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

108 Sovereignty in Islam
female slave whom Thou in Thy wisdom hast chosen from all creatures
and made an instrument of Thy grace for all Muslims - verily,
that is, Sultana Khadija, the daughter of Sultan Jalal-ud-din, bin
Sultan Salah-ud-din.' 71
After the death of Sultana Khadija, who reigned for 33 years,
her sister Myriam succeeded to the throne. She remained there until
785/1383, her husband also occupying the post of vizier. After
Sultana Myriam, her daughter, Sultana Fatima, ascended the throne
and ruled until her death in 790/1388. So, for forty years the Muslims
of the Maldive Islands were governed by women. Ibn Battuta, who
held the office of qadi, did not long resist the charm of the women
of the islands. He described his marriage to the stepmother of the
sultana:
The qazi and witnesses were summoned, and the marriage was solemnized,
and the grand vezir paid the dower. After a few days she
was brought to me. She was one of the best women and her society
was delightful to such an extent that whenever I married another
woman she showed the sweetness of her disposition still by annointing
me with perfumed ointment and scenting my clothes, smiling all the
time and betraying no sign of ill humor. 72
Ibn Battuta was so enchanted with the royal treatment given him
by his wife that he did not hesitate to have four. He married
often during his journeys through the Muslim world, which lasted
practically his whole life, but the memory of his domestic happiness
with the Maldive women was particularly sweet. One detects some
regret that he could not bring one back with him to Tangier:
The women of these islands never leave their country, and I have
seen nowhere in the world women whose society was more pleasant.
A woman in these islands would never entrust to anybody else the
serving of her husband; she herself brings him food and takes away
the plates, washes his hands and brings him water for ablutions and
massages his feet when he goes to bed. 73
However, there was one thing that intrigued him:
One of the customs of the country is for the women not to dine with
their husbands and the husband does not know what his wife eats.
In these islands I married several women; some of them dined with
me after I had tackled them, but others did not. And I was not able
to see them eat and no device on my part was of any avail. 74