Shirin
999054
220592915
2008-06-20T16:39:12Z
Eubot
231599
Hatnote formatting, see [[User:Eubot/Hatnote formatting]]
{{for|the city in [[Uzbekistan]]|Shirin, Uzbekistan}}
'''Shirin''' (? – [[628]] a.d.) ({{lang-fa|شيرين}}) was a wife of the [[Sassanid]] [[Persia]]n [[Shahanshah]] (king of kings), [[Khosrau II]]. She was from Chuzistan and was described in several sources as a beautiful woman. In the revolution after the death of Khosrau's father [[Hormizd IV of Persia|Hormizd IV]], the General [[Bahram Chobin]] took power over the Persian empire. Shirin fled with Khosrau to [[Syria]] where they lived under the protection of [[Byzantine emperor]] [[Maurice (emperor)|Maurice]]. In [[591]], Khosrau returned to Persia to take control of the empire and Shirin was made queen. She used her new influence to support the [[Christian]] minority in [[Iran]], but the political situation demanded that she do so discreetly. Initially she belonged to the [[Church of the East]], the so-named [[Nestorians]], but later she joined the monophysitic western-[[Syria]]n church. After conquering Jerusalem in [[614]], the [[Persians]] supposedly captured the [[cross]] of [[Jesus]] and brought it to their capital [[Ctesiphon]], where Shirin took the cross in her palace.
== In Persian literature ==
After the fall of Khosrau, [[Firdausi]] remembered Shirin in his epic, the ''[[Shahnama]]''. Around [[1180]] the Persian poet [[Nezami]] wrote of her alleged love for the master builder [[Farhad]] in his epic ''[[Chosroes and Shirin]]''. This story grew to be a myth with Shirin and Farhad being symbols of pure, unrequited love.
According to the myth Shirin and Khosrau fell in love by seeing each other in portraits, but their first meeting was long delayed. Before Shirin agreed to marry Khusraw, there were obstacles to be overcome, including the vanquishing of Farhad, a rival for Shirin’s affections.
The long standing myth spread to other ethnic literature, living on even as far as [[Europe]] with [[Goethe]]’s ''West-oestlicher Divan''. Shirin is also mentioned in [[Scheherazade]]'s [[The Book of One Thousand and One Nights]] on the 390th night with the story of Kosrau and Shirin with a fisherman.
{{cquote|The romance of Khusraw and Shirin is a classic text of Persian literature. It tells the story of the courtship of the pre-Islamic king Khusraw Parviz and the Armenian princess Shirin. The poet Nizami created the romance for a local ruler in north-west Iran in 1184 and from the 15th century manuscripts containing the poem were often illustrated with miniature paintings. <ref>The Romance of Khusraw and Shirin Illustrated by Riza’ ‘Abbasi (c. 1565 - 1635) </ref>}}
== See also ==
*[[Khosrau II|Khosrau Parviz]]
*[[Sassanid Empire]]
*[[Chosroes and Shirin]]
*[[Nezami]]
*[[Sarkash]]
== References ==
* Wilhelm Baum: ''Shirin: Christian - Queen - Myth of Love'', 2004 (orig. German: ''Schirin. Christin - Königin - Liebesmythos. Eine spätantike Frauengestalt - Historische Realität und literarische Wirkung'', 2003).
{{Reflist}}
* Gianroberto Scarcia: ''Scirin. La Regina dei Magi'', Ed. Jaca Book, Milano, 2004.
[[Category:Year of birth missing]]
[[Category:628 deaths]]
[[Category:Armenian-Iranians]]
[[Category:History of Iran]]
[[Category:Sassanid dynasty]]
[[Category:One Thousand and One Nights]]
[[Category:One Thousand and One Nights characters]]
[[Category:Queens]]
[[Category:Persian names]]
[[de:Schirin]]