The death of Rostam

Ferdowsi says he had this story from an old man called Azad Sarv, who lived at Merv in the household of Ahmad ibn Sahl, knew the book of kings and traced his descent to Sam. A slave-girl in Zal's household, a musician, bears a son as handsome as Sam. The astrologers of Kashmir and Kabul read his stars and tell Zal that when the boy grows up he will destroy the house of Sam and fill Sistan with mourning. Zal prays that it will not be so, names the child Shaghad, and sends him to the king of Kabul, who gives him his daughter.

Every year Kabul pays Rostam a tribute, an ox-hide's worth. The king had hoped that with Rostam's brother as his son-in-law it would be forgotten; it is not. Shaghad, bitter at a brother who shows him no regard, plots with the king. At a feast the king insults him, as arranged, saying he is no son of Zal and no brother of Rostam, and Shaghad rides to Zabol to complain. Rostam promises to put him on Kabul's throne. Shaghad tells him the king will surely repent, and Rostam sets out with only Zavareh and a small company. Meanwhile the king's men dig pits across his hunting ground, set spears and swords upright in them, and cover them with brushwood.

The pits

The king of Kabul meets Rostam barefoot and bareheaded, weeping, and begs forgiveness for his drunken words. Rostam forgives him. There is a feast in a green place by the city, and then the king mentions a hunting ground full of game. Rostam rides out with Shaghad and Zavareh. Rakhsh smells the newly turned earth and shies, picking his way between two pits, and Rostam, whose judgement fate has clouded, lashes him with the whip. Rakhsh springs forward, and horse and rider drop into a pit of blades. Rostam drags himself up to the rim, sees Shaghad's face, and understands.

Shaghad gloats that heaven has given Rostam what he deserved. The king arrives and offers to send for physicians; Rostam tells him the time for physicians is over, and that Faramarz will avenge him. Then he asks Shaghad for one thing: his strung bow and two arrows, so that no lion will tear him while he lies there. Shaghad strings the bow, lays it by him, and laughs. Rostam lifts it. Shaghad, frightened, hides behind an old plane tree with a hollow trunk, and Rostam's arrow goes through the tree and through him, pinning brother and tree together. Rostam thanks God for letting him take his revenge before he died, and dies. Zavareh dies in another pit.

Mourning

Zal pours dust on his head and asks why he has lived to see this. Faramarz brings the bodies of Rostam, Zavareh and Rakhsh home from Kabul; the poem says Rostam was too big to lie on two biers. Crowds line the road from Kabul to Zabol, and a tomb is built for them in a garden. Then Faramarz marches on Kabul, captures the king and hangs him head-down in the pit, burns forty of his kinsmen, and burns Shaghad together with the plane tree and the ground it stood on. Sistan mourns for a year. Rudabeh refuses food until, out of her mind with grief, she tries to eat a dead snake and has to be stopped. She recovers, gives what she has to the poor, and prays that Rostam's soul may have a place in paradise.