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{{Short description|Royal title of Persian origin}} 
{{redirect|Shahanshah||Shah (disambiguation)|and|Shahanshah (disambiguation)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2021}}
{{Use Oxford spelling|date=December 2021}}
{{More citations needed|date=February 2024}}
[[File:Mohammad Reza Pahlavi 2.jpg|thumb|upright|right|[[Mohammad Reza Pahlavi]], who ruled [[Pahlavi Iran|Iran]] from 1941 to 1979, was the last king to hold the title of ''shah'' before the [[List of monarchs of Iran|Iranian monarchy]] was abolished by the [[Islamic Revolution]].]]
{{Royal and noble ranks in Iran, Turkey, Caucasus, the Indian subcontinent, Afghanistan}}
'''Shāh''' ({{IPAc-en|ʃ|ɑː}}; {{langx|fa|شاه|rtl=yes}} {{IPA|fa|ˈʃɒːɦ||LL-Q9168 (fas)-Afsham23-شاه.wav}}) is a royal title meaning "king" in the Persian language.<ref name="yarshater1">Yarshater, Ehsan [http://www.iran-heritage.org/interestgroups/language-article5.htm Persia or Iran, Persian or Farsi] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101024033230/http://www.iran-heritage.org/interestgroups/language-article5.htm |date=2010-10-24 }}, ''Iranian Studies'', vol. XXII, no. 1 (1989)</ref> Though chiefly associated with the [[List of monarchs of Iran|monarchs of Iran]], it was also used to refer to the leaders of numerous [[Persianate society|Persianate societies]], such as the [[Ottoman Empire]], the [[Khanate of Bukhara]] and the [[Emirate of Bukhara]], the [[Mughal Empire]], the [[Bengal Sultanate]], and various [[History of Afghanistan|Afghan dynasties]], as well as among [[Gurkha|Gurkhas]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Siddiq |first=Mohammad Yusuf |date=Spring–Summer 2015 |title=Titles and Islamic Culture as Reflected in the Islamic Architectural Inscriptions of Bengal (1205–1707) |journal=Islamic Studies |volume=54 |issue=1/2 |pages=50–51 |doi=10.52541/isiri.v54i1-2.161 |jstor=44629923 |quote=Shāh ... [a] Persian title, ... sometimes in different compound forms, such as Bādshāh or Pādshāh ... stands for monarch, which has become part of the popular vocabulary over years in a number of South Asian languages including Bengali, Urdu and Hindi, in addition to the languages of neighbouring regions. The last Afghan king Zāhīr Shāh, for instance, used to be called "Bādshāh" until his dethronement in 1973. Used by all the Mughal emperors in India, the title appeared in a few [Bengal] Sultanate inscriptions as well.}}</ref> With regard to [[Iranian history]], in particular, each ruling monarch was not seen simply as the head of the concurrent dynasty and state, but as the successor to a long line of royalty beginning with the original [[Persian Empire (dynasty)#Classical antiquity|Persian Empire]] of [[Cyrus the Great]]. To this end, he was more emphatically known as the '''Shāhanshāh''' ({{langx|fa|شاهنشاه|label=none|rtl=yes}} {{IPA|fa|ʃɒːhænˈʃɒːɦ|}}), meaning "[[King of Kings]]" since the [[Achaemenid dynasty]]. A roughly equivalent title is [[Pādishāh]] ({{Langx|fa|پادشاه|label=none|rtl=yes}}; {{Literal translation|Master King}}), which was most widespread during the [[Muslim period in the Indian subcontinent]].

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==Etymology==
The word descends from [[Old Persian]] ''xšāyaθiya'' 'king', which used to be considered a borrowing from [[Median language|Median]]<ref>[http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~iranian/OldPersian/opcomplete.pdf An introduction to Old Persian] (p. 149). Prods Oktor Skjærvø. Harvard University. 2003.</ref> as it was compared to [[Avestan]] ''xšaθra-'', 'power' and 'command', corresponding to [[Sanskrit]] ''kṣatra-'' (same meaning), from which ''[[Kshatriya|kṣatriya]]-'', 'warrior', is derived. Most recently, the form ''xšāyaθiya'' has been analyzed as a genuine, inherited Persian formation with the meaning 'pertaining to reigning, ruling'. This formation with the 'origin' suffix ''-iya'' is derived from a deverbal abstract noun *''xšāy-aθa-'' 'rule, ruling, ''Herrschaft''{{'}}, from the (Old Persian) verb ''xšāy-'' 'to rule, reign'.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Wörterbuch der altpersischen Königsinschriften|last=Schmitt|first=Rüdiger|publisher=Reichert Verlag|year=2014|isbn=978-3954900176|location=Wiesbaden|pages=286–287}}</ref> The full, [[Old Persian]] title of the [[Achaemenid Empire|Achaemenid]] rulers of the First Persian Empire was ''Xšāyaθiya Xšāyaθiyānām'' or (Middle Persian) ''Šâhân Šâh'', 'King of Kings'<ref>Old Persian. Appendices, Glossaries, Indices & Transcriptions. Prods Oktor Skjærvø. Harvard University. 2003.</ref> or 'Emperor'. This title has ancient Near Eastern or Mesopotamian precedents. The earliest attestation of such a title dates back to the Middle Assyrian period as ''šar šarrāni'', in reference to the Assyrian ruler [[Tukulti-Ninurta I]] (1243–1207 BC).

==History==

=== Persian dynasties ===
{{multiple image
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| footer            = Historically, the title "[[King of Kings]]" (''Shāhanshāh'') is most prominently associated with [[Darius the Great]] (top figure) and [[Xerxes the Great]] (bottom figure), among other Persian monarchs of the [[Achaemenid dynasty]].
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''Shāh'', also known by its full-length term ''Shāhanshāh'' ([[King of Kings]]), was the title of the [[List of kings of Persia|Persian emperors]]. It includes rulers of the first Persian Empire, the [[Achaemenid Empire|Achaemenid dynasty]], who unified Persia in the sixth century BC, and created a vast intercontinental empire, as well as rulers of succeeding dynasties throughout history until the 20th century and the [[Pahlavi dynasty|Imperial House of Pahlavi]].

While in Western sources the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] monarch is most often referred to as a Sultan, in Ottoman territory he was most often referred to as ''Padishah'' and several used the title Shah in their [[tughra]]s. Their male offspring received the title of ''[[Şehzade]]'', or prince (literally, "offspring of the Shah", from Persian ''shahzadeh'').

The full title of the Achaemenid rulers was ''Xšāyaθiya Xšāyaθiyānām'', literally "King of Kings" in Old Persian, corresponding to [[Middle Persian]] ''Šâhân Šâh'', and Modern Persian {{lang|fa|شاهنشاه}} (''Šâhanšâh'').<ref>D.&nbsp;N. MacKenzie. ''A Concise Pahlavi Dictionary''. Routledge Curzon, 2005. {{ISBN|0197135595}}</ref><ref>M.&nbsp;Mo’in. ''An Intermediate Persian Dictionary. Six Volumes''. Amir Kabir Publications, Teheran, 1992.</ref> In [[Greek language|Greek]], this phrase was translated as {{lang|grc|βασιλεὺς τῶν βασιλέων}} (''[[basileus]] tōn basiléōn''), "King of Kings", equivalent to "Emperor". Both terms were often shortened to their roots ''shah'' and ''basileus''.

In Western languages, ''Shah'' is often used as an imprecise rendering of ''Šāhanšāh''. For a long time, Europeans thought of ''Shah'' as a particular royal title rather than an imperial one, although the [[List of monarchs of Persia|monarchs of Persia]] regarded themselves as emperors of the Persian Empire (later the [[List of monarchs of Persia|Empire of Iran]]). The European opinion changed in the Napoleonic era, when Persia was an ally of the Western powers eager to make the [[Ottoman dynasty|Ottoman]] Sultan release his hold on various (mainly Christian) [[Rumelia|European parts]] of the [[Ottoman Empire]], and western (Christian) emperors had obtained the Ottoman acknowledgement that their western imperial styles were to be rendered in Turkish as ''[[padishah]]''.

In the twentieth century, the [[List of monarchs of Persia|Shah of Persia]], [[Mohammad Reza Pahlavi]], officially adopted the title {{lang|fa|شاهنشاه}} ''Šâhanšâh'' and, in western languages, the rendering ''Emperor''. He also styled his wife {{lang|fa|شهبانو}} ''[[shahbanu|Shahbânū]]'' ("Empress"). Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was the last Shah, as the Iranian monarchy was abolished after the 1979 [[Iranian Revolution]].

=== Non-Persian dynasties ===
* From the reign of [[Ashot II of Armenia|Ashot II]], the Bagratid kings of Armenia used the title ''shahanshah'', meaning "king of kings".<ref>Tim Greenwood, ''Emergence of the Bagratuni Kingdoms'', p. 52, in ''Armenian Kars and Ani'', Richard Hovannisian, ed.</ref>
* The title ''[[Padishah]]'' ([[Great King]]) was adopted from the [[Iranian peoples|Iranians]] by the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottomans]] and by various other monarchs claiming imperial rank, such as the [[Mughal Empire|Mughals]] that established their dynasty in the Indian subcontinent.
* Another subsidiary style of the Ottoman and Mughal rulers was ''Shah-i Alam Panah'' ([[Persian language|Persian]]: شاه عالم پناه), meaning "the king that is the refuge of the world."
* The [[Shah-Armens]] ("Kings of Armenia", sometimes known as Ahlahshahs), used the title ''Shāh-i Arman'' ({{lit|Shah of Armenians}}).<ref>Clifford Edmund Bosworth "The New Islamic Dynasties: A Chronological and Genealogical Manual". "The Shāh-i Armanids", p. 197.</ref>
* Some monarchs were known by a contraction of the kingdom's name with ''shah'', such as [[Khwarezmshah]], ruler of the realm of [[Khwarezmia]] in the Central Asia, or the [[Shirvanshah]] of the historical region of [[Shirvan]] in Caucasia (present-day [[Republic of Azerbaijan]])
* The kings of [[Georgian kings|Georgia]] called themselves ''shahanshah'' alongside their other titles. The [[Style of the Georgian sovereign|Georgian title]] ''mepetmepe'' (also meaning King of Kings [''[[Mepe (title)|Mepe]]''-king in Georgian]) was also inspired by the ''shahanshah'' title.

== Impact and influence ==

=== Derived terms ===

==== ''Shahzade'' ====
''Shahzade'' ({{langx|fa|شاهزاده}}, [[Transliteration|transliterated]] as ''Šâhzâde''). In the realm of a shah (or a loftier derived ruler style), a [[Prince#Islamic traditions|prince]] or [[princess]] of the [[Royal family|royal]] blood was logically called ''shahzada'' as the term is derived from shah using the Persian patronymic suffix -zâde or -zâdeh, "born from" or "descendant of". However the precise full styles can differ in the court traditions of each shah's kingdom. This title was given to the princes of the [[Ottoman Empire]] (''[[Şehzade]]'', [[Ottoman Turkish language|Ottoman Turkish]]: شهزاده) and was used by the princes of Islamic India (''Shahzāda'', [[Urdu]]: شہزاده, {{langx|bn|শাহজাদা|Shahzada}}) such as in the Mughal Empire. The Mughals and the [[Delhi Sultanate|Sultans of Delhi]] were of [[Indo-Persian culture|Indo-Persian]] and [[Turco-Mongol tradition|Turco-Mongol]] origin,<ref name="Richards1995-2">{{Citation |last=Richards |first=John F. |title=The Mughal Empire |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HHyVh29gy4QC&pg=PA2 |page=2 |year=1995 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-56603-2 |access-date=9 August 2017 |archive-date=22 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230922031915/https://books.google.com/books?id=HHyVh29gy4QC&pg=PA2 |url-status=live }} Quote: "Although the first two Timurid emperors and many of their noblemen were recent migrants to the subcontinent, the dynasty and the empire itself became indisputably Indian. The interests and futures of all concerned were in India, not in ancestral homelands in the Middle East or Central Asia. Furthermore, the Mughal Empire emerged from the Indian historical experience. It was the end product of a millennium of Muslim conquest, colonization, and state-building in the Indian subcontinent."</ref><ref name="Schimmel2004">{{citation |last=Schimmel |first=Annemarie |title=The Empire of the Great Mughals: History, Art and Culture |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N7sewQQzOHUC |year=2004 |publisher=Reaktion Books |page=22 |isbn=978-1861891853}}</ref><ref name="Balabanlilar2012">{{citation |last=Balabanlilar |first=Lisa |title=Imperial Identity in Mughal Empire: Memory and Dynastic Politics in Early Modern Central Asia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7PS6PrH3rtkC |year=2012 |publisher=I.B. Tauris |page=2 |isbn=978-1848857261}}</ref> a continuation of traditions and habits ever since Persian language was first introduced into the region by [[Turco-Persian tradition|Turco-Persian]] dynasties centuries earlier.<ref>Sigfried J. de Laet. [https://books.google.com/books?id=PvlthkbFU1UC&dq=persian+language+in+anatolia&pg=PA734 ''History of Humanity: From the seventh to the sixteenth century''] UNESCO, 1994. {{ISBN|9231028138}} p. 734</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EQJHAQAAQBAJ&q=ghaznavids+brought+persian+to+south+asia&pg=PA18|title=South Asian Sufis: Devotion, Deviation, and Destiny|isbn=978-1441151278|access-date=2 January 2015|last1=Bennett|first1=Clinton|last2=Ramsey|first2=Charles M.|year=2012|publisher=A&C Black }}</ref>

Thus, in [[Oudh]], only sons of the sovereign ''shah bahadur'' (see above) were by birth-right styled "Shahzada [personal title] [[Mirza (noble)|Mirza]] [personal name] Bahadur", though this style could also be extended to individual grandsons and even further relatives. Other male descendants of the sovereign in the male line were merely styled "Mirza [personal name]" or "[personal name] Mirza". This could even apply to non-Muslim dynasties. For example, the younger sons of the ruling [[Sikh]] maharaja of Punjab were styled "Shahzada [personal name] Singh Bahadur".

The borrowing ''shahajada'', "Shah's son", taken from the Mughal title Shahzada, was the usual princely title borne by the grandsons and male descendants of a [[Kingdom of Nepal|Nepalese]] sovereign in the male line of the [[Shah dynasty]] until its abolition in 2008.

For the heir to a "Persian-style" shah's royal throne, more specific titles were used, containing the key element ''[[Vali Ahad]]'', usually in addition to ''shahzada'', where his junior siblings enjoyed this style.<ref>[http://beypeople.newsvine.com/_news/2012/09/10/13772724-shahzada-son-of-shah Shahzada son of shah], [[Newsvine]].com</ref>

==== Others ====
* ''[[Shahbanu]]'' (Persian {{lang|fa|شهبانو}}, ''Šahbânū''): Persian term using the word ''shah'' and the Persian suffix ''-banu'' ("lady"): Empress, in modern times, the official title of Empress [[Farah Pahlavi]].
* ''Shahpur'' (Persian {{lang|fa|شاهپور}} ''Šâhpur'') also been derived from ''shah'' using the archaic Persian suffix ''-pur'' "son, male descendant", to address the Prince.
* ''Shahdokht'' (Persian {{lang|fa|شاهدخت}} ''Šâhdoxt'') is also another term derived from ''shah'' using the Persian patronymic suffix ''-dokht'' "daughter, female descendant", to address the Princess of the imperial households.
* ''Shahzade'' (Persian {{lang|fa|شاهزاده}} ''Šâhzâde''): Persian termination for prince (lit; ''offspring of the Shah''); used by Ottoman Turks in the form ''[[Şehzade]]''.
* ''Malek ol-Moluk'' ([[Persian language|Persian:]] {{lang|fa|ملک الملوک}}) "king of kings", an Arabic title used by the Iranian [[Buyids]], a Persianized form of the Abbasid ''[[amir al-umara]]''

=== Related terms ===
* [[Satrap]], the term in Western languages for a governor of a Persian province, is a distortion of ''xšaθrapāvan'', literally "guardian of the realm", which derives from the word ''xšaθra'', an Old Persian word meaning "realm, province" and related etymologically to ''shah''.
* Deeply revered among both the Hindus and Muslims, 1st Guru of Sikhism [[Guru Nanak Dev]] was referred to as 'Shah' by the Muslims and as' Fakir' by the Hindus, the highest honour in both the religions, and hence came to known as "Nanak Shah Fakir".
* Maq'ad-è-Šâh (Persian: {{lang|fa|مقعد شاه}} Maq'ad-è-Šâh), the phrase from which the name of [[Mogadishu]] is believed to be derived, which means "seat of the Shah", a reflection of the city's early Persian influence.<ref name="Laitin">David D. Laitin, Said S. Samatar, ''Somalia: Nation in Search of a State'', (Westview Press: 1987), p. 12.</ref>
* The English word "check-mate" is in fact derived from "shah" (from Persian via Arabic, Latin and French). Related terms such as "chess" and "exchequer" likewise originate from the Persian word, their modern senses having developed from the original meaning of the king piece.<ref>{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Shah |volume= 24 | page= 769}}</ref>

=== Armenian names ===
[[Armenian language|Armenian]] compound personal names often contain the element "šah," meaning "king" in [[Middle Persian]] and [[New Persian]]. These names can be found in both masculine and feminine forms and may include native Armenian or foreign components. The element "šah" can appear as either the first or second component and is sometimes part of doublet forms with the components reversed. For example, masculine names include Šah-amir and Amir-šah, Šah-paron and Paron-šah, and Vahram-šah; feminine names include Šah-xat‘un and Xat‘un-šah, and Šah-tikin.

Some examples of these compound names include masculine Šah-aziz and feminine Aziz-šah, masculine Sult‘an-šah and feminine Šah-sult‘an, and masculine Melik‘-šah and feminine Šah-melē/ik‘. These names, particularly the feminine forms, sometimes vary in gender depending on the source.

The name Artamšin, for instance, is based on *Artam from Old Iranian *R̥tāma-, interpreted as "having power of/from R̥ta." The auslaut of the Armenian name suggests a connection to the Iranian word for "king," šāh, found in various languages including Middle Persian and New Persian.

In another example, the name Šaštʻi is interpreted as "Šah-Lady," with the second component reflecting the Arabic term sittī, meaning "My lady, lady." This name is found in a colophon from the Kołbay monastery as the name of a sister of Dawitʻ and priest Vardan.

Overall, Armenian compound names containing the element "šah" provide insight into the linguistic and cultural interactions between Armenian and Iranian languages and cultures.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Martirosyan |first1=Hrach |title=Two Armenian Personal Names with Šah 'King' |journal=Bulletin of the Institute of Oriental Studies |date=2021 |pages=158–166 |doi=10.52837/27382702-2021-34.1-158 |url=https://www.academia.edu/56879778|doi-access=free }}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Shah (surname)]]
* [[Ikhshid]]
* [[Mirmiran]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{Wiktionary|shah}}
* [http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Shah#ixzz1SP60S1SF Last name: Shah] at surnamedb.com
* [http://www.worldstatesmen.org/Iran.htm WorldStatesmen – here Iran; see each present country]
* [http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=shah&searchmode=none Shah] – Etymology OnLine

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