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

4
Khayzuran: Courtesan or
Head of State?
The great obstacle to a political career for a woman like Khayzuran,
who had a great appetite for politics and apparently exhibited
exceptional talent for it, was not biological (the fact of being a
woman) nor legal (the fact of being a slave), but territorial - the
fact of belonging to the harem, inner space (the territory of peace)
rather than to public space (the space of war). All the historians
are fond of telling us over and over that she ruled, commanded,
and governed the Muslim Empire under three caliphs: her husband
al-Mahdi, the third Abbasid caliph (158/775 to 169/785); her elder
son al-Hadi; and her younger son, whom she cherished and who
returned her love, Harun al-Rashid. The fabulous, noble Harun al-
Rashid, whom nature endowed with unparalleled gifts and whom
memory treasures as a jewel, had the grace to live out his dreams
without succumbing to their spell. Once he became caliph, he
acknowledged the talents of his mother and showed the Muslim
world that he was not ashamed to share power with a woman, as
long as she had the good judgement of Khayzuran. But having done
this, Harun al-Rashid would only prove once again the limits for
action of a woman of the harem, be she courtesan or regent: she
only held power with the consent of, and through, a man. Her
political actions could only appear on the public stage masked by
the presence of a man.
To the end Khayzuran's political career had the fatal stamp of
harem life: her authority was cloaked in secrecy and was only the
radiation of someone else's power. On the day of her death Baghdad
understood the greatness of the mother in the grief of the son. A