Mahmood

When vigilance reports reached Kay Khosrow that Afrasiab had led an immeasurable host across the Oxus River, filling the realm so densely that neither sand nor stone remained visible, the Sovereign of the World summoned his greatest chieftains. Having experienced the bitter and sweet turns of fate, Kay Khosrow dispatched Gustahm, son of Nowzar, with a mighty force toward Balkh, while ordering Ashkash to march toward Zam with war elephants and treasure, ensuring no enemy detachment could slip behind to ambush the Iranian line.

Then, sounding the bronze drums, Kay Khosrow set the grand Iranian army in motion with deliberate wisdom, knowing well that rash haste brings only regret in warfare. The hosts traversed toward Khwarazm, with Dehestan to their left, waters to their right, and sand dunes stretching ahead toward the waiting army of Afrasiab. As the sun rose in the sign of Aries, illuminating the plain, Afrasiab beheld the majesty of the Iranian array, sounding his own bronze trumpets and calling his ranks to order. The air grew thick with the blast of war horns, and warriors fastened their iron helmets.

Kay Khosrow—accompanied by Rostam, Tus, Goudarz, Giv, and a galaxy of legendary champions—rode along the perimeter of the battlefield, surveying the terrain and noting the vast numerical superiority of the Turanian forces and their armored elephants. To secure his positions, the Iranian King ordered a vast trench excavated around his camp, posting scouts far and wide, and by nightfall diverted streams into the moat toward Afrasiab's line. For two full days and nights, the two giant armies stood face to face in total silence, neither side uttering a sound; it was as though the earth had turned to solid iron and the sky had donned armor of spears.

During these two days of ominous stillness, court astrologers beside both monarchs consulted their celestial charts and astrolabes, desperately attempting to decipher the secrets of the heavens and foresee which sovereign Fate favored. On the fourth morning, as tension reached its peak, Shideh (also named Pashang), the fierce son of Afrasiab, stepped before his father. Praising Afrasiab's supreme power, Shideh argued that Kay Khosrow had cast aside the memory of Piran's kindness to wage war against his own grandfather, urging an immediate right-flank cavalry charge to rain arrows upon the Iranians regardless of the trench.

Afrasiab, however, checked his son's fiery temperament, urging patience. He reminded Shideh that Piran, Houman, Lahhak, Farshidvard, and a hundred thousand brave Turanian riders had already perished, leaving all of Turan heartbroken with grief. Afrasiab warned that mass battle would bring disaster and proposed instead sending single champions into the arena to spill blood selectively. When Shideh volunteered to challenge Kay Khosrow directly to single combat, Afrasiab cautioned that the Iranian Emperor would not answer a prince's challenge, declaring that if Khosrow stepped onto the duel field, Afrasiab himself would meet him—a prospect Shideh vehemently rejected, insisting that five living sons would never let their royal father fight while they drew breath.