Section 4: The Wedding of Roshanak

From Amorium he summoned his mother, and when she came he spoke of Darius and all that had passed. He told her: Go to Delaray, and with kindness bring her fresh word of our proposal. Behind the curtains, look upon Roshanak, and when you see her, give her our blessing. Take a necklace, bracelets, and earrings, and a crown fit for a king, thick with jewels. Take a hundred camels loaded with carpets and spreads, a hundred more with every kind of gold-woven brocade. And from the treasury take some thirty thousand gold coins, packed in sacks, to be scattered as gifts. Take some three hundred Roman slave girls, and everything else that is fitting, all of it. Place a golden cup in each of their hands, in the manner of lovely women who serve a king. Take servants and attendants along the road with you, and do not fall short of the road and custom of kings. So the king's mother set out, with an interpreter and ten sweet-tongued philosophers. When she drew near to Isfahan, many great nobles came out to welcome her. Delaray came forward from her palace, she and her notables, each in their own custom. In the entrance hall they scattered so many gifts that in the eyes of a treasure the coins seemed worthless. They sat in the palace with the counselor, and all the notables gathered together. Delaray provided such a dowry that the whole world's markets came alive with it. Camel after camel stretched for miles, laden with gold and silver and colored cloth. With clothing and carpets, with cushions to lay down and treasures to scatter, with Arabian horses in golden trappings, and Indian swords in golden sheaths, with coats of mail and helmets and horse armor, with maces and the daggers of India, so much cut cloth and so much whole, no one in the world had ever seen more. They called the palace attendants and prepared forty golden litters. In one litter, with a canopy and servants, Roshanak took her seat, full of joy. From Delaray's palace to halfway along the road there was money, gold coin, horses, and soldiers. They hung festive decorations throughout the city, lips full of laughter and hearts full of blood. Over that brocade canopy they poured coins, and sifted pure musk from above. When the moon-faced bride entered the king's chamber, Alexander gazed at her a long while. At that stature, that height, that lovely face, you would say wisdom itself had raised her with love. When his mother seated her on the golden throne, Alexander poured out his very soul for her. For a week they sat together with her, and the king took counsel over matters great and small. She showed nothing but greatness and calm, wisdom, modesty, and grace. They carried many gifts from Iran, gold coin and jewels fit for a king. All the lands of Iran, Turan, and China called out their blessings on his kingship. The whole face of the earth was filled with justice, and everywhere the ruined places grew prosperous.