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

106 Sovereignty in Islam
aid and support, and Tindu's first marriage was more a political
alliance than anything else. Her first husband was al-Zahir Barquq,
the next to last Mamluk king of Egypt (784/1382 to 791/1389). He
had been struck by her beauty during a journey that she made with
her uncle, and asked for her in marriage; this was welcomed because
Iraq was having difficulty repelling the repeated attacks of Tamerlane's
armies. In exchange for Tindu, who was to remain in Cairo,
Baghdad received the support of the Egyptian armies. But Tindu,
who was very attached to her homeland, did not like life in Cairo.
Barquq, who loved her very much, finally let her return to Iraq.
As a second husband she married her cousin Shah Walad, and after
his death she acceded to the throne in 814/1411. She remained in
power for eight years until her death. 64 Hanbali relates that, 'The
khutba was said in her name from the pulpits and money was coined
in her name until her death in 822. Her son took power after her.' 65
According to Badriye Uc.ok Un, there is supposed to have been
a last Mongol queen, Sultana Fatima Begum, whom the Russians
know under the name of Sultana Sayyidovna and who ruled the
Ilkhan kingdom of Qasim in Central Asia between 1679 and 1681. 66
We know that Batu, one of the grandsons of Genghis Khan, 'succeeded
in subjugating large parts of Russia in the years 1236 to
1241. Only the north west (with Novgorod at its centre), was
spared .... The new state was called the "Golden Horde" by the
Russians and thus also in Europe.' 67 The Tatar domination lasted
two and a half centuries, and one of its consequences was the
Islamicization of whole areas of Russia. 68 Sultana Fatima Begum is
supposed to have been the last sovereign of the Qasim dynasty. But
except for the mention of her by Dr Uc.ok Un, I could not find any
reference to this queen in any of the works in Arabic that I consulted,
in which mention would have been made of her right to
having the khutba said in her name and money coined in her name.
So I merely cite her without counting her among the women heads
of state. This reduces to six the number of Mongol queens who
meet my criteria.
This rise to power of women in the Mongol Empire is all the
more remarkable considering the almost total absence of queens on
the political scene before the taking of Baghdad in 1258. However,
it must be kept in mind that among the Mongols this privilege
applied only to women of the aristocratic class and that the local
populations were treated with little consideration. How is one to
explain how a people can be so violent and at the same time accord
a pre-eminent place to women on the political scene? The answer