Jahan Malek Khatun

Jahan Malek Khatun (, jahān malik khātūn) was an Injuid poet and princess. She wrote under pen name Jahān and was a contemporary of the poet Hafez.

Life Her birthdate is not known, but her parents were married in 1324, so she must have been born after that date. Her father was Jalāl al-Dīn Masūʿdshāh and her mother was a daughter of Ghiyas al-Din Hamadani. It was usual for Injuid noble women to receive a good education, and Jahan's was exceptionally good because she was an only child, so the attention usually given to sons was given to her instead. who was a companion of the Injuid ruler, and nephew of Shaikh Jamāl al-Dīn Abu Ishāq. Masūʿdshāh was deposed in 1339 by allies of Shams al-Dīn Muhammad and Chupanid Pir Hosayn. Masūʿdshāh fled to Luristan where he was finally killed while bathing by Yagi Basti's men in 1342. Jahan Malek was brought up and guarded by her uncle Abu Ishāq, who finally fell from power in 1353 when Mubariz al-Din Muhammad captured Shiraz and executed Ishaq in 1357. After the downfall of her family, Jahan remained at court where it is likely that she played an active role, following in the footsteps of her close female relatives.

Poetry Jahan Malek Khatun primarily composed ghazals, intended to be read in informal, intimate settings. She mentioned several rulers in her poems, like Mubariz al-Din Muhammad, Shah Shoja Mozaffari, Ahmad Jalayir, Shah Mansur and Miran Shah, giving a clue about her lifespan. and Qutluqshah Khatun ).

Pen name It was usual for Injuid princesses to write poetry under a pen name, disguising their identity and emphasising their piety, but Jahan did neither. The concept of Jahan, "the World", was used by contemporary poets to refer to an imaginary female figure who was ruthless and seductive, conspiring to murder her many lovers. Jahān’s introduction to Western audiences came in 2007, when Sheema Kalbasi translated her poetry from Persian into English and included in Seven Valleys of Love: A Bilingual Anthology of Women Poets from Middle Ages Persia to Present Day Iran, with a subsequent edition in 2008. Kalbasi later translated a larger collection of Jahān's poems, published as Jahan Malek Khatun: The Princess Poet of 14th-Century Persia in 2024 by Daraja Press.