A072 - Gowhar Shad

 Gawhar Shad

Gawhar Shad (Uzbek: Gavharshod, Persian: Gawharšād; meaning "joyful jewel" or "shining jewel"; alternative spelling: Gohar Shād; b. c. 1377 - d. July 19, 1457) was the chief consort of Shah Rukh, the Emperor of the Timurid Empire.

She was the daughter of Giāth ud-Din Tarkhān, an important and influential noble during Timur's reign. According to family traditions, the title Tarkhan was given to the family by Genghiz Khan.

Gawhar Shad was married to Shah Rukh probably in 1388, certainly before 1394 when their son, Ulugh Beg was born. It was a successful marriage, according to the ballads of Herat which sing of Shah Rukh's love for her. But little is known of their first forty years together, except what concerns Gawhar Shad's buildings. 

Along with her brothers who were administrators at the Timurid court in Herat, Gawhar Shad played a very important role in the early Timurid history. In 1405, she moved the Timurid capital from Samarkand to Herat.  In Herat, Gawhar Shad oversaw the construction of some 300 buildings during her lifetime. 

Gawhar Shad was instrumental in the construction of Herat's  Mousallah Complex. 

Under her patronage, the Persian language and Persian culture were elevated to a main element of the Timurid dynasty. She and her husband led a cultural renaissance by their lavish patronage of the arts, attracting to their court artists, architects and philosophers and poets acknowledged today among the world's most illustrious, including the poet Jami. Many exquisite examples of Timurid architecture remain in Herat today.

After the death of her husband in 1447, Gawhar Shad maneuvered her favorite grandson to the throne. For ten years she became the de facto ruler of an empire stretching from the Tigris to the borders of China. When she was well past 80, she was executed on July 19, 1457 on the order of Sultan Abu Sa'id. 

According to legend, Gawhar Shad once inspected a mosque and a religious school (madrasah) in Herat accompanied by two hundred female attendants, after it had been cleared of its students, all of whom were male. One youth remained, having fallen asleep in his cell, and was discovered by an attendant and seduced. When Gawhar Shad found out, she ordered that all two hundred of her attendants be married to the students.