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

How Does One Say 'Queen' in Islam? 21
for religion, as good politicians, women tried like men to manipulate
it rather than assert claim to the spiritual and its symbols.
If malika, sultana, al-hurra, and sitt seem to be titles used for
women who ruled in the Arab part of the Muslim world, the title
of khatun is the one most often found in Asian Islam, especially in
the Turkish and Mongol dynasties. According to the Encyclopedia
of Islam, khatun 'is a title of Soghdian origin borne by the wives
and female relatives of the T'u-chueh and subsequent Turkish rulers.
It was employed by Saldjuks and Khwaraz-shahs.' Many women
who took an active part in directing the affairs of state, whether
with their spouse or alone, bore this title. One of the problems that
confronted the Mongol princes, who came to Islam as conquerors
and in a few decades were conquered by it, was how to reconcile
the very public status of women in their culture with the very private
status that the new religion imposed. After taking power in 694/1295,
Ghazan, the seventh ruler of the Ilkhan dynasty, faced this problem
when he converted to Sunni Islam.
Dokuz Khatun, the favourite wife of Hulagu, the grandson of
Genghis Khan, who conquered a large part of the Muslim empire
and occupied its capital Baghdad in 1258, played an important role
in forming the attitude of the new conquerors toward the Christians.
Belonging herself to the Nestorian sect, she favoured Christians
and placed them in posts of responsibility. 36 Al-Sarim Uzbek, from
the Arab court of Hims, was extremely surprised when he was
received by Hulagu to 'talk polities' to see the latter's wife constantly
present. 37 Islam had to comply with the customs of the Asian
steppes as far as the role of women and their prominence in public
life went. One of the things that struck Ibn Battuta as an Arab
traveller, when he crossed the Mongol empire and visited the Turkish
sovereigns, was the constant involvement of women in politics:
'Among the Turks and the 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".' 38 Khatun was also the
title of the queens of the Kutlugh-Khan dynasty of Kirman. This was
the case, for example, with Kutlugh Turkan Khatun and Padishah
Khatun, respectively the fourth and sixth sovereigns of the dynasty
in 1257 and 1293.
However, whether they were a khatun, a malika, a sultana, or a
simple courtesan plotting behind the scenes in the shadowy world
of the harem, not one has ever borne the title of caliph. Can we
conclude as a result that women were excluded forever from the