Pírúz becomes undisputed Sháh. His inaugural speech. The land is troubled by a severe drought which Pírúz takes measures to mitigate. The breaking of the drought. Pírúz builds cities and, in violation of the treaty of Sháh Bahrám Gúr, makes war upon the Haitálians, is defeated, and killed.

The reign of Pírúz (Perozes, AD. 459-484) lasted much longer than eleven years, and seems to have made a deep impression on the popular mind by reason of its accumulation of mishaps. The expedition against the Haitálians was preceded by a few months by a total eclipse of the sun*

—a portent of disaster that well may have helped to bring about its own fulfilment. Mír Khánd tells us that this Sháh's sobriquet was “The Valiant.”*

A relic of Pírúz—a cup engraved with a representation of that Sháh engaged in hunting—is said to be still in existence.*

§ 1. Drought is common enough in Írán, and the record shows that this particular one must have been of exceptional severity. According to Tabarí the relief measures adopted by Pírúz to cope with the emergency were so efficient that only one man perished through want.*

Tabarí of course is merely giving the statements of his authorities without comment.

§§ 2-4. According to the account in Tabarí, Pírúz built three cities—Rám-Pírúz (the Pírúz-Rám of Firdausí) in the territory of Rai, another called Rúshan Pírúz, and a third named Shahrám-Pírúz (Firdausí's Bádán Pírúz) in Ázarbáiján.*

The tradition given in the Sháhnáma of the war between Pírúz and the Haitálians is dominated by the memory of the beloved and popular Bahrám Gúr. We have seen how that Sháh, after his triumphant campaign against that people, set up a pillar that was to mark the boundary between them and the Íránians.*

The pre­sumption in the poem is that the arrangement then made continued in force till Pírúz refused to be bound by it any longer. His refusal brought death upon himself and disaster on his host. Clearly this was a judgment upon him for violating the treaty made by his grandfather. Naturally if Pírúz had been successful a different popular estimate would have been formed upon his conduct, but as matters turned out he was manifestly a wrong-doer for having left his grandsire's way and he merely got his deserts. Consequently on this occasion right was on the side of the enemy, and for a time the tradition becomes almost pro-Haitálian. Between the memory of a great popular Sháh and the occurrence of a great national disaster practically nothing remained, and the two are linked together as cause and effect. Historically, as we know from other sources, the case was very different. Bahrám Gúr's son and successor, Yazdagird, had plenty of trouble with the Haitálians,*

and so had, it would seem, Pírúz himself before the final disaster overtook him. Once, if not twice, he had been forced to conclude an unfavourable peace with them, had found himself in their power, and his son, Kubád, had on one occasion to remain two years in captivity until a heavy ransom had been paid. If the story of the help given by the Haitálians to Pírúz against his brother, Hurmuz, at the price of the cession of Tálikán be unhistorical it was probably at one of these conclusions of peace that the place was ceded.*

Popular tradition may have preferred to represent Tálikán as being yielded to secure the throne for the rightful heir rather than as the consideration for a disgraceful treaty later on. Pírúz violated his own compact, not Bahrám's, and perished in consequence. There are three accounts of the disaster in Tabarí. They are in accord in essentials, and two of them attribute the proximate cause of the overthrow of Pírúz to the trench dug by the Haitálian king who in these accounts is called Achshunwar or Akhshunwar approximately, but in the absence of diacritical and vowel points the precise form is uncer­tain. According to one account it was the evil practices of the Haitálian king that impelled Pírúz to declare war, and four sons and four brothers perished with him.*

The second, which comes from Ibn Mukaffa,*

states that there were two campaigns. In the first of them Pírúz was led astray by an Haitálian chief, who had had himself purposely mutilated in order to deceive the Sháh, and forced to sue for peace. Subsequently wounded honour induced him to tear up the treaty and renew the struggle in spite of the advice of his counsellors; he perished, and his baggage, women, money, and papers fell into the hands of the enemy.*

In the third account mention is made of Bahrám Gúr's pillar, and Pírúz is said to have had it thrown down and dragged in front of him by fifty elephants and three hundred men that he might not be charged with passing it. This account also states that a daughter of Pírúz was among the captives taken by the Haitálians. Their king put her into his haram, and she had a daughter who afterwards married her uncle Kubád.*

There can be no doubt but that a terrible disaster befell the Íránian arms in this campaign and, as we shall see presently,*

the memory of it was reflected back upon the mythical past and the story retold in connexion with the overthrow of a Pishdádian Sháh.