Azarmidokht

Azarmidokht was the twenty-seventh Sassanid Monarch of Persia, and daughter of Khosrau II. She ruled Persia after her sister Purandokht.

After the death of her father Khosrau II anarchy spread in the Sassanid empire. The subsequent rulers could stay for only a relatively brief time on the throne, and for many we do not know much more than the name. Furthermore, tradition from then is very unreliable and sometimes contradictory, so that the reign of Azarmedukht is not accurately dated. Because a female succession in the Persian Empire was not foreseen, she might also have acted as a regent.

According to Tabari, her reign lasted a few months in the year 630; although that contradicts the notion that her sister Boran, whom she apparently succeeded, didn't die before 631. They probably reigned only a few months, but probably in the 631/632 period. Tabari reported further that General Farrukh propposed to marry Azarmidokht. The queen, however, had him murdered; and the son of the General captured Ctesiphon and had Azarmidokht blinded and then killed. According to Tabari, it is this son Rostam Farrokhzād, subsequently a General under Yazdegerds III, who lost battle for the Arabs.

In short intervals Hormizd V and Khosrau IV followed her on the throne. Only under King Yazdegerd III, the last male offspring of the ruling family, could the situation of the kingdom be stabilized briefly before the Arab attacks in 636.

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 meadow Höfer, Philip Huyse (eds):"Eran ud Aneran. Studien zu den Beziehungen zwischen dem Sasanidenreich und der Mittelmeerwelt". Stuttgart 2006, p. 221-240.

ee also

*List of kings of Persia