What He Did for the Body

When Rostam is killed in the pits at Kabol it is Faramarz who comes for him, and the Shahnameh slows right down. He washes his father, burns ambergris and saffron, has the wounds stitched, pours rose water and camphor, and finds that two planks will not hold the body — was this a man, the verse asks, or a tree that casts a shade. A coffin of teak with golden nails and ivory figures, its seams sealed with pitch. Rakhsh is washed and shrouded and coffined too. Ten days and nights on the road to Zabol. Only then does he take an army to Kabol, and burn the brother who dug the pits.