Shajar al-Durr, Sultan of Egypt (died 1257 AD)

Shajar al-Durr (also called Shagrat al-Durr) was a former bondswoman of Turkoman origin whose intelligence and ambition led her to become one of the few women rulers in the Islamic world. She was Sultan of Egypt, both in name and in fact, and is responsible for radical changes in the control of Egypt in spite of opposition to her power in a masculinist society.

We do not know where or when she was born, but first learn of her when as-Salih Ayyub, the future Sultan of Egypt, purchased her in the Levant in the 1230s. By 1249 when he returned to Egypt, he had married Shajar al-Durr, who was the mother of his son, Khalil al-Malik al-Mansour. Sultan as-Salih Ayyub became deathly ill just as he prepared to fight the crusaders under King Louis IX of France landed at Damiata, at the mouth of the Nile. When the sultan died, his wife Shajar al-Durr and other leading members of his government hid the fact so as not to lend strength to the crusader cause. Shajar al-Surr continued to rule in his name. In 1250 the crusaders finally learned of the sultan's death and crossed from Damiata to fight but Shajar al-Durr led the Mamluk armies, defeating the crusaders and taking Louis IX prisoner.

Shajar al-Durr, herself a Mamluk, won the loyalty of the armies made up of former Turkish slaves, so when her husband's heir, Turan, came back to Egypt and claimed his father's throne, the Mamluks were unhappy. Turan was an abusive sultan, and the Mameluks assassinated him and made Shajar al-Durr the Sultan of Egypt. The legitimacy of her rule as Sultan was seen in the minting of coins that feature her name and the inclusion of her name and all her titles in the daily prayers throughout the country.

Unfortunately, the Caliph of Baghdad declared that no woman could rule an Islamic nation, so her reign lasted only a few months. The Caliph set a new Sultan on the throne of Egypt, a man named Aybak. Shajar al-Durr married Aybak and appears to have dominated him, having coth their names put on the coins and in the prayers and effectively ruling Egypt over him.

Shajar al-Durr had made Atbak divorce his current wife, and when in 1257 he began to talk about marrying a third time, she murdered him while he was bathing after a polo game. She gave out that Atbak had died suddenly in the night, but her formerly loyal Mamaluks did nto believe her. Under torture, her servants confessed to aiding her in the crime, and Atbak's 15 year old son by his former wife, al-Mansur Ali was installed as Sultan by those same mamaluks. Though the latter wanted Shajar al-Surr to be imprisoned for the rest of her life, al-Mansur Ali was's bondmaidens sought her out and beat her to death in 1257.

Not only was Shajar al-Durr notable as one of few women to be called Sultan of an Islamic nation, she could as well boast the significant defeat of the Seventh Cursdae and the capture and ransom of King Louis IX of France. She established the Mamaluk dynasty in Eqypt, moved the capital to Cairo, both harbingers of a new era in Eqyptian gistory and a new power in most of the souther Mediterranean for years to come.