Darius the Great, the first to bear the title Shahanshah.

Shāhanshāh (Persian: شاهنشاه ) is a Persian monarchial title, literally meaning King of Kings. It is often confused with Shah, a similar title used by Persian rulers, which is translated as king. File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Darius I of Persia Darius the Great (Darayawush I) (ca. ... Persian, (local name: FārsÄ« or PārsÄ«), is an Indo-European language spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and by minorities in Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Southern Russia, neighboring countries, and elsewhere. ... For other uses of this term see: Persia (disambiguation) The Persian Empire is the name used to refer to a number of historic dynasties that have ruled the country of Persia (Iran). ... One of the worlds longest-lasting monarchies, the Iranian monarchy went through many transformations over the centuries, from the days of the Persian Empire to the establishment of modern day Iran. ... King of Kings (or some literal parallel in various languages) is a lofty title that has been used by several monarchies (usually empires in the informal sense of great powers) throughout history, and in many cases the literal title meaning King of Kings, i. ... Shah is an Iranian & Pakistani/Indian term in Persian language & Urdu (شاه), for a monarch (king or emperor), and has also been adopted in many other languages. ... Look up monarch in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

History

They can be traced back to the Achaemenid kings of ancient Iran, who, from Darius I, the Great (521-486 B.C.) onwards, refer to themselves in their inscriptions both as xšayaθiya "king" (from the root xšay- "to rule" cognate to Sanskrit kṣáyati "possess" and Greek χταομαι "acquire") and as xšāyaθiya xšāyaθiyānām "king of kings". The Persepolis Ruins The Achaemenid dynasty (Old Persian:Hakamanishiya, Persian: هخامنشیان) - was a dynasty in the ancient Persian Empire. ... The Persian Empire was a series of historical empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau (Irān - Land of the Aryans[1]) and beyond. ... Seal of Darius I, showing the king hunting on his chariot, and the symbol of Ahuramazda Darius the Great (Pers. ...

The implication of this title would seem to have been, not that the Achaemenid monarch was the chief king over other sub-kings (there is no evidence that there were any other "kings" within the empire), but rather that he was the king par excellence. We have thus to do with a rhetorical figure which might be called the superlative genitive, as also in the Biblical "vanity of vanities" (habel habālīm). The Persepolis Ruins The Achaemenid dynasty (Old Persian:Hakamanishiya, Persian: هخامنشیان) - was a dynasty in the ancient Persian Empire. ...

The same two titles, in their Western Middle Iranian forms shāh and shāhān shāh, occur in the inscriptions of the Arsacid and Sasanian emperors. In inscriptions in the Parthian language these are represented by the Aramaeograms MLK' and MLKYN MLK' respectively; Middle Persian uses the Aramaeogram MLK' (also MRK' and in books occasionally the "phonetic" spelling šh) for the former and the "semi-phonetic" spelling MLK'-n MLK' (and variants) for the latter (for references, see Ph. Gignoux, Glossaire des inscriptions Pehleaies et Parthes, London 1972, 28, 57, and add the new Arsacid inscription discussed by E. Lipinski in Orientalia Loaaniensia analecla, xlviii [1993], 127-34). The Sasanian inscriptions refer to the emperor consistently as shāhān shāh, and use shāh as a title for other members of imperial family: the emperors appointed their sons as "kings" of the outlying provinces, assigning them the royal titles of the former rulers of those regions (e.g. Kushān shāh "king of the Kushans"), in much the same way that the heir to the English throne bears the title "Prince of Wales". Iran Under the Arsacid Dynasty. ... The Sassanid Empire or Sassanian Empire (Persian: Sasanian) is the name used for the fourth Iranian dynasty, and the second Persian Empire (226 - 651). ... The Iranian languages are a part of the Indo-European language family with estimated 150-200 million native speakers. ... Pahlavi is a term that refers: (1) to a script used in Iran derived from the Aramaic script, and (2) more broadly, to Middle Persian, the Middle Iranian language written in this script. ... Phonetic (pho-NET-ic) is a nationwide voicemail-to-text messaging service available for most digital mobile phones in which a subscriber is provided a custom voice mailbox for the purpose of receiving all incoming voice messages as actual transcribed text for reading via short messaging (also known as SMS...

However, in a contemporary Manichaean text (published by W. B. Henning, Mani's last journey, in BSOS, x/4 [1942), 941-53) the Sasanian Bahram I is referred to merely as "the king" (shāh). It would thus appear that, although in imperial protocol the ruler was always shāhān shāh, in everyday speech he could be simply shāh. The distinction between the "king of kings" and the subordinate "kings/princes" is mirrored by the title "queen of queens" (Middle Persian bāmbishnān bāmbishn, written MLKT'-n MLKT'), borne by the monarch's principal wife, to distinguish her from the other queens in the royal household, and similarly further down the hierarchy, with the mowbed ī mowbedān "priest of priests", and so forth. It is not unlikely that Islamic titles like kādī 'l-kudāt continue this Iranian tradition. Manichean priests, writing at their desk, with panel inscription in Sogdian. ... Bahram I, was king of Persia (AD 274-277). ... Islam (Arabic:  ) is a monotheistic religion based upon the Quran, its principal scripture, whose followers, known as Muslims (مسلم), believe God (Arabic: الله ) sent through revelations to Muhammad. ...

Neo-Persian shāh (also shah) is the usual word for "king" in that language, and is used either by itself or else in conjunction with a personal name. In the latter case it can precede the name (e.g. shāh Mahmud), follow it in an izafa-construction (Mahmud-i shāh), or be appended directly to the name and form an accentual unit with it (Mahmud-shāh). The latter usage is the most common and, though found already in early texts (such as Ferdowsi's Shāh-nāma), is anomalous in Neo-Persian; it seems likely that it is an isolated relic from Middle Persian. Compounds with shāh (as the first or last element) or indeed shāh on its own occur quite frequently as proper names of kings, but also of commoners; the given name of the famous Seljuk ruler Malik Shāh, for example, is formed simply by combining the Arabic and Persian words for "king". As a common noun (without a name) shāh is widely used in poetry and non-official prose of all periods to designate potentates who in their official protocol, styled themselves malik, sultan, amir, pādshāh or whatever. It is also used with reference to the kings of pre-Islamic Iran and in works of fiction. Sometimes it is applied to princes (as already in Middle Persian; many references in F. Wolff, Glossar zu Firdosis Schahname, Berlin 1935, 549, 583). In a number of compounds or set phrases shāh means "pre-eminent, principal", e. g. in masdjid-ī shāh "congregational mosque" (not "king's mosque"), or shāh-rāh "principal road, highway". The title found its way into Indian subcontinent, which the shāh is appended to the names of persons claiming descent from the Prophet and has today become a surname. Persian, (local name: FārsÄ« or PārsÄ«), is an Indo-European language spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and by minorities in Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Southern Russia, neighboring countries, and elsewhere. ... Ferdowsi Tousi (فردوسی طوسی in Persian) (more commonly transliterated Firdausi, Ferdosi or Ferdusi) (935–1020) is considered to be one of the greatest Persian poets to have ever lived. ... Shahnameh Scenes from the Shahnameh carved into reliefs at Tus, where Ferdowsi is buried. ... The Seljuk coat of arms was a double headed eagle The Seljuk Turks (also Seldjuk, Seldjuq, Seljuq; in modern Turkish Selçuklular; in Persian سلجوقيان SaljÅ«qiyān; in Arabic سلجوق SaljÅ«q, or السلاجقة al-Salājiqa) were a major branch of the Oghuz Turks and a dynasty that ruled parts of... Arabic can mean: From or related to Arabia From or related to the Arabs The Arabic language; see also Arabic grammar The Arabic alphabet, used for expressing the languages of Arabic, Persian, Malay ( Jawi), Kurdish, Panjabi, Pashto, Sindhi and Urdu, among others. ... Satellite image of the Indian subcontinent Map of South Asia (see note) This article deals with the geophysical region in Asia. ...

The splendourous Peacock Throne in Golestan Palace, taken from the Mughal empire by Nadir Shah, became a metaphor for the Shahanshah

As for the title shāhān shāh, this naturally fell into disuse with the collapse of the Sasanian empire, but it remained in popular memory in its Neo-Persian form shahanshāh (the vowels in the first and last syllables can be shortened when required by the metre; modern Western Persian has also the vulgar form shāhinshāh). This is an inseparable compound (from which is derived an adjective shāhanshāhī) and in the context of Neo-Persian it can no longer be analysed morphologically, though there has never been any doubt that its meaning is indeed "king of kings". Image File history File links Peacock_Throne. ... Image File history File links Peacock_Throne. ... The Peacock Throne, called Takht-e-Tavous (Persian: تخت طائوس) in Persian, is the name originally of a Mughal throne, later used to describe the thrones of the Persian emperors from Nader Shah Afshari to Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. ... A view of the Gulistan Palaces garden from Khalvat e Karimkhani. ... The Mughal Empire at its greatest extent. ... Nadir Shah’s portrait from the collection of Smithsonian Institute Nadir Shah (Persian: نادر شاه) (Nadir Qoli Beg (Persian: نادر قلی بیگ), also Tahmasp-Qoli Khan (Persian: تهماسپ قلی خان) also Nadir Shah Afshar (Persian: نادر شاه افشار) ) (October 22, 1688 - June 19, 1747) ruled as Shah of Iran (1736–47) and was the founder of the short-lived Turkic Afsharid...

The shāhanshāh title revived and adopted as official title by the new-Iranian of post-Sasanian dynasties, first by the Ziyarids (928-1043) and later by the Buyid ‘Adud al-Dawla (949-83 [q. v. ]); - and continued to be used by their successors on their coins and in court documents, sometimes in conjunction with its Arabic equivalent malik al-muluk, despite the objections raised by religious authorities (for details, see LAKAB and the literature cited there), but after the fall of the Buyids it does not seem to have figured in official protocol until the 20th century, when it was adopted by the Pahlavi dynasty. It has, however, always been used quite freely by poets. Thus the Ghaznavid Mas’ud I, who would hardly have tolerated such a sacrilegious title in his official documents, had evidently no scruples about his court Persian poet Manuchehri addressing him as shāhanshāh, shāhanshāh-i donyā, shah-i mālikan and the like, and similar expressions are used by the panegyrists of the Iranianized-Seljuks and others Iranian dynasties after them. The tomb of Ghaboos ebne Voshmgir, built in 1007AD, rises 160 ft from its base. ... The Buwayhids or Buyyids or Ä€l-i Buyeh, were a Yazdani tribal confederation from Daylam, a region on the southern shore of the Caspian Sea. ... Adud al-Dowleh was an Emir of the Buwayhid dynasty in Iran. ... The Pahlavi dynasty(سلسله پهلوی) of Iran began with the crowning of Reza Shah Pahlavi in 1925 and ended with the Iranian Revolution of 1979, and the subsequent collapse of the ancient tradition of Iranian monarchy. ... The Ghaznavid Empire was a state in the region of todays Afghanistan that existed from 977 to 1186. ... Abu Najm Abu Ahmad ibn Qaus Manuchehri (Persian: منوچهری) was a royal poet of the 11th century in Persia. ... A panegyric is a formal public speech, or (in later use) written verse, delivered in high praise of a person or thing, a generally highly studied and discriminating eulogy, not expected to be critical. ...

References

Given in the article

External link

• Shah & Shahanshah in Iranian Tradition (CAIS)