1. Shirin was wife of the Sasanian emperor Khosrow II.
12 Facts About Shirin
2.
Shirin fled with Khosrow to Roman Syria, where they lived under the protection of Byzantine emperor Maurice.
3.
In 591, Khosrow returned to Persia to take control of the empire and Shirin was made queen.
4.
Shirin used her new influence to support the Christian minority in Iran, but the political situation demanded that she do so discreetly.
5.
Long after her death Shirin became an important heroine of Persian literature, as a model of a faithful lover and wife.
6.
Shirin appears in the Shahnameh and the romance Khosrow and Shirin by Nizami Ganjavi, and is referred to in very many other works.
7.
Shirin's elaborated story in literature bears little or no resemblance to the fairly few known historical facts of her life, although her Christianity and difficulties after the assassination of her husband remain part of the story, as well as Khosrow's exile before he regained his throne.
8.
The 11th-century Persian epic Shahnameh of Ferdowsi, which was based on the Middle Persian text Khwaday-Namag, states that Shirin was already married to Khosrow II by the time he fled to the Byzantine Empire.
9.
The earliest source mentioning Shirin is the Ecclesiastical history of Evagrius Scholasticus, where she is mentioned as "Sira".
10.
Shirin took Christian wives, and had an extremely beautiful Christian wife from the land of Xuzhastan named Shirin, the Bambish, queen of queens [tiknats' tikin].
11.
Shirin constructed a monastery and a church close to the royal abode, and settled priests and deacons there allotting from the court stipends and money for clothing.
12.
Shirin built himself two churches for Marie and a large church and a castle in the country of Beth Lashpar for his wife Shirin, the Aramean.