Editing Yazdegerd III (section)

===Death, legacy and personality===
After his defeat, Yazdegerd sought refuge at a miller near Marw, who, however, murdered him in 651. According to Kia, the miller had reportedly killed Yazdegerd in order to obtain his jewelry,{{sfn|Kia|2016|p=285}} whilst ''[[The Cambridge History of Iran]]'' states that the miller was sent by [[Mahoe Suri]].{{sfn|Zarrinkub|1975|p=25}}

{{Quote|Mahoe sends the miller to cut off his head on pain of losing his own, and having none of his race left alive. His chiefs hear this and cry out against him, and a ''[[Mobad|mowbed]]'' of the name of Radui tells him that to kill a king or prophet will bring evil upon him and his son, and is supported in what he says by a holy man of the name of Hormuzd Kharad Shehran, and Mehronush. The miller most unwillingly goes in and stabs him with a dagger in the middle. Mahoe's horsemen all go and see him and take off his clothing and ornaments, leaving him on the ground. All the nobles curse Mahoe and wish him the same fate.| source= [[Ferdowsi]] narrating the fate of the Yazdegerd in his ''[[Shahnameh]]''<ref>''The Shah-Namah of Fardusi'', trans. Alexander Rogers (LPP Publication), p. 547.</ref>}}

Regardless, the death of Yazdegerd marked the end of the Sasanian Empire, and made it less difficult for the Arabs to conquer the rest of Iran. All of Khorasan was soon conquered by the Arabs, who would use it as a base to [[Muslim conquest of Transoxiana|attack Transoxiana]].{{sfn|Kia|2016|p=285}} The death of Yazdegerd thus marked the end of the last pre-Islamic Iranian empire after more than 400 years of rule. An empire–which had a generation earlier briefly conquered [[Sasanian conquest of Egypt|Egypt]] and [[Shahin's invasion of Asia Minor (615)|Asia Minor]], even [[Siege of Constantinople (626)|reaching as a far as Constantinople]], fell to a force of lightly equipped Arabs that were used to skirmishes and desert warfare. The heavy Sasanian cavalry was too sluggish and systematized to contain them; employing light-armed Arab or East Iranian mercenaries from Khorasan and Transoxiana would have been much more successful.{{sfn|Shahbazi |1986|pp=489–499}}

Yazdegerd was according to tradition buried by [[Christianity|Christian]] monks in a tall tomb that was situated in a garden decorated with silk and musk. His funeral and the construction of a mausoleum for his body near [[Marv, Turkmenistan|Merv]] was organized by the [[Nestorianism|Nestorian]] bishop Elijah - in memory of the fact that the Shahanshah's grandmother Shirin was a Christian. [[Mahoe Suri|Mahoe]], for his part in the murder of the Sassanian king, had his arms, legs, ears and nose cut off by the [[Turkic peoples|Turks]], who eventually left him die under the scorching summer sun. The corpse of Mahoe was then burned at the stake, along with the bodies of his three sons.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Abolqasem Ferdowsi |first1= |title=Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings |date=2016 |publisher=Penguin Classics |others=Translated by [[Dick Davis (translator)|Dick Davis]]; foreword by Azar Nafisi |pages=1010–1028 |chapter=Yazdegerd is killed by the miller}}</ref>

The monks cursed Mahoe and made a hymn to Yazdegerd, mourning the fall of a "combative" king and the "house of [[Ardashir I]]".{{sfn|Payne|2015|pp=199–200}} Whether this event was factual or not, it emphasizes that the Christians of the empire remained loyal to the Zoroastrian Sasanians, even possibly more than the Iranian nobles who had deserted Yazdegerd.{{sfn|Payne|2015|pp=199–200}} Indeed, there were close links between the late Sasanian rulers and Christians, whose conditions had greatly improved compared to that of the early Sasanian era. Yazdegerd's wife was according to folklore a Christian, whilst his son and heir, [[Peroz III]] was seemingly an adherent of Christianity, and even had a church built in [[Tang dynasty|Tang China]], where he had taken refuge.{{sfn|Compareti|2009}} Yazdegerd became remembered in history as a martyred prince; many rulers and officers would later claim being a descendant of him in Islamic Iran.{{sfn|Shahbazi|2005}}

Yazdegerd was well educated and cultured, but his arrogance, pride and inability to compare his demands with the real situation led to him constantly falling out with his governors and his influence diminishing as he, pursued by Arabs, moved from one city to another. At each new place, he behaved as if he was still the all-powerful monarch of the kingdom, and not an outcast running away from enemies, which, combined with his military failures, turned many of his most loyal subjects away from him.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Dashkov |first1=Sergei Borisovich |title=Tsari tsareĭ — Sasanidy: Iran III-VII vv. v legendakh, istoricheskikh khronikakh i sovremennykh issledovaniiakh |date=2008 |publisher=SMI-Asia |isbn=9785916600018 |pages=201–206 |language=Russian |script-title=ru:Цари царей — Сасаниды. История Ирана III - VII вв. в легендах, исторических хрониках и современных исследованиях |trans-title=''Kings of Kings – Sassanids. 3rd–4th-century Iran in legends, historical chronicles and modern studies''}}</ref>