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

102 Sovereignty in Islam
no reference to the faith (al-diri) and therefore to the Beyond,
which is rare among Muslim sovereigns, be they men or women.
She reigned over Kirman until the death of her husband in 694/1295
and the accession to power of his successor Baydu. He was more
inclined to listen to her enemies and to support the clan that still
sought to avenge the killing of Suyurghatamish; this clan was led
by a woman, Khurdudjin, the widow of Suyurghatamish, who was
not just anybody - she was a Mongol princess of royal blood, a
descendant of Hulagu. The grieving, vengeful widow demanded of
Baydu, the new ruler, that he put to death Padishah Khatun. 47
Thus, with the support of the Mongols, one queen succeeded
another on the throne of Kirman. During his journey through the
Mongol Empire in the first part of the fourteenth century, Ibn
Battuta, the rather conservative Moroccan, was very surprised by
the great respect he found accorded women under the rule of Abu
Sa'id Behadur Khan, the ninth sovereign of the Ilkhan dynasty,
who ruled in Baghdad between 716/1316 and 736/1335. And one can
deduce from his observations that women were treated differently in
Tangier, his native city. Ibn Battuta, who was a qadi (that is, a
religious authority entitled to make rulings on the role of women),
scrupulously took note of what he observed: 'Among the Turks and
Tatars their wives enjoy a very high position; indeed, when they
issue an order they say in it "By command of the Sultan and the
Khatuns". Each khatun possesses several towns and districts and
vast revenues.' 48 But it was the special attention and deference that
the sovereign accorded to women in public during state rituals that
fascinated Ibn Battuta, who had never seen such a thing in Tangier.
He had an opportunity to see this with his own eyes when he
accompanied Abu Sa'id Behadur Khan, his Mongol host, on a tour.
He wanted to see 'the ceremonial observed by the King of al-Iraq
in his journeying and encamping, and the manner of his transportation
and travel'. 49 And what does he report? Women were not at
the rear; they were very visible at the head of the procession:
Each of the khatuns rides in a waggon, the tent that she occupies
being distinguished by a cupola of silver ornamented of wood
encrusted with precious stones .... Behind the khatun's waggon
there are about a hundred waggons .... Behind these waggons
[again] are about three hundred waggons, drawn by camels and oxen,
carrying the khatun's chests, moneys, robes, furnishings and food. 50