Shajar Al-Durr and her Political and Administrative Role in the Late Ayyubid Era and the Beginning of the Mamluk Era (637-655 A.H. / 1239-1257 A.D.)

Abstract

This study aims to shed light on the important role played by Shajar al-Durr in the transfer of power in Egypt from the Ayyubid house to the Mamluks, and sheds light on the problem of transferring of power to the Mamluks and the extent to which Islamic public opinion accepts the presence of a woman as the head of power, through several axes that include the political status of Shajar Al-Durr during the life of her husband, Sultan Malik Al-Saleh Najm al-Din Ayoub, and after his death, her role in handing over power to the great King Turan Shah and his assassination, and the end of the Ayyubid state and the establishment of the Mamluk state, and the accompanying problems, the most important of which is the location of Shajar al-Durr. Does she represent the last of the Ayyubids in Egypt or the first of the Mamluks? The study as well dealt with the factors why the Bahri Mamluk chose Shajar al-Durr as a sultan, as well as the aspects of political life and the external and internal sovereignty of the Sultanate, Shajar al-Durr, and the internal and external attitudes of Shajar al-Durr taking over the Sultanate and then removing herself from the Sultanate, besides the internal events that she was exposed to. One of the most important results of the study was that the appearance of Shajar al-Durr on the stage of Islamic political life as an important detail of the Islamic history, through which the Islamic countries were preserved from the danger of the Mongols and rescued them from the Franks.