Khushru’s trap for Shahrbarāz

In the later days of his reign, two of Khushru’s commanders, Shahrbarāz and Farrokhzād (also known as Gorāze and Farāin) betrayed him. Of the two, Shahrbarāz plotted against him by defecting to the Kaisar and asking him to attack. Khushru found out about the betrayal, conferred with his cabinet and planned to trap Shahrbarāz at his own game.

As the first part of his plan, he summoned Shahrbarāz, and told him that he had come to know about his message to the Kaisar, in order to trap the Roman king. He thanked him for asking the Kaisar to attack so that they can surround him. He then told him, “We will trap him with armies from both the sides, you come from one side and I will come from the other.” Shahrbarāz thought that he had been able to fool Khushru.

As the second part of his plan, Khushru sent a letter tied to an arm of the messenger. The messenger was specifically asked to get caught at the hands of the Roman soldiers. When asked, the messenger had to say that he was carrying this letter from king Khushru to Shahrbarāz. If they grabbed the letter, he should allow them to grab it.

It exactly happened as planned, the messenger was caught and taken to the Kaisar. The letter was found on him which was read out by the Kaisar. The letter congratulated Shahrbarāz for his plan to trap the Kaisar. The Roman emperor was shocked at seeing the letter and was furious at Shahrbarāz for trying to trap him. He told his ministers that Shahrbarāz had tricked him and Khushru was awaiting them with a three lakh strong army. The Kaisar decided to withdraw his army.

When Shahrbarāz came to know that the Kaisar was not sending his troops, he was terrified. He wrote back to Kaisar asking him the reason for his withdrawal. The Kaisar replied that he had caught Shahrbarāz’s lies and that he has come to know that the Iranian commander had wanted to trap him and get him defeated at the hands of Khushru. Shahrbarāz tried hard to convince the Kaisar that this was not the case, but it was in vain.

A rebellion against Khushru

In order to trap Shahrbaraz further, Khushru sent a letter to Shahrbarāz, telling him that he had come to know that a part of his army was unfaithful to him and inclined towards the Kaisar. He asked Shahrbarāz to send him those soldiers, so that he can punish them.

Shahrbarāz, afraid of the wrath of the king, sent innocent soldiers to Khushru, along with Farrokhzād. When the king asked about their betrayal, the faithful troop denied having any connection with Kaisar, but the king insisted that if they did not confess he would punish them all.

Shiroy in house arrest

Prince Shiroy, the son of Queen Maryam, started growing up. As a child, his interests were not normal. Instead of playing with regular toys, he was always interested in playing with unusual and frightening things like paw of wolves and horns of cattle. These made the courtiers doubt his nature and temperament. When Khushru was informed about this, he instructed his courtiers to keep an eye on the prince, especially because, at the time of Shiroy’s birth it was predicted that he would be harmful to the Iranian nation. It was decided to keep the prince and his immediate family under house arrest, with forty soldiers keeping an eye on them.

Prince Shiroy grew up to be a youth of sixteen, spending most of his time under house arrest. The clergy and the nobility favoured Shiroy as the heir apparent and successor of the king, However king Khushru preferred his other son Mardānshah to succeed him.

Farrokhzād, the troop’s leader was unhappy at the king’s attitude. He and the troop decided that they should seek a new king, preferably one among the sixteen princes. The rebel prince Shiroy seemed to be the best choice, but he was in the prison.

Farrokhzād then went to commander Tokhār and sought his help. Tokhār too had become dissatisfied by Khushru’s oppressive ways. They joined hands and went to the place where Shiroy was kept under house arrest. On seeing them Shiroy was surprised. When asked to rebel against the king, at first he was hesitant, but then he agreed. They told Shiroy that now onwards they will use his official name Kobad.

At night, the rebels stormed into the prison. First they took the soldiers and commanders on their side and then they went into Khushru’s bed chambers, shouting slogans of “Long live Kobad”. Queen Shirin was shocked on hearing the noise, and woke up Khushru.

A dazed Khushru, when he heard the name of Kobad in the middle of the night, immediately realized that the predictions regarding Shiroy had come true. He decided to flee eastwards to save his life. He donned his armour, took his sword, went out and hid in the garden.

Khushru is caught by the rebels

Khushru spent the whole night in the garden waiting for an opportunity to run out of the palace. However, he could not move out till noon the following day. As he was feeling hungry, he called a gardener who was not able to recognize him, gave him some jewels from his bejeweled cummerbund (waist belt) and asked him to get some food.

Gardener with jewels at Baker’s shop. (Illustration by Mrs. Katie Bagli)

The gardener went to the baker who had never seen such precious jewels before, nor had the change to give back. So he took him to the jeweler. The jeweler immediately recognized the precious jewels he had sold the king and thought that the gardener had stolen them. So he took both of them to Farrokhzād. Farrokhzād, took the three of them to Shiroy, who asked the gardener about the jewels. The gardener told him the circumstances in which he had got them. He described Khushru and his dress. Shiroy immediately realized that this person was none but king Khushru. He sent a troop of three hundred soldiers to capture the king, and he was later imprisoned at Ctesiphon. Shiroy, that is, Kobad II ascended the throne.