Borandukht

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Queen Poran, the last woman on the throne of the Sassanid dynasty, 630. State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia.

A Portrait of Queen Puran Dokht

"Boran" redirects here. For other uses, see Boran (disambiguation).

Buran or Poran or more correctly Purandokht was daughter of the King Khosrau II of Persia (590–628). She was one of only two women on the throne of the Sassanid dynasty (the other was her sister Azarmidokht). She was the twenty-sixth sovereign Monarch of Persia from 629 to 631. When Purandokht ascended to the throne after the murder of the general Shahrbaraz, who killed her brother Ardashir III, she attempted to bring stability to the empire. This stability was brought about by a peace treaty with the Byzantine Empire, the revitalization of the empire through the implementation of justice, reconstruction of the infrastructure, lowering of taxes, and minting coins. She was largely unsuccessful in her attempts to restore the power of the central authority which was weakened considerably by civil wars, and resigned or was murdered soon after.

Ferdowsi refers to Purandokht in his epic poem the Shahnameh. She was committed to reviving the memory and prestige of her father, during whose reign the Sassanid Empire had grown to its largest territorial extent.