Quick Facts
Biography
Sultanum Begum (c. 1516 – 1593) was the Queen consort of Iran from 23 May 1524 to 25 May 1576 as the first wife and chief consort of the second Safavid king Tahmasp I. She was the mother of her husband's successor, King Ismail II, and the mother of King Mohammad Khodabanda, who reigned from 1578 until his overthrow in 1587.
Life
Sultanum Begum was the daughter of Musa Sultan bin ‘Isa Beg Musullu (Bayanduri), of the Aq Quyunlu, governor of Azerbaijan. Sultanum belonged to the Turcoman Mawsillu tribe just like Tahmasp's mother Queen Tajlu Khanum and was a maternal first cousin of her husband. Tahmasp had most likely married her around the time of his father, Ismail I's death. She became his principal wife and bore him two sons, including Mohammad Khodabanda who was born in 1532, during the early years of the Shamlu-Ustalju regency, when Tahmasp himself was only eighteen years old, and Ismail II, born in 1537.
Sultanum Begum had an independent royal court and her vizier was Khwaja Ibrahim Khalil. She owned the tiyul and muqarariyat (perpetual fixed assignation) payable on lands in Western Khurasan.