The seventh most senior daughter of the second Qajar ruler of Iran, Fath-ʿAli Shah, she served as private secretary to her father.
From a Jewish family from Mazandaran, she was first married to Agha Mohammad Khan, uncle of Fath-ʿAli Shah and first of the Qajar rulers.
In addition to these responsibilities, as her father's favourite, she would organise his birthday celebrations, and every year on the occasion Fath-ʿAli would gift her a set of jewels.
She was a highly skilled calligrapher, and produced a number of copies of the Qur'an, as well as other works such as collections of poetry, prayers, and pilgrimage texts.
Her half-brother ʿAbbas Mirza, Crown Prince until his death in 1833, wrote of her: 'My soul to yours, beloved Ziaʾ ol-Saltaneh,/ I have torn a hundred garments from grief/ At the thought of separation from you.'
'[6] Fath-Ali Khan Saba, the chief court poet, also wrote lines in her praise: 'Your moon, Shāh Baygum, from whose face and hair/ The morn of dominion is perfumed, and the king of the realm illumined.
Her poetry was recorded by her brother Mahmud Mirza in his anthology of women poets, compiled in 1825, at the behest of Ziaʾ al-Saltaneh herself.
[9] The author of the Qisas al-ʿUlama reports that Fath-ʿAli attempted to give her in marriage to a number of significant members of the clergy who all refused.
[10] At the age of 37, in 1835, Mohammad Shah insisted, on pain of execution, that she agree to marry Mirza Masoud (1790-1848), then Minister of Foreign Affairs.