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

Khayzuran: Courtesan or Head of State? 61
zuran, and the two of them took charge of the ritual of succession
in the absence of the person most concerned. They arranged that
al-Hadi should be designated the new caliph, and the dignitaries
swore the oath of loyalty to him in the presence of his brother. It
took al-Hadi 20 days to return to the capital. Meanwhile, the soldiers
'had set fire to the door of the vizier al-Rabi's house and had opened
the gates of the prisons and freed the prisoners'. 34
When Khayzuran summoned the two most important ministers,
al-Rabi and the famous Yahya al-Barmaki, they immediately presented
themselves at her door. Then came an incident of the utmost
importance, because it indicates the limits of Khayzuran's power.
When she told the two waiting ministers to enter, only one obeyed
her order, the other refusing: 'Al-Rabi accepted her invitation to
enter, but Yahya refused, aware of al-Hadi's jealousy.' 35 In fact,
upon hearing the news, al-Hadi, less tolerant than his father of his
mother's interference, sent a courier to al-Rabi threatening him
with death. He had transgressed the threshold of the forbidden
space - the harem. This insistence on the threshold that separates
the world of men from that of women would come up again in
another incident that took place several months later.
During the life of her husband, Khayzuran had given audiences.
Many important people thronged her door. After the death of the
caliph, she showed no desire to change: 'She continued to monopolize
decision-making without consulting him [al-Hadi]. She behaved
as she had before, during the reign of al-Mahdi .... People came
and went through her door.' 36 Unsure of himself, al-Hadi felt threatened
by the ambition of his mother and was morbidly jealous of his
brother Harun al-Rashid, who was greatly loved by the people and
the elite and admired for his military prowess. He made several
attempts to strip his brother of the title of heir apparent in order
to give it to his own son, Ja'far. 37 Harun adopted the tactic of
avoidance and reduced the occasions for being in his brother's
presence. But this was not Khayzuran's style. She continued to
involve herself in what in her view concerned her - which above all
was the management of the affairs of the empire. Al-Hadi thought
just the opposite. He continually told her that 'it is not in the power
of women to intervene ... in matters of sovereignty. Look to your
prayers and your prayer beads.' 38 She insisted. One day she went
to him to force him to grant a favour. She was interceding for a
certain 'Abdallah Ibn Malik. Al-Hadi refused to grant her request,
but did it publicly in a very Arab manner by giving no answer.
Khayzuran committed the blunder of insisting: 'You are obliged to