‘God has favoured you with a genius that has no equal amongst mankind. There is none amongst women who would dare aspire to even a small part of your blessings.’
From a conversation between Shajar Al-Durr and her slave girl from Tree of Pearls by Jurji Zaydan.
Shajar al-Durr or Shajarat Al-Durr (c.1220-1257) also known as the ‘Tree of Pearls’ was probably Turkic or Armenian. Our earliest record of her is as a slave to the Sultan Al-Salir Ayyub but she soon rose to become known as ‘Umm Khalil’ or the mother of Khalil, their son. While the Sultan was away, Shajar Al-Durr ruled Syria and Egypt, signing official documents.
Although Islamic tradition prohibited a woman from leading the military, she was able to get around this by claiming to be acting on her son Khalil’s behalf (although he had died at 3 months old!).
In 1249, Al-Salir Ayyub died while fighting against Louis XI in the Seventh Crusade. Shajar Al-Durr took swift action and enlisted the help of the army to fight the Crusaders. In 1250, the mamluks elected her to rule over them as Sultana.
She is the only female Egyptian ruler and only the second woman to rule in her own right in the Muslim world (the first being Raddiyah bint il-Tutmish of Delhi).
During her short reign she was an important patron of architecture in Cairo, including designing her own mausoleum complex
Teaching Themes
Women’s roles: Only known woman to rule Egypt; shows how women could exercise power both jointly and independently of male relatives.
Gender, religion and power: She was able to use her dead son’s name as a convenient legal fiction to claim her role – links to other Medieval women who exercised power on behalf of their sons.
Civilisation and Architecture: Responsible for her own mausoleum complex.
Reading from hostile sources: Many of the sources describing her include her demise, told by sources written by male scholars.
The Crusades: She ruled during the Seventh Crusade.
Period & Place
National Curriculum Link
Significant society or issue in world history and its interconnections with other world developments; The Crusades.
Exam Specification Links
Suitable for A-level Non-Examined Assessment on later Crusades.
To extend learning for AQA A-level The Age of the Crusades c.1071-1204.
Sources
The ‘Teaching Medieval Women’ website has a resource pack which includes images of her mausoleum, coins, and written sources describing her rule: https://teachingmedievalwomen.org/resources/?page-number=1&sort=date-desc&person=shajar-al-durr
Original letters from the Seventh Crusaders to provide the wider military context can be found in Peter Jackson’s The Seventh Crusade 1244-1254: Sources and Documents, a preview of which can be found here: https://api.pageplace.de/preview/DT0400.9781351882026_A39657495/preview-9781351882026_A39657495.pdf
Scholarship
Christie, N. (2019) The Sultana of Egypt. Medieval Warfare 8(6): 18-23.
Dada, A. T. (2019) Re-evaluating the Representation of Saracen Women in Middle English Romance: Influences from the East. Doctoral thesis, Durham University. Available from http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/13140/
Duncan, D. J. (2000) Scholarly views of Shajarat Al-Durr: A need for consensus. Arab Studies Quarterly 22(1): 51-69.
Zaydan, J. (2012) Tree of Pearls, Queen of Egypt. Translated by Samah Selim. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press.