The Book: Shahnameh, the Persian Book of Kings
The Author: Abolqasem Ferdowski, some time in the tenth century.
This text: a 2006 translation by Dick Davis.
Price: This one cost me $29.99 from Dymocks, and it was money well spent. Seems to be pricier on the internet, though.
Other adventures
Kay Khosrow sends an army into Turan, under strict orders not to engage Seyavash's other son Forud. Forud is nevertheless dragged into the conflict, and fights a succession of Persian heroes until he is eventually defeated. Rostam fights a demon. The young hero Bizhan romances Afrasyab's daughter, Manizheh. Kay Khosrow is victorious in his campaign and Afrasyab is captured and executed. Kay Kavus dies, and his grandson continues to rule.
Kay Khosrow's last days
Kay Khosrow rules for sixty years of peace and prosperity. With nothing left to do, he wonders whether he should continue on, or just give it up. He reasons that, having pacified China and India and Byzantium, and having conquered most of the known world, and have rendered his lands safe from demons, it's really only downhill from here. Given his ancestry - which includes Afrasyab and Zahhak and Kavus - he comes to feel that if he does continue kinging, the most likely outcome is hubris, arrogance, evil and the loss of his divine kingly radiance.
He decides to pray.
Alone.
For quite a while.
It makes his nobles nervous.
"What's he doing?"Eventually, the nobles get so worried that they send for Rostam.
"Praying, he said."
"I don't like it."
"He said we shouldn't worry, maybe get drunk or something."
"I don't like it at all."
Rostam and Zal arrive at the court to take charge. Khosrow comes out from his retreat and explains that he wants to retire.
"You want to retire? What madness is this? Is this the idiot madness of your grandfather Kay Kavus? Are you going to make an eagle-powered spaceship? Or is this the evil madness of your other grandfather Afrasyab? Is this because you're descended from Zahhak? Did you make the demon Eblis your cook!?"Zal takes a lot of convincing, but in the end Khosrow's serenity wins out and the court accepts his decision to retire. Then the Persian people take a lot of convincing, but the king's serenity wins out and they also accept his decision to retire.
"Calm down, Zal. I'm pretty sure I'm doing the right thing. I've been praying for God's wisdom for five weeks, and the Angel Sorush said I should retire."
"Oh."
"It's ok, man. It's ok."
"I'm sorry, it's just that I've never seen a king pray for wisdom before."
Then he appoints the nobody noble Lohrasp as his successor, and everyone goes nuts again, Zal included.
Khosrow patiently explains that Lohrasp has all the necessary virtues: wisdom, royal ancestry, divine kingly radiance. Also, the angel Sorush said it was ok and the angel Sorush hasn't spoken to anyone since the Mythic Age. Zal mutters that he hadn't realised the royal ancestry bit, and concedes that Lohrasp is probably an okay choice for king. If the angel Sorush says so.
Khosrow then explains that he intends to ride off into the mountains and become a hermit. His court offer to escort him. The king explains that they seem to have missed the point of the 'hermit' thing, but they come anyway. In the mountains, he tells them to stay on the lush, green, fertile side, while he rides on down the desolate wilderness side. He patiently points out the symbolism: this side is lush, green and fertile, that side is desolate wilderness. Zal, Rostam and another hero, Gudarz, eventually get the hint. Several other heroes decide to stay with the king for a bit longer. On the desolate side of the mountain, Khosrow asks the remaining heroes to return, please, because there is a massive blizzard coming and anyone who stays here will die. The party camps, and the next morning Khosrow has vanished without a trace.
Then a massive blizzard comes along and everyone who stayed there dies.
Esfandyar
Lohrasp's son is Goshtasp, who is a bit troublesome and gets himself exiled, first to India and then to Rum. He marries a Rumi princess, kills a wolf and a dragon and ends up threatening Persia with a Rumi army. Lohrasp concedes the throne to him and retires to become a monk.
Goshtasp's son is Esfandyar, who is a bit troublesome and is imprisoned by his father for suspected treason. However, when yet another war against Turan starts going badly, Esfandyar is released and becomes the big hero of the war. He expects to be named as heir, but first, Goshtasp demands another service from him.
Esfandyar is to drag Rostam before him in chains.
Rostam still technically owes fealty to the Persian throne, but hasn't been around much since Khosrow's time and hasn't sworn an oath to Goshtasp. Esfandyar's son, Bahman, points out that they could probably just ask for his oath, but Esfandyar says that he has his orders and he'll show the old man, he'll see.
Bahman is sent as an emissary to Zabolestan. Bahman is a nice kid and easily befriends Rostam, and he explains the situation. Rostam says he's pretty happy to swear the oath, and he'll do it if Goshtasp comes and asks in person.
This is not good enough for Esfandyar, who knows it will not be good enough for Goshtasp.
"Rostam! I bid you yield in my father's name!"Things escalate, and soon Rostam and Esfandyar are exchanging insults. Zal counsels that Rostam just go and give Goshtasp his oath, but Rostam refuses to yield, and before long it's maces at dawn.
"That's pretty reasonable, I've served the kings of Persia for...must be more than six hundred years by now. You should come into the palace, meet the family..."
"My orders are to bring you to my father in chains!"
"Oh, child."
The duel is evenly matched, and Rostam's brother, Zavareh, gets a bit bored and decides to pick a fight with Esfandyar's son Nushazar. Given that each of these are in charge of an army, when the situation comes to blows it comes to a lot of blows; Nushazar and his brother Mehrnush are killed by Zavareh and Rostam's son Faramarz.
The pitched battle interrupts the duel. Rostam is enraged that the battle started without his orders and Esfandyar is enraged that his sons have been killed. Rostam offers to hand his brother and son over to justice, but Esfandyar decides to blame Rostam and the duel starts up again.
Towards the end of the day, Rostam realises that Esfandyar is actually invincible. Rostam retreats, heavily wounded, but promises to come back the next day to continue the battle. Esfandyar sends his sons' coffins back to his father, with a letter telling him that this is a result of his orders.
Rostam consults with his family. Zal says that the easiest way out for Rostam at this point is probably to die, but he does know a slightly trickier way. He sets fire to one of his magic feathers, and summons the Simorgh.
The Simorgh uses its beak, talons and extensive knowledge of surgery to put Rostam into a stable condition. It then asks why he's being so stupid as to fight Esfandyar, who (a) is invincible and (b) possesses the divine kingly radiance. Rostam explains that it's about honour, and the Simorgh says that maybe it could be about not dying instead. Rostam sees the sense in this, and agrees to call off his duel. The Simorgh takes him to an enchanted garden and gives him the branch of a tamarisk tree to use as an arrow that will, if necessary, kill Esfandyar. It instructs him to confront Esfandyar and to try and talk him down, with the arrow being a last resort.
The next morning Rostam, mostly but not entirely healed, tries to talk Esfandyar down. He offers to let Esfandyar lead him to the king's presence, although preferably not in chains. Esfandyar insists on continuing the fight, and mocks, taunts and challenges him.
Reluctantly, Rostam shoots him in the face.
With his dying words, Esfandyar forgives Rostam, and Zal, and the Simorgh, and lays the blame for his death on his father Goshtasp. Goshtasp's courtiers explain that Esfandyar refused all reasonable requests from Rostam, and persisted because of his father's orders. They too condemn Goshtasp, not Rostam.
Bahram stays with Rostam, and is fostered in Zabolestan until he comes of age. Rostam sends a letter to Goshtasp, offering his apologies, a sizeable tribute and an explanation of the events leading to the death of Esfandyar. Bahram, well-trained and glowing with divine kingly radiance, returns to his grandfather's court. The repentant king gladly accepts his grandson as his heir, and the two become inseparable.
The death of Rostam
Many hundreds of years have past since Rostam was born to Zal, but Zal still keeps an active harem, and one slave - a musician and a storyteller - bears him a beautiful son. However, this one turns out to be one too many. Astrologers come from miles around to prepare a horoscope, and it's all bad. The boy - Shaghad - is prophesied to ruin Zal's entire family line.
Bummer, says Zal.
The kid grows up beautiful, chatty and witty. He is sent to be trained in the kingdom of Kabol, a tributary of Zabolestan. He finds favour, and the king marries Shaghad to his daughter.
The time comes round for the annual tribute, and the king suggests to his new son-in-law that perhaps the tribute might be waived on account of it now all being in the family. Rostam does not agree, and demands the tribute. This causes tension in Kabol, and offends Shaghad, who more or less agrees with the king. Shaghad and the king begin plotting to take revenge on Rostam for asking for his perfectly legal and agreed tribute.
The plot goes like this: Shaghad and the king stage a fight, where Shaghad is insulted and runs home to Rostam. Meanwhile, the king and a hundred of his closest friends secretly dig the hunting grounds full of spiked pit traps. Step three: profit.
In Zabolestan, Shaghad complains of having been bitterly hard done by. Rostam, fond of his brother, offers to invade. He grabs his other brother Zavareh and a small force and heads off to Kabol.
The king of Kabol receives Rostam warmly: I'm sorry, he says, I was drunk, I didn't mean it, please forgive me, would you like to go hunting?
The king describes the hunting grounds in such glowing terms that Rostam can't resist. On arrival, Raksh, his horse, is immediately suspicious, but Rostam drives him on.
Unfortunately, the hunting grounds are full of spiked pit traps, and Rostam and Raksh fall into one.
Raksh dies immediately; Rostam is heavily pierced, but manages to crawl out of the pit. He sees Shaghad and the king of Kabol, and swears that his son Faramarz will avenge him.
He asks a final request of Shaghad: that his bow be strung and left in front of him with two arrows. Shaghad, not the brightest of Zal's sons, complies.
"Uh. Why do you want a bow, brother?"At this point, Shaghad suddenly realises that the mightiest hero Persia has ever seen is armed, wounded and angry, and he runs off to hide behind a tree. Rostam draws his bow and fires an arrow through the tree, pinning his brother to it. Shaghad dies.
"Oh, you know. There might be lions."
"That seems reasonable."
And then Rostam dies.
And also Zavareh dies. The hunting field is full of spiked pit traps.
Aftermath
Faramarz is sent to recover his father's and uncle's bodies from the spiked pit traps, and he buries them in a grand tomb. Then he does indeed take vengeance on the king of Kabol, sacking his city and executing his family by flame. He also burns Shaghad's tree and much of the surrounding countryside.
Unfortunately, Faramarz's elaborately destructive show of vengeance inspires the king, Bahram, who remembers that his father was killed by Rostam. Moreover, he believes that Rostam used Zal's sorcery to do it, and, most importantly, he now knows that Rostam is dead. Zal is taken prisoner, and Zabolestan is plundered. Faramarz rebels, and gathers a force to attack the king and free his grandfather, but the attack is unsuccessful and Faramarz is killed.
Bahram's anger is sated, and his advisors warn him that his actions are straying from the path of divine kingliness, what with taking vengeance on the people that raised him and all. He relents, and releases Zal. Bahman, no longer driven mad by vengeance, turns his attention to his people, and becomes a moderately okay king: "Some were pleased with his reign, while others lived in grief and sorrow."
Seeing out the Heroic Age with one last king
When Bahman dies, he passes the throne to his pregnant daughter, Homay. Homay is a good queen, loved by her people, wise and just. She quickly realises that she doesn't actually want to give up kinging in favour of an actual baby. She calls in a carpenter, and asks him to make a watertight box.
The carpenter asks how big a box.
Baby sized, says Homay.
When the baby is born, Homay puts him in the box along with some jewels, and sends him down the river. The child is found by a fuller and his wife, who themselves have just lost a baby. They resolve to bring him up as if he were their own, and name him Darab.
"Husband, I think that baby might be royal."Darab grows up strong and stubborn and martially inclined, and also tends to glow. He resents learning his adopted family's trade, which he sees as beneath him. Eventually, he becomes uncontrollable, and the fuller tells him the truth about his origins. This all makes sense to Darab, who felt that he never really fit in. He claims the remaining jewels, uses them to kit himself as a warrior and a horseman, and goes off to join the army.
"What makes you say that, wife?"
"The jewels. The cloth. And he's got the queen's profile. But mostly..."
"Yes, wife?"
"Mostly, it's the divine kingly radiance."
While on campaign, a large storm blows up, and floods out the tents. Darab takes shelter in some ruins. The commander, Reshanavad, sees him sleeping, and seems to hear the wind singing about how this is actually the king of Persia. This seems a bit odd to him, so he asks the wind if it knows what it's talking about, and it assures him that it does. Nodding, Reshanavad wakes the kid up, upgrades his equipment and asks him where he's from. Darab tells him about the box and the fuller. Rehanavad sends for the fuller and his wife, and sends a full report to Homay.
The army then marches on Greece. Darab distinguishes himself mightily, and Reshanavad offers him a large share of the plunder. Darab takes a lance but otherwise refuses. On the army's return to Persia, Darab is presented to Homay. The queen immediately recognises him as her son. Reshanavad confirms that this is indeed the boy he wrote about. Homay names Darab her heir.
"Also, sorry about abandoning you as a child."Darab becomes king and continues the campaign against Greece. He marries a Greek princess, fathers a child on her, and then sends her back to her father.
"No worries, mum. What were you going to do, give up kinging in favour of an actual baby?"
The boy is named Sekander, and grows up believing himself the rightful king of Persia, if not the world...
Next: The Historic Age.
