Quick Facts
Biography
Maryam Khanom Bani Isra'il (Persian: مریم خانم یهودی; fl. 1804) was the royal consort of shah Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar (r. 1789–1797) and then the thirty-ninth royal consort (slave concubine) of Agha Mohammad's nephew and successor Fath-Ali Shah Qajar (r. 1797–1834).
Life
She was from Māzandarān and of Jewish origin, and so is sometimes referred to as "Maryam Khanom Bani Isra'il" (Arabic: بني إسرائيل "sons - or children - of Israel") to distinguish her from Maryam Khanom Gorji, another consort of Fath-Ali. She was reported to have "no rival in beauty".
When she was widowed the first time, Hossein Khan Sardar, the brother of the new shah wished to marry her, but Fath-Ali instead married her himself, which caused a conflict between them.
She had eleven children, among them prince Maḥmud Mirzā (1799–1835), Homāyun Mirzā (1801–1856) and Aḥmad-ʿAli Mirzā (born 1804).
