Women are head of state in our history

A Wahhabi princess defeats the Egyptian army, a sultana ends the Crusades, and queens whose rule is praised by jurists

On "International Women's Day" corresponding to the eighth of March of each year; Many in the world recall a moment that dates back to the beginning of the celebration of this day, when, in 1908, 15,000 women took to the streets of New York City to demand a reduction in the number of working hours, an increase in wages, and the right to vote in elections.

In contrast, the world looked back to just one century ago, contemplating a demonstration that seeks justice for work; There are those who would like to turn their memory back centuries to see that women - in the light of Islamic civilization and on a realistic level - have often exceeded what is more important and greater than the justice of time in front of a machine, despite all the historical negatives that can be recorded that characterized their conditions in general.

A closer look at that history will undoubtedly restore documented testimonies of a large number of Islamic scholars, praising the political and administrative skills of women involved in managing states jointly or individually. About what this article tells.

Phrases such as “the lady has governed the king and managed matters greater than men” derive their value from the fact that they came from imams in the modern sciences of Sharia, jurisprudence and jurisprudence, not just from the opinion or analysis of an ordinary historian; It is from a jurist who knows what is theoretically stable in the legal schools regarding the assignment of “public mandates” to women, and knows the extent of the jurisprudential and even social sensitivity of feminist leadership.

But all of this did not prevent these trustworthy and established imams - even if their own impressions are not a legitimate argument - from registering these praises of political competence among a wide spectrum of Muslim women, who rose to thrones or were - for many reasons - guardians of the males who ascended them, even if one of them "You have managed matters greater than men!"

Our discussion - in this article - of the subject of the history of women’s assumption of power in Islamic countries - in various regions and of all ethnicities and over a period of a thousand years - does not come close to the well-known jurisprudential debate regarding the “guardianship of women”, but rather examines this phenomenon in its historical and practical dimension, and what “has happened.” It is to be used” many times in people’s lives within Islamic civilization, and historians - most of whom are hadith scholars and jurists - have transmitted it honestly and impartially, without denunciation or astonishment in most cases.

In fact, what the historical monitoring of this issue concludes confirms that the door of political leadership has remained practically open to women of all groups in the Islamic society, whether through direct leadership or from behind all kinds of veils, and even led them to lead civilized centers in Iraq and Egypt Persia and India.

This is not by chance; The historical presence of women in the Islamic public sphere is a natural prelude to those phenomena that we discuss in this article, as they have been present in science circles, fatwa circles , literature and poetry councils , and charitable activities. This is from the first moments of their attribution of the message of Islam as it touched the ground for the first time in Mecca, until their management of the Islamic Kingdom of Bhopal in the middle of the Indian subcontinent.

The precedents

of the guidance of Fatah al-Islam - since the dawning of its lights, a heavenly life and a prophetic guidance - for women to participate in public affairs in education, politics, jihad, accountability for rights and refutation of grievances; It came in 'Sahih al-Bukhari' that the women said to the Prophet ﷺ one day, "The men have defeated you! Make us a day of yourselves, so he promised them a day on which he would meet them, so he exhorted them and commanded them." The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, praised the women of the Ansar for good and encouraged them to enter into the spirit of storming to seek knowledge and to ask about the issues that would be presented to them.

Women’s accountability and female presence reached their climax in the Prophet’s city on the day one of them spoke before the Holy Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, on behalf of all the women of the world as their delegates to him. When Asma bint Yazid al-Ansari (d. 69 AH/689AD) came to the Prophet, peace be upon him, while he was among his companions, and she said: By my father, you and my mother, I am the arrival of women to you, and I know - my soul is for you to redeem - either that there is no woman in the east or west who has heard of this exit of mine or not You only hear it and it is like my opinion!!

And after establishing her role as a representative of the women of her time; Asma presented her petition and said: “God has sent you with truth to men and women, so we believe in you and in your God who sent you, and we women are confined to confined spaces, the bases of your homes. If a man among you goes out for a pilgrim, or a pilgrim, and a pilgrim, we will preserve your money for you, we will spin garments for you, and raise your children for you, so what do we share in the reward with you, O Messenger of God?!”

The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, met this strong argument with admiration, “so he turned to his companions with all his face, then said: “Have you ever heard a woman’s speech better than asking her in the matter of her religion than this one?” They said: O Messenger of God, we did not think that a woman would be guided to something like this. Then the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, turned to her, then said to her: “Go away, woman, and inform the women behind you that the good devotion of one of you to her husband, his seeking his pleasure, and her following his consent modifies all that.” He said: So the woman managed while she was cheering and growing up in rejoicing. As in the narration of the updated Imam Ahmad bin Al-Hussein Al-Bayhaqi (458AH/1067AD) in “Shu’ab Al-Iman”.

In the Rashidi era; Muslim women continued their presence in public affairs in consultation and implementation, especially during the era of Omar Al-Faruq (d. 23 AH / 645 AD), who witnessed great internal stability, and women had a significant presence in the public sphere.

One of the female companions confronted him - after he became the Caliph of the Muslims - during a sermon on the pulpit of the Messenger of God, peace be upon him, when he ordered a reduction in the dowry of women; She said: “O Omar, God gives us and you deprive us [you]! Isn’t God Almighty saying: (And you give one of them a talent, so take nothing from it)?” Omar said: A woman was right and Omar made a mistake. As in 'The Whole of Laws of the Qur'an' by Imam Abu Abdullah al-Qurtubi (d. 671 AH / 1272 AD).

What was Al-Faruq Omar against women? History has preserved for us that he used to present the Companion Al-Shifa bint Abdullah Al-Qurashiah (d. 20 AH/642 AD) “in opinion, pleases her and prefers her, and perhaps he gave her something from the market’s command,” because “she was one of the wise and virtuous women, and the Messenger of God, peace be upon him, used to come to her and say goodbye to her in her house.” "; According to the narration of Imam Ibn Abd al-Bar (d. 463 AH/1071 AD) in his book 'Assimilation'.

The women’s embassy for her people and her warning to the rulers witnessed a tremendous transformation after the Rightly-Guided Caliphate. The ancients paid attention to its literary, intellectual and political value. They included it in the folds of encyclopedias or singled out it by authoring, such as the book “Akhbar al-Wo’at al-Wo’at wa’l-Afa’at al-Wo’a wa’l-Ala’at Muawiyah ibn Abi Sufyan” by al-Abbas ibn Bakkar al-Dhabi (d. 222 AH/837AD). This small book presents us with vivid images from the history of the strong participation of women politically and in the wars that were waged to preserve the Rightly-Guided Caliphate and in opposition to the transformation of Islamic rule into a coercive monarch.

The time has become stronger and more firmly established, and the participation of women in power and the management of public affairs is more enhanced

, to the extent that the majority of Islamic countries in the East and the Maghreb have not been free from the presence of a woman participating in government at one of three levels: to extract from the statesmen respect for her opinions, so she becomes a trusted advisor, or to compete with them in managing affairs The general public in planning and implementation, or overpowering them on the thrones and taking the reins of leadership and exclusivity of sovereignty.

In the early Abbasid state; Fatima bint Ali bin Abdullah bin Abbas (died after 136 AH / 754 AD) was the aunt of the two Caliphs al-Saffah (d. 136 AH / 754 AD) and Al-Mansur (d. 157 AH / 775 AD) "a firm woman. The believers - and others honor her, glorify her and venerate her for her firmness, intellect and her opinion.” As Ibn Asaker (d. 571 AH / 1175 AD) tells us in 'The History of Damascus'.

When Harun al-Rashid (d. 193 AH / 809 AD) assumed the caliphate; He delegated the management of its affairs with an absolute delegation to his minister, Yahya bin Khalid Al-Barmaki (d. 190 AH/806 AD), and he said to him: “I have appointed you the matter of the flock, and I took it off my neck and put it on your neck, so turn whoever you see, and isolate whoever you see!!”

With this absolute delegated authority of Minister al-Barmaki; His mother, Khaizan (d. 173 AH / 789 AD) was present in the management of his caliphate, extending from Algeria in the west to China in the east. She was “the one who consults in all matters, and Yahya bin Khalid does not interrupt a matter until he consults her in what he concludes, solves, decides and rules”; According to Imam Ibn Kathir (d. 774 AH / 1372 AD) in 'The Beginning and the End'.

Also, al-Rasheed himself was consulting his mother from breastfeeding, Umm Jaafar bin Yahya al-Baramaki (she died after 193 AH/809 AD) “a manifestation of her honor and blessing in her opinion, and he ( swore) while in her guarantee that he would not withhold her, and she did not seek her intercession for anyone except that she interceded, and she ( swore) ) upon him, Umm Jaafar, that she did not enter upon him except with her permission, and did not intercede for anyone for a worldly purpose. Sahl said: How many captives have you freed, and an ambiguous one with whom she is opened, and one who is locked out of him has been released? As in Al-Aqd Al-Farid by Ibn Abd Rabbo Al-Andalusi (d. 328 AH / 940 AD).

The influence of the great bamboo - in the state of her wise son - was the beginning of a long path of female control in the circles of power, in which the female slave-girls reached the maximum that a free Arab or Muslim woman could reach, which is to have the privilege of being the mother of the ruling sultans and the maker of the great ministers. So that out of the 37 Abbasid men who assumed the position of caliphate in Baghdad, we find only three whose mothers were from “the silks”, and they are: Al-Saffah (d. 136 AH / 754 AD), Al-Mahdi bin Al-Mansur (d. 169 AH / 786 AD), and Al-Amin bin Al-Rashid (d. 198 AH / 813 AD). ).

In the far Islamic West, the phenomenon of women’s presence in government is evident through advice and opinion. We find Zainab bint Ishaq al-Nafwiyya (d. 464 AH/1072 AD), the wife of the actual founder of the Almoravid state, Prince Yusuf bin Tashfin (d. 500 AH/1106 AD), which was the reason for his exclusion in the northern wing of the state.

The historian Ibn al-Atheer (d. 630 AH / 1232 AD) - in 'Al-Kamil' - described this Zainab as "one of the best women, and she is the ruler in his country". According to Ibn Khaldun, she is "one of the world's famous women of beauty and leadership", "and that she was the head of his command and authority."

Then he mentions the fact that she persuaded her husband to turn against the legitimate emir of his state, Abu Bakr bin Amer al-Lamtouni (d. 480 AH/1087 AD), and how she planned for him to be alone in ruling Morocco and leave him the Western African desert; He says that she "referred to him at Abu Bakr's reference from the desert [to Morocco]. [b] to show tyranny until [Abu Bakr] abstained from his dispute [in ruling], and Yusuf bin Tashfin was granted his king" Al-Arid in Morocco, which continued to expand until it included Andalusia Thanks to his wife's shrewd planning.

Late history books may have exaggerated Zainab's political fanaticism skills; For example, the Moroccan historian Nazarene al-Salawi (d. 1315 AH / 1898 AD) says - in the 'Investigation' - that Zainab was for her husband, Sultan Yusuf, "the title of his happiness, the guardian of his kingdom and the mastermind of his order, and the controversy over him with her good policy in most countries of the Maghreb", and that she was called the "witch" for what she was From "a sober mind, solid opinion and knowledge of managing things"!!

A Yemeni leadership that

strikes Yemeni women’s relationship with rule and sultan with deep roots in human history, and we have calculated in this what the Holy Qur’an foretold about the Queen of Sheba, whom Islamic sources call Balqis bint Sharaheel (10th century BC), and that she ruled the Yemenis “and was given from all things, and to them is power.” (An-Naml / Verse 23). i.e., she was “got from everything that kings give in the immediate world, from what they have of equipment and tools”; According to Imam al-Tabari (d. 310 AH / 922 AD) in his interpretation of 'Jami al-Bayan'.

It is clear from the Qur’anic story that the traditions of good governance based on consultation and avoiding tyranny were observed in this state of the Queen of Sheba; When the book of the Prophet Suleiman bin Dawood - peace be upon him - came to her, she gathered the members of her advisory council - which the Qur'an called "the publics" - and addressed them saying: "I would not be conclusive until you testify" (An-Naml / verse: 32); i.e.: “Refer to me in my matter that has come to me from the matter of the author of this book that was delivered to me, so I made the advice a fatwa.” According to al-Tabari.

The Holy Qur’an, therefore, immortalized the story of the Queen of Sheba who converted to Islam and joined the vast kingdom of Solomon. This was the foundation of a very significant Yemeni precedent that, over the centuries, inspired the women of Yemen and other aspirants to participate in public affairs and manage the affairs of states in the management and reform.

Therefore, when Islam came and the tribes of Yemen entered it in droves; Soon, Al-Aswad Al-Ansi (d. 11 AH / 633 AD) claimed prophecy in one of the villages of Najran in the north of the country, so he invaded the capital, Sana’a, “and Yemen secured its perfection” for his control, “and made his command diffuse the spark…, and the people of Yemen apostatized [from Islam], and the Muslims who treated him treated him there by taqiyya" to ward off his evil; According to Ibn Kathir in 'The Beginning and the End'.

In the face of this dangerous event, which represented the spark that later inspired - shortly after the death of the Prophet, peace be upon him - the leaders of the apostasy movement from Islam in several parts of the Arabian Peninsula; The Messenger of Islam, peace be upon him, only sent an envoy to Yemen “ordering the Muslims who are there to fight Al-Aswad Al-Ansi and co-operate with him…; [Q] the Muslims agreed on that and contracted it.”

And in implementation of the firm command of the Prophet; The men of Yemen - led by the noble Companion Wali of the country, Muadh bin Jabal (d. 18 AH / 640 AD) - did not find it difficult to seek the help of a woman to turn against the rebellious Al-Ansi, his wife, who is called “Azad”; “She was a beautiful, beautiful woman, and despite that she believed in God and His Messenger, Muhammad, peace be upon him, and she was among the righteous.” According to Ibn Kathir's description.

Mrs. Azaz was ready to turn against her Mutanabbi husband in response to the orders of the Prophet of Islam regarding him, and the man who spoke to her about the coup plan was her cousin, and he aroused her enthusiasm by reminding her of what Al-Aswad Al-Ansi was famous for humiliating her people and “exposing women” in her society. She only agreed to overthrow him, and even suggested his assassination, saying, according to Ibn Kathir: “By God, God has not created a person who is more hateful to me than him. This matter".

And when they resolved to implement the order, “their opinion agreed that they should return to the woman in his affair,” and her revolutionary plan was ready, so one of their leaders entered her and said: “There is no house in the house except that the guards surround it other than this house. If its back is to such and such a place from the road, If you come in the evening, they will search for him without the guard, and nothing without killing him, and I will put in the house a lamp and a weapon” so that they can be used to kill him.

The assassination plotted by Mrs. "Azad" succeeded in elaborate planning, and she led its execution with an eloquence that astonished her men. Then, after his murder, she continued working with her men to cover up what had happened to distract the supporters of Al-Aswad Al-Ansi from initiating a counter-revolution.

During the execution of the assassination, disapproving voices came from Al-Ansi as he was wrestling with death, and then “the guard rushed to the cabin ( his private room), and said: What is this what is this?!” The woman said: “The Prophet was revealed to him! So they came back!!” And her work had a central historical role in the consolidation of Islam in the Yemeni country forever.

Extensive influence

in the second Abbasid state; The slave girl, Shaghab (d. 321 AH / 933 AD) - and she was the mother of the Abbasid Caliph al-Muqtadir Billah (d. 320 AH / 932 AD) - attained such influence and control that in the year 306 AH / 918 AD she commanded “Qahramana ( business manager/private writer) for her known as Thamal” To sit on the soil that it built in Rusafa every Friday, and to look into the grievances that are brought to it in the stories ( complaints), and judges and jurists are present in its council; As in the 'beginning and the end' not ben many.

And in 'The Regular' by Ibn al-Jawzi (d. 597 AH / 1201 AD) she "had great wealth that exceeded the statistics, it would rise ( income) for her from her loss every year a thousand thousand dinars ( today approximately 200 million US dollars), and she used to give more than that. And she was persevering in the interests of the pilgrims ( pilgrims), sending the cupboard of drinks ( medicines) and doctors with them, and ordering the repair of the toilets” from which people draw water on the pilgrimage route between Baghdad and Mecca.

She paid the tax of her influence through a bloody ordeal carried out by Al-Qaher Billah (d. 339 AH / 950 AD), who followed her son in the caliphate, and the echoes of her control over the capital of the Abbasid caliphate, Baghdad, reverberated in the Islamic West, specifically Umayyad Andalusia.

Its hegemony over decision-making was the reason why the powerful Prince of Andalusia, Abd al-Rahman al-Nasir (d. 350 AH / 961 AD) declared himself the caliph of all Muslims at the end of the year 316 AH / 928 AD. Imam al-Dhahabi (d. 748 AH / 1347 AD) says in 'The Biography of the Nobles': "When he heard the weakness of the caliphate in Iraq and the emergence of the Ubaid Shiites ( the Fatimids) in Kairouan, he saw that he was more entitled to the command of the believers."

And the dangerous roles that women contributed to in the corridors of the Abbasid Caliphate continued until they reached the point of overthrowing other caliphs and installing others. Including the cunning plan to overthrow the Abbasid Caliph Al-Muttaqi Allah (d. 357 AH / 968 AD), and install al-Mustaqfi in Allah (d. 338 AH / 949 AD) in his place.

She drew the plan for that coup and supervised its successful implementation by one of the women of Baghdad. She "speaks Arabic and Farsi from the people of Shiraz, a gallant and understanding person When the caliphate was completed, it changed its name and made it a flag, and it became the Qahramana of the seeker and took control of his entire matter." According to the historian Ibn Miskawayh (d. 421 AH/1030 AD) in 'Experiences of Nations'.

In the far Islamic East, the days of the Samanid state; Ibn al-Atheer tells us - in 'Al-Kamil' - that the mother of Prince Noah bin Mansour al-Samani (d. 387 AH / 998 AD) "was ruling in the state of her son, and they would issue her opinion" in their management of the affairs of the kingdom.

and close to the Samanid state in place and time; The lady, the mother of Majd al-Dawla al-Buwaihi (died 419 AH/1029 AD) was in the capital of the Buyids in Rayy (Tehran today) “managing the kingdom and arranging matters”, and to her the statesmen from ministers and clerks return “in the management of the king and from her opinion they issue  in conducting business”; As in 'Al Kamil' by Ibn al-Athir.

And when her son, the glory of the state, grew out of the circle and was spoiled by his entourage against her, so he wanted to turn against her; She fought a heroic epic until she removed him from power in the year 397 AH/1008 AD, and her second son, nicknamed "Shams al-Dawla", took his place. According to the historian Imam Sibt Ibn al-Jawzi (d. 654 AH / 1256 AD) in 'Mirat al-Zaman'.

Sibt Ibn al-Jawzi describes the efficiency of this woman's style of governance; He says that "the lady governed the king and managed matters greater than the men, and she was sitting behind a light curtain, and the model ( army commander) and the minister were sitting in front of her, addressing her and addressing them, while they were carrying out matters."

An emerging tradition

As in many regions of the Islamic East; The countries of the Maghreb witnessed remarkable women’s participation in the affairs of governance, management and influence, and perhaps what encouraged this what the Fatimid kings were known for adopting a pragmatic policy, one of its features being openness to women’s rule in the outskirts of their state, and allowing it as long as it grants them subordination and control over country, especially in the Islamic West and the South in Yemen.

Among the early examples of this in the countries of the Maghreb, specifically in the state of Beni Ziri, the Senhajiah in Tunisia, during the days when it was an emirate affiliated with the Fatimid state in Egypt; The strong political influence possessed by Princess Umm Mellal bint Al-Mansur bin Balqin bin Ziri Al-Sinhaji (d. 414 AH / 1023 AD).

This lady was not satisfied with being a co-ruler for her brother Abu Manad Badis Nasir al-Dawla (d. 406 AH/1016 AD), but also sought to build the external political ties that required strengthening her influence internally, meaning that she maintained parallel and equal diplomatic relations - if not stronger - For the one owned by her brother, the Prince!!

The historian Ibn Adhari al-Marrakchi (d. 695 AH / 1297 AD) tells us - in the 'Moroccan Statement' - that when "Nasir al-Dawla brought out a great gift to the ruler" by God's command (d. 411 AH/1021 AD), the Caliph of the Fatimids in Egypt, and he owed him political subordination; His sister, Mrs. Umm Mellal, "to the Lady Sister of the Ruler ( Sitt al-Mulk / Lady al-Mulk bint al-Aziz Billah the Fatimid, died 415 AH/1025 AD) also sent a gift" because this woman had a strong presence in the management of the Fatimid state; As we shall see.

And when her brother, Prince Nasir al-Dawla, died, "Al-Mansur bin Rashik (the governor of Kairouan after 407 AH / 1017 AD), the judge of Qayrawan and al-Mansuriyah and its sheikhs, and those who were with her from the Sanhajis, attributed her to her brother." After her nephew Sanhaji (d. 454 AH/1065 AD) "people came to congratulate the lady on his mandate."

And the respect of the Sinhalese statesmen in Tunisia continued for Mrs. Umm Mellal until the moment of her funeral to her grave. When she fell ill with her death, “the honor of the state arrives to her every day, returning and inspecting, and he sits next to her and authorizes his men and servants to enter her and then leave.” And when she died, “pray at her funeral with items ( banners/flags), drums, and buildings ( women’s howls) [ And everyone] was in a state of honor for this funeral that no angel or a market ( common people) was seen like it”; According to Ibn Adhari Marrakchi.

The political relationship established by this Senhaji princess with the lady leads us to reveal the great influence and dominance of this lady in the corridors of decision-making in the capital of the Fatimid state, Cairo, to the extent that she established an administration parallel to the official state administrations, which was known as “The Diwans of Sayyida Sitt al-Mulk”; As the historian of the Fatimid state al-Maqrizi (d. 845 AH / 1441 AD) tells us in his book 'The Hanafis' Invocation of the News of the Fatimid Imams and Caliphs'.

Decisive intervention

And when the conditions of her brother Al-Hakim changed by the command of God and his oppression and terror of people increased, they complained about his matter to her due to what they knew of the influence of her word with him. working to destroy him, and I worked out my opinion on that and kept him in the soul until I found the opportunity easy, so I started it, and arranged for him to assassinate him”; According to the narration of Ibn al-Qalansi al-Tamimi (d. 555 AH / 1160 AD) in 'The History of Damascus'.

Al-Maqrizi informs us that after her assassination of her brother, the ruler, Sett al-Mulk decided to install one of his young sons in his place, so she ordered the statesmen to “take the pledge of allegiance to the apparent to Izzaz Din Allah ibn al-Hakim (d. 427 AH/1037 AD),” who was 16 years old at the time. After the matter settled with her, she "killed all those who knew her secret" from whom she had partnered with in getting rid of her brother!!

According to Ibn Adhari al-Marrakchi; If you set the kingdom after that, “the kingdom was controlled and matters were straightened out with good opinion and management. The Minister Ammar (Ben Muhammad, nicknamed Khatir al-Mulk, d. 412 AH / 1022 AD) was delegated to him to look into the offices, money, writing and other services of the caliphate, so I ordered his killing and he was killed. And I started managing the kingdom. No command - more or less - can be executed without a signature that departs from it in the handwriting of Abi al-Bayan al-Siqali (died after 411 AH/1021 AD)", and he was the chief of its owners.

Al-Maqrizi presents to us - in 'The Hanifa Teachings' - a summary of his vision of the era in which Sitt al-Malik became independent in managing the affairs of government. He says, "She managed the affairs of the state after losing her brother, the ruler, by God's command, for five years and eight months, during which she restored to the king his graciousness, regained his joy, filled the treasuries with different types of money, imitated the worthy of great deeds, and fabricated ( attracted) men!!"

Then, women’s influence in the Fatimid state continued with the Nubian Lady Rassad (d. after 480 AH/1086 AD), the mother of the Fatimid Caliph al-Mustansir Billah ibn al-Zahir (d. 487 AH/1094AD), who ascended the throne of power at the age of seven in 427 AH/1037 AD, and his mother was “dominant.” over his state, and she was pretending to be ministers and assuming them, and they used to take the loyalists ( Mamluk soldiers) from the Turks to conquer the state, so whoever despised him was tempted by al-Mustansir, so he killed him”; According to Ibn Khaldun (d. 808 AH / 1406 AD) in his history.

Contrary to what was characterized by the stability and prosperity of the reign of Sitt al-Malik in the state; The experience of Mrs. Rasd in power was not successful if we exclude the first nine years, during which she sought the powerful Minister of Sett al-Malik Abu al-Qasim Ali bin Ahmed al-Jarja’i (d. 436 AH/1045 AD).

A disastrous outcome.

The bad outcome of the arrangement of al-Mustansir and his mother to rule prompted a wise historian who lived close to that era, like Ibn al-Qalani, to paint a very dark picture of al-Mustansir’s era; We find him saying in 'History of Damascus': "In his days, strife erupted. Prices increased and sustenance decreased, conditions turbulent and business disrupted, and he was confined to his palace and greed to oust him due to his weakness, and the matter remained in this state until the commander of the armies summoned Badr al-Jamali (d. 487 AH). (1096 AD) from Acre to Egypt in the year 465 (AH/1073 AD), so he took over the ministry and management in Egypt.”

The reign of her son Al-Mustansir - who continued for six decades, most of which was under the influence of his mother - was an example of the state's disorder and disorder, and what Egypt suffered in his time of "Al-Mustansiriyah hardship" (457-464 AH/1066-1073 AD), which was the far cause of the state's deterioration, was sufficient. As a result of the weakening of the position of the Fatimid “caliphs” and the subsequent opening of the era of the rule of “strong ministers” with the rule of Badr al-Jamali, an era that continued until the end of the Fatimid state at the hands of the Zangids through their Ayyubid collaborators in the year 567 AH / 1174 AD.

If the Ayyubids had ended the rule of the Fatimids; They inherited many of their traditions in governance, including - it seems - the phenomenon of women's influence in the Sultanate and their participation in rule, although this only happened at the end of their state and specifically in one of the remnants of their kingdoms in the Levant.

This imam al-Dhahabi tells us - in 'History of Islam' - about the companion Dhaifah Khatun (d. 640 AH / 1242 AD), indicating the high position she occupies within the ruling Ayyubid family, as the daughter of the just Sultan Abu Bakr (d. 615 AH / 1218 AD), and the wife of Al-Zahir Ghazi (d. 613 AH). / 1216 AD) King of Aleppo, the mother of his son and successor, the Aziz Muhammad (d. 631 AH / 1234 AD), and the grandmother of his son Al-Nasir Salah al-Din II (d. 659 AH / 1261 AD), King of Damascus!!

Al-Dhahabi describes her as “she was a noble and sane queen,” and says that when “her dear son died, she behaved like the sultans and rose to the king in the most perfect way with justice, compassion, giving, charity, reason and dexterity ( behaving cleverly),” she “removed grievances and taxes ( taxes) She affects the poor and the scholars, and brings to them many alms, and no one intends it except that he returns with good cheer ( pleased), and when she died, the gates of Aleppo were closed for three days!!

We also find before the above-mentioned history in Levant, Mrs. Safwa King Zumurud Khatun, daughter of Prince Jawli (died 557 AH / 1162 AD) and Umm Shams al-Muluk (d. 557 AH / 1162 AD), who exaggerated “injustice and confiscation He punished people with ugly art that he invented,” then threatened to hand over Damascus. To the Franks, "So his command became apparent to the people, and they were pitying the destruction of their own and their common people, and they ended the matter with Emerald So her religion and her intellect made her look at what would resolve the disease, and she did not find a solution to its destruction, and it was pointed out to her when they despaired of its good. He killed her son who destroyed the plow and the offspring.

Al-Dhahabi adds - in 'History' - that after this incident he exalted her status, "and the souls were subordinated to her, then she arranged his brother Mahmoud bin Buri (d. 533 AH / 1139 AD) in the Sultanate, and she managed his kingdom until he married her, the state counsellor" Imad Al-Din Zangi (d. 541 AH). / 1146 AD) the founder of the Zangid state and the father of Nur al-Din Mahmoud Zangi (d. 569 AH / 1173 AD).

An inspiring experience

The former Queen of Sheba - as previously mentioned - constituted a strong political memory for Yemeni women, which continued to draw them together and nurture their aspirations to the throne of power and the management of kingdoms; Bilqis was a living Yemeni model for emulation and comparison, as evidenced by the words of the Yemeni poet Amr bin Yahya Al-Haythami (died after 460 AH/1068 AD): I said when they glorified Balqis a throne: ** I traversed the names of the tops of the star higher!!

The intended names here are Asmaa bint Shihab al-Sulayhi (d. 479 AH/1086 AD), the wife of Ali bin Muhammad al-Sulayhi (d. 460 AH/1068 AD), the founder of the Sulayhid state in Yemen. And he entrusted her with management and did not differ from her in most of her affairs, and he used to revere her in great respect, so that when she came to an assembly, she would not cover her face with anything, and he would be able to hug her and make her face. According to 'Behavior in the Layers of Scholars and Kings' by Muhammad bin Yusuf Al-Jundi Al-Yamani (d. 732 AH / 1332 AD).

Queen Asma was captured when the princes of Zabid, the sons of Najah al-Habashi, killed her husband and brother on their way from the Hajj in 460 AH/1068 AD and cut off their heads, and they went with Asma’ to their capital, Zabid.

In Zabid, Asmaa was subjected to house arrest “and someone was assigned to guard her so she deceived and wrote to her honorable son urging him to fight [them] Then she put the book on a loaf and tucked it into a poor man and ordered him to deliver it to her son Ahmed bin Al-Mukarram 10 84 AH) He carried it, and when the book reached al-Mukarram, he immediately left Sanaa in three thousand horsemen.” Then he entered Zabid and freed his mother from the families of the Successors; According to the soldier in 'Behaviour'.

consolidating Yemeni leadership in women’s rule; Ali bin Muhammad Al-Sulayhi “Yajl” was the wife of his son Ahmed Al-Mukarram, Al-Sayida Al-Hurra bint Ahmed Al-Sulayhih (d. 532 AH/1138AD), known as “Arwa” or “Bilqis the Younger” for her soundness of mind and good management of the king and others; According to al-Jundi, who describes her culture, he says that "she was a reader of the Book of God Almighty, a memorizer of many Arab poems, a knowledge of history, and a preference for knowledge over many kings!!"

An inherited experience

and thus the Sulayhid woman took a larger step in exercising power; Arwa was not satisfied with participating in the political decision, as Asmaa did with her husband, but also assumed power by herself when her husband, Ahmed Al-Makarram Al-Sulayhi, died.

Al-Sulaihi, the father, was “ordering Asma to honor her and saying, ‘She, by God, is the guardian of our offspring and the guardian of this matter over those of us who remain.”

And the soul of the free woman, Arwa, did not calm down until she avenged her in-laws, killing the killer of her husband’s father and capturing her mother-in-law. According to the soldier in 'Behaviour'. Thus, its rule lasted for about fifty years (484-532 AH/1091-1138 AD), during which it remained affiliated - politically and doctrinally - to the center of the Shiite Fatimid state in Egypt.

The Yemeni women’s experience in rule continued after the Sulayhid state, but this time it moved to the courts of the Sunni ruling families belonging to multiple eras of Yemen’s political history. In the era of the Ayyubid expansion into Yemen, the mother of King Al-Nasir Ayoub Ibn Saif Al-Islam, Tughtekin (d. 611 AH / 1214 AD), the King of Yemen, "overcame Zabid and seized the money, and she remained attentive to the coming of a man from Bani Ayyub to rise to the throne and criticize the princes, within the limits of more than Six hundred" i.e. about 1209 AD.

So she sent to Mecca someone to reveal matters to her, and its slaves fell in love with Solomon Shah, and he asked him about his name and lineage, and he told him, so he wrote to her, so she requested him, so he went to Yemen, and he came to Umm Al-Nasir, and she married him and made him queen, and he was magnified except that he filled the country with injustice and oppression. "; As in the 'History of Islam' for al-Dhahabi.

Likewise, the Rasulid state in Yemen was not without a woman who is related to government and public affairs. This princess Al-Dar Al-Shamsi (d. 695 AH / 1296 AD), the daughter of Sultan Al-Mansur Omar bin Ali bin Rasul (d. 648 AH / 1250 AD), was "a wise, chaste, resolute Labiba woman, and she loved her brother Al-Muzaffar (d. 694 AH / 1295 AD) very much"; According to the historian Muwaffaq al-Din al-Khazraji al-Zubaidi (d. 812 AH / 1409 AD) in 'Pearl Contracts in the History of the Rasulid State'.

What indicates the cunning of this princess is that she managed the crisis of the vacancy of the position of the head of power resulting from the death of her father in the absence of his crown prince, her brother Al-Muzaffar. Then she was the reason for taking the Dumula ( a fortress on a mountain) That is why he was justifying her and did not disagree with her opinion.

A defining era

with the death of the last sultan of the Ayyubid state in Egypt, the good Najm al-Din Ayyub (d. 647 AH / 1249 AD), and the killing of his crown prince and his only son Turanshah (d. 648 AH / 1250 AD) at the hands of the Mamluks who realized the danger to their influence; Soon, "the people of the state agreed to establish Shajar Al-Dur Bint Abdullah (the widow of Sultan Ayyub, who died 655 AH / 1257 AD). in the Kingdom of Egypt"; As stated by the judge and historian Taqi al-Din al-Maqrizi in 'Al-Moawa'at wa'l-I'tibar'.

From the moment “Ismat al-Din Shajarat al-Durr” ascended to the throne in Cairo; The state of the Mamluk sultans has already begun, according to the opinion of Al-Maqrizi, who says in his history 'Al-Suluk': "And this woman - Shajarat al-Durr - is the first king of Egypt from the Mamluk Turk kings!"

The historian of the Ayyubid state, Ibn Wasil al-Hamawi (d. 697 AH / 1298 AD) - in 'Mafraj al-Karub in the news of Bani Ayyub' - tells us that Shajarat al-Durr "was called for it in the name of the Sultanate in the land of Egypt, and he addressed it on the pulpits for three months, and this did not happen in Islam!!"

Thus, Shajarat al-Durr became the first woman to rule alone - without the presence of any figurehead ruler to address his name - in a central Sunni state such as Egypt, and the second to do so in the Islamic world after her predecessor, the Yemeni Queen Arwa al-Sulayhiyya, which was mentioned above. Thus, we realize the inaccuracy of the generalization made by Ibn Wasil al-Hamawi when he said that the event of Shajarat al-Durr’s assumption “did not take place… in Islam”!!

Although the single rule of Shajarat al-Durr was not a historical precedent of its kind in the Islamic world; As a result of the pressure of public opinion rejecting her assuming the leadership of the country, and the opposition of the Ayyubid princes in the Levant to her rule, she was forced to abdicate to her new husband, Izz al-Din Aybak al-Turkmani (d. 655 AH / 1257 AD) to be the first Mamluk sultan in the emerging Mamluk state.

In this regard, Ibn Khaldun says in his history: “The state in Egypt became independent from the Turks, and the state of Bani Ayyub became extinct from it by killing al-Moazam [Turanshah] and the guardianship of women and what was involved in that. The people had resented the guardianship of the woman ( Shajarat al-Durr), so they agreed on the guardianship of their leader, Ibek So they pledged allegiance to him - and they deposed Umm Khalil - and called him al-Muizz, so he took the matter and became the king of Egypt.”

Thus ended the experience of the Shajarat al-Durr Sultanate, which only lasted for months, although it succeeded - before and during it - in leading the country amid stormy conditions, which was marked by the sudden death of her husband, the powerful Sultan, as he descended the Seventh Crusade in northern Egypt in the year 647 AH / 1249 AD, which she was able to Managing its facts wisely and tightly, for "the Turks' princes. did a good job, and they stood with Shajarat al-Durr, the Sultan's husband, under the banners mentioning its place, so they had the ball and God defeated the enemy"; According to Ibn Khaldun.

Shajarat al-Durr reached a settlement with the Crusaders based on the bartering handing them over to Damietta and evacuating Egypt by releasing their campaign leader, King Louis IX of France (d. 669 AH/1270AD). On this historical military achievement - which marked the end of the Crusades against the region of Egypt and the Levant until the era of modern European colonialism - and linking it to Shajar al-Durr's assumption of power; The Ayyubid king of Hama, the historian Abu al-Fida Imad al-Din (d. 732 AH / 1332 AD) says in his book 'Al-Mukhtasar fi Akhbar al-Bishr':

"Shajarat al-Durr was addressed on the pulpits, and the rail ( coinage) was struck in its name, and the inscription on the rail was: "Al-Mu'tasimiyah Al-Salihiya, the Queen of the Muslims, the mother of Al-Mansur Khalil." ) in the extradition of Damietta by releasing him. so they handed it over. and Red Efrance was released, and he rode into the sea with those who had been handed over with him The good news of this great conquest was received to all countries!!

The period of Shajarat al-Durr’s rule also marked the beginning of a central historical period in the history of Islam, which followed the loss of the capital of the Caliphate, Baghdad, under the horses of the Mongols in the year 656 AH / 1258 AD; As the sultans of the Mamluk class (49 sultans) took over the reins of power in the heart of the Islamic world, establishing their state, which took upon itself the task of leading this world with its three central ribs (Hejaz, Egypt and the Levant) and protecting the Two Holy Mosques and the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque for nearly three centuries (648-) 923 AH / 1250-1517 AD).

At the beginning of the ninth century AH / 15 AD; We find a unique example of women taking power independently in Iraq, which seems to be a reproduction of the Yemeni and Egyptian Mamluk experiences, especially that the Mughal Sultanate Tendo (d. 822 AH / 1419 AD), the daughter of Sultan Hussein bin Uwais (d. 784 AH / 1382 AD) was “presented with her uncle Ahmed Ibn Uwais (Sultan of Iraq d. 813 AH / 1410 AD) moved to Egypt, and Al-Zahir Barquq married her (the Mamluk Sultan d. 801 AH / 1398 AD) and then divorced her"; According to Imam al-Sakhawi (d. 902 AH / 1497 AD) in 'The Brilliant Light'.

Al-Sakhawi adds that this Tando "was very beautiful. so her cousin Shah Walad married her (d. 814 AH / 1411 AD), when they returned to Baghdad and [her uncle] Ahmed died, a Shah born in the Sultanate was established, so this wife plotted ( conspired) against him until he was killed It was established in the Sultanate. and became independent in the Kingdom for a period, in the year nineteen (819 AH / 1416 AD)."

Then this imam reveals to us about the expansion of the king of Mrs. Tendo in southern and northern Iraq, and her acquisition of all aspects of legitimacy that are given to kings and sultans among men; “There came to be in her kingdom the island [Euphrates] and Wasit, she was called to her pulpits, and the tracks were struck in her name until she died,” and she ruled alone for three years.

Late models

The phenomenon of the female Sultanate continued in the Islamic world until the modern era. One of his expressive examples in time and place was the Arab princess Ghalia Al-Baqmiya (d. after 1230 AH / 1815 AD), who belongs to the Al-Baqoum tribe endemic to the Hijaz near Taif from the region of Najd.

Perhaps the first to write - in Arab sources - about this Hijazi princess - with a surprising role - is the historian of the contemporary Arabian Peninsula tribes, Muhammad bin Hamad Al-Bassam Al-Tamimi Al-Najdi, of Iraqi origin (d. 1246 AH / 1830 AD).

In his book, “Al-Durar Al-Fakhr fi Al-Akhbar Al-Akhbar Al-Akhbar Al-Arab” (The Glory of Honor in the Late Arab News), he recorded valuable information - which is contemporary to her events - about this lady and her leadership of her people, and the historical role she contributed to in a pivotal historical moment, marked by the bloody conflict between the armies of the Saudi prince and the governor of Ottoman Egypt, Muhammad Ali Pasha. (died 1265 AH / 1848 AD) and his military leaders in the Hijaz.

During Al-Bassam’s talk about the tribes of Hejaz, He said: "Among them are 'Al-Baqoom', but the ruling over them is a woman named 'Ghaliya', with an opinion, determination, firmness and courage that the most powerful men did not realize. .

The historian Khair al-Din al-Zirakli (d. 1396 AH / 1976 AD) translated for her - in his book 'The Flags' - and described her as "known for her bravery and being called a princess. She was the widow of a rich man from Al-Baqoom, a resident of Turbah, close to Taif from the side of Najd."

Then he explains the sensitivity of this tribe's position in the political geography of the kingdoms of those days, saying: "The people of Turbah were the earliest people of the Hijaz to be loyal to Najd, and they followed the 'Hanbali' doctrine, which the Turks - then the Franks - called Wahhabism. Turks and Hashemites.

Al-Zarkali gives us a description of the contribution of Princess Ghalia Al-Baqmiya in those wars that lasted for three years between 1227 AH / 1812 AD - 1230 AH / 1815 AD.

Al-Zarkali says, quoting one of his sources: “There was no greater resistance from the Arab tribes living near Mecca than what the Arabs of al-Baqoom had in Turbah The leader of the Arabs at that time was a widow whose name was Ghalia. Her husband was the most famous man in this direction, and she was extremely rich. So she distributed all her money to the poor of the clans who wanted to fight the Turks, and the Egyptians believed that she was a witch!! and that she had the ability to hide the Wahhabi chiefs from the eyes of the Egyptians!! and the Arabs were bravely guarding the city walls, and rejoicing in the presence of a precious woman with them, and she is ahead of them." !!

Articulated station

and with great regret; The Egyptian historian, who was a witness to that era, Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti (d. 1237 AH / 1825 AD) - in his history “Amazes of Antiquities” - monitored the defeats of the Ottoman Egyptian army in front of this Arab woman; He said that his forces under the leadership of Mustafa Bey (d. after 1229 AH / 1814 AD) headed on 2 Safar 1229 AH / 1814 AD “from Taif to the district of Turbah and a woman was plotting against it.

Al-Jabarti adds that in Jumada al-Awwal of the same year, the Egyptian forces - under a new command assumed by Commander Toson Pasha (d. 1231 AH / 1816 AD) - re-attacked "the area of ​​the soil in which the woman is called 'Ghaliya', and wars took place between them for eight days, then they returned." defeated and in vain!!

In the face of these successive defeats; The powerful ruler of Egypt, Muhammad Ali Pasha, decided to lead his army himself to battle the small Buqmi emirate, says Hamad al-Bassam al-Najdi, who wrote down the circumstances of this final decisive battle; Revealing the endeavor of this Bedouin princess to protect her small emirate by her clever attempt to exploit the conflict between the two largest regional powers in the Arabian Peninsula at the time.

He stated that when the governor of Egypt arrived in the area of ​​Princess Ghalia and besieged her fortress, “she refused to obey him and enter under his command, so I sent to the Wahhabi ( Prince Abdullah bin Saud, d. And that her ( her warriors) must be her home, so the Wahhabi sent his brother Faisal ( Faisal bin Saud al-Kabeer, d. 1233 AH / 1818 AD) to her in forty thousand When Faisal came to her with his number, she was fully prepared.

However, the unequal balance of power led to the defeat of Ghalia's army and its Saudi allies in this decisive event, which is called in Saudi history the "Battle of Basil".

The funny thing is that Al-Jabarti describes the atmosphere of the official and popular celebrations that swept the Ottoman capital of Egypt with the victory of the army of Muhammad Ali - some of whose officers were English, according to Al-Zarkali - in its last campaign against the small “Baqmiya Emirate”, as if that victory was a defeat for the armies of Jura that were defending the capital of an ancient empire. Well-established!!

The famous historian of Egypt mentions that on Rabi’ al-Awwal 9, 1230 AH / 1815 AD, “a convoy of Tayari arrived from the Hijaz and in their hands were correspondences containing news and good tidings of the Pasha’s victory over the Arabs. The homeless went to the houses of the notables to take the tips, and in the morning they hit ( the soldiers) many cannons from the castle” rejoicing at the defeat of Mrs. Ghalia Al-Baqmiya!!

And about the fate of this Hijazi princess; Historian Hamad Al-Bassam tells us the dispute between the narrators, but he prefers the judge’s saying that “when Faisal was defeated and she became convinced of oppression, she took a goat and headed to the Wahhabi country called ‘Al-Diriyah’, and the minister ( Muhammad Ali Pasha) owned her land and homes. And her money, and the number of her soldiers is seventeen thousand, and none of them followed her!!

Thus, the Battle of Basel removed another obstacles to the progress of the Egyptian Ottoman forces towards the strongholds of the first Saudi state. Within only three years, it was able to invade its strongholds and invade its capital Diriyah in 1233 AH / 1818 AD, thus undermining its foundations and ending the fate of its Emir Abdullah with execution in the Ottoman capital Istanbul after a short period of arrest. He spent it in Egypt, as if Princess Ghalia Al-Baqmiya was an impenetrable fortress in the face of this resounding fall whose echoes have been echoing for decades throughout the Arab countries!!

Conclusion Experiences

and historical observation leads us - in this topic - to what appears to be the last of its historical models at the end of the second half of the 14th century AH / early 20th century AD, that is, about a century ago from now, specifically the year 1348 AH / 1930 AD, and a little to the east of the Arabian Peninsula, where the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Small Islamic Bhopal in the middle of the Indian subcontinent.

As strange as the role played by the aforementioned Buqmi emirate, and close to the date of its fall; The Queen of Bhopal was succeeded by several queens, one of whom succeeded the other on the throne. Which we will summarize here saying, based on the historian of the flags of Islamic India, Sheikh Al-Islam Abdul Hai Bin Fakhr Al-Din Al-Hasani (d. 1341 AH / 1922 AD) in his book “Nuzha al-Khawatir”, and he is the father of the famous scholar Abu Al-Hasan Al-Nadawi (d. 1420 AH / 1999 AD).

One of the most famous sultans of Bhopal is the educated Queen Shahjahan Beygum / Begum (d. 1319 AH / 1901 AD), who is one of the daughters of Sultan Jahangir Muhammad Khan (d. 1263 AH / 1846 AD), and the historian al-Hasani describes her as the "virtuous and generous queen".

Then he adds that she assumed power in the year 1263 AH / 1846 AD, succeeding her father, so "she sat in the assembly of her father, the deputies of Jahangir Muhammad Khan, without discord, and she was nine years old., and she was given a luxurious dressing on the side of the Queen of Britain" Victoria (d. 1319 AH / 1901 AD), who was India was then subsumed under the banner of its colonial crown.

She was taken over by his mother, Sikandar Beykum (d. 1285 AH / 1868 AD), who was the actual ruler of the country, and under her tutelage she raised her daughter Shahjahan, who devoted herself to education until “she acquired the arts and learned calligraphy, writing, the Persian language, composition and poetry, and benefited from the literature of the presidency and politics until she excelled in that peers, and excelled among them among them. In the ability to translate the Qur’an, edit religious messages, and decide international issues!!

At the age of twenty-two; Shahjahan officially abdicated power in the year 1276 AH / 1858 AD and "delegated Annan the presidency to her mother, and she contented herself with the mandate of the covenant"; But she regained the reins of power for herself - after about ten years - following the death of her mother, so she "sat on the chair of the presidency" until the moment of her death.

In the year 1288 AH / 1871 AD, Shahjahan married the scholar of India Siddiq Hassan Khan Al-Husseini (d. 1307 AH / 1890 AD), thus forming a ruling scientific family, which led their small sultanate to launch a great scientific renaissance under the patronage of the Queen, who “spent great money on printing the Qur’an, interpretation, hadith, language and other things.” The sciences and arts, and the Jahangiriya school was founded in the name of her father in the house of his king.

This cultural movement resulted in a great revival of the Arab-Islamic heritage by printing and publishing many of his books, and soon its fruits spread and its lights spread not only in India but also in the major Arab and Islamic countries. According to the Lebanese writer and linguist Ahmad Faris Al-Shidyaq (d. 1301 AH / 1884 AD) in his book 'The Spy on the Dictionary'.

According to al-Hasani; Shahjahan was known - in her country and abroad - as "the owner of grace and generosity and the goddess of blessings, she built homes and revived scientific schools, built great mosques, decided lavish jobs, dug wells and planted gardens and trees, built large buildings, and poured the tails of grants and gifts to the people of grace from the people of India And the people of the Two Holy Mosques, Yemen, Iraq, the Levant and other countries.”

Among its foreign policy stances is its support for the Ottoman Empire in its wars; Al-Shidyaq mentioned that during those wars she was ordered to "subsidize the Attic State ( the Ottoman) with abundant amounts, which indicates the majesty of its worth and the greatness of its righteousness."

In return for this support, she received a great honor from the last powerful Ottoman sultans, Abdul Hamid II (d. 1336 AH / 1918 AD); In the year 1296 AH / 1879 AD, "two great examples ( two medals) were mentioned in her name, with a medal of the highest degree - which is called 'pity' - on the part of Sultan Abdul Hamid Khan Al-Ghazi, King of the Ottoman Empire"; According to Hassani.

Shahjahan died and was succeeded by her daughter, Sultan Jahan Beykom (d. 1348 AH / 1930 AD), who "grew up in the cradle of power, read and translated the Qur'an She learned calligraphy and writing, Persian and English"; As Yuri Al-Hasani, the historian.

In the field of political management and statecraft; Sultan Jahan "benefited from politics and the presidency from her grandmother Sikandar Beykum."

Sultan Jahan followed in her mother's footsteps in developing her sultanate, both urban and cultural. Therefore, "the emirate advanced in its era in civil, welfare and organization, encouraged the dissemination of knowledge and helped in educational projects and the writing of useful books., and it was chosen as the president of the Islamic University of Aligarh" with a wide reputation in the Indian subcontinent!!