Khwarranzem (

Middle Persian Middle Persian or Pahlavi, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg () in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasanian Empire. For some time after the Sasanian collapse, Middle Per ...

: ''Xwarranzēm'') was a 3rd-century

Sasanian The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the History of Iran, last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th cen ...

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 f ...

''), married to

Ardashir I Ardashir I (Middle Persian: 𐭠𐭥𐭲𐭧𐭱𐭲𐭥, Modern Persian: , '), also known as Ardashir the Unifier (180–242 AD), was the founder of the Sasanian Empire. He was also Ardashir V of the Kings of Persis, until he founded the new ...

or to

Shapur I Shapur I (also spelled Shabuhr I; pal, 𐭱𐭧𐭯𐭥𐭧𐭥𐭩, Šābuhr ) was the second Sasanian King of Kings of Iran. The dating of his reign is disputed, but it is generally agreed that he ruled from 240 to 270, with his father Ar ...

Biography

The origins of her name is unknown, the name seems to suggest an

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ...

n or

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to t ...

n background. She is mentioned in

Shapur I's inscription at the Ka'ba-ye Zartosht Shapur I's Ka'ba-ye Zartosht inscription (shortened as Shapur-KZ, ŠKZ, SKZ), also referred to as The Great Inscription of Shapur I, and ''Res Gestae Divi Saporis'' (RGDS), is a trilingual inscription made during the reign of the Sasanian king S ...

, where she is holding the title of ''shahr banbishn'' ("Queen of the empire"). According to the same inscription, she was the mother of a certain Gorazdukht. Her husband is the subject of dispute amongst scholars; according to some, she was the wife of

(), whilst others suggests that she was the wife of Ardashir's son and successor

() and the mother of the latters son and heir

Hormizd I Hormizd-Ardashir, better known by his dynastic name of Hormizd I (also spelled Hormozd I or Ohrmazd I; pal, 𐭠𐭥𐭧𐭥𐭬𐭦𐭣), was the third Sasanian King of Kings ('' shahanshah'') of Iran, who ruled from May 270 to June 271. He w ...

(). She may have been the same person as Gurdzad, who is mentioned as the wife of Shapur by the 10th-century historian

Hamza al-Isfahani Hamza ibn al-Hasan bnal-Mu'addib al-Isfahani ( ar, حمزه الاصفهانی; – after 961), commonly known as Hamza al-Isfahani (or Hamza Isfahani; ) was a Persian philologist and historian, who wrote in Arabic during the Buyid era. A Pers ...

Sources

External links

*{{cite web, url=http://www.dr-ursula-weber.de/Prosopographie/web/viewer.php?file=Xwarranzem.pdf, title=Xwarranzem – Prosopographie des Sāsānidenreiches im 3. Jahrhundert n. Chr., website=dr-ursula-weber.de, accessdate=2019-01-26 Sasanian queens 3rd-century Iranian people 3rd-century deaths 3rd-century women