text: Long after her death Shirin became an important heroine of Persian literature, as a model of a faithful lover and wife. She appears in the Shahnameh and the romance Khosrow and Shirin by Nizami Ganjavi (1141−1209), and is referred to in very many other works. Her elaborated story in literature bears little or no resemblance to the fairly few known historical facts of her life, although her Christianity and difficulties after the assassination of her husband remain part of the story, as well as Khosrow's exile before he regained his throne.  After their first accidental meeting, when Khosrow was initially unaware of her identity, their courtship takes a number of twists and turns, with the pair often apart, that occupy most of the story. After Khosrow's son kills him, the son demands that Shirin marry him, which she avoids by committing suicide.
  Origin
  The background of Shirin is uncertain. According to the 7th-century Armenian historian Sebeos (died after 661), she was a native of Khuzistan in southwestern Iran. However, two Syriac chronicles state that she was "Aramean" i.e., from the region of Beth Aramaye. The Persian historian Mirkhvand (died 1498), writing much later, states that she used to be a servant in a Persian house which Khosrow II used to regularly visit during his teens. The 11th-century Persian epic Shahnameh ("The Book of Kings") of Ferdowsi (died 1019/1025), which was based on the Middle Persian text Khwaday-Namag ("Book of Lords"), states that Shirin was already married to Khosrow II by the time he fled to the Byzantine Empire. None of these reports are substantiated by earlier sources, which may indicate that they were later established legends. The early 7th-century Byzantine historian Theophylact Simocatta does not mention the names of the two women who fled with Khosrow II.
  The tradition identifying Shirin as Armenian appears to be of later origin.