Goharshad Begum

Goharshad Begum was the daughter of the prominent Chagatai Turkic noble Ghiyas al-Din Tarkhan and the chief empress of the Timurid Sultan Shah Rukh, son of Tamerlane. Ruling alongside her husband from Herat, she was one of the most powerful and culturally influential women in Islamic history, holding extensive political authority.

Goharshad was the paramount patron of the 15th-century Timurid Renaissance. In 1418, she commissioned the royal architect Qavam al-Din Shirazi to build the breathtaking Goharshad Mosque in Mashhad adjacent to the Imam Reza Shrine, famous for its cerulean blue dome and faience tilework, as well as the colossal Musalla complex in Herat.