During the reign of King Qobad, a ruinous famine engulfed the land of Iran. Clouds vanished from the sky, neither snow nor rain fell upon the mountains or plains, and both nobles and commoners gathered at the royal court crying out for bread. Amidst this crisis, an eloquent and learned man named Mazdak emerged. Having gained access to the court as a trusted treasurer and counselor, Mazdak possessed a silver tongue capable of swaying the monarch's heart.
Mazdak presented Qobad with riddles of a man bitten by a serpent whose antidote is withheld by another, and of a prisoner left to starve to death while a neighbor holds bread. Qobad answered righteously that he who hoards the antidote or bread in such circumstance is a murderer. Armed with the king's own logic, Mazdak incited the starving masses to plunder the royal and public granaries. When the king's spies reported the looting, Mazdak justified it, arguing that grain was the antidote to starvation and hoarding it was a crime. Though troubled at first, Qobad gradually became entranced by Mazdak's persuasive doctrines.
Mazdak preached a radical egalitarian creed, declaring: 'Women, property, and land must be held in common so that the five demons—Envy, Malice, Anger, Want, and Greed—may be vanquished.' Rich and poor were rendered equal, and vast crowds flocked to his banner. King Qobad adopted the new faith and seated Mazdak at his right hand, abandoning traditional Mobad counsel. Yet Prince Khosrow, the king's brilliant son, steadfastly opposed this heresy. When Mazdak attempted to force Khosrow into compliance, the prince angrily tore his hand away. Qobad allowed Khosrow a respite to prove Mazdak's teachings false.
Prince Khosrow demanded a five-month grace period and dispatched messengers across the realm. Renowned Zoroastrian sages and Mobads answered his call, including Dad-Hormozd of Khorreh-Ardashir and Mehr-Azar of Estakhr with thirty noble scholars. In a grand assembly before King Qobad, Khosrow delivered a devastating refutation: 'If property and women are shared equally, no son will know his true father, nor father his son. All distinction between master and servant will dissolve, labor will cease, and the order of the world will crumble into utter ruin.'
Hearing these profound words, Qobad awakened from his delusion and repented of his error. He surrendered Mazdak and his followers to Khosrow. The prince ordered a gruesome execution: a deep trench was dug around a walled orchard, and one hundred thousand Mazdakites were planted upside down in the earth like living trees, their feet dangling in the air. Khosrow then brought Mazdak to view his 'garden of heretics' before hanging him upside down from a high gallows and piercing him with a barrage of arrows.
Redeemed, Qobad spent his remaining days endowing fire temples and distributing wealth to the needy. Reaching the age of eighty after forty-three years of rule, Qobad penned his final testament, leaving the throne to Khosrow. Upon Qobad's death, Khosrow ascended the throne and was bestowed the title Noshirvan ('Immortal Soul'), inaugurating an era of supreme justice and splendor.