Boran (r. 630, 631-632) and Azarmiduxt (r. 630-631) were the only queens of the Sassanian Empire who ruled with the power of absolute monarchs. Daughters of Shahanshah (king of kings) Khosrow II (r. 590-628), Boran and Azarmiduxt, tried to hold the empire together as it grappled with a civil war between two groups of the nobility, the Pahlavs and the Parsigs, and the Islamic invasion.
Aftermath of the Byzantine-Sassanian War
After the Persians experienced a tremendous defeat in the Byzantine-Sassanian War of 602-628, the nobility declared Khosrow II's son Sheroe king of kings. He took the regnal name of Kavad II (r. 628 CE). Khosrow II was then executed by the nobility for starting the war and causing such strife in the Sassanian Empire. To secure his claim to the throne, Kavad II executed all of his brothers and half-brothers and spared only his sisters, Boran and Azarmiduxt. Because of the executions of their father and male siblings, Boran and Azarmiduxt went before Kavad II. They berated him for committing dishonor in taking the crown by killing their father and brothers and not earning it by right. The sisters also cursed Kavad II to have a miserable time in power. It is said that after hearing Boran and Azarmiduxt, Kavad II wept bitterly and tore the crown off his head in shame. After a few short months, Kavad II died of the plague, and his son Ardeshir III (r. 628-630) became the king of kings.
Ardeshir III was only seven years old, and Shahbaraz (r. 630), one of Khosrow II's generals in the Byzantine-Sassanian War, was enraged that a boy became king of kings instead of him. With the backing of Byzantine emperor Heraclius (r. 610-641), Shahbaraz rebelled, had Ardeshir III killed, and took power for himself. Shahbaraz was not a member of the Sassanian dynasty, and the empire's elites hated him because he had no claim to the kingship. The Pahlavs, an influential group of the nobility in the Sassanian Empire, killed Shahbaraz and dragged his body through the streets to dishonor him. The Pahlavs were the same group of people who ruled Persia during the Parthian Empire (247 BCE to 224 CE). They then installed Boran on the throne because she was the only direct heir of Khosrow II left alive who could legitimately take power.
Boran's Reign
Upon becoming the first queen of the Sassanian Empire, Boran promised her subjects that she would rule with righteousness and a sense of justice. She also pledged to help the poor and relieve people of their suffering. She is said to have ruled with kindness, and her subjects were happy during her reign. Her actions suggest that she knew how ordinary people in the Sassanian Empire suffered through many years of war and unstable leadership. Boran also sought to reestablish the legitimacy of the Sassanian dynasty. She issued coins that copied the style of her father's and claimed to have restored the Sassanian Empire to "the race of the gods" and "increased its glory." To help her rule, Boran appointed an influential member of the Pahlav faction named Forrukh-Hormizd as her prime minister.
Boran's promises to her people also included formalizing a peace agreement with the Byzantine Empire to formally end the Byzantine-Sassanian War of 602-628. Boran wrote Emperor Heraclius a letter detailing her desire for peace with the Byzantine Empire. She then dispatched Isho Yahb II, the catholicos of the Church of the East, to meet with Heraclius in Aleppo and deliver her letter. The Church of the East was a distinct group of Christians that had existed in the Sassanian Empire for centuries and had a different interpretation of Jesus Christ's human and divine natures than was practiced in the Byzantine Empire and elsewhere.
Boran's peace mission to Heraclius was a success. He was surprised that a woman ruled the Sassanian Empire and was charmed with Boran's letter. Heraclius informed Isho Yahb II that if Boran ever needed military support to keep her throne, all she had to do was ask him for help. Heraclius's intention here was to have the ability and privilege of intervening in Persian affairs. However, Boran's time in power was about to end because she could not make the elites of the Sassanian Empire obey her orders. Boran, in other words, lost the ability to command the elite because they no longer recognized her legitimacy as queen.
Shapur-i Shahbaraz (r, 630), Boran's cousin, forced her from power, but he could not hold on to it for long. Then, the Parsigs, a group of the nobility who were fierce rivals of the Pahlavs, installed Boran's sister Azarmiduxt on the throne. Once again, the Sassanian Empire underwent an abrupt change in leadership in a short amount of time.
Azarmiduxt's Reign
When Azarmiduxt became queen in 630, she refused a prime minister's help to govern the Sassanian Empire. She also informed her subjects that moving forward, the way of conduct would be that of her father, Khosrow II, whom she called the "victorious one," and that if anyone rebelled against her, she would shed their blood. Azarmiduxt wanted to project strength by promising to deal harshly with any rebel because of the instability that marked the last years of the Sassanian Empire. She also wanted to honor her father by calling him the victorious one to rehabilitate his reputation after he started the Byzantine-Sassanian War of 602-628. This war ended in disaster for the Sassanian Empire due to the fact that it lost prestige and power, not to mention the thousands of civilians and soldiers killed in the conflict. Azarmiduxt also wanted to rally the spirits of her subjects after having experienced a total defeat. For her part, Azarmiduxt even reissued coins using her father's image instead of making her own to honor him.
Azarmiduxt's promise to deal harshly with threats was not an idle one. Forrukh-Hormizd, who served as Boran's prime minister, sent Azarmidiuxt a letter asking for her hand in marriage. Azarmiduxt, however, sensed that Forrukh-Hormizd wanted to marry her so he could become the king of kings and give the Pahlavs power instead of the members of the Sassanian dynasty. Azarmiduxt wrote back, saying that she could not marry him but to meet her in the palace in secret. Her plan was a trap for Forrukh-Hormizd. The commander of the guard waited in the shadows for Forrukh-Hormizd and slew him as soon as he arrived at the palace. Forrukh-Hormizd's body was dumped at the palace gate to warn anyone else who thought they could trick Azarmiduxt. Her plan, however, backfired.
Forrukh-Hormizd's son, Rustam, led an army in rebellion against Azarmiduxt after hearing the news of his father's death. After he located Azarmiduxt, Rustam gouged out her eyes and murdered her in revenge for his father's execution. The Pahlavs were now back in control, and to increase their hold on power, they restored Boran as queen in 631.
Boran's Second Reign
Once again on the throne, Boran had to save herself because every member of her immediate family, and most recently her sister, had been executed. Boran named Rustam her prime minister, like she had his father in her first reign. At this point, the Islamic armies of Muhammad began their invasion of the Sassanian Empire.
The civil war between the Pahlavs and the Parsigs prevented the Persians from defending against this threat. Boran negotiated a ceasefire between the Pahlavs and Parsigs so they could instead work together to fight against the invasion. This allowed the Sassanians to delay the Islamic conquest for a short time. However, a Parsig general named Peroz strangled Boran in 632. Boran's execution signifies how destructive and destabilizing the Pahlav and Parsig civil war had become for the Sassanian Empire: another ruler had been executed in a short amount of time.
Conclusion
After Boran's death, Yazdegerd III (r. 632-651) became the king of kings at eight years old. At this point, the Sassanians were too weakened and exhausted after the instability caused by civil war and the rapid succession of rulers who were never allowed to firmly control the Persian government. Because of the state of the Sassanian Empire, the Islamic invasion culminated in the downfall of the empire in 652.
While Boran and Azarmiduxt are significant because they are the only two women to have ruled the Sassanian Empire, their reigns suggest something more extraordinary about each of them. Both women tried to govern in their own way. Boran tried to rule her subjects with justice and righteousness and focused on peace with the Byzantines. Azarmiduxt, for her part, had a more aggressive style of leadership. Even though Boran and Azarmiduxt had contrasting approaches, both tried to hold the Sassanian Empire together, stabilize it, and even restore it in a period in which different factions were engaged in civil war for absolute power for themselves. Unfortunately, both Boran and Azarmiduxt paid for their efforts with their lives.
