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

50 Queens and Courtesans
It seems that the early historians saw women's relation to politics
in a different light than do the more modern historians. They called
the queens by their title, tried to understand their motivations as
they did with men, and noted that women slaves could marry caliphs
and give birth to future caliphs.
The most illuminating way of understanding the phenomenon of
the jawari and how, in an apparently very hierarchical Islam, women
could not only dominate caliphs but share their power might be to
spend some private moments with Khayzuran and the different
caliphs who succeeded each other in her life. Her example will allow
us to measure the limits of power of the jawari, which was often of
a territorial nature. Operating from the harem, the territory of
women, none of the jawari mentioned, neither the mother of al-
Muqtadir, nor Subh, nor Khayzuran, can be considered women
heads of state. They failed to cross the threshold that separated
women's territory from that of men.