The poet tells of the last war of Núshírwán against Rúm and of the Sháh's transaction with a shoemaker, the appointment of his son Hurmuzd as his successor after that prince had been questioned by Búzurjmihr, the Sháh's testament and last counsels to his son, his dream of the advent of Muhammad, and the death of the Sháh and of Búzurjmihr.
§§ 1–3. After ten years of peace war again broke out between the Persian and Roman empires in A.D. 572. The Sháhnáma is correct in representing that the latter was to blame for the renewal of hostilities. The Emperor Justin II., who had succeeded his uncle Justinian in A.D. 565, wanted war. The scene of operations covered much the same ground as on the previous occasion. The Persians made a raid into Syria, recorded in the Sháhnáma by the mention of Halab (Chalybon-Beroea, Aleppo), and an unsuccessful attack on Antioch. The Romans, under Marcian (Bátarún), the prefect of the East, besieged Nisibis, held by the Persians ever since its cession to Shápúr, son of Urmuzd (Sapor II.), by Jovian in A.D. 363. Núshírwán raised the siege, drove the Romans into the stronghold of Dárá on the foot-hills of Mount Masius, and besieged them there. After a gallant defence the fortress fell late in A.D. 573.* Mount Masius seems to be the Mount Sakíla of the Sháhnáma, the scene of one of Gushtásp's exploits during his exile in Rúm.* Justin on this resigned the direction of affairs to Tiberius who to gain time purchased a temporary suspension of hostilities from the Persians. This is represented in the Sháhnáma as the conclusion of peace and as a triumph for Núshírwán but historically the war was still in progress at the time of his death four years later, and the Great King, shortly before the end of his reign, had to make a somewhat hasty and ignominious retirement to Ctesiphon.*
§ 2. We have already met with the cobbler or shoemaker, introduced as characteristic of a type, in the Sháhnáma.*
§§ 4–6. See p. 3.
§ 7. P. omits this section which of course comes from Muhammadan sources. Though interpolated into Persian story it does not seem to be an interpolation in Firdausí's Sháhnáma for there appears to be no good reason for supposing that the passage was written by a hand other than that poet's. A similar account appears both in the Persian and Arabic Tabarí.*
The ascent of two score degrees is intended to indicate that Muhammad was forty years old when he received his “call.”
Muhammad, having been challenged by idolaters to divide the moon in twain, is said to have pointed his finger at it, on which it was at once divided into two parts, one of which remained stationary while the other was concealed behind a mountain. Another tradition says that Mount Hirá intervened between the two halves. Travellers from a distance when questioned reported that they had observed the same phenomenon.* The passage in the Kurán on which the traditions are based runs as follows:—“The hour hath approached and the MOON hath been cleft:
But whenever they see a miracle they turn aside and say, This is well-devised magic.”*
The Súra in which the quotation occurs is known as “THE MOON.”