Azarmidokht

Who is Azarmidokht?

Azarmidokht was Sassanid queen of Persia, and daughter of Khosrau II. She ruled Persia after her sister Purandokht.

After the death of her father Khosrau II anarchy spread in the Sassanid empire. The subsequent rulers could stay for only a relatively brief time on the throne, and for many we do not know much more than the name. Furthermore, tradition from then is very unreliable and sometimes contradictory, so that the reign of Azarmedukht is not accurately dated. Because a female succession in the Persian Empire was not foreseen, she might also have acted as a regent.

According to Tabari, her reign lasted a few months in the year 630. Tabari reported further that General Farrokh Hormizd proposed to marry Azarmidokht. The queen, however, had him murdered; and his son Rostam Farrokhzād captured Ctesiphon and had Azarmidokht blinded and then killed. According to Tabari, it is this son Rostam Farrokhzād, subsequently a General under Yazdegerd III, who lost battle for the Arabs.

In short intervals Hormizd VI and Khosrau IV followed her on the throne. Only under King Yazdegerd III, the last male offspring of the ruling family, could the situation of the kingdom be stabilized briefly before the Arab attacks in 633.