Tajlu Khanum () or Tajli Begum (), also known by her title of Shah-Begi Khanum (), was a Turkoman princess from the

Mawsillu Mawsillu (; ; ) was one of the most active Turkic tribes that operated during the Aq Qoyunlu and Safavid dynasty, Safavid empires. During the Safavid Empire, it was one of the Turkmen tribes that formed the Qizilbash tribes. The Mosul tribe, more c ...

tribe and mother of

Tahmasp I Tahmasp I ( or ; 22 February 1514 – 14 May 1576) was the second shah of Safavid Iran from 1524 until his death in 1576. He was the eldest son of Shah Ismail I and his principal consort, Tajlu Khanum. Tahmasp ascended the throne after the ...

Family

While Italian writer Angiolello and Iranian historian Manuchihr Parsaʹdust agree that she was a granddaughter of the

Aq Qoyunlu The Aq Qoyunlu or the White Sheep Turkomans (, ; ) was a culturally Persianate society, Persianate,Kaushik Roy, ''Military Transition in Early Modern Asia, 1400–1750'', (Bloomsbury, 2014), 38; "Post-Mongol Persia and Iraq were ruled by two trib ...

ruler Yaqub (r. 1478–1490) via a daughter, John Woods proposed her paternal lineage as Mihmad Beg being her father and Amir Hamza being her grandfather. Jean Aubin on the other hand, proposed Bakr Beg Mawsillu as her maternal grandfather. She also had a sister named Beksi Khanum.

Marriage

According to Angiolello and Ramusio, the

Safavid The Guarded Domains of Iran, commonly called Safavid Iran, Safavid Persia or the Safavid Empire, was one of the largest and longest-lasting Iranian empires. It was ruled from 1501 to 1736 by the Safavid dynasty. It is often considered the begi ...

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 ...

Ismail I Ismail I (; 17 July 1487 – 23 May 1524) was the founder and first shah of Safavid Iran, ruling from 1501 until his death in 1524. His reign is one of the most vital in the history of Iran, and the Safavid period is often considered the beginn ...

(r. 1501–1524) married Tajlu Khanum after defeating the Aq Qoyunlu ruler Murad ibn Ya'qub in 1503, but according to the Safavid-period historians such as

Budaq Monshi Qazvini Budaq Monshi Qazvini (), was a bureaucrat and historian in 16th-century Safavid Iran, who composed the universal history , which focuses on a significant portion of the Persianate world. Born in 1510/11, Budaq came from a distinguished family ba ...

, she was the wife of the Afrasiyabid ruler Kiya Husayn II, who had during the dissolution of the Aq Qoyunlu confederation expanded his rule from western

Mazandaran Mazandaran Province (; ) is one of the 31 provinces of Iran. Its capital is the city of Sari, Iran, Sari. Located along the southern coast of the Caspian Sea and in the adjacent Central Alborz mountain range and Hyrcanian forests, it is border ...

into parts of

Persian Iraq Persian Iraq, also uncommonly spelled Persian Irak ( ''Erāq-e Ajam'' or ''Erāq-e Ajami''; ''ʿIrāq al-ʿAjam'' or ''al-ʿIrāq al-ʿAjamī'', literally, "Iraq of the Ajam"), is a historical region of the western parts of Iran. The region, ...

. Ismail I invaded the latter's territories and put an end to his rule in 1504, where he afterwards took Tajlu Khanum into his

harem A harem is a domestic space that is reserved for the women of the house in a Muslim family. A harem may house a man's wife or wives, their pre-pubescent male children, unmarried daughters, female domestic Domestic worker, servants, and other un ...

. She became Ismail's most beloved wife. She was a very beautiful, intelligent, and warlike woman, which is why Shah Ismail loved her and wrote great poems for her. Tajlu was the only wife of the king who was skilled in swordsmanship and always accompanied her husband in his battles. She bore him two sons, Tahmasp Mirza and Bahram Mirza Safavi, and two daughters, Parikhan Khanum and Mahinbanu Khanum.

Life in Safavid court

Her supposed capture at

Battle of Chaldiran The Battle of Chaldiran (; ) took place on 23 August 1514 and ended with a decisive victory for the Ottoman Empire over the Safavid Empire. As a result, the Ottomans annexed Eastern Anatolia and Upper Mesopotamia from Safavid Iran. It marked ...

was a major source of controversy among historians of

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

and

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

. While Ottoman sources wrote that she was captured during battle and even conversed with

Selim I Selim I (; ; 10 October 1470 – 22 September 1520), known as Selim the Grim or Selim the Resolute (), was the List of sultans of the Ottoman Empire, sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1512 to 1520. Despite lasting only eight years, his reign is ...

, according to Safavid sources she was lost but found by Mirza Shah Hossein, who because of this rose to the rank of ''wakil'' in Safavid court.Roemer, H.R. (1986). "The Safavid period"
The Cambridge History of Iran, Volume 5: The Timurid and Safavid periods
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 231. . According to Roger Savory, it was Behruza Khanum, another wife of Ismail I who was captured and apparently later remarried. Tajlu financed shrine of Fatima al-Masuma in

Qom Qom (; ) is a city in the Central District of Qom County, Qom province, Iran, serving as capital of the province, the county, and the district. It is the seventh largest metropolis and also the seventh largest city in Iran. The city is ...

in 1519, supported Tahmasp Mirza's elevation to throne in 1524. But was banished to

Shiraz Shiraz (; ) is the List of largest cities of Iran, fifth-most-populous city of Iran and the capital of Fars province, which has been historically known as Pars (Sasanian province), Pars () and Persis. As of the 2016 national census, the popu ...

in 1540 because of treason by his son. She later died and buried in Bibi Dokhtaran mausoleum.

References

Sources

* * * {{cite book , title = Safavid Iran: Rebirth of a Persian Empire , year = 2008 , publisher = I.B. Tauris , last = Newman , first = Andrew J. , pages = 1–281 , isbn = 9780857716613 , url = https://books.google.com/books?id=KPgBAwAAQBAJ&q=Andrew+J.+Newman+Safavid+Iran Wives of Safavid Shahs 16th-century Iranian women 16th-century Iranian people 17th-century Iranian women Iranian Turkmen people 1480s births 1540 deaths 16th-century people from Safavid Iran Mawsillu