The First Wife of poet
Despite their eventual separation, Ashraf al-Muluk played a significant role in Shamlu’s formative years, providing stability during a turbulent time when he was still searching for his voice as a poet. Later, Shamlu remarried twice—first to Turan (Turi) Malakuti, and finally to Aida Sarkisian, who became his lifelong companion and the central muse of much of his poetry. Yet Ashraf al-Muluk Islamiya remains an important figure in his personal history, remembered as the woman who shared with him the challenges of his early adulthood and motherhood of his children.
Although Ashraf al-Muluk Islamiya never occupied the public spotlight as Shamlu’s later wife, Aida Sarkisian, she held an important and formative role in his early life. Their marriage began just after World War II, in a society grappling with rapid social change and political unrest. Shamlu was still a young man, restless and passionate, struggling to reconcile his literary ambitions with the difficulties of daily life.
