Eskandar

When Fur, the mighty King of India, read the arrogant summons of Iskandar, a flame of intense wrath erupted within his heart. Infuriated by the conqueror's audacity, he immediately summoned his scribes to draft a fierce and unflinching reply, planting a seed of bitter enmity between their realms. He opened his letter in the sacred name of the Pure God, before Whom all mortals must stand in holy dread, and proceeded to scold Iskandar for his hollow boasts and boundless arrogance.

Fur questioned Iskandar’s sense of shame and wisdom, asking how a prince of Macedon could dare command the sovereign of India to bow before him. He declared that if Iskandar’s father, Philip, had never dared address the house of Fur with such disrespect, then the son had no right to raise such a tumult. Fur mocked Iskandar's pride over his defeat of Dara, pointing out that Dara fell because the heavens had grown weary of his dynasty and because he was betrayed by his own ministers, not because of Iskandar’s supreme strength. Likewise, he dismissed Iskandar’s bloodless treaty with King Kayd, warning him against believing that every ruler on earth would fall so easily into his hands.

Asserting the ancient pride of his lineage, Fur proclaimed that his ancestors had never paid homage to the Caesars of Rome or Greece. He recounted how he had once sent war elephants to Dara merely as a patronizing gesture of sport, until fate struck the Persian king down. Fur warned Iskandar to restrain his rashness in war, promising that if he dared march into India, he would face an impenetrable wall of vast armies and colossal war elephants capable of blocking the very winds. Comparing Iskandar’s inner greed to the dark nature of Ahriman, Fur bade him fear the sharp reversals of Fortune and cease sowing the seeds of avarice across the earth.