Fatima.Mernessi_The-Forgotten-Queens-of-Islam-EN

100 Sovereignty in Islam
the title of sultan, although his conversion to Islam was rather late
and he had spent a good part of his life as a pagan. 40 At his death
Barak Hajib left his heirs an impressive number of Arab and Mongol
titles: Nasr al-dunya wa al-din (Triumph of the earthly world and
of the faith), Kutlugh Sultan, etc. Relations between Kutlugh Khan
and the Mongols were strengthened by repeated visits by the princes
of Kirman and by marriages. Barak Hajib had a son, Rukn al-Din,
and four daughters. One of the latter was Kutlugh Turkan, who
was married to his cousin Qutb al-Din. After Barak's death in
632/1234, first his son took power; then his cousin, Qutb al-Din,
Turkan's husband, acceded to the throne in 650/1252. At the death
of Qutb al-Din in 655/1257, his son being under-age, the notables
of Kirman requested the Mongol court to entrust the government
to his widow, Kutlugh Khan, who then reigned for 26 years until
681/1282. 41 She cleverly kept in the good graces of the Mongol court
by sending her son Hajjaj to fight in Hulagu's army and by marrying
her daughter Padishah Khatun to Abaka Khan, Hulagu's son. This
marriage was doubly astonishing, because one of the partners was
Muslim and the other Buddhist, and because Padishah had been
deliberately raised as a boy among the boys in order to deceive
the Mongols, who subjected the princesses of their 'colonies' to
obligatory marriage. 42 The Kutlugh-Khanids apparently had no
desire to ally themselves to the court of Hulagu through marriages,
but in this case political opportunism decided otherwise. Officially
confirmed in her title by Hulagu seven years later in 662/1264,
Kutlugh Turkan bore the title of 'Ismat al-dunya wa al-din, and she
had the right to have the khutba proclaimed in her name in the
mosques. 43
Turkan's power was at its height when, as usual, a pretender to
the throne appeared on the scene and prevented her from savouring
her triumph. He was one of her stepsons, Suyurghatamish, the son of
her dead husband, who could not accept the idea that his stepmother
should inherit the throne. Suyurghatamish stirred up trouble in the
kingdom to such an extent that in order to restore peace she was
forced to include his name, along with hers, in the khutba. But
Turkan played one of her winning cards, her relation with the
Mongol courts: she 'complained to her daughter Padishah Khatun
and received a yarligh forbidding her stepson to meddle in the
affairs of Kirman'. 44 Only the end of Turkan Khatun's reign, which
'brought prosperity to Kirman', was clouded by a chill in relations
with the Ilkhan court upon the death of Abaka, her son-in-law,
which occurred several months before her own death in 681/1282.