舍哲尔·杜尔

Shajar al-Durr (Arabic: شجر الدر, lit. 'Tree of Pearls'), also Shajarat al-Durr (شجرة الدر), whose royal name was al-Malika ʿAṣmat ad-Dīn ʾUmm-Khalīl Shajar ad-Durr (الملكة عصمة الدين أم خليل شجر الدر; died 28 April 1257), was a ruler of Egypt. She was of Turkic origin. 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.

In political affairs, Shajar al-Durr played a crucial role after the death of her first husband during the Seventh Crusade against Egypt (1249–1250 AD). She became the sultana of Egypt on 2 May 1250, marking the end of the Ayyubid reign and the start of the Mamluk era.

Title

Several sources assert that Shajar al-Durr took the title of sultana (سلطانة sulṭānah), the feminine form of sultan. However, in the historical sources (notably Ibn Wasil) and on Shajar al-Durr's only extant coin, she is named as sultan.

Early life

Background

Like many of the "slave-aristocracy" at the time (such as the mamluks), Shajar al-Durr was likely of Turkic or Armenian origin, and described by historians as a beautiful, pious, and intelligent woman. She was purchased as a slave by As-Salih Ayyub 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. 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.……

Reign as Sultan

Rise to power

After the assassination of Turanshah, the Mamluks and emirs met at the Sultanic Dihliz and decided to install Shajar al-Durr as the new monarch with Izz al-Din Aybak as atabeg (commander in chief). Shajar al-Durr was informed of this at the Citadel of the Mountain in Cairo and she agreed. Shajar al-Durr took the royal name "al-Malikah Ismat ad-Din Umm-Khalil Shajar al-Durr" with a few additional titles such as "Malikat al-Muslimin" (Queen of the Muslims) and "Walidat al-Malik al-Mansur Khalil Emir al-Mo'aminin" (Mother of al-Malik al-Mansur Khalil Emir of the faithful).……

Conflict with the Ayyubids

News of the murder of al-Muazzam Turanshah and the inauguration of Shajar al-Durr as the new sultana reached Syria.……

Later life

To please the Caliph and secure his recognition, Aybak announced that he was merely a representative of the Abbasid caliph in Baghdad. To placate the Ayyubids in Syria the Mamluks nominated an Ayyubid child named al-Sharaf Musa as a co-sultan. But this did not satisfy the Ayyubids and armed conflicts between the Mamluks and the Ayyubids broke out. The Caliph in Baghdad, preoccupied with the Mongols who were raiding territories not far from his capital, preferred to see the matter settled peacefully between the Mamluks in Egypt and the Ayyubids in Syria.……

Architecture

Shajar Al-Durr was well known for adopting the indigenous architecture of Bahri Mamluk tombs and combining them with Madrasas or schools of Islam. She was the first Islamic Sultan of Egypt to use this culturally-syncretized architecture. Her burial structures would continue to be adopted by leaders in the Mamluk Sultanate, which shows that madrasas of Islam were embraced, and they remained in use to the Bahri Mamluks long after Islamic rule.

Impact

Establishing the Mamluk dynasty

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. 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

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 that was composed in Egypt during the early Mamluk era and took its final form in the early Ottoman era.……