Shushandukht

Shushandukht was the Jewish wife of Yazdegerd I, the Sasanian emperor from 399-420, and mother of Bahram V, his successor. She was also said to be the daughter of the Exilarch (Middle Persian rēš-galūdag) Huna bar Nathan. Shushandukht reputedly created the Jewish neighborhood of Jouybareh in Isfahan and also established Jewish colonies in the cities of Susa and Shushtar in what is now Khuzestan province, Iran at the north of the Persian Gulf. The Iranologist Ernst Herzfeld (1879–1948) speculated that the Tomb of Esther and Mordechai in the city of Hamadan might be the tomb of Shushandukht.

The narrative of a Jewish queen enhanced the life of Persian Jews even if Jewish communities existed in Isfahan long before this date according to earlier authors. Aptin Khanbaghi notes that the Babylonian Talmud recounts that the Exilarch Huna bar Nathan interacted with Yazdegerd. No daughter or Jewish empress is mentioned.

Simcha Gross writes that Shushandukht is mentioned in only one text, The Provincial Capitals of Ērānšahr (Middle Persian Šahrestānīhā ī Ērānšahr). It is also the only Middle Persian text to "expressly acknowledge the institution of the exilarchate", and she is believed to be fictional, perhaps based on the figure of Esther. Her story likely dates to the tenth or eleventh century, the "Iranian intermezzo", as a way to bolster the royal claims of local rulers.