Shajarat al-Durr

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Shajarat al-Durr (Arabic: شجرة الدرّ) ‎ (? - 1257) grew up a slave in the harem of the Caliph in Baghdad. She was of Turkic origin^{[citation needed]}, and her name means in Arabic 'Tree of Pearls'. The beautiful young girl was eventually presented (as a gift) to the Ayyubid Sultan of Egypt and Syria, al-Salih Ayyub. The sultan fell in love and married her. And although he had multiple wives, Shajar al-Durr remained his favorite for the rest of his life.

In 1249 the Sultan died unexpectedly. Shajar al-Durr took decisive action to conceal the sultan's death and assumed control of the sultanate until the sultan's son and heir could be recalled from Syria. With the assistance of a few key members of the palace staff, she convinced the people and the other government officials that the sultan was only ill --- not dead. As a result, Shajar al-Durr was the de facto ruler of Egypt for most of a year.

When the dead sultan's son and heir, Turanshah, returned from Syria, he ingraciously set aside his stepmother without position or authority. The unlikable new sultan also soon alienated the Mamluk slave soldiers. On May 2, 1250, a group of Mamelukes including Baybars, assassinated Turanshah. Shajar al-Durr was proclaimed Sultana (the only woman in Islamic history to achieve such power).

Several months later— due to political pressure for a male sultan— Shajar al-Durr married an important Mamluk officer, Aybak. Together, they initiated the first Mamluk Dynasty of Egypt and Syria (المماليك البحرية). They shared power in a combination of cooperation and suspicion for seven years.

When Shajar al-Durr discovered that Aybak was plotting against her, she acted decisively but precipitously. She had Aybak murdered. Her attempts to escape responsibility for her second husband's death were ineffectual. She had gone too far. Aybak's son, al-Mansur Ali, who was appointed as the next sultan. Shajar was stripped naked, brutally tortured and executed by his mother's slave women. According to popular lore, she was beaten to death with wooden clogs, and her nude remains were then hung, upside down, from the Citadel in Cairo.

Her tomb, not far from the Mosque of Tulun, is jewel of Islamic funerary architecture. Inside is a mihrab (prayer niche) decorated with a mosaic of the "tree of life," executed by artists brought from Constantinople specifically for this commission. The wooden kufic inscription that runs around the interior of her tomb, while damaged, is also of extremely fine craftsmanship.

Before their deaths, Aybak and Shajar al-Durr firmly established the Mameluke 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.