As Hormuz was of most noble descent, and possessed also many talents, Naushirvân disregarded the seniority of his other sons, and appointed him his successor. Hormuz treated the nobles and general community well in the beginning, and left the Amirs and officials of Naushirvân in their positions, and said:
Verses: ‘The opinion of my father was better than mine,
And he knew the people better than I;’
This lasted as long as his Faith was right,
And all went by the wish of the king.
But he was excitable, his temper changed,
He acted counter to his usage and habit,
And began to slay the rich and the poor.
Hormuz then followed the advice of low-minded persons, degraded the judges from their stations, and said: ‘It would not do that my slaves should govern me.’ It is related that during his reign—which lasted twelve years according to one statement—he killed thirteen thousand nobles, grandees, and scholars of Persia, so that he alienated the minds of the people from himself. When the rumour of his cruelty had spread far and wide among Turks and Tâjiks, the kings of the adjacent countries began to entertain hostile feelings towards him. Among these was the Qaisar of Rûm, who invaded Erân with eighty thousand men, and when he had reached Nassibîn he made the restoration of all the countries which Naushirvân had taken from him the condition of his departure. The Circassians had passed beyond Darband, reached the heart of Azarbaijân, and plundered Armenia. A’bbâs Ahûl [the monoculous] and O’mar Azraq [the blue] had arrived from Arabia on the banks of the Euphrates and devastated the plains. The son of the Khâqân of China, who was the maternal uncle of Hormuz, passed, after the demise of his father, with an army of three millions, but according to another statement of four millions, across the Jaihûn, made Hirat and Bâdghuis his encamping grounds, and sent messengers to Hormuz commanding him to construct bridges and to repair the highways, as he intended to march to Rûm. All these rumours having been brought to the notice of Hormuz at Madâin, cowed him so far that he repented of having killed so many of his subjects, and invited the rest of the people to hold a consultation with him. One of his courtiers, who was the most intelligent man of those times, addressed him as follows: ‘O king! our true foe is the sovereign of Turkestân, because all his thoughts are concentrated on the conquest of Erân. As for the Qaisar, his object is to recover the countries of which Naushirvân had deprived him; but he is a Christian and a religious man, so that if you abandon these provinces to him, he will depart to his own country. The inhabitants of Kharaz and the Circassians have invaded our country for the sake of pillage, but if you send a message to the people of Azarbaijân to make common cause with us against them, they will, for fear of losing the plunder which they have gathered, quit the country without coming to blows.’ Hormuz, being comforted by this advice, acted up to it, and after he had got rid of all his other antagonists, he consulted his best men on the measures to be adopted against the Khâqân. On that occasion one of the members of the assembly stated that his father would be able to give valuable advice concerning this matter, but that his great age prevented him from taking part in the consultations. Hormuz replied: ‘I know your father well, because in the reign of Kesra he had brought my mother from Turkestân to Erân. But state the object of your speech.’ The man continued: ‘When my father heard yesterday that the king is in want of someone whom he might send to wage war against the Khâqân, he said: “I have something to say in this matter which I must tell to the king.”’ Hormuz accordingly had an interview with the old man, who spoke as follows: ‘At the time when the just king [i.e., Naushirvân] sent me to Turkestân to bring the daughter of the Khâqân, and the latter had received me in a handsome manner, and had also become acquainted with the object of my embassy, he ordered all his daughters to be introduced to me, that I might select one, and convey her to Madâin. But your grandmother, unwilling to be separated from her daughter, ordered dancing-girls to be dressed up, and to be shown to me, but placed her own daughter among them without any ornaments. As soon, however, as my eyes alighted on that pure jewel, I discovered her resemblance to the chief lady of the harem, and immediately selected her. The distress of the chief lady was of no avail, and the Khâqân sent for an astrologer to ascertain the fate of the august princess. After an attentive examination of her case the astrologer stated that it appeared from the position of the celestial bodies, the lady would by the sovereign of Persia become mother of a son of short stature, large head, and wide eyes, who would inherit the kingdom after his father, but that afterwards a man from this country would invade his kingdom. The said happy child of destiny will, however, send against him an individual of high stature, with a broad forehead, curled hair, corpulent, of a tawny complexion, with knit eyebrows, thin and badly-formed limbs, to attack him, to slay his king, to destroy his army, and to ravage his possessions. The Khâqân having thus been informed of the decrees of fate, sent his daughter with royal presents under my protection to Madâin.’ After the old man had done speaking, he expired in that very assembly. The king, with all present, were astonished at the event, and several persons immediately were despatched to search for the individual described in the above statement of the old man; and some time afterwards information was brought to the king that the individual in question was no other than Behrâm Chubîn, a commander and noble prince of Rei, who had from the time of Naushirvân and till the reign of Hormuz been Governor of Armenia and of Azarbaijân, and who was distinguished among the warriors of Persia by his bravery and perfect chivalry. After due consultation with his councillors, Hormuz appointed Behrâm Chubîn to be commander-in-chief for the war against the Khâqân of China, whose name was Sawah Shâh.