Saramat

The Province of Saramat

Allegiance	Sirdabi Caliphate
Capital	Sibela
Governor	Hashem bin Najjari Bey
Demonym	Sarmati
Official Language	Sirdabi
Official Religion	Azadi
Currency	fals/dirham/nour
Native Heritages	Sirdabi

Saramat is a border province of the Sirdabi Caliphate, lying to the northwest of the Sirdabi homeland of Rahoum.

Geography

Saramat shares its western border with Cadenza, a part of the Kalentoi Empire, and is bounded on the north by the Sea of Lenisca and on the south by the Adelantean. The landscape consists almost entirely of high mountains and steep valleys, woven through with narrow and often treacherous passes.

A slender strip of marshy land known as the Eelmere adjoining the Sea of Lenisca is one of the few level places in the entire province. Despite the wishful thinking of Sirdabi administrators, however, the boggy area is poorly suited to any form of agriculture except rice growing, and the local tribe is perennially disinclined to buckle down to the demands of production farming. The provincial capital of Sibela remains more of an administrative outpost than anything resembling the sophisticated Sirdabi ideal of a city, and most Sirdabi officials consider any posting to Saramat to be a fate to be endured where it can't be avoided.

People

The native residents of Saramat are the seminomadic pastoralists known collectively as the Sarmatiyya. They are primarily descended from Rahoumi tribesmen who presumably migrated out of the desert some forgotten number of generations ago. The Sarmatiyya were once allies of the Kalentoi Empire, helping to guard the frontier against attack from the east by the rival Irzali Empire. However, relations between the Sarmatiyya and the Kalentoi soured after --, when Emperor -- chose to stop paying the tribes tribute for their services in safeguarding the border. This eventually led to the tribes quietly allowing passage to the enemies of the Kalentoi -- first to the armies of Sirdab early in the Azadi conquests, and later to the insurgent Majirids. Capable of holding a grudge for generations, the Sarmatiyya still harbor a profound contempt for the Kalentoi.

They are not overly fond of their new rulers either, as they feel virtually no kinship for those Sirdabi who have embraced the Azadi faith. The Sarmatiyya still venerate the old gods and spirits -- nature deities, ancestral clan spirits, and other such entities -- and they do not forgive the Sirdabi for having chosen to throw the various material foci for such worship out of the ancient Sirdab shrine in Rahoum. On account of this desecration, the Sarmatiyya refer to Azadi Sirdabi as "the Godkillers". But this is a term more of mockery than anger, since the Sarmatiyya find it patently ridiculous that the Azadi believed they could destroy the gods simply by throwing out their ritual objects from the ancient shrine. The mountain tribesmen believe that following this act the gods simply abandoned the Sirdabi and came to live in Saramat with the Sarmatiyya instead, who call themselves the Friends of the Gods.

The Sarmatiyya are given to raiding one another on horseback and rustling livestock, and some bands also prey on unwary travelers through the mountain passes, rendering both trade and travel difficult. Such depredations are a perpetual thorn in the side of the provincial administrators, tasked as they are with maintaining the peace and keeping trade routes open. However, some of them develop a grudging respect for the Sarmatiyyans' courage and daring, and few will deny the benefits of having such a pugnacious people to guard the northwestern border of the caliphate.

Economy

Besides providing some of the hardiest soldiery of the caliphate, Saramat furnishes a wide array of natural resources that provide Sirdabi towns and cities with raw materials for numerous domestic industries. Timber is one of the most important resources of the province, as the wetter coastal mountainsides are covered thickly with Sarmatiyyan pine, blue spruce, starcedar, and other commercially valuable tree species. Copper, iron, and saramite are all mined here, with some mines also having deposits of semiprecious stones such as carnelian and malachite. Another local export is fine wool and fleece from the Sarmatiyyan herders' Khazi mountain sheep, which grow unusually long and luxuriant coats.