Azarmidokht

Azarmidokht
Queen and monarch of the Sasanian Empire
Coin of Azarmidokht with the bust of her father Khosrau II to the left.
Reign	630–631
Predecessor	Shapur-i Shahrvaraz
Successor	Borandukht
Died	631
House	House of Sasan
Father	Khosrau II
Religion	Zoroastrianism

Azarmidokht (Middle Persian: Āzarmīgdukht, Persian: آزرمی‌دخت‎‎) was Sasanian queen of Persia from to 630 to 631, and daughter of Khosrau II. She ruled Persia after her cousin Shapur-i Shahrvaraz.

Family and background

Azarmidokht was the daughter of Khosrau II. Since her father was said to have had a shabestan with over 3,000 concubines,^[1] it is not known if one of these concubines was her mother or Khosrau's favorite wife Shirin was. Azarmidokht also had many other siblings and half-siblings named Mardanshah, Juvansher, Farrukhzad Khosrau V, Kavadh II, Shahriyar, and Borandukht. In 628, her father was deposed by the Sasanian nobles in favor of her brother Kavadh II, who executed all of their brother's except Juvansher and Farrukhzad Khosrau V who managed to hide. Some months later, Kavadh died of plague, and was succeeded by his 7-year-old son Ardashir III, who himself one year later was killed by the Sasanian general Shahrbaraz, who usurped the Sasanian throne. Forty days later, Shahrbaraz was murdered by the faction of the Ispahbudhan nobleman Farrukh Hormizd,^[2] which was known as the Pahlav (Parthian) faction. Borandukht was shortly proclaimed queen in Ctesiphon by Farrukh's faction. She, was, however, later deposed by Shapur-i Shahrvaraz, the son of Khosrau II's sister Mirhran, and the Sasanian usurper Shahrbaraz.

Reign

However, Shapur-i Shahrvaraz was not recognized by the faction of the general Piruz Khosrow, which was known as the Parsig (Persian) faction. Shapur-i Shahrvaraz was thus deposed in favor of Azarmidokht.^[3]

In order to make a union with the Parsig faction, and to seize power, Farrukh Hormizd asked Azarmidokht to marry him. Not daring to refuse, Azarmidokht had him killed with the aid of the Mihranid Siyavakhsh, who was the grandson of Bahram Chobin, the famous spahbed and briefly shahanshah. However, she was killed shortly afterwards by the latter's son Rostam Farrokhzad, who then restored Borandukht to the throne.

References

1. Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari, History of the Prophets and Kings, vol. 2
2. Pourshariati (2008), p. 175
3. Pourshariati (2008), p. 204

Sources

• Pourshariati, Parvaneh (2008). Decline and Fall of the Sasanian Empire: The Sasanian-Parthian Confederacy and the Arab Conquest of Iran. London and New York: I.B. Tauris. ISBN 978-1-84511-645-3.
• Shapur Shahbazi, A. (2005). "SASANIAN DYNASTY". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Online Edition. Retrieved 13 April 2014.

Further reading

• John Martindale:The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire IIIa. Cambridge, 1992, p. 160
• Antonio Panaino:Women and Kingship. Some remarks about the enthronisation Boran of Queen and her sister Azarmigduxt. In: Josef Wiesehöfer, Philip Huyse (eds):Eran ud Aneran. Studien zu den Beziehungen zwischen dem Sasanidenreich und der Mittelmeerwelt. Stuttgart 2006, p. 221-240.