Nakihat Khanum

Nakihat Khanum
Queen mother of Safavid Iran
Tenure1666-1680
PredecessorAnna Khanum
SuccessorMadar-e Shah (mother of Sultan Huseyn)
Died1680 (1681)
SpouseAbbas II of Persia
IssueSuleiman I Safavid
HouseSafavid (by marriage)
ReligionShia Islam

Nakihat Khanum (Persian: نکهت خانم ; died 1680) was the first consort of the Safavid king (shah) Abbas II of Iran (r.1642–1666)."Safī Mirza, who later took the name Shah Suleiman, was under his mother's influence for about twenty years, as long as she was alive.She was one of the most powerful and influential queen mothers of the Safavid era.

She was of Circassian origin and came, probably as a victim of the Crimean slave trade, to the Safavid Imperial harem, where she became the concubine to Abbas II. She became the mother of Abbas II's successor, shah Suleiman I (r.1666–1694).

Alike other females of the royal court, Nakihat bequeathed property to the Shia shrines in Iraq, which were "formally" under Ottoman control since the Treaty of Zuhab (1639).