Born: 1216, Unknown
Died: 28 April 1257
Country most active: Egypt
Also known as: شجر الدر, lit. ‘Tree of Pearls’), also Shajarat al-Durr (شجرة الدر),[a] whose royal name was al-Malika ʿAṣmat ad-Dīn ʾUmm-Khalīl Shajar ad-Durr (الملكة عصمة الدين أم خليل شجر الدر; from her nickname أم خليل ʾUmm Khalīl, ‘mother of Khalil’
Shajar al-Durr rose from being a child slave to ruling as a sultana in Egypt. She was married to As-Salih Ayyub after being his concubine, and later married Izz al-Din Aybak, the first sultan of the Mamluk Bahri dynasty. After his death, she became the sultana of Egypt on 2 May 1250, marking the end of the Ayyubid reign and the start of the Mamluk era. Shajar al-Durr and Aybak established the Mamluk dynasty that would ultimately repel the Mongols, force the European Crusaders from the Holy Land, and be the Middle East’s most powerful political force until the Ottomans.
Shajar al-Durr’s ethnicity is uncertain, with possibilities including Bedouin, Circassian, Greek, Turkic or Armenian origin. Described as intelligent, pious and beautiful, she was purchased by As-Salih Ayyub. He later became a sultan and, after the birth of their son Khalil, married al-Durr. When a gravely ill Ayyub died in November 1249, his advisors chose to conceal his death from the public, as a Crusader army was staging an attack on Egypt at the time. They sent a forged letter to his son, and the advisors issued orders in the dead sultan’s name, all the while claiming he was merely ill. Shajar participated in the ruse, having food prepared for her husband and having it brought to his tent.
When the Crusaders eventually found out about the sultan’s death, they attacked but were repelled by Egyptian soldiers and townspeople at Al Mansurah; Shajar was involved in the defense planning. When her stepson arrived to be crowned in February 1250, she finally publicly announced her husband’s death.
With the Seventh Crusade defeated and French King Louis IX captured, internal politics began brewing, a conflict with Shajar al-Durr and the Mamluks on one side and her stepson, Al-Muazzam Turanshah, on the other. Determined to consolidate his power, Turanshah began detaining and replacing his father’s officials with those loyal to himself. He was also an abusive drunk toward his father’s bondmaids and wealth threaten the Mamluks. He wrote to Shajar, demanding his late father’s wealth and jewels. His behaviour enraged her loyal Mamluks, and the last of the Ayyubid sultans was assassinated on 2 May 1250, only a few months into his reign.
The Mamluks and Emirs met and agreed to install Shajar al-Durr as the new ruler with Izz al-Din Aybak as Atabeg (commander in chief). She agreed to assume the monarchy, taking the royal name “al-Malikah Ismat ad-Din Umm-Khalil Shajar al-Durr” with titles such as “Malikat al-Muslimin” (Queen of the Muslims) and “Walidat al-Malik al-Mansur Khalil Emir al-Mo’aminin” (Mother of al-Malik al-Mansur Khalil, Emir of the faithful). Other monikers included “Umm al-Malik Khalil” (Mother of al-Malik Khalil) and “Sahibat al-Malik as-Salih” (Wife of al-Malik as-Salih) when she was included in the Friday prayers at mosques. She utilised the names of her son and deceased husband to help legitimise her reign as a rightful heir.
When word of the assassination and coronation reached Syria, the Syrian Emirs refused to pay homage to Shajar al-Durr, with the Sultan’s deputy in Al Karak rebelling against Cairo. They gave the city of Damascus to the Ayyubid Emir of Aleppo. The Mamluks in Cairo retaliated by arresting the Emirs loyal to the Ayyubids in Egypt. In Baghdad, the Abbasid Caliph al-Musta’ sim likewise rejected the changes and refused to recognize Shajar al-Dur as monarch – a major setback as tradition required a monarch to be recognised by the caliph to be considered legitimate.
Shajar al-Durr’s reign as sole monarch lasted only three months – to appease the other powers, the Mamluks installed Izz al-Din Aybak as sultan. He married Shajar, and she abdicated. During that short reign, expelling the French King Louis IX from Egypt officially ended the Crusaders’ attempt to conquer the southern Mediterranean basin.
To gain the Caliph’s approval, Aybak proclaimed himself merely his representative. To appease the Syrian Ayyubids, the Mamluks nominated an Ayyubid child, al-Sharaf Musa, as a co-sultan, but the Ayyubids were not satisfied and violence broke out between the groups, but eventually reached a peace agreement. Aybak began striking out at the Salihiyya Mamluks who had put him in power, leading to an exodus of the Mamluks.
Shajar Al-Durr was well known for incorporating the indigenous architecture of Bahri Mamluk tombs with madrasas (schools of Islam) and was the first Islamic Sultan of Egypt to do so. In 1250, she added a tomb to her husband’s urban madrasa, the Salihiyya, and madrasas and other charitably endowed architectural complexes became commemorative monuments, a practice that became popular among the Mamluk rulers and remains widespread today. She also built a mausoleum for herself; part of a larger charitable complex, only the tomb survives today, and it has been restored by the Athar Linna Foundation.
Within a few years, the turbulent marriage between Aybak and Shajar Al-Durr led to both of their murders. First, she had him killed and then his son and successor, the 15-year-old al-Mansur Ali, had her killed in return.
She was buried in a tomb near the Mosque of Tulun, decorated by skilled artisans.
Shajar al-Durr is a character in Sirat al-Zahir Baibars (Life of al-Zahir Baibars), a folklore epic composed in Egypt during the early Mamluk era and finalised n the early Ottoman era.