Gawhar Shad (; meaning "joyful jewel" or "shining jewel"; also Gawhar Shad Begum, Gohar Shād or Gawharshâd; died 19 July 1457) was the chief consort of

Shah Rukh Shah Rukh or Shahrukh Mirza (, ''Šāhrokh''; 20 August 1377 – 13 March 1447) was the ruler of the Timurid Empire between 1405 and 1447. He was the son of the Central Asian conqueror Timur (Tamerlane), who founded the Timurid dynasty in 1370 ...

, the emperor of the

Timurid Empire The Timurid Empire was a late medieval, culturally Persianate, Turco-Mongol empire that dominated Greater Iran in the early 15th century, comprising modern-day Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, much of Central Asia, the South Caucasus, and parts of co ...

Life

She was the daughter of Giāth ud-Din Tarkhān, an important and influential noble during Tīmur's reign. According to family traditions, the title '' Tarkhān'' was given to the family by

Genghis Khan Genghis Khan (born Temüjin; August 1227), also known as Chinggis Khan, was the founder and first khan (title), khan of the Mongol Empire. After spending most of his life uniting the Mongols, Mongol tribes, he launched Mongol invasions and ...

personally.

Marriage

Gawhar Shad was married to Shah Rukh probably in 1388, certainly before 1394 when their son,

Ulugh Beg Mīrzā Muhammad Tarāghāy bin Shāhrukh (; ), better known as Ulugh Beg (; 22 March 1394 – 27 October 1449), was a Timurid sultan, as well as an astronomer and mathematician. Ulugh Beg was notable for his work in astronomy-related ma ...

was born. It was a successful marriage, according to the

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of Great Britain and Ireland from the Late Middle Ages until the 19th century. They were widely used across Eur ...

s of

Herat Herāt (; Dari/Pashto: هرات) is an oasis city and the third-largest city in Afghanistan. In 2020, it had an estimated population of 574,276, and serves as the capital of Herat Province, situated south of the Paropamisus Mountains (''Se ...

which sing of Shah Rukh's love for her. But little is known of their first forty years together, except what concerns her buildings. Along with her brothers who were administrators at the Timurid court in

, Gawhar Shad played a very important role in the early Timurid history. In 1405 she moved the Timurid capital from

Samarkand Samarkand ( ; Uzbek language, Uzbek and Tajik language, Tajik: Самарқанд / Samarqand, ) is a city in southeastern Uzbekistan and among the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities in Central As ...

to Herat. She was instrumental in the construction of Herat's

Mousallah Complex The Musalla complex ("Prayer complex", ), also known as the Musallah Complex or the Musalla of Gawhar Shah, is a former Islamic religious complex located in Herat, Afghanistan, containing examples of Timurid architecture. Much of the 15th-centur ...

. Under her patronage, the

Persian language Persian ( ), also known by its endonym and exonym, endonym Farsi (, Fārsī ), is a Western Iranian languages, Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian languages, Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian languages, Indo-Iranian subdivision ...

and

Persian culture The culture of Iran () or culture of PersiaYarshater, Ehsa, ''Iranian Studies'', vol. XXII no. 1 (1989) is one of the oldest and among the most influential in the world. Iran (Persia) is widely regarded as one of the cradles of civilization.

were elevated to a main element of the Timurid dynasty. She and her husband led a cultural renaissance by their lavish patronage of the arts, attracting to their court artists, architects and philosophers and poets acknowledged today among the world's most illustrious, including the poet

Jami Nūr ad-Dīn 'Abd ar-Rahmān Jāmī (; 7 November 1414 – 9 November 1492), also known as Mawlanā Nūr al-Dīn 'Abd al-Rahmān or Abd-Al-Rahmān Nur-Al-Din Muhammad Dashti, or simply as Jami or Djāmī and in Turkey as Molla Cami, was a ...

. Many exquisite examples of

Timurid architecture Timurid architecture was an important stage in the architectural history of Iran and Central Asia during the late 14th and 15th centuries. The Timurid Empire (1370–1507), founded by Timur () and conquering most of this region, oversaw a cultura ...

remain in Herat today.

Later years

After the death of her husband in 1447 Gawhar Shad maneuvered her favorite grandson to the throne. For ten years she became the de facto ruler of an empire stretching from the Tigris to the borders of China. When she was well past 80, she was executed on 19 July 1457 on the order of Sultān Abū Sa'īd. According to legend, Gawhar Shad once inspected a mosque and a religious school (

madrasah Madrasa (, also , ; Arabic: مدرسة , ), sometimes romanized as madrasah or madrassa, is the Arabic word for any type of educational institution, secular or religious (of any religion), whether for elementary education or higher learning ...

) in Herat accompanied by two hundred female attendants, after it had been cleared of its students, all of whom were male. One youth remained, having fallen asleep in his cell, and was discovered by an attendant and seduced. When Gawhar Shad found out, she ordered that all two hundred of her attendants be married to the students.Taliban, by Ahmed Rashid, Yale University Press 2001, p. 112f.

Burial

Gawhar Shad's tomb, the

Gawhar Shad Mausoleum The Gawhar Shad Mausoleum, also known as the Tomb of Baysunghur, is an Islamic burial structure located in what is now Herat, Afghanistan. Built in the 15th century by Gawhar Shad, the chief wife of Timurid Emperor Shah Rukh, the structure serve ...

, is located within to the Gawhar Shad Madrasa that she had built, of which one minaret and the mausoleum remain until this day.

Legacy

A women's university in Kabul that opened in 2003 bears the name of Gawhar Sha

Gawhar Shad had a mosque ( Goharshad Mosque, "Masjid-e Goharshād") built in 1418 in

Mashhad Mashhad ( ; ), historically also known as Mashad, Meshhed, or Meshed in English, is the List of Iranian cities by population, second-most-populous city in Iran, located in the relatively remote north-east of the country about from Tehran. ...

Khorasan KhorasanDabeersiaghi, Commentary on Safarnâma-e Nâsir Khusraw, 6th Ed. Tehran, Zavvâr: 1375 (Solar Hijri Calendar) 235–236 (; , ) is a historical eastern region in the Iranian Plateau in West and Central Asia that encompasses western and no ...

, and another one, Gawhar Shad Mosque built in

. Her sister, ''Gowhar-Tāj'' also has a tomb in Khorasan.

Personal life

Consort

, Timurid Emperor

Sons

(1394–1449). Viceroy of

Transoxiana Transoxiana or Transoxania (, now called the Amu Darya) is the Latin name for the region and civilization located in lower Central Asia roughly corresponding to eastern Uzbekistan, western Tajikistan, parts of southern Kazakhstan, parts of Tu ...

, later succeeded his father. *

Baysunghur Ghiyath ud-din Baysunghur ( غیاث‌الدین بایسنقر) commonly known as Baysonqor or Baysongor, Baysonghor or (incorrectly) as Baysunqar, also called Sultan Bāysonḡor Bahādor Khan (1397–1433) was a prince of the Timurid dynasty. ...

(1397–1433). Shah Rukh's artistic third son never had a vice-royal position, but played an important part in his father's government in Samarqand.BĀYSONḠOR, ḠĪĀT-AL-DĪN B. ŠĀHROḴ B. TĪMŪR
in ''

Encyclopedia Iranica An encyclopedia is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge, either general or special, in a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into articles or entries that are arranged alphabetically by artic ...

'' * Muhammad Juki Mirza (1402–1444). Viceroy of Garmsir and

Khuttal Khuttal, frequently also in the plural form Khuttalan (and variants such as ''Khutlan'', ''Khatlan'', in Chinese sources ''K'o-tut-lo'') was a medieval region and principality on the north bank of the river Oxus (modern Amu Darya), lying between ...

Daughters

*Maryam Sultan Agha (d. 1441). Married to Muhammad Jahangir Mirza, son of

Muhammad Sultan Mirza Muhammad Sultan Mirza (1375 – 1403) was a member of the Timurid dynasty and a grandson of its founder, the Central Asian conqueror Timur. As Timur's favourite grandson, Muhammad Sultan served as one of his principal military commanders, he ...

, son of

Jahangir Mirza Jahangir Mirza (c. 1472 – c. 1515)Muhammad Haidar says (p. 329) that he is 42 years old in 1514, but he is notoriously unreliable with dates. was a Dughlat prince and briefly the ruler of Yarkand (1514). He was the eldest son of Mirza Abu Bakr ...

*Qutlugh Turkan Agha *Sa'adat Sultan Agha

References

{{Authority control History of Herat People from Herat Patrons of literature 1457 deaths Year of birth unknown 15th-century women Timurid empresses