Shushandukht (; ) was the

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

wife of

Yazdegerd I Yazdegerd I (also spelled Yazdgerd and Yazdgird; ) was the Sasanian King of Kings () of Iran from 399 to 420. A son of Shapur III (), he succeeded his brother Bahram IV () after the latter's assassination. Yazdegerd I's largely-uneventful reig ...

, the Sasanian emperor from 399-420, and mother of

Bahram V Bahram V (also spelled Wahram V or Warahran V; ), also known as Bahram Gur (New Persian: , "Bahram the onager unter), was the Sasanian Empire, Sasanian King of Kings (''shahanshah'') from 420 to 438. The son of the incumbent Sasanian shah Ya ...

, his successor. She was also said to be the daughter of the

Exilarch The exilarch was the leader of the Jewish community in Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) during the era of the Parthians, Sasanians and Abbasid Caliphate up until the Mongol invasion of Baghdad in 1258, with intermittent gaps due to ongoing polit ...

(Middle Persian ''rēš-galūdag'') Huna bar Nathan. Shushandukht reputedly created the Jewish neighborhood of Jouybareh in

Isfahan Isfahan or Esfahan ( ) is a city in the Central District (Isfahan County), Central District of Isfahan County, Isfahan province, Iran. It is the capital of the province, the county, and the district. It is located south of Tehran. The city ...

and also established Jewish colonies in the cities of

Susa Susa ( ) was an ancient city in the lower Zagros Mountains about east of the Tigris, between the Karkheh River, Karkheh and Dez River, Dez Rivers in Iran. One of the most important cities of the Ancient Near East, Susa served as the capital o ...

and Shushtar in what is now

Khuzestan province Khuzestan province () is one of the 31 Provinces of Iran. Located in the southwest of the country, the province borders Iraq and the Persian Gulf, covering an area of . Its capital is the city of Ahvaz. Since 2014, it has been part of Iran's R ...

, Iran at the north of the

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf, sometimes called the Arabian Gulf, is a Mediterranean seas, mediterranean sea in West Asia. The body of water is an extension of the Arabian Sea and the larger Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.Un ...

. The Iranologist Ernst Herzfeld (1879–1948) speculated that the Tomb of Esther and Mordechai in the city of

Hamadan Hamadan ( ; , ) is a mountainous city in western Iran. It is located in the Central District of Hamadan County in Hamadan province, serving as the capital of the province, county, and district. As of the 2016 Iranian census, it had a po ...

might be the tomb of Shushandukht. The narrative of a Jewish queen enhanced the life of

Persian Jews Iranian Jews, (; ) also Persian Jews ( ) or Parsim, constitute one of the oldest communities of the Jewish diaspora. Dating back to the History of ancient Israel and Judah, biblical era, they originate from the Jews who relocated to Iran (his ...

even if Jewish communities existed in Isfahan long before this date according to earlier authors. Aptin Khanbaghi notes that the

Babylonian Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the centerpiece of Jewi ...

recounts that the Exilarch Huna bar Nathan interacted with Yazdegerd. No daughter or Jewish empress is mentioned. Simcha Gross writes that Shushandukht is mentioned in only one text, ''The Provincial Capitals of Ērānšahr'' (Middle Persian ''

Šahrestānīhā ī Ērānšahr ''Šahrestānīhā ī Ērānšahr'' () is a surviving Middle Persian text on geography, which was completed in the late eighth or early ninth centuries AD. The text gives a numbered list of the cities of Eranshahr and their history and importance ...

''). It is also the only Middle Persian text to "expressly acknowledge the institution of the exilarchate", and Gross argues she may be fictional, perhaps based on the figure of

Esther Esther (; ), originally Hadassah (; ), is the eponymous heroine of the Book of Esther in the Hebrew Bible. According to the biblical narrative, which is set in the Achaemenid Empire, the Persian king Ahasuerus falls in love with Esther and ma ...

. Gross says her story may date to the tenth or eleventh century, the "

Iranian intermezzo The Iranian Intermezzo, also called the Persian Renaissance, was a period in Iranian history marked by the rise to power of the first Iranian Muslim dynasties. Beginning nearly 200 years after the Arab conquest of Iran and lasting until the mi ...

", as a way to bolster the royal claims of local rulers.

References

Year of birth missing Year of death missing Sasanian queens consort 5th-century Iranian people 5th-century queens consort Jews in the Sasanian Empire Jewish royalty {{MEast-royal-stub