Episode 2978
Pari Khan Khanum
Mon, 2025-Jun-30 00:44 UTC
Length - 2:35
Direct Link
Welcome to Featured Wiki of the Day, your daily dose of knowledge from Wikipedia's finest articles.
The featured article for Monday, 30 June 2025, is Pari Khan Khanum.
Pari Khan Khanum (Persian: پریخان خانم, romanized: Pariḵān Ḵānom; August 1548 – 12 February 1578) was a Safavid princess, daughter of the second Safavid shah, Tahmasp I, and his Circassian consort, Sultan-Agha Khanum. She was her father's favourite child and allowed to partake in court activities, gradually becoming an influential figure who attracted the attentions of the prominent leaders of the Qizilbash tribes.
Pari Khan played a central role in the succession crisis after her father's death in 1576. She thwarted the attempt of her brother Haydar Mirza and his supporters at securing his ascention and enthroned her favoured candidate and brother, Ismail Mirza, as Ismail II. Whereas she expected gratitude from her brother, Ismail curtailed her power and put her under house arrest. Pari Khan may have been the mastermind behind his assassination in 1577. She endorsed the enthronement of her elder brother Mohammad Khodabanda, who was almost blind. Pari Khan expected to rule while Mohammad remained a figurehead but his wife, Khayr al-Nisa Begum, emerged as an opponent to Pari Khan and engineered Pari Khan's strangulation at the age of around thirty.
Regarded by some as the most powerful woman in Safavid history, Pari Khan was able to dominate for a short period the ineffective Safavid court in a society that imposed harsh restrictions on high-class women. She was praised by her contemporaries for her intelligence and competence, though in later chronicles she was portrayed as a villain who murdered two of her brothers and aspired to usurp the throne. She was a patron of poets, among them Mohtasham Kashani who wrote five eulogies for her. Writers of the time dedicated works to her, like Abdi Beg Shirazi's Takmelat al-akhbar, and she was compared to Fatima, the daughter of Muhammad, prophet of Islam.
This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:44 UTC on Monday, 30 June 2025.
For the full current version of the article, see Pari Khan Khanum on Wikipedia.
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Until next time, I'm neural Emma.
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