Sultanum Begum ( 1516 – 1593), also known as Kadam Ali Soltan Khanum, was the first wife and chief consort of the second Safavid king

Tahmasp I Tahmasp I ( fa, طهماسب, translit=Ṭahmāsb or ; 22 February 1514 – 14 May 1576) was the second shah of Safavid Iran from 1524 to 1576. He was the eldest son of Ismail I and his principal consort, Tajlu Khanum. Ascending the throne after ...

. She was the mother of her husband's successor,

Ismail II Ismail II (; Born Ismail Mirza; 31 May 1537 – 24 November 1577) was the third Shah of Safavid Iran from 1576 to 1577. He was the second son of Tahmasp I with his principal consort, Sultanum Begum. By the orders of Tahmasp, Ismail spent twen ...

, and the mother of Mohammad Khodabanda, who reigned from 1578 until his overthrow in 1587.

Life

Sultanum Begum was the daughter of Isa Beg Mawsillu of the Aq Quyunlu. Like Tahmasp's mother

Tajlu Khanum Tajlu Khanum ( fa, تاجلو خانم) or Tajli Begum (), also known by her title of Shah-Begi Khanum (), was a Turkoman princess from the Mawsillu tribe and principal consort of Ismail I. Family While Italian writer Angiolello and Irania ...

, Sultanum belonged to the Turcoman Mawsillu tribe and was a maternal third cousin of her husband. Musa Soltan, governor of Azerbaijan was his brother. Tahmasp had most likely married her around the time of his father, Ismail I's death. She became his principal wife and bore him two sons, including Mohammad Khodabanda who was born in 1532, during the early years of the Shamlu-Ustalju regency, when Tahmasp himself was only eighteen years old, and Ismail II, born in 1537. Sultanum Begum rose to become the harem's leader after Tajlu Khanum's exile to

Shiraz Shiraz (; fa, شیراز, Širâz ) is the fifth-most-populous city of Iran and the capital of Fars Province, which has been historically known as Pars () and Persis. As of the 2016 national census, the population of the city was 1,565,572 p ...

in 1540. She had an independent royal court and her vizier was Khwaja Ibrahim Khalil. She also gained the honorific title of Mahd-i Ulya. She owned the ''tiyul'' and ''muqarariyat'' (perpetual fixed assignation) payable on lands in Western

Khurasan Greater Khorāsān,Dabeersiaghi, Commentary on Safarnâma-e Nâsir Khusraw, 6th Ed. Tehran, Zavvâr: 1375 (Solar Hijri Calendar) 235–236 or Khorāsān ( pal, Xwarāsān; fa, خراسان ), is a historical eastern region in the Iranian Plat ...

Reign of her sons

She mainted her strong position during the reign of

as her tribe, Mawsillu, also supported him. She was alive during her son Mohammad Khodabanda's and grandson Abbas I's reigns.

References

{{reflist Safavid royal consorts 16th-century Iranian women Iranian Turkmen people 1516 births 1593 deaths 16th-century people of Safavid Iran Mawsillu Burials at Imam Reza Shrine