Amina Aqdas
Amina Aqdas was a royal consort of Naser al-Din Shah Qajar of Iran.
Life
She was the daughter of an impoverished shepherd from a village near Garrūs in Kurdistan, and was employed as a free maidservant to the shah's wife Anīs al-Dawla in the Qajar harem in 1859.In the manner of the Qajar harem custom, she entered in a relationship with the Shah via a temporary marriage and was classified as a concubine.
She eventually became a favorite of the shah, second only to Anīs-al-dawla. Contemporaries attributed her influence to an ability to manipulate the shah's weak spots: she catered to his whims, encouraged his obsessions, and appealed to his parsimony. Her power was also enhanced by the shah's intense attachment to her nephew, Gholam-Ali, Malijak-e Thani, also known as Aziz al-Soltan. She supported the career of Mirza [Ali Asghar Khan Amin al-Soltan]. She was entrusted with several important responsibilities, such as supervising the shah's private apartment, where the crown jewels were kept; keeping the shah's most important seal, and put in charge of all presents given to the shah.
In 1890, she became the first royal consort to visit the West, when she travelled to Europe to receive treatment for her eye condition, a journey which was widely criticised by the ulama. After her return from Europe, she was paralyzed due to a stroke.