It is widely believed that Shahrbanu, the daughter of the last Sasanian king Yazdgird was married to Husayn, son of Ali; and this union of Sasanid and Alid blood been divinely ordained and revealed by the Prophet himself.
The story goes that after Yazdgird fled eastwards -
The story goes that after Yazdgird fled eastwards -
- he left behind his daughter Shahrbanu who was captured by Umar, the second Caliph. Initially intending to sell the Iranian princess, but Ali intervened, declaring "never shall be there a price placed on the descendants of the Iranian kings." She is then sent to Salman-i Farsi -
- a Persian symbol of conversion to Islam, signifying a channel for the transmission of Persianate ideas.
Then in a true regal fashion, the princess has the men of the family of the Prophet walk infront of her, finally choosing Husayn as her husband.
Then in a true regal fashion, the princess has the men of the family of the Prophet walk infront of her, finally choosing Husayn as her husband.
This genealogical connection between Shi'ites and Zoroastrians is emphasized in Abu Muslimnamah, an apocryphal biography of Abu Muslimโthe leader of the Abbasid revoltโas Abu Muslim takes refuge in the house of Zoroastrian Mahyar-i Gabr. Both share not only the same sense of -
- injustice at the hands of the Umayyads but also the same lineage. Abu Muslimnamah was widely circulated amongst the Turkmen of Anatolia, a Qizilbash propaganda portraying Abu Muslim as the avenger of Ali and his family.
What's more to the story of Shahrbanu is that she is -
What's more to the story of Shahrbanu is that she is -
- thought to have turned a virgin every morning. As per Babayn this cyclical virgnity of Shahrbanu links her with Anahita, the water Goddess of fertility. The mountain shrine in Rayy that became the site of pilgrimage to Bibi Shahrbanu was once a shrine dedicated to Anahita.
The Zoroastrians made pilgrimages to the shrine of Bibi Shahrbanu even in the 1960s, though associating the place with the daughter of Yazdgird, having no memory of Anahita.
"Anahita continued to live as an unconscious memory through the shared virginity of the two figures."
"Anahita continued to live as an unconscious memory through the shared virginity of the two figures."
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