I had never even heard of before! I'd be back in Mecca right now instead of here in Khurasan about to be sent away to fight the Iranians and Byzantines! The Iranians and Byzantines had never done me any harm, why must I now cause them harm?"
"Why does Muhammad having turned away from being a merchant vex you so?" asked Nasr.
"Because if he had remained a merchant this blasted expansion would never have happened!" exclaimed Khlaid. "In the past two years since I began my military career, I have grown tired of the whole thing. I hope that Rostam kills me in the coming conflict!"
"Yes, the invulnerable Christian." Acknowledged Nasr. "Do you really believe the stories?"
"I can only hope they are true." Confessed Khalid. "Then I might know defeat and I might be able to vanish from the Muslim world under a Christian name and be done with this whole conquest business! I could have been a trader buying slaves from the Norsemen and selling slaves to them. It would have been better than this endless parade of slaughter!"
"What should I tell Muawiyah should he ask of what happened to one of his military leaders shoulder you abandon us and turn Christian?"
"I don't care. Tell him I was carried away by Gabriel himself, tell him I fell screaming Muhammad's thrice accursed name, tell him I was thrown into a snake pit just tell the old fool something!"