Pari Khan Khanum

Pari Khan Khanum (, also spelled Parikhan Khanum; 1548–12 February 1578, aged 29) was a Safavid princess, the daughter of the Safavid king (shah) Tahmasp I ( 1524 – 1576) and his Circassian consort, Sultan-Agha Khanum. An influential figure in the Safavid state, Pari Khan Khanum was well educated and knowledgeable in traditional Islamic sciences such as jurisprudence, and was an accomplished poet. She played a crucial role in securing the succession of her brother Ismail II (r. 1576–1577) to the Safavid throne. During Ismail's brief reign, her influence lessened, but then increased during the reign of Ismail's successor, Mohammad Khodabanda (r. 1578–1587), even becoming the de facto ruler of the Safavid state for a short period. She was strangled to death on 12February 1578 at Qazvin because her influence and power were perceived as dangerous by the Qizilbash. Biography Youth Pari Khan Khanum was the second daughter of the Safavid shah TahmaspI by his Circassian wife Sultan-Agha Khanum in August 1548 at Ahar. When Tahmasp's brother Bahram Mirza Safavi died in 1549, he looked out after the latter's children, even proclaiming one of them—prince Badi-al Zaman Mirza Safavi—as his own son. He appointed him as the governor of Sistan in 1557, and offered Pari Khan Khanum's (who was at that time 10 years old) hand in marriage, which he accepted. However, she was forbidden to go to Sistan by her, due to her being his favourite daughter. Historians including Shoreh Gholsorki, author of a 1995 study of Pari Khan Khanum, believe that she was only engaged to Badi al-Zaman and that no marriage took place, since Pari Khan Khanum chose a bureaucratic life in the capital alongside her father over married life in Sistan.