About Opentopia
Opentopia Directory Encyclopedia Tools

Shahrbanu

Encyclopedia : S : SH : SHA : Shahrbanu

The shrine of Bibi Shahrbanu
Enlarge
The shrine of Bibi Shahrbanu

Shahrbanu (or Shahr Banu), is believed by Shi'a Muslims to have been the eldest daughter of Yazdegerd III, the last Emperor of the Sassanid dynasty.

Shi'as say that she was the wife of the third Shia Imam (Hussain ibn Ali ibn Abu Talib ibn `Abdu'l-Muttalib), and that she gave birth to Ali Zayn al Abidin (the fourth Shia Imam) in 658 CE. She died shortly after giving birth.

There is a shrine to Shahrbanu in Rey, south of Tehran, Iran, and it is said to be built over her grave. A nearby mountain is also named after her.

Twelver Shi'a Muslims, the great majority of whom are Iranian, take great pride in their belief that the majority of the Shia Imams, from the fourth to twelfth and final, are thus descended from the pre-Islamic royal family of Persia.

Contents

Western academic view

Western academic historians believe that this story is a legend. A thorough treatment of the matter can be found in the Encyclopedia Iranica (the encyclopedia does not support direct links and users must go to the main page and type Shahrbanu into the search box.) The Encyclopedia says:

According to the oldest sources that have come down to us, the historic mother of the fourth Imam was not much of a princess. Ebn Sa¿d (d. 844-45) and Ebn Qotayba (d. 889) describe her as a slave, originally from Sindh, called GÚaza@la and/or Sola@fa (Ebn Sa¿d V, p. 211; Ebn Qotayba, pp. 214-15). Neither do any of the scholars of ancient history that have chronicled, at times with great attention to detail, the invasion of Persia by Muslim troops and the fate of the last Sasanian sovereign and her family, establish any relationship between the wife of Imam Háosayn and one of the daughters of Yazdgerd III (Bala@dòori 1866, pp. 262 ff.; idem 1974, pp. 102-103 and 146; Táabari I, 1879-1901, p. 2887 = Táabari IV 1960, p. 302; Ebn ¿Abd Rabbeh III, pp. 103 ff.). The same is true for a wide range of sources and authors quite different from each other, such as Keta@b al-k¨araj by the Hanafite judge Abu Yusof (d. 798) and the ˆa@h-na@ma of the pro-Shi¿ite Ferdowsi (q.v., d. 1019) both of whom, though surely for very different reasons, took an interest in the destiny of the last king of Sasanian Persia and his descendants (Abu Yusof, p. 30; Ferdowsi IX, pp. 358 ff.). (Encyclopedia Iranica uses its own system of transliteration, which is left intact.)
The article says that the first scholar to explicitly describe Husayn's wife as being of Persian royal family was the philologist Mobarrad. The story was subsequently greatly elaborated.

Shi'a view of Shahrbanu

Shrine of Bibi Shahrbanu, on hill outside Rey
Enlarge
Shrine of Bibi Shahrbanu, on hill outside Rey

According to a commonly-told story, the spirit of Fatima Zahra, the daughter of Muhammad, mother of Husayn, appeared to Shahrbanu before the Islamic conquest of Persia and told her to be of good heart, because she was destined for a truly glorious marriage. Shahrbanu was shown an image of Husayn, her future husband.

After the defeat of her father Yazdigerd III, Shahrbanu and other members of the Persian royal house were taken captive by the victorious Arab armies in al-Mada'in, and sent to Medina. People flocked to see the captured daughter of the fallen King of Persia.

The caliph, Umar ibn al-Khattab, demanded that the daughter of the King of Persia to be shown to him. The soldiers brought her to Umar, who reached out to lift her veil. The princess pulled away and cried out in Persian, "The face of Hormoz darkens from indignity!" ("Vay! Rooye Hormoz siyaah shod!")

Umar believed that he had been insulted, and ordered that the princess be killed. Ali ibn Abu Talib, the father of Husayn, protested. "You do not know her language. She called on her ancestor, and did not insult you."

Umar then announced his intention of auctioning her as a slave; the bidding would surely be spirited and much money would be raised. Ali again protested. Ali then asked the princess, "Do you wish me to find you a husband?" The princess did not reply. Trying to prevent the auction from taking place, Ali said, "Her silence is a sign of approval." Facing Umar, Ali continued, "Why don't we let her choose a person from amongst this crowd as a husband, and we will pay for her dowry from the public treasury?" Grudgingly, Umar agreed.

The beleaguered princess desperately scanned the crowd for a kind face. She saw Husayn, Ali's son, and was amazed. "I have seen this man in a dream!" she said. The crowd turned to gaze at Husayn; Ali went up to his son and said, "Husayn! From this girl, the most noble of humans shall be born."

Ali asked the princess her name. She replied, "The daughter of Jahan-shah". Ali said, "So you shall be called Shahr-banuyeh, the bride of the land."

Consequently, Shahrbanu was married to Husayn ibn Ali, the grandson of Muhammad, and the third Shia Imam. Her sister was married to Muhammad ibn Abu Bakr.

References and Sources

See also

Further references

  1. S.H. Nasr and Tabatabaei. Shi'a Islam. 1979. SUNY Press. ISBN 0873953908
  2. Safavī, Rahīmzādah. Dāstān-i Shahrbānū. 1948. Library of Congress Control Number: 76244526
  3. Sayyid Āghā Mahdī Lakhnavī, Savānih Hayāt-i Hazrat Shahr Bāno. Library of Congress Control Number: 81930254. Reprint 1981.

 

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.

Search Titles
0123456789
ABCDEFGHIJ
KLMNOPQRST
UVWXYZ?

E-mail this article to:

Personal Message: