Zhayedan

The Zhayedan comprise the elite, and aristocratic corp of the Jiyeesha of the Hisuuani Caliphate. The main body of the force being the wealthy and landed elites of the Hamalfite clans. Including the tribal sheikhs, their sons, wealthy merchants or their sons, and many of the aristocracy of the wealthy clans of Hisuuani the Zhayedan is perhaps one of the strongest and final vestments of the old feudal aristocracy.
Though service in the Zhayedan is technically open for all, entry is at a significant personal cost. A system of armor standards and an unwillingness to supply service members with their own gear from a unit armory entails that men within the ranks must own their own suit of armor considered acceptable to the Caliph himself. In addition to the self outfitting, members are expected to have been trained in martial arts before hand. The high personal cost therefore entails that not only the wealthy enter, but also those related are the only ones who enter through heirloom gear.
Membership in the Zhayedan is considered a prestigious honor in the same vein as being a sheikh. Often times personal servants follow individual zhayedan from their household to their service and in administrative practice forming the bureaucratic and supportive backbone of the corp. Compared to the regular Jiyeesha and the Yeniçeri, members of the Zhayedan are held - even at their lowest rank - as being individually as powerful as a commissioned officer.
== Qualifications ==
Simple personal wealth isn't the only measure an individual is gauged at to enter the Zhayedan. As well as being able to provide one's own gear they must be of a high physical stature and be able to show or have notable prowess several recognized physical skills (sword-fighting, horse riding, archery, wrestling, among others). Zhayedan must also have a recognized high education comprising excellent literacy skills and comprehension so as to be comparable to having field experience, even if one was not already a prior soldier in the Zayedan.
Relieved qualifications to be zhayedan are offered to notable field officers in the regular Jiyeesha or Jannisary corps, where higher pay-grades may able to afford the necessary gear or even carry over the armor already given to them to zhayedan service.
== Background ==
There has always been a commanding authority in the field of combat vested in the aristocratic nobility of the Hamalfite people, whether it be tribal sheikhs or princes or even the Caliph himself and his trusted guard. But through the caliphate's early feudal beginnings the nobles of the tribes and clans were regarded as being the most adept at combat, having had been given physical training since a young age in order to compete and survive against rivals from foreign clans or even from their own family.
In Hamalfite antiquity, Giroz is notable for having fielded a large force of professionally trained and outfitted soldiers who were regarded and respected in his kingdom as nobles in their own right. Though the documentation is scant, steles uncovered under the stands suggest that Giroz's elite brigades were paid nearly as much as a noble's son's allowance.
Though an organized unit of noble soldiers have been scant among Hamalfites since, the practice was re-adapted after Mombadin to form a backbone of the army. Though in this early revival noble soldiers were most often commanders in charge of units of otherwise disorganized tribal levies.
A formal noble corp was established by Khodor ibn-Samun al-Michindi in his military reforms, setting the unit's standard.
=== Effectiveness ===
Though the size of the Zhayedan unit is small they have come to acquire notable reliance and efficiency in the field. When and where deployed as cavalry or mobile infantry there has been observed and notable shifts in the course of the battle. But largely serving as dedicated guards to the Caliph and important individuals they have only rarely gathered in a large enough force to be tactically deployed to a battle for a pronounced strategic importance.
Category:New Voldrania Category:Haisonuuna Category:Organizations