The Mandate of Heaven

The disk hung high in the sky, blazing like a great sun.

Its dazzling radiance made it impossible for anyone to keep their eyes open.

Even the burning Winged Angel seemed dim and lusterless beside it.

The Saracen soldiers who had thrown away their armor and fled in disarray stopped in unison. Bathed in that scorching brilliance, they turned back in a daze.

"It is the Supreme God of Light!"

"The Holy Fire has descended!"

Countless people wept as they fell to their knees, pressing their foreheads against the burning sand until they bled, as though doing so could lessen their sins.

To a devout Zoroastrian, the repeated defeats in this Great Crusade against the Crusaders and the loss of cities and lands were not the most terrifying thing.

What was terrifying was what those defeats implied: that the god they worshipped was not omniscient and omnipotent, or that He had abandoned His followers, just as the people of Constantinople had believed during Lothar's simulated battle.

Such thoughts were terrifying. Either they doubted their faith, or they attributed every defeat to divine will—if God wished them to endure failure and dark years under heathen rule.

If He wanted them to suffer such torment and trials, to test whether their faith was truly loyal.

What meaning was there in continuing to resist in vain? Would that not be defying God's will?

"The Holy Fire has not abandoned His people!"

An Imam shouted excitedly, raising a bronze basin high above his head. Holy fire burned fiercely within it.

The holy fire revered by Zoroastrianism referred to the first flame born in the universe, the source of all light. It was also called the God of Light, but had no fixed form.

And because Zoroastrianism forbade idol worship, aside from clergy and scholars,