Shajar al-Durr
Shajar al-Durr (Arabic: شجر الدر, lit. 'Tree of Pearls'), also Shajarat al-Durr (شجرة الدر),[a] whose royal name was al-Malika ʿAṣmat ad-Dīn ʾUmm-Khalīl Shajar ad-Durr (الملكة عصمة الدين أم خليل شجر الدر;[b] died 28 April 1257), was a ruler of Egypt. She was the wife of As-Salih Ayyub, and later of Izz al-Din Aybak, the first sultan of the Mamluk Bahri dynasty. Prior to becoming Ayyub's wife, she was a child slave and Ayyub's concubine.[4]
Early life[edit]
Background[edit]
Shajar al-Durr was of Turkic[11][12][13][14] or Armenian origin,[15][16][17][18] and described by historians as a beautiful, pious and intelligent woman.[19] She was purchased as a slave by As-Salih Ayyub[20] in the Levant before he became a Sultan and accompanied him and Mamluk Rukn al-Din Baybars al-Salihi (not the Baibars who became a Sultan) to Al Karak during his detention there in 1239.[21][22][23][24] Later when As-Salih Ayyub became a Sultan in 1240 she went with him to Egypt and gave birth to their son Khalil who was called al-Malik al-Mansour.[19][25] Some time after the birth, As-Salih Ayyub married her.[26]
In April 1249, As-Salih Ayyub, who was gravely sick in Syria, returned to Egypt and went to Ashmum-Tanah, near Damietta[27][28] after he heard that King Louis IX of France had assembled a crusader army in Cyprus and was about to launch an attack against Egypt.[29] In June 1249, the crusaders landed in the abandoned town of Damietta,[30][31] at the mouth of the river Nile. As-Salih Ayyub was carried on a stretcher to his palace in the better-protected town of Al Mansurah where he died on 22 November 1249 after ruling Egypt for nearly 10 years.[32] Shajar al-Durr informed Emir Fakhr ad-Din ibn as-Shaikh (commander of all the Egyptian army) and Tawashi Jamal ad-Din Muhsin (the chief eunuch who controlled the palace) of the Sultan's death but as the country was under attack by the crusaders they decided to conceal his death.[33] The coffined body of the Sultan was transported in secret by boat to the castle on al-Rudah island in the Nile.[34][35] Although the deceased Sultan had not left any testimony concerning who should succeed him after his death,[36] Faris ad-Din Aktai was sent to Hasankeyf to call al-Muazzam Turanshah, the son of the deceased Sultan.[37][38] The eyewitness observers who were alive and in Egypt at the time of the Sultan's death state that documents were forged by a servant who could copy the Sultan's handwriting.[4] Emir Fakhr ad-Din began issuing degrees and giving Sultanic orders[39] and this small circle of advisors succeeded in convincing the people and the other government officials that the Sultan was only ill rather than dead. Shajar al-Durr continued to have food prepared for the sultan and brought to his tent.[40] High officials, the Sultan's Mamluks and soldiers were ordered – by the will of the "ill" Sultan – to swear an oath of loyalty to the Sultan, his heir Turanshah[41][42] and the Atabeg[43] Fakhr ad-Din Yussuf.[33]
Impact[edit]
Establishing the Mamluk dynasty[edit]
As a manumitted slave who was not of the Ayyubid line, Shajar al-Durr has the distinction of having been the first Mamluk ruler of Egypt and Syria.[108] Aybak and Shajar al-Durr firmly established the Mamluk dynasty that would ultimately repulse the Mongols, expel the European Crusaders from the Holy Land, and remain the most powerful political force in the Middle East until the coming of the Ottomans.
In Egyptian folklore[edit]
Shajar al-Durr is one of the characters of Sirat al-Zahir Baibars (Life of al-Zahir Baibars), a folkloric epic of thousands of pages[109] that was composed in Egypt during the early Mamluk era and took its final form in the early Ottoman era.[110] The tale, which is a mix of fiction and fact, reflects the fascination of Egyptian common people for both Baibars and Shajar al-Durr. Fatma Shajarat al-Durr, as the tale names Shajar al-Durr, was the daughter of Caliph al-Muqtadir whose kingdom in Baghdad was attacked by the Mongols.[111] She was called Shajarat al-Durr (tree of pearls) because her father dressed her in a dress that was made of pearls. Her father granted her Egypt as she wished to be the Queen of Egypt and as-Salih Ayyub married her in order to stay in power as Egypt was hers. When Baibars was brought to the Citadel in Cairo, she loved him and treated him like a son and he called her his mother. Aybak al-Turkumani, a wicked man, came from al-Mousil to steal Egypt from Shajarat al-Durr and her husband al-Salih Ayyub. Shajarat al-Durr killed Aybak with a sword but, while fleeing from his son, she fell from the roof of the citadel and died.[112] In addition, Shajar al-Durr's name actually means Tree of Pearls, which is why, in poetry, her mention shows a fruit tree that is formed by pieces of mother-of-pearl.[103]
In literature and film[edit]
Tayeb Salih in his story "The Wedding of Zein" mentioned "Shajar ad-Durr" as "the former slave girl who ruled Egypt in the thirteenth century." He has a character in the story say, "A man's a man even though he's drooling, while a woman's a woman even if she's as beautiful as Shajar ad-Durr."[113]
Shajar al-Durr was the subject of a 1935 film by Ahmad Galal called Shajarat al-Durr.[114][115]
Coins[edit]
The following names and titles were inscribed on the coins of Shajar al-Durr: al-Musta'simiyah al-Salihiyah Malikat al-Muslimin walidat al-Malik al-Mansur Khalil Amir al-Mu'minin. (The Musta'simiyah the Salihiyah Queen of the Muslims Mother of King al-Mansur Khalil Emir of the faithful) and Shajarat al-Durr. The names of the Abbasid Chaliph were also inscribed on her coins: Abd Allah ben al-Mustansir Billah.[116]