Few meters away from Ibn
Tulun mosque lies this interesting mausoleum
of Shagaret
El-Dorr (finished in 1250), the only woman who ever ruled
Egypt alone in Islamic
periods.
Shagaret El-Dorr (Tree of pearls) was married to the King
Al-Saleh Ayyub. Al-Saleh Ayyub died at the time crusaders
were attacking Egypt. Aimed at increasing the morale of the
soldiers, she concealed the news and pretended the king is
alive.
She then summoned the king's son who was happened to be abroad.
When he returned he proved to be incompetent so she had him
killed and ruled Egypt alone declaring herself a Sultana.
Under pressures from the Abbasid
Caliphate
in Baghdad, she later chose Aybak,
a senior Mamluk
leader, as a husband. When she heard he planned new marriage
she had him killed.
Aybak's wrathful Mamluks finally turned her over to Aybak's
other wife who -together with her slave women- beat her with
wooded clogs to death in 1257. Her body was hung on the citadel's
walls as food for dogs. Eventually her remains were collected
and put in the mausoleum that she built for herself.
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