From the Mother Side, I Am a Descendant of Shamiran-Shah: A Hypothesis on the Mother and the Ancestor of Bahram Gur

Bahram V (Gur) calls himself the grandson of Shamiran-Shah who is an unknown figure. Some of western and Iranian resources have reported the marriage of Yazdegerd, Bahram’s father, to a Jewish woman. This research aimed at answering some questions: Did Yazdegerd marry a Jewish woman and was she Bahram’s mother? Who is Shamiran-Shah, whom Bahram introduces as his matrilineal ancestor? This research, after a brief look at the resources and methods of Iranian historiography, based on historical and geographical resources, examined the reigns of Yazdegerd and Bahram Gur and study various views on Yazdegerd's marriage to a Jewish woman and the so-called Shamiran-Shah. The results showed that Shamiran is not a name for human beings but rather an ancient region that can be identified as the mythological “Iranvij”. So, Shamiran-Shah is the Iranian king in that cold land, i.e. Jamshid. Referring to Shamiran-Shah as his matrilineal ancestor, Bahram had emphasized his nationality as an Iranian and the antiquity of his family - perhaps because his merits for ruling had been questioned by the nobles and clerics - as he had already shown himself as an Iranian through his patrilineage.