Shirin, the beloved wife of the Persian shah, Chosroes II (b. 628), pulled political strings behind the scenes and supported the Christian minority in Iran. After the fall of Chosroes, Firdausi remembered Shirin in his epic, the "Shahnama." Around 1180, the Persian poet Nizami wrote of her alleged love for the master builder Ferhad in his epic "Chosroes and Shirin," which was often imitated in Persian, Turkish, and Indian literary circles. Shirin became an image of love par excellence, living on even as far as Europe in no less a work than Goethe's "West-östlichen Divan."

Wilhelm Baum, historian, theologian, and philosopher, lives in Austria. In addition to English, his books have been translated into Spanish, Italian, and Slovenian.