Saturday, August 25, 2012
By: Lisa J. Yarde
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| Mameluke Soldier |
On May 2, 1250 AD, the Mameluke slave-soldiers of Egypt
declared the widow Shajar al-Durr as their ruler. When the Abbasid Caliph of
Baghdad al-Musta'sim heard the news, he expressed the religious view, "Unhappy
is the nation which is governed by a woman." He also suggested that if
the Mameluke warriors had no men to lead them, he would
happily provide acceptable candidates. Shajar's rise to power is even
more remarkable because of her humble origin and status. How did an enslaved
woman from the Eurasian steppes become ruler of an Islamic state in the
medieval period, when her counterparts remained confined traditionally to the
harem?
More than a decade before her ascendancy, the woman who became
Shajar al-Durr, or Spray of Pearls, joined the retinue of slaves in
the service of her future husband, as-Salih Ayyub. One of Saladin's
great-nephews, as-Salih Ayyub chose Shajar as his favorite concubine. The death
of as-Salih's father in 1238 threw Egypt into turmoil, as his sons and
relatives battled for control of the region, a vital part of the Abbasid Empire
that stretched from North Africa to Iraq. The conflict abated in
1240, when Shajar shared her husband's imprisonment. During
their confinement, she gave birth to a son Khalil,
who unfortunately lived for only three months. After her husband's
release and his rise to power in Egypt, he gave Shajar authority to act in his
stead whenever he was away from Egypt on various campaigns that consolidated
his power. He delegated his power to her as Umm Khalil, the mother
of his deceased son, and she held an official seal with that title.
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| The Mameluke Empire |
In July 1429, as part of the Seventh Crusade, King Louis
IX of France landed at Damietta on the Nile. Within five months, his army
marched toward Cairo. Shajar returned with her husband from a campaign against
one of his uncles. The ruler of Egypt faced a precarious situation; the
Crusader army had landed on his shores while he endured a painful infection in
his leg that became abscessed. He suffered an amputation, but within days
left Shajar a widow. She acted decisively, by secretly sending word to Turan
Shah, her husband's son by another woman and having her husband's servants
go about their normal routines, including bringing meals to his tent. Later,
Turan Shah defeated the Crusaders at the Battle of al-Mansurah. Turan became ruler
of Egypt in February 1250. He didn't endear himself by drinking alcohol against
religious proscriptions, or by removing his father and Shajar's confidantes
from positions of power and replacing them with his own men.
The Mameluke soldiers assassinated Turan three months later with
Shajar's blessing.
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| Coinage minted in Shajar al-Durr's name |
She had ruled Egypt in her husband's absence and would do so
again. Among her titles, she became Queen of the Muslims. Friday prayers
in the mosques mentioned her by name and she had coins minted with her titles.
Yet, she could not perform the traditional tasks a new Islamic ruler
would have completed, including the reception for princes and judiciary in
which she would have accepted their personal oaths of loyalty, or the
traditional procession of a new monarch through the streets of Cairo. After the
Caliph's stinging rejection, the Mameluke government tried another
solution. In August 1250, they suggested a marriage between Shajar
and Aybak, the commander-in-chief of her army. Although he reigned with her,
she never truly ceded power to her new husband. She made him divorce his
first wife. Coins of the kingdom now bore both their names and all
official documents required both their signatures. He even needed her
permission before coming into her presence.
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| Shajar al-Durr's tomb |
In April 1257, Shajar decided to move against Aybak. Not only had
her government forced her to share power with him, but she also learned he
intended to marry another woman. She arranged for his murder while he took a
bath and later, feigned ignorance about his fate. Aybak's men did
not believe her. They delivered her to the first wife of Aybak and
her servants, who beat Shajar to death with wooden clogs and threw her body
outside the palace. Her body remained in a ditch, defiled for several days
until her interment.
For just 80 days, Shajar had ruled the Islamic state of Egypt
without relying on the power her husband held. Ultimately, the traditional
expectations of women and her own miscalculations about the exercise of power
brought about her ruin.
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