Editing Shah (section)

==History==
[[File:National Museum of Iran Darafsh (785).JPG|thumb| [[Xerxes I]] (Xšayār̥šā) the great Shah of Persia.]]
''Shāh'', also known by its full-length term ''Shāhanshāh'' ([[King of Kings]]), was the title of the [[List of kings of Persia|Persian emperors]]. It includes rulers of the first Persian Empire, the [[Achaemenid Empire|Achaemenid dynasty]], who unified Persia in the sixth century BC, and created a vast intercontinental empire, as well as rulers of succeeding dynasties throughout history until the 20th century and the [[Pahlavi dynasty|Imperial House of Pahlavi]].

While in Western sources the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] monarch is most often referred to as a Sultan, in Ottoman territory he was most often referred to as ''Padishah'' and several used the title Shah in their [[tughra]]s. Their male offspring received the title of ''[[Şehzade]]'', or prince (literally, "offspring of the Shah", from Persian ''shahzadeh'').

The full title of the Achaemenid rulers was ''Xšāyaθiya Xšāyaθiyānām'', literally "King of Kings" in Old Persian, corresponding to [[Middle Persian]] ''Šâhân Šâh'', and Modern Persian {{lang|fa|شاهنشاه}} (''Šâhanšâh'').<ref>D.&nbsp;N. MacKenzie. ''A Concise Pahlavi Dictionary''. Routledge Curzon, 2005. {{ISBN|0197135595}}</ref><ref>M.&nbsp;Mo’in. ''An Intermediate Persian Dictionary. Six Volumes''. Amir Kabir Publications, Teheran, 1992.</ref> In [[Greek language|Greek]], this phrase was translated as {{lang|grc|βασιλεὺς τῶν βασιλέων}} (''[[basileus]] tōn basiléōn''), "King of Kings", equivalent to "Emperor". Both terms were often shortened to their roots ''shah'' and ''basileus''.

In Western languages, ''Shah'' is often used as an imprecise rendering of ''Šāhanšāh''. For a long time, Europeans thought of ''Shah'' as a particular royal title rather than an imperial one, although the [[List of monarchs of Persia|monarchs of Persia]] regarded themselves as emperors of the Persian Empire (later the [[List of monarchs of Persia|Empire of Iran]]). The European opinion changed in the Napoleonic era, when Persia was an ally of the Western powers eager to make the [[Ottoman dynasty|Ottoman]] Sultan release his hold on various (mainly Christian) [[Rumelia|European parts]] of the [[Ottoman Empire]], and western (Christian) emperors had obtained the Ottoman acknowledgement that their western imperial styles were to be rendered in Turkish as ''[[padishah]]''.

In the twentieth century, the [[List of monarchs of Persia|Shah of Persia]], [[Mohammad Reza Pahlavi]], officially adopted the title {{lang|fa|شاهنشاه}} ''Šâhanšâh'' and, in western languages, the rendering ''Emperor''. He also styled his wife {{lang|fa|شهبانو}} ''[[shahbanu|Shahbânū]]'' ("Empress"). Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was the last Shah, as the Iranian monarchy was abolished after the 1979 [[Iranian Revolution]].