Bahman's vengeance on Sistan

Goshtasp grieves for Esfandiyar to the end of his days. Dying, he names his grandson Bahman king, with Pashutan as his counsellor, and hands over the keys of the treasury after a hundred and twenty years on the throne. Bahman, whom Goshtasp had renamed Ardashir, gathers his nobles. He reminds them what Rostam did, and of the old law of blood: Fereydun avenged Jamshid, Manuchehr avenged Iraj, Kay Khosrow avenged Siyavash, Esfandiyar avenged Lohrasp, and Faramarz has just avenged Rostam at Kabul. Who has a better right to vengeance than Esfandiyar's son? The nobles tell him to do as he wishes, and he marches on Sistan with a hundred thousand horsemen.

Near the Hirmand he sends an envoy to Zal. The old man answers humbly. What happened was fate. Rostam obeyed the king. Rostam was Bahman's servant and the nurse of his house. Let Bahman come as a friend and take all the treasure of Sam. Bahman refuses. Zal rides out to meet him with only a few men, dismounts, and asks forgiveness for the sake of the care they gave him as a boy. Bahman puts him in chains, loads the treasure of Zal's house onto camels, everything Rostam had gathered in a lifetime, and gives Zabolestan up to plunder.

Faramarz

At Bost, Faramarz calls the men of Zabol and Kabul together. His father, he says, would not listen when Zavareh warned that Bahman would want revenge; now his grandfather is in chains and the land is plundered. He marches out, and the armies meet in Ghur and fight for three days and nights. On the fourth day a wind rises and turns against Faramarz's side. His men break and run, and he fights on with a handful until he is taken, his body covered in sword cuts. Bahman looks at him for a long time and shows no mercy. He has him hanged alive, head-down, on a gallows, and shot with arrows.

Pashutan's rebuke

Then Pashutan rises. Enough, he says: the vengeance is complete. Esfandiyar went to Nimruz and came home in a coffin; Rostam went hunting at Kabul and died in a pit. Do not torment a man of Zal's birth, for if he cries to God against you, you will suffer for it. And remember that Bahman owes his crown to Rostam, not to Goshtasp or Esfandiyar: from Kay Qobad to Kay Khosrow, every king's greatness rested on Rostam's sword.

Bahman repents. He calls off the plunder, has Zal's chains struck off, and lets Faramarz be laid in a tomb. Rudabeh mourns over her husband as he comes home from prison: while Rostam lived, she cries, who had ever heard that Goshtasp was king? Now the treasure is plundered, Zal has been a prisoner, and Rostam's son lies dead of arrows. Hearing of her grief, Pashutan urges Bahman to leave at dawn, and the army goes home to Iran, where Bahman rules with justice and gives to the poor.