Denag (
fl.
''Floruit'' ( ; usually abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for 'flourished') denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indic ...
459), was a
Sasanian
The Sasanian Empire (), officially Eranshahr ( , "Empire of the Iranians"), was an Iranian empire that was founded and ruled by the House of Sasan from 224 to 651. Enduring for over four centuries, the length of the Sasanian dynasty's reign ...
queen (''
banbishn
''Bānbishn'' was a Middle Persian title meaning "queen", and was held by royal women in Sasanian Iran who were the king's daughters and sisters, and also by the consorts of the Sasanian princes that ruled parts of the country as governors. The fu ...
''). She was the wife of the king (''
shah
Shāh (; ) is a royal title meaning "king" in the Persian language.Yarshater, Ehsa, ''Iranian Studies'', vol. XXII, no. 1 (1989) Though chiefly associated with the monarchs of Iran, it was also used to refer to the leaders of numerous Per ...
'')
Yazdegerd II
Yazdegerd II (also spelled Yazdgerd and Yazdgird; ), was the Sasanian King of Kings () of Iran from 438 to 457. He was the successor and son of Bahram V ().
His reign was marked by wars against the Eastern Roman Empire in the west and the Kidari ...
(), and functioned as queen regent in Ctesiphon during the civil war between her sons in 457–459.
Life
Her origins are unknown, though given that her name had previously been used by Sasanian princesses, Denag may have been born a member of the royal family.
When Yazdegerd II died in 457,
Hormizd III ascended the throne at
Ray. His younger brother
Peroz I
Peroz I () was the Sasanian Empire, Sasanian King of Kings () of History of Iran, Iran from 459 to 484. A son of Yazdegerd II (), he disputed the rule of his elder brother and incumbent king Hormizd III (), eventually seizing the throne after a ...
, with the support of the powerful
Mihranid The Mihranids were an Iranian peoples, Iranian family which ruled several regions of Caucasus from 330 to 821. They claimed to be of Sasanian, Sasanian Persian descent but were of Parthian origin.
History
The dynasty was founded when a certain Mi ...
magnate
Raham Mihran, fled to the northeastern part of the empire and began raising an army in order to claim the throne for himself. The empire thus fell into a dynastic struggle and became divided; the mother of the two brothers, Denag temporarily ruled as regent of the empire from its capital,
Ctesiphon
Ctesiphon ( ; , ''Tyspwn'' or ''Tysfwn''; ; , ; Thomas A. Carlson et al., “Ctesiphon — ܩܛܝܣܦܘܢ ” in The Syriac Gazetteer last modified July 28, 2014, http://syriaca.org/place/58.) was an ancient city in modern Iraq, on the eastern ba ...
.
Peroz eventually emerged victorious during the struggle, and became the new king of the Sasanian Empire. Hormizd was killed alongside three members of his family.
References
Sources
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*
*
*
*
* {{cite book, last1=Kia, first1=Mehrdad, authorlink=Mehrdad Kia, title=The Persian Empire: A Historical Encyclopedia
volumes A Historical Encyclopedia, date=2016, publisher=ABC-CLIO, isbn=978-1610693912, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B5BHDAAAQBAJ&q=sasanians+rhodes
Sasanian queens consort
5th-century Iranian people
5th-century queens consort
5th-century women regents
5th-century regents