Shapurdukhtak (

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 ...

: ''Šābuhrduxtag'', literally "daughter of Shapur"), also known as Shapurdukhtak II, was a

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 last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th centuries AD. Named ...

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 fu ...

'') in the late 3rd and early 4th-centuries, who was the wife of the Sasanian king (

shah Shah (; fa, شاه, , ) is a royal title that was historically used by the leading figures of Iranian monarchies.Yarshater, EhsaPersia or Iran, Persian or Farsi, ''Iranian Studies'', vol. XXII no. 1 (1989) It was also used by a variety of ...

)

Narseh Narseh (also spelled Narses or Narseus; pal, 𐭭𐭥𐭮𐭧𐭩, New Persian: , ''Narsē'') was the seventh Sasanian King of Kings of Iran from 293 to 303. The youngest son of Shapur I (), Narseh served as the governor of Sakastan, Hind and T ...

(). She has been suggested to be the daughter of shah

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 Ardas ...

(), however, this is disputed. She is mentioned in the inscription at Ka'ba-ye Zartosht written in c. 262. She held the title of ''sagan banbishn'' ("Queen of the Saka"), due to her husband Narseh serving as governor of

Sakastan Sistān ( fa, سیستان), known in ancient times as Sakastān ( fa, سَكاستان, "the land of the Saka"), is a historical and Sistan Basin, geographical region in present-day Eastern Iran (Sistan and Baluchestan Province) and Southern A ...

at that time. When Narseh ascended the throne in 293, he had an investiture relief made in

Naqsh-e Rostam Naqsh-e Rostam ( lit. mural of Rostam, fa, نقش رستم ) is an ancient archeological site and necropolis located about 12 km northwest of Persepolis, in Fars Province, Iran. A collection of ancient Iranian rock reliefs are cut into the ...

, where he is depicted as receiving the ring of kingship from a female figure that is frequently assumed to be the goddess

Anahita Anahita is the Old Persian form of the name of an Iranian goddess and appears in complete and earlier form as ('), the Avestan name of an Indo-Iranian cosmological figure venerated as the divinity of "the Waters" (Aban) and hence associate ...

. However, some scholars have suggested that this may be his queen, Shapurdukhtak.

References

Sources

* * * * {{cite encyclopedia , article = Narseh , last = Weber , first = Ursula , url = http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/narseh-sasanian-king , encyclopedia = Encyclopaedia Iranica , year = 2016 3rd-century Iranian people 4th-century Iranian people 4th-century deaths 3rd-century births Sasanian queens