Shu'ba Mughíra went his way, and Rustam
Bade to array the host and sound the trumpet.
From all sides troops assembled, clouds of dust
Arose, and din that deafed the sharpest ears.
“The steely lance-heads mid the murky reek
Are,” thou hadst said, “stars mid night's azure
gloom,”
While spears ne'er ceased to smite on glittering helms.
The strife endured three days, till water failed
The Íránians, and their warriors' hands and steeds
Became unfit for combat. Rustam's lips
Grew as the dust with drought, his tongue was split,
And men and horses battened on moist clay,
So grievous was the stress!

Shouts rose like thunder

From Rustam and from Sa'ad as they advanced,
Each from his post. Each left his army's centre,
And drew off from the field. Departing thus
They came beneath a steep-up eminence,
And there those chieftains twain assailed each other
Revengefully upon that scene of strife
Till Rustam, roaring like a thunder-clap,
Smote with his sword Sa'ad's charger on the head,
Smote the swift charger which came headlong down,

And brave Sa'ad was unhorsed. Then Rustam reared
Aloft a trenchant blade to show to him
The Day of Doom, and was in mind to strike
His head off, but by reason of the dust
Raised by the troops they could not see each other.
Then Rustam lighted from his steed and saddle
Of leopard-skin and fastened to his belt
His charger's reins but, while dust blinded him,
Sa'ad hurried up and smote him with the sword
Upon his helm whence blood ran down his face,
And while his eyes were blinded by the gore
The aspiring Arab gained the upper hand,
Again smote Rustam on the head and neck,
And flung his warrior-body on the dust.
None in the two hosts were aware thereof,
Or whither those two paladins had gone,
But searched until they found the scene of strife.
The Íránians, when they spied their paladin
Slashed by the scimitar from head to foot,
Fled. Many a chieftain perished in the press,
And many failed for thirst upon the saddle.
The world had had full measure of the Sháhs.
The host fared to the monarch of Írán,
And hastened on the way both day and night.
When Rustam had been slain in fight, and when
The chiefs' heads were all turned, the Muslim host
Sped like a savage lion in pursuit.*

At that time Yazdagird was at Baghdád;
To him the troops came flocking and announced
That Rustam was no more, and that the sea
Was dry with grief, that many men had fallen,
And that the rest had fled the battlefield.
The hosts, both Persian and Arabian,
Reached Karkh, and Farrukhzád, son of Hurmuzd,
Wroth and with tearful eyes came from the Arwand,
Arrived at Karkh, fell on the enemy,
And not an Arab warrior survived.
The Persians marched out from Baghdád intent
To meet the foe, and bloody was the event.