# Badr Jahan Khanom

Badr Jahan Khanum (Persian: بدرجهان خانم; born: 1771) was the first wife of Fath-Ali Shah Qajar. She gave birth to five of the king's children, two of whom were Fath-Ali Shah's first and second children among all his children. She was a great-grandmother of Naser-ed-din Shah Qajar.

## Early life

In 1771, she was born in Bastam, Semnan Province, Iran. She was the daughter of Jaffar Khan Arab Ameri (Persian: جعفرخان عرب‌عامری) and the granddaughter of Qader Khan Arab Ameri (Persian: قادرخان عرب‌عامری), whose family, generation after generation, governed Bastam. Her mother was the daughter of Ismail Khan Khozaimeh (Persian: اسماعیل‌خان خزیمه), the ruler of Qaenat.
In 1782, following her father's military campaign in Damghan, Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar punished him and exiled him and his family to Sari. At that time, Badr Jahan Khanum was only eleven years old. Under the order of Agha Mohammad Khan, she married his heir, Baba Khan, who would later become Fath-Ali Shah Qajar.

## Marriage

In 1782, by the order of Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar, she married Fath-Ali Khan as his first wife. Sources contemporary to Badr Jahan Khanum listed her name as the king's first wife, but the type of marriage (permanent or temporary) was not explicitly recoded. Khavari, a historian contemporary to her, states that King Fath-Ali was apparently practicing the religious rule of maximum four permanent wives, and the marriage officiant refrained from exceeding this limit. Even though this marriage was the king's first marriage and the limitation of the number of wives was not relevant, Khavari did not list Badr Jahan Khanum as one of his four permanent wives. The contemporary historian, however, did not express certainty that all the other listed wives were in a temporary marriage status. It is unclear whether she was a permanent wife and, somehow after a while, was replaced with another permanent wife or an exception was considered for the king regarding the above limitation, or she was in a temporary marriage from the beginning.

## Children

Badr Jahan Khanum had three daughters and two sons with Fath-Ali Shah. Her sons, in order of age, were Hossein Ali Mirza Farmanfarma and Hasan Ali Mirza.
Her daughters were as follows: Homayoun Khanum, the wife of Ebrahim Khan; Begom Jan Khanum, the wife of Mohammad-Qasem Zahir o-Dowleh, and grandmother of Naser al-Din Shah Qajar; and Hamdam Sultan Khanum, the wife of Mohammad Zaki Khan Nuri, the vizier of Fars.
Fath-Ali Shah and Badr Jahan Khanum's children are listed below in an interactive sortable table (sorted by birthdate). The table's denotations are:
* S: Son
* D: Daughter
Children :
| No. | S/D | Name | Title | Birth | Death | Spouse | Notes |
| 1 | D | Homayoon Soltan | Khanum Khanuman (the lady of ladies), Khan Baji | 1786 | | Ebrahim Khan Zahir-o-Dowleh | |
| 2 | D | Begum Jan Khanum | Jan Baji | 1787 c. 1787 | 1833 c. 1833 | Mohammad-Qasem Zahir-o-Dowleh | mother of Malek Jahan Khanom and grandmother of Naser al-Din Shah; died before 1834. |
| 3 | S | Hossein Ali Mirza | Farman Farma | 1789 | 1835 | | |
| 4 | S | Hasan Ali Mirza | Shoja os-Saltaneh | 1790 | 1854 | | |
| 5 | D | Seyyedeh Begum Khanum | Hamdam Soltan | 1792 c. 1792 | 1833 | Mohammad-Zaki Khan Noori | died of Cholera in Mecca |

## Shiraz

In 1801, when her oldest son Hossein Ali Mirza became the governor (Farman Farma) of the Fars province at the age of 12, she moved to Shiraz, the city mostly known for science and knowledge, together with him. Initially, she relaxed for a while, then she made some contributions to the country.

## Activities

It is said that after the Wahhabi attack on Karbala in 1802, which caused significant destruction, Badr Jahan Khanum took the initiative to restore sacred sites and religious schools. She also dedicated several homes as endowments for scholars and students.

## Death

She died in Shiraz a number of years after 1801.