Pari Khan Khanum

Family and youth

Pari Khan Khanum was born as the second daughter of the Safavid shah Tahmasp I by his Circassian wife Sultan-Agha Khanum in August 1548 at Ahar. When Tahmasp's brother Bahram Mirza Safavi died in 1549, he took care of the latter's children, even announcing prince Badi-al Zaman Mirza Safavi as his own son. He appointed him as the governor of Sistan in 1557, and offered him Pari Khan Khanum (who was at that time 10 years old) as a wife, which he accepted. However, since she was Tahmasp's favored daughter, she was not allowed to go alongside her husband to Sistan.

According to the other historians, however, Pari Khan Khanum was only engaged to Badi al-Zaman, which according to Gholsorkhi seems more believable. Allegedly the marriage went no farther, since Pari Khan Khanum chose a bureaucratic life in the capital, alongside her father, over married life in Sistan.

Succession disputes

Pari Khan Khanum's participation in the affairs of the Safavid state started during the last years of her father's reign. Disenchanted with bureaucratic life, Tahmasp granted her extensive obligation and large amounts of authority, thus giving her the legality she needed to later rise in power even more.

On 18 October 1574, Tahmasp became ill—during his illness, he was close to dying two times, and he still hadn't chosen a successor. Pari Khan Khanum took care of her ill father, which made them even closer to each other. Simultaneously, the main chieftains of the Qizilbash arranged a meeting to discuss about who should be the successor. The Ustalju clan, and the Shaykhavand clan (which was related to the Safavid family) favored Haydar Mirza Safavi. The Georgians also supported him, since his mother was Georgian.

The Rumlu, Afshar, and the Qajar clan favored Ismail Mirza Safavi, who was jailed in the Qahqaheh Castle. Pari Khan Khanum also favored Ismail Mirza, and she had the support of the Circassians. While Tahmasp was still ill, those who supported Haydar Mirza, sent a message to the castellan of Qahqaheh Castle, named Khalifa Ansar Qaradghlu. They requested him to have Ismail Mirza killed. However, Pari Khan Khanum managed to find out about it and told Tahmasp about the plot. Tahmasp, who still had some feelings for Ismail Mirza due to the courage he used to have in the encounters with the Ottoman Empire, sent a group of Afshar musketeers to the Qahqaheh Castle to safeguard him. Two months later, Tahmasp healed from the life-threatening illness he had. Two years later, on 14 May 1576, he died in Qazvin. Haydar Mirza was the only son who was with him when he died, and thus the following day, he announced himself as the new shah. Normally, some Qizilbash tribes would guard the royal palace and take turns with other others—unfortunately for Haydar Mirza, on that day all the Qizilbash guards were either from the Rumlu, Afshar, Qajar, Bayat, or the Dorsaq tribe—all loyal supporters of Ismail Mirza.

Civil war

When Haydar Mirza found out about the dangerous position he was in, he took Pari Khan Khanum (who was also in the palace) into detention as a safety procedure. Pari Khan Khanum then "threw herself at her brother's feet in the presence of Haydar Mirza's mother", and tried to urge him to let her leave the palace, stating that she was the first to acknowledge his rule by making a prostrating to him—she vowed that she would attempt to persuade Ismail Mirza's supporters to change their mind, which included her full brother Suleiman Mirza and her Circassian uncle Shamkhal Sultan. Haydar Mirza accepted her request, and gave her permission to evacuate from the palace. However, after she left the palace, she broke her oath and gave Shamkhal Sultan the keys to the gate of the palace.

When the supporters of Haydar Mirza found out about the threat their shah was in, they hurried to his regal residence to save him. However, the palace guards, who disliked Haydar Mirza (although he had tried to win them to his side by declaring several assurances) closed the entrances of the palace. At the same time, the supporters of Ismail Mirza, entered the palace and went to its inner part. However, Haydar Mirza's supporters shortly managed to break through the gate, but did not reach there in time—Ismail Mirza's supporters found Haydar Mirza, dressed as a woman in the royal harem. He was immediately captured and beheaded. His bloody head was then thrown down to Haydar Mirza's supporters, who stopped their resistance, which thus meant that Ismail Mirza could safely ascend the throne.

Under Ismail II

During the dynastic struggle between the two brothers, Pari Khan Khanum became the de facto ruler of the state; it was she who ordered all the princes and top-ranking members of the realm to gather at Qazvin's main mosque on 23 May 1576, where a famous cleric named Mir Makhdum Sharifi Shirazi, read the khotbeh in the name of Ismail Mirza, thus confirming him as the new shah of the Safavid dynasty.

Ismail Mirza, who was still in the Qahqaheh Castle, was shortly escorted out of the place with thousands of Qizilbash warriors and reached the countryside of Qazvin on 4 June 1576. In the course of the 31 days following the death of Tahmasp, the henchmen and chieftains of the Qizilbash clans had visited the palace of Pari Khan Khanum everyday and according to Iskandar Beg Munshi, "informed her of the urgent business of the realm be it fiscal or financial or to do with politics of the day and nobody had any inclination or dared to disobey her command".

After entering Qazvin, Ismail Mirza did not advance to the regal palace directly since the astrologists had stated that the time was ominous. He thus stayed for 14 days at the house of Husaynquli Khulafa, the leader of the Rumlu clan, and the Khalifat al-Khulafa (administrator of Sufi affairs). Although Ismail Mirza held the title of shah, the majority of the Qizilbash officers and high-ranking statesmen persisted to visit Pari Khan Khanum's palace ordinarily. At the same time, Pari Khan Khanum had managed to organize an remarkable court for herself "where her attendants and ladies-in-waiting acted as if they were serving at a proper royal court" (Parsadust).

Ismail Mirza ascended to the crown under the dynastic name of Ismail II in 22 August 1576. His 19 years of imprisonment in the Qahqaheh castle had affected him heavily, and thus he was not inclined to allow displays of authority by any other individual at his own cost. He announced that it was prohibited for Qizilbash chieftains, officers, and high-ranking officials to enter Pari Khan Khanum's palace. He dissolved the duties of her wardens and her court servants and seized an extensive space of properties belonging to her. Moreover, he embraced a cold and non-approachable behaviour towards her when he allowed her an audience.

Having fought so hard to make Ismail II shah of the Safavid dynasty, Pari Khan Khanum was now met with lack of gratitude from him. The way she was treated by Ismail II made her hostile towards him, and made her prepare to exact vengeance. On 25 November 1577, Ismail II died abruptly and without any initial signs of bad health. The court doctors, who checked the corpse, surmised that he may have died from poison. The general agreement was that Pari Khan Khanum had resolved to have poisoned with the help of the mistresses of the inner harem in retaliation for his bad behaviour towards her. With Ismail II out of the way, Pari Khan Khanum regained her authority and control. Every state grandee, clan chieftains, officers and officials carried out the orders delivered by her deputies and served according to her word.

Alarmed that the announcement of Ismail II's death would start discontent in the capital, the aristocracy kept the doors of the palace locked until a resolution was reached about the succession. According to some accounts, after Ismail II's death a group of statesmen asked Pari Khan Khanum to succeed her brother, which she, however, declined.

In order to clear up the succession crisis, the Qizilbash chieftains agreed to appoint the future shah after a conference with each other and then notify Pari Khan Khanum of their settled choice. At first, they discussed the resolution that Shoja al-Din Mohammad Safavi, the eight-month-old infant son of Ismail II, should be crowned as shah while in reality state affairs would be taken care of by Pari Khan Khanum. This suggestion, however, did not get the green light of most of the assembly since it would have swayed the balance of power among many Qizilbash clans. Ultimately the assembly agreed to appoint Mohammad Khodabanda, the elder brother of Ismail II, as shah.

Under Mohammad Khodabanda

The appointment of Mohammad Khodabanda was supported and approved by Pari Khan Khanum, due to him being a man of old age, almost blind, and pleasure-seeking. Thus he was the appropriate successor, so Pari Khan Khanum could take advantage of his weakness and rule herself. She made an agreement with the Qizilbash chieftains that Mohammad Khodabanda would remain shah in name, whilst her and her envoys would continue controlling the interests of the state.

When Mohammad Khodabanda was crowned shah, the Safavid aristocracy, officers, and provincial governors wanted approval from Pari Khan Khanum to give him a congratulating visit. Pari Khan Khanum's sphere of influence and authority was so dimensional that no one had the courage to visit Shiraz without her unambiguous approval. From the day Mohammad Khobanda was appointed shah, his wife Khayr al-Nisa Begum, who was better known by her title of Mahd-e Olya, took control of his affairs. She was knowledgeable of her husband's deficiency and to atone for his lack of uprightness and quality she resolved to try to become the practical ruler of the Safavid state.

Mohammad Khodabanda and Mahd-e Olya entered the environs of Qazvin on 12 February 1578. This brought an end to the indisputable rule that Pari Khan Khanum had enjoyed for two months and 20 days. Although she was still the practical ruler of the state, she would now meet opposition from Mahd-e Olya and her allies. When they reached the city, Pari Khan Khanum showed up to gladly receive them with great grandeur and parade, sitting in a golden-spun litter, whilst being guarded by 4,000–5,000 private guards, inner-harem personal assistants and court attendants.

Death

Mahd-e Olya was continually informed by the welcoming social gatherings in Qazvin about the large amount of influence and power that Pari Khan Khanum held, thus ratifying what she had already been told by Mirza Salman Jaberi, the former grand vizier of Ismail II. She then realized that as long as Pari Khan Khanum was alive, she would not manage to dominate the interests of the Safavid state and become the de facto ruler of the country. She thus began planning to have her killed.

The order was executed in 12 February 1578, when Khalil Khan Afshar, who had served as Pari Khan Khanum's tutor during the reign of Tahmasp. While Pari Khan Khanum was en route to her home with her servants, Khalil Khan Afshar appeared with his men and a fight shortly ensured. Pari Khan Khanum was eventually seized and taken to his home, where he had her strangled to death. Her uncle, Shamkhal Sultan, was executed shortly after, whilst Ismail II's son Shoja al-Din Mohammad Safavi was murdered.