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.
In the aftermath of Sekander's reign, Persia's ivory throne lies empty. The land is ruled by a succession of kinglets, each "cheerfully ruling a petty kingdom." This is exactly as Sekander planned.
Eventually, however, one of these kings, Babak, starts dreaming of his chief shepherd, Sasan. He has Sasan brought to him and questions him about his ancestry. It turns out that the shepherd is the descendent of another Sasan, the son of Dara, who went into hiding in India and lived obscurely. Babak's dreams suggest that Sasan or his offspring will become king of Persia, so he invites him into his palace, clothes him in finery and marries him to his daughter. Sasan sires a son, Ardeshir Babakan, who grows into a fine prince with a particularly dazzling divine kingly radiance.
Ardeshir
Ardeshir is summoned to the court of King Ardavan, where he promptly falls in love with one of the king's concubines, Golnar. Golnar is not just a concubine; she is also Ardavan's prime minister, chief advisor and treasurer. This makes it easy for Golnar to raid the treasury when she and the prince flee the palace.
Ardavan pursues, but is met with troubling omens. Everyone who has seen the prince comments on his divine kingly radiance, and his impossibly fleet horse is being followed by a clearly symbolic sheep. Ardeshir and Golnar escape Ardavan's pursuit, and the king returns to his lands to prepare for war. When Ardeshir returns, it is at the head of a conquering army.
Things go well for Ardeshir for a while, until he comes up against Haftvad. Haftvad was a merchant, until his daughter found a worm in an apple. The worm was magical, and helped Haftvad's daughter to spin vast amounts of magical thread. Haftvad leveraged this productivity into vast wealth, and ended up controlling the town. For five years the worm was kept well-fed and comfortable, until now it is the size of an elephant in Haftvad's giant fortress.
Haftvad, it turns out, is pretty much invincible. Ardeshir's army is routed and his palace is sacked. Ardeshir realises that he's not going to get very far without dealing with the worm, so he gathers his captains and sneaks into town. He poses as a merchant wishing to pay homage to the great beast, and gets the worm's servants drunk so that he can fill thing full of boiling lead.
Without the worm's magic, Haftvad is no match for Ardeshir and is captured. Ardeshir assumes the ivory throne and becomes King of Persia.
Shapur
Ardavan's sons send their sister to seduce Ardeshir and poison him. She is half successful: she sleeps with the king but spills the poison. She begs not to be executed, saying that she is carrying the king's child. Ardeshir sentences her and the child to death, but the chief priest takes pity on her and she is secretly spared.
Some years later, the chief priest confesses that he saved the woman and child, and Ardeshir is shaken but ultimately pleased to have a son. He picks the boy, Shapur, out of a lineup of a hundred young nobles, knowing instantly that this is his son. He consults an Indian wise man about the future of the boy, who says that everything will be fine as Shapur marries the daughter of Ardeshir's enemy Mehrak. Ardeshir says he would rather die than give his throne over to Mehrak's descendants, and sends out horsemen to kidnap his enemy's only daughter so that she can be drowned.
Meanwhile, Shapur meets a beautiful girl while out hunting, and they hit it off. She tries to tell him that she is the daughter of the village headman, but he immediately pegs her as royalty and demands the truth. She says that she is the only daughter of Mehrak, and has been hidden in the village to keep her safe in case one of her father's enemies wants to have her drowned. Shapur tells the headman that he intends to marry his ward, and the headman, unwilling to argue with the crown prince, consents. Soon Shapur's wife gives birth to a son, Hormozd. They raise the boy in secret, but when Ardeshir finds out he only laughs and says that he should have listened to his seer.
Eventually, Ardeshir dies, though not before giving Shapur a long lecture about kingship. Shapur takes the throne. The Roman provinces stop sending their tribute, so Shapur goes to war against Rome. The Roman emperor is forced to surrender, and Shapur exacts a tribute from them.
More Kings
The narrative skips over a series of not very interesting kings: Hormozd, Bahram Hormozd, Bahram Bahram, Bahram Bahramian, Nersi Bahram and Hormozd Nersi. Royal names are in somewhat short supply in ancient Persia.
Shapur Zu'l Aktaf
Hormozd Nersi dies thinking he has no heir, but a wise priest finds a pregnant concubine in the harem and sets himself up as regent until the concubine's son is of age. The boy is named Shapur, and eventually becomes king.
Sometime ago, the Arab Tayer kidnapped Nersi Bahram's daughter, and fathered a daughter, Malekeh. When Shapur inevitably goes to war with the Arabs, Malekeh sees him from the battlements and immediately falls in love with him. She arranges for Tayer's fortress to fall to Shapur. Shapur orders Tayer decapitated, and then removes the shoulder blades from his Arab prisoners. This earns him the sobriquet Zu'l Aktaf: Lord of the Shoulders.
Sometime later, Shapur becomes bored with kinging and decides he wants to be a spy. He hands over the throne to his vizier and disguises himself as a fantastically wealth merchant, and heads off to spy on the emperor of Rome.
"Sire, we have spies."Unfortunately, Shapur has no sooner crossed the border when he is identified by a Persian exile and sold out the the emperor. The emperor has him bound up in an ass's skin, and sets off to invade Persia. Fortunately, the empress's servant is a Persian lass, and she falls in love with Shapur. On Shapur's orders, she slowly softens the ass's skin by secretly pouring warm milk on it. After two weeks of this the ass's skin splits and the king is free. The servant girl procures two horses, a mace, a helmet and some armour, and the two flee back to Persia.
"Do we have spies with divine kingly radiance?"
"It's not something we would consider an advantage..."
"Who's king?"
"I could probably have procured a sword, sire..."Shapur arrives back in Persia to find it besieged by the entire Roman army. He gathers his forces and attacks by night, defeating the Romans and capturing the Emperor. Remembering the ass's skin, he has the emperor mutilated and executed. The emperor is succeeded by his brother, who desperately sues for peace. Shapur accepts and they conclude a treaty.
"The warm milk thing worked, didn't it?"
More Kings
At this point the book skips over some more boring kings: Shapur's brother Ardeshir Niku Kar, Shapur III and Bahram Shapur.
Yazdegerd the Unjust and Bahram Gur
Yazdegerd's chapter begins "Yazdegerd rejoiced at his brother's unhappy death..." and it goes on from there. Yazdegerd is a tyrant, bereft of justice, mercy and divine kingly radiance. When his son Bahram is born, Yazdegerd consults some astrologers who tell him that the boy will become a great and glorious king. Yazdegerd thinks this sounds awesome, and summons envoys from all over the world so that he can find someone to raise the boy to be a great and glorious king. He settles on an Arab prince, Monzer, and his son No'man. These two raise Bahram to be a mighty warrior and hunter, and hopefully a great and glorious king.
Eventually, Yazdegerd summons his son back to Persia. He lavishes gifts on No'man and sends a letter back to Monzer saying what an awesome job he's done. Bahram, however, is a bit shocked at his father's brutal rule, and sends Monzer a letter of his own. Monzer writes back saying, "Hey, look, you've got to know your place, you know? Here's ten thousand dinars and your favourite slave girl."
Bahram is happy enough with this for a while, but Yazdegerd comes to feel that his son isn't acting appropriately and has him confined to quarters. Bahram conspires with the Roman envoy Taynush to escape, and flees back to his foster family in Yemen.
Yazdegerd asks his astrologers for a prophecy about his death. They tell him this is a bad idea, but he's king and he insists. They tell him that when his luck starts to decline, he'll head to the Fountain of Su, and he will die. Yazdegerd immediately swears an oath that he will never travel to the Fountain of Su, and his luck immediately starts to decline. He starts to bleed profusely from his nose. His astrologers sigh and say that he has angered God by trying to escape his fate, and really the only way to alleviate the curse is to travel to the Fountain of Su.
At the fountain, Yazdegerd bathes and his bloody nose immediately clears up. He decides not to wait around for whatever else is supposed to happen, and on the way home he is killed by an angry white horse.
Yazdegerd's nobles collectively sigh in relief, and note just what a bastard Yazdegerd was. Then they look speculatively at the empty throne, and each other. The priesthood quickly intervenes, and place an old and not particularly evil noble named Khosrow on the throne.
Meanwhile, Bahram and No'man hear of Yazdegerd's death and immediately raise an army. The Persian priesthood send an envoy and point out that Bahram has a pretty solid claim to the throne and perhaps riding at the head of a giant Arabian army isn't the best way of securing it. Bahram travels back to Persia with a small escort. He is welcomed by the nobles, and put on a throne if not the throne. The Persian people are not convinced, and there is unrest. The priesthood offer to set up a competitive examination process to select a king from a field of about a hundred nominees. They include Bahram so he's happy enough.
During this, Monzer asks the Persians why they won't accept Bahram, who should be a perfectly good king candidate. They point to all the body parts and organs that they lost under Yazdegerd, and say that they don't really expect better from his son.
Ah, says Monzer.
On learning this, Bahram gives a heartfelt speech to the Persian people, saying that he understand just how crap a king Yazdegerd was. The people and the priesthood are suitably impressed at his speech and his divine kingly radiance. Bahram suggests a test of bravery: the crown will be placed between two lions, and the person who can take it shall be king. Everyone says, sure. Either you get torn apart by lions or God saves you; we're happy with both of those options.
Khosrow and Bahram line up in front of the lions. Khosrow decides that he doesn't really want to be king anymore and lets Bahram go first. Then one of the lions breaks free and Bahram clocks it with his mace. He clocks the second lion and takes the crown.
Bahram's rule is peaceful and prosperous, and he is able to enjoy the pleasures of the palace. One day, however, one of courtiers gets ridiculously drunk and passes out on the road. His eyes are pecked out by ravens, and he dies. As a result, Bahram forbids the drinking of alcohol in his kingdom.
Shortly afterwards, a newly married cobbler's son is having difficulty performing his husbandly duties, so his mother pulls out her secret stash of wine to help him. The boy drinks up, and then heads home. Instead of mounting his donkey, he gets on a lion that has escaped from the king's menagerie. The lion keeper sees the boy riding the lion, and runs to tell the king. Bahram asks what has happened, and the story comes out. The king is highly amused, and amends his earlier decree: people are allowed to drink enough wine that they can ride a lion, but no so much that ravens peck their eyes out.
Bahram's rule continues. The Emperor of China hears that Persia is ruled by a dissolute, pleasure-loving king, and invades. Bahram, however, is well aware of his responsibilities and sees the Chinese forces off. Byzantium tries to claim that it shouldn't pay tribute to a king who lacks wisdom, but Bahram passes the Byzantine ambassador's test and the tribute is reinstated.
Bahram hears that the Shangal, the king of India, is straying from the path of righteousness. He takes a leaf from Sekander's book and goes as his own envoy. While in India, Bahram impresses everyone by killing a rhinocerous and a dragon, and then he seduces the king's daughter and escapes with her. Shangal pursues, and learns who this "envoy" really was. When he catches up, he swears vengeance upon Bahram, until Bahram convinces him that the position of royal father-in-law is a pretty good one, and carries exactly no obligation to pay tribute. Shangal sees the wisdom in this and returns to India as Bahram's regent.
More kings and a prophet
Bahram Gur is succeeded by his son Yazdegerd, who is succeeded briefly by his son Hormozd and rather longer by his other son Piruz. Piruz is succeeded by Balash, then Qobad. Qobad's reign sees the appearance of the dangerous prophet Mazdak, who preaches the unthinkable doctrine that nobles aren't really better than anyone else and that everyone should be treated as equals with all property held in common. Happily, Qobad and the Zoroastrian priesthood see off this terrible heresy and everyone returns to their lives of peace and prosperity.
"Everyone" being the nobility, of course. Who cares about those other guys?
Kesra Nushin-Ravan
Qobad's son Kesra is a just king who reforms the tax system and forges a treaty with Rome, that includes the emperor's daughter as his wife. Unfortunately, their son Nushzad is a bit of a tearaway and, worse, a Christian like his mother. When Kesra falls ill Nushzad leads a rebellion against his father. The rebellion is ultimately unsuccessful, and Nushzad dies wishing he'd been a more respectful son.
Kesra starts having prophetic dreams, and the search for someone to interpret it leads him to the boy Bozorjmehr, who is terribly wise and learned despite his youth. The exceedingly just Kesra and the exceedingly wise Bozorjmehr become a king/vizier dream team, and Persia prospers. There is a new treaty with China (again involving the emperor's daughter), and an exchange of games with India. Indian sages send the game of chess, and Persia returns its far superior game of nard, which is too complicated for the Indian sages to understand.
At least, that's the Persians' story.
Eventually, Kesra and Bozorjmehr fall out. Bozorjmehr starts seeing terrible omens everywhere, and frowns a lot. The king sees him frowning and takes offence. Bozorjmehr is confined to quarters. He takes it stoically, and whenever the king asks how he's doing he says he's doing pretty well. This causes the king to escalate his punishments, until Bozorjmehr is imprisoned in a spiked metal chest with his head bound by iron. The king smugly ask him how he's doing again, and Bozorjmehr says he's getting happier every day. Kesra demands an explanation, and Bozorjmehr says that he's taking more and more comfort in the idea that death comes to everyone sooner or later.
The king finds this answer weird and releases his vizier back to house arrest.
Byzantium tries again to claim that it doesn't have to pay tribute to anyone who isn't wise enough. An envoy arrives with a sealed casket, and says they will only pay tribute if the king can determine what is in the box without opening it. The king summons Bozorjmehr, who works it out with some pretty astute omen-reading. Byzantium agrees to continue to pay tribute, and Bozorjmehr is restored to the king's good graces.
"Sorry about the imprisonment and torture thing."Then Kesra imparts some kingly wisdom to his son, Hormozd, and dies.
"Don't mention it."
"I feel really bad about it!"
"Just shut the hell up!"
Hormozd, Khosrow Parviz, and also Bahram Chubineh who is not technically a king
Hormozd turns out to be one of Persia's evil kings, and he immediately sets about imprisoning loyal viziers, murdering chief priests and executing nobles. Before long, Persia is in revolt and is threatened by external enemies. One of the older nobles recommends one Bahram Chubineh, who takes control of Hormozd's armies and marches against the rebel king Saveh Shah. Saveh Shah tries to induce Bahram to defect, but the general is incorruptible. Bahram is victorious, and he presents Saveh Shah's head to his king.
But he is also merciful, and offers safe conduct to Saveh Shah's son Parmoudeh. Parmoudeh is insufficiently grateful, however, and does not treat Bahram with the respect that he feels is his due. Bahram has Parmoudeh shackled and beaten. Then one of his people points out that this is actually a really good way of alienating a potential ally. Parmoudeh is released but it's no good: he runs off to Hormozd and tells him how badly Bahram has treated him. Hormozd takes Parmoudeh's side - monarch to monarch - and sends Bahram a gift of women's clothes and a spindle. Bahram dresses in the clothes and uses the outrage of his officers to drive rebellion against the king. Despite the warnings of his sister, Gordyeh, he sets himself up as a rival monarch in the town of Rey.
Bahram foments dissension in Hormozd's ranks by having coins minted bearing the likeness of the king's son, Khosrow Parviz, and sending them to Hormozd with a letter boasting that he will be Khosrow's most loyal and destructive general. Hormozd believes his son is planning to rebel, and orders him executed, along with many of his allies. Khosrow flees the palace.
Persia is in disarray, and nobody quite understands what's going on. Two of Hormozd's nobles decide that the king has lost all trace of divine kingly radiance, and corner him in his palace and blind him. Then they loot the treasury and flee.
Bahram learns of Hormozd's misfortune and - again against the advice of his sister Gordyeh - makes his move on the throne. Khosrow comes out to meet him. They parley, then fight, and Khosrow is forced back to his capital. He consults his blind father for advice, who tells him to send to Byzantium for aid. The emperor of Byzantium sends an army and his daughter. Khosrow is ultimately victorious, and Bahram flees to China.
Bahram ingratiates himself with the Chinese court, to the point of marrying at least two of the emperor's daughters, and when Khosrow demands his extradition the emperor instead sends Bahram at the head of a conquering army. Khosrow sends first a envoy to sue for peace, and, when that fails, an assassin to murder Bahram. This, at least, is successful.
The emperor of China wishes to honour Bahram's memory by marrying Gordyeh. Gordyeh deliberates, but decides that she is loyal to Persia and refuses. The emperor sends his brother, Tovorg, with an army to claim her anyway. Gordyeh challenges Tovorg to single combat, and kills him.
At this point, Gostahm, one of the nobles who blinded Hormozd, revolts against Khosrow and proposes to Gordyeh. Gordyeh decides she is willing to accept a Persian husband. This places all of her forces with Gostahm, which bothers Khosrow. Khosrow sends a secret letter saying that he has always loved Gordyeh, and offers to marry her if she can get rid of her new husband. This suits Gordyeh, and she smothers Gostahm in his sleep. Gordyeh becomes the wife of Khosrow and, at her request, ruler of Rey.
Shirui
Khosrow Parviz's son by his other, Byzantine, wife grows up idle and loutish, and by the time he comes of age his father has had enough and has him imprisoned. But although Khosrow had been a basically good king, and he gets older his court becomes more and more unjust. His chamberlain, Farrokhzad and a warrior, Goraz, actively encourage this dissolution. Eventually Khosrow gets wind of their treachery, but the two are able to release Shirui from prison and encourage the army to defect to him. Khosrow is imprisoned in his turn, and then executed by a common thief hired to the purpose.
Shortly afterwards, Shirui himself is poisoned.
A few last kings
Shirui is succeeded by his son Ardeshir, who is murdered. Goraz seizes the throne, and is murdered. Two royal princesses, Puran-Dokht and Azarm-Dokht, rule briefly before being succeeded by Farrokhzad, who is murdered. Khosrow Parviz's grandson, Yazdegerd III, takes the throne.
Yazdegerd and Mahuy
Yazdegerd ushers in a new era of stability and not being murdered, and rules for sixteen years. But then Persia is once again invaded by Arabs, led by Sa'd. But these Arabs are different. These aren't the pleasure-loving kings and splendid warriors of the past. They are black-clad religious fanatics, austere and terrible. Despite their lack of equipment and food they are all but unstoppable, sweeping all before them in an ecstatic frenzy.
Yazdegerd desperately gathers his loyal forces, including a governor, Mahuy - but Mahuy is treacherous and sends a letter to one of the outland warriors, Bizhan, telling him that the king is vulnerable and the throne can be his. Bizhan attacks and Yazdegerd's army is routed. The defeated, bewildered king takes refuge in a mill. The miller reports the presence of the lone, majestic warrior to his village headman, who sends him off to Mahuy. Mahuy offers the miller a choice: either go and cut off the warrior's head, or have his own cut off now.
The miller accepts the commission and the king is murdered. Mahuy takes the throne - and he holds it as long as it takes Bizhan to get his army to the capital. But it turns out Bizhan has no design on the throne; he has allied with the Arab forces.
And so Mahuy is - briefly - the last Persian king in the Book of Kings, and the Shahnameh comes to an end.
--
I loved this book. It's grand and elaborate and majestic and awesome. From the ancient mythic heroes to the bloodthirsty chaos of the final era, it had me utterly entranced.
The poet Ferdowski ends his book asserting his moral right to be identified as the author of this work:
After sixty-five years had passed over my head, I toiled ever more diligently and with greater difficulty at my task. I searched out the history of the kings, but my star was a laggard one. Nobles and great men wrote down what I had written without paying me: I watched them from a distance, as if I were a hired servant of theirs. I had nothing from them but their congratulations: my gall bladder was ready to burst with their congratulations! Their purses of hoarded coins remained closed, and my bright heart grew weary with their stinginess.
...
"I've reached the end of this great historyI raise a glass to him across the ages: you sang a fine song, Mr Ferdowski.
And all the land will fill with talk of me:
I shall not die, these seeds I've sown will save
My name and reputation from the grave,
And men of sense and wisdom will proclaim
When I have gone, my praises and my fame.
