Naudar rules oppressively and the people revolt, but Sám suc­ceeds in restoring order. Pashang, the king of Túrán, however, takes the opportunity of the death of Minúchihr to send an army to invade Írán under the command of his son Afrásiyáb. The Íránians are defeated, and Naudar, with many of his chiefs, is taken prisoner. Afrásiyáb kills Naudar and assumes the crown of Írán. Ighríras, the brother of Afrásiyáb, traitorously releases the Íránian prisoners, the Íránians under Káran and Zál obtain independent successes over the Túránians, and Afrásiyáb puts his brother Ighríras to death.

In this reign the connection between the Sháhnáma and the Vedas temporarily seems to be severed, and we are unable to trace the names of the principal heroes further back than the Zandavasta, where most of them are to be found. The story of the reign is one of disaster for Írán; and the ancient feud, origi­nating in the murder of Íraj, receives a new impetus through the execution of Ighríras by his brother Afrásiyáb. We are accordingly here introduced to the royal line of Túrán, of which we have heard nothing since the slaying of Túr by Minúchihr, and to its collateral branch, the heroic family of Wísa, which plays such an important part in this and future reigns, and corresponds on the Túránian side to the family of Sám on the Íránian.* The most important personality is that of Afrásiyáb— the protagonist of the Túránian race, and the arch-enemy of Írán, through the reigns of successive Sháhs. He is the second in the trinity of evil spirits which, according to Zoroastrian belief, was created by Áhriman to vex the Íránian race, the first being Zahhák, and the third apparently Alexander the Great.* In the part of the extant Zandavasta known as the Zamyád Yast, which has been termed “an abridged Sháhnáma,”* Afrásiyáb, or Frangrasyan, as he is there called, is described as making several attempts to seize the kingly Glory or Grace which was the peculiar possession of the Sháhs, and which Zahhák himself sought in vain. Afrásiyáb, however, is recorded to have been once successful, not, as one might suppose, on the occasion in the present reign, but in that of Kai Káús, when the latter was taken prisoner by the king of Hámávarán.* In the Bundahish we find indications that Afrásiyáb was originally, like Zahhák, a water-stealing fiend; but he cannot be traced further back than the Zandavasta, and his depredations are confined to stealing away the rivers of Írán.* It is recognised in the Zandavasta that there are good men in all countries, in those of the elder sons of Farídún—Túrán and Rúm—as well as in that of his youngest-born—Írán.* We have an instance of this in the case of Ighríras—the brother of Afrásiyáb—who being originally a good spirit or demi-god is naturally supposed to favour the Íránians at the cost of his own countrymen, and is held up as a sort of martyr in the poem. In the Zandavasta the murder of Ighríras is looked upon as one of the motives for vengeance on Afrásiyáb,* while in the Bundahish we read: “When Frásíyáv made Mánúskíhar, with the Íránians, captive in the mountain-range of Padashkhvár, and scattered ruin and want among them, Aghrérad begged a favour of God, and he obtained the benefit that the army and champions of the Íránians were saved by him from that distress. Frásíyáv slew Aghrérad for that fault.”* The story in the Sháhnáma is told not of Minúchihr but of Naudar. The mountain-range is that to the south of the Caspian.