The death of Siyavash

Afrasiab sends his brother Garsivaz to Siyavashgerd. The prince welcomes him, news comes that Jarireh has borne Siyavash a son, and Garsivaz sees Farangis on her ivory throne and the splendour of the city. Envy takes hold of him. At the games Siyavash carries off five coats of mail on his spear and shoots through shields, and he politely declines to wrestle Garsivaz himself, but he throws two Turanian champions, Gorui Zereh and Damur, from their saddles. Garsivaz goes home seething.

He tells Afrasiab that Siyavash has changed: he writes to Rum and Chin, drinks to his father and gathers troops. The king hesitates. He has done well by Siyavash, and if he harms an innocent man the world will curse him. But Garsivaz keeps coming back until Afrasiab sends him to fetch Siyavash and Farangis to court. At Siyavashgerd, Garsivaz plays the opposite part. He weeps, warns Siyavash that Afrasiab killed his own brother Aghrirath, and advises him to write instead of coming. Then he rides back and tells Afrasiab that Siyavash would not even read his letter.

The dream

Afrasiab gathers his army. At Siyavashgerd, Siyavash wakes from a dream of a boundless river with a mountain of fire on the far side, spearmen on the bank, and Afrasiab before him fanning the flames that burned him. A messenger from Garsivaz tells him to save himself. Siyavash tells Farangis that his life is over. She is five months pregnant. If the child is a son, he says, he will be a king, and she must name him Kay Khosrow. He foresees it all: his own head cut off, with no coffin or mourners, Farangis dragged through the streets, Piran saving her, a man coming from Iran to take her and their son across the Jayhun, and a war of vengeance.

Then he goes to the stable, takes the halter from his black horse Behzad and whispers in its ear. Let him wait in freedom until Kay Khosrow comes, and then carry him to his revenge. The other horses he hamstrings.

Half a league along the road to Iran he meets Afrasiab's army. He will not fight his king, he tells his companions, for no strength avails against the Creator. Garsivaz asks why, if he is innocent, he has come in armour, and Afrasiab orders the attack. The Iranians are killed. Siyavash falls wounded, and Gorui Zereh ties his hands behind his back and puts a yoke on his neck. Afrasiab orders him beheaded on bare ground where no grass will ever grow.

Piran's brother Pilsam pleads for delay, and Farangis comes before her father with dust on her head, but he has her locked away. Siyavash is dragged on foot past the city. He prays for a son who will avenge him and sends a farewell to Piran. Gorui throws him down, sets a golden basin beneath him, cuts off his head and empties the blood where he was told. A black wind rises and hides the sun and moon.

Afrasiab orders Farangis beaten so that no branch may grow from Siyavash's root. Piran comes in haste, persuades the king to let him keep her until the child is born, and takes her to Khotan. Years later, when Kay Khosrow and his mother return to Siyavashgerd, a tree rises to the clouds from the earth that drank Siyavash's blood. His face is painted on its leaves, it smells of musk, it is green in midwinter, and mourners come to it to pray.