The Death of Rostam
مرگ رستم
Five hundred years of war, and it ends with a hunting trip and a half-brother.
Shaghad is Rostam's half-brother, born to a slave woman, and he has spent a lifetime being the other son. He marries into the house of Kabul and talks his father-in-law into a plan.
They stage a quarrel, and Shaghad comes to Rostam for help, and Rostam, who has never once refused family, rides to Kabul. He is received warmly and invited hunting. The ground has been prepared: a line of pits dug across the hunting field, each one packed with spear blades and sword points, and covered over.
Rakhsh smells it and refuses to go forward. Rostam, for the last time in a partnership that has lasted centuries, overrules his horse. They go into the pits together. Dying, pinned through, he asks Shaghad for a bow to defend himself against lions, and his brother, enjoying it, hands one over. Rostam puts the arrow through Shaghad and the tree he is hiding behind, and thanks God he lived long enough to do it.
Why it matters
The epic refuses him a heroic death. The strongest man in the world, undefeated by demons, dragons, armies and an invulnerable prince, is killed by domestic jealousy and a covered hole. And the last thing he does is not save Iran, it is settle a family score.