Azarmidokht was the twenty-seventh Sassanid

Sassanid Empire

The Sassanid Empire , known to its inhabitants as Ērānshahr and Ērān in Middle Persian and resulting in the New Persian terms Iranshahr and Iran , was the last pre-Islamic Persian Empire, ruled by the Sasanian Dynasty from 224 to 651...

 Monarch of Persia, and daughter of Khosrau II

Khosrau II

250px|thumb|Khosrau II 250px|thumb|Khosrau II 250px|thumb|Khosrau II (Khosrow II, Chosroes II, or Xosrov II in classical sources, sometimes called Parvez, "the Ever Victorious" – (in Persian: خسرو پرویز), was the twenty-second Sassanid King of Persia, reigning from 590 to 628...

. She ruled Persia after her sister Purandokht.

After the death of her father Khosrau II anarchy

Anarchy

Anarchy , has more than one colloquial definition. In the United States, the term "anarchy" typically is meant to refer to a society which lacks publicly recognized government or violently enforced political authority...

 spread in the Sassanid empire. The subsequent rulers could stay for only a relatively brief time on the throne, and for many we do not know much more than the name. Furthermore, tradition from then is very unreliable and sometimes contradictory, so that the reign of Azarmedukht is not accurately dated. Because a female succession in the Persian Empire was not foreseen, she might also have acted as a regent

Regent

A regent, from the Latin regens "one who reigns", is a person selected to act as head of state because the ruler is a minor, not present, or debilitated. Currently there are only two ruling Regencies in the world, sovereign Liechtenstein and the Malaysian constitutive state of Terengganu...

.

According to Tabari, her reign lasted a few months in the year 630; although that contradicts the notion that her sister Boran, whom she apparently succeeded, didn't die before 631. They probably reigned only a few months, but probably in the 631/632 period. Tabari reported further that General Farrukh proposed to marry Azarmidokht. The queen, however, had him murdered; and the son of the General captured Ctesiphon

Ctesiphon

Ctesiphon, the imperial capital of the Parthian Arsacids and of the Persian Sassanids, was one of the great cities of ancient Mesopotamia.The ruins of the city are located on the east bank of the Tigris, across the river from the Hellenistic city of Seleucia...

 and had Azarmidokht blinded and then killed. According to Tabari, it is this son Rostam Farrokhzād

Rostam Farrokhzad

Rostam Farrokhzād was the Ērān Spāhbod of the Sāsānian Empire under the reign of Yazdgird, r. 632 - 651...

, subsequently a General under Yazdegerd III, who lost battle for the Arabs.

In short intervals Hormizd VI

Hormizd VI

Hormizd VI or V, twenty-eighth Sassanid King of Persia, was one of the many pretenders who rose after the murder of Khosrau II in 628. He maintained himself about two years in the district of Nisibis. There was also a brief usurper king, not always numbered among the monarchs, called Hormizd V in...

 and Khosrau IV followed her on the throne. Only under King Yazdegerd III, the last male offspring of the ruling family, could the situation of the kingdom be stabilized briefly before the Arab attacks in 636.

Further reading

• John Martindale:The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire IIIa. Cambridge, 1992, p. 160
• Antonio Panaino:Women and Kingship. Some remarks about the enthronisation Boran of Queen and her sister Azarmigduxt. In: Josef Wiesehöfer
  Josef Wiesehöfer
  Josef Wiesehöfer is a German classical scholar and current professor of Ancient history at the Department of Classics of the University of Kiel...
  
  , Philip Huyse (eds):Eran ud Aneran. Studien zu den Beziehungen zwischen dem Sasanidenreich und der Mittelmeerwelt. Stuttgart 2006, p. 221-240.