May 21

Poorandokht the First Female Shah of Iran.

Poorandokht (coin) Church historians of Constantinople have documented 21 May AD 630 as the day when, in the process of the decline of the Sassanid kingdom, Poorandokht, daughter of Khosrau Parviz, became the Shah of Iran. Other historians have written that Poorandokht sat on the throne in the summer of AD 630, without indicating the day. The reign of Poorandokht lasted 16 months.     Though it was too late, Poorandokht, being a wise and capable lady, pursued a new external and internal policy, in an effort to save the Iranian Empire. In December AD 631 she signed a peace treaty with East Roman government in order to buy time to solve the prevailing problems and start internal reforms. It was for this reason that Poorandokht signed the peace treaty with East Rome (Byzantine Empire). She issued orders to respect equity and justice and exempt overdue taxes, annul class differences and undue authority of the generals, and also minted a national coin. By then, the Arabs were ruling over the whole of the Arabian Peninsula. Despite several major reformative decisions, the government of Poorandokht too, like other successors of Khosrau Parviz, was a weak one, internal conflicts and dispute over power in capital city of Ctesiphon continued, and….     In the few years after the dethroning of Khosrau Parviz, 10 kings and queens ruled in Iran, the sixth being Azarmidokht, another daughter of Khosrau Parviz. With the murder of Yazdagard III, the 10th king of Iran during that critical period, the Sassanid dynasty,s reign, together with the ancient Iranian Empire, which was exposed to attacks by the Arabs, ended. The crisis that ended in the downfall of the Iranian Empire in the seventh century AD was the result of unwisely policies of Khosrau Parviz, who either killed his generals, politicians and wise men or drove them away or made them resign. He got involved in a series of unnecessary and useless wars and conquests. As a result, his army was exhausted and the government treasury was empty of funds. Due to his internal mistakes he caused the increase of dictatorship of the land owners (feudals) over the farmers, intensified class differences and consequently, the people,s dissatisfaction.          Translation by Rowshan Lohrasbpour