Dear Readers,

thanks to MintPress for having published our article about the female Muslims Rulers of the Maldives Islands.

Thanks for reading and sharing to oppose to discrimination of women in Muslim politics today by
looking at examples of female rulers in Muslim history.

thank you

Dr. phil. Milena Rampoldi – ProMosaik e.V.

A
modern grand mosque on the island of Hulhumalé in Maldives,
photographed on 

December 6, 2006. 

4 Muslim women ruled the region during
the medieval era. (Flickr / Ibrahim Iujaz)

See also Introduction: A Forgotten Study Of Female Political Power In Islamic History.
Sultan Hatîdje, Sultan Meryem, Sultan Fatma Dâyîn In the Sultanate of the Maldives

All of us know the wonderful archipelago of the Maldives, situated
400 miles to the south-west of Sri Lanka. Here too, female rulers
reigned in Muslim history.

In her book, Bahriye Üçok gives us a general overview of the history
of the Maldives. Although, according to the historian Zambaur, Muhammed
el-Âdil was the first ruler of the islands to embrace Islam
(548-1153-4), Ibn Battuta, the famous Moroccan traveller, relates that a
widely known legend gives the honor of being the first Muslim sultan to
Ahmed Shenurâze.

Because the people of the Maldives had been converted to Islam
through the efforts of a Berber, called Abu’1-Barakât, they adopted the
rites of the Maliki to which Abu’l Barakât belonged. His tomb is still
venerated in the capital of the Maldives, Malé.

The islands, which were divided into thirteen provinces in the Middle
Ages, were administered by governors who also acted as cadi. Besides a
grand vizier who acted in the name of the sultan, there was also a chief
cadi called “fendiyar kalu” who had an absolute authority in the field
of legal decisions. As had been traditional since Ahmed Shenurâze’s
time, the chief cadi received the revenues of three islands.

In the 19th century, also female rulers governed the Islands. Hatidje
binti Djelâlüddîn Ömer (her local name was Rehendîkabadikilâce) did not
succeed her father immediately after his death. Her brother
Shihabüddîn, though a minor, succeeded to the throne before her, and
Abdullah bin Hadramî was appointed as his vizier. When Shihabüddîn grew
up he appointed his slave Ali Kelekî in Hadramî’s place; but the new
vizier, upon realizing the immoral character of the sultan, had him
deposed and beheaded.

All three eligible members for the throne in the dynasty were women,
but this was not considered an impediment. First Shihabüddîn’s sister
Hatidje succeeded to the throne in 748/1347-8 by popular request. Her
husband Djemalüddîn was appointed vizier. Still all proclamations were
made in Hatidje’s name.

Sultan Hatidje and her husband the vizier received their visitors in a
suite called “Dâr.” The visitor, with at least two costumes as gifts
under his arms, first greeted Sultan Hatidje and put one of the costumes
before her, and then did the same with her husband. Sultan Hatidje’s
royal guard, numbering a thousand native soldiers and foreign
mercenaries, came to the Dâr every day to perform obeisance to her.

In commerce on the islands the shells of a sea animal were used, but the queen’s guards were paid in quantities of rice.

Sultan Hatidje received all her visitors, male or female, bare
headed. In any case, in the XIV century, Maldivian women were dressed in
a sarong that covered only the lower half of their bodies, the upper
part was completely naked as was usual under the climatic conditions of
the equator. Ibn Battuta, who was cadi of the islands for eighteen
months, confesses that, in spite of all his efforts, he could not
succeed in making the women wear something to cover the upper part of
their bodies, though a few women, probably the sultan among them, wore a
light sleeveless blouse.

Sultan Hatidje, who succeeded to the throne in 748/1347-8, died in
781/1379-80 after a reign of 33 years. She was followed by her sister
Meryem binti Djelâlüddîn Ömer (native name Melike Radafati
Kambadikilace), and her husband Muhammed ibni Muhammed Djemalüddîn
became her vizier. Sultan Meryem reigned until 785/1383, when she was
succeeded by her daughter Fatma Dâyin Kambadikilace binti Muhammed, who
must have got married three or four years after her accession, because
Abdullah, her husband, was appointed vizier only in 789. Sultan Fatma’s
reign came to an end in 790/1388, and with it 42 years of uninterrupted
rule by three woman sovereigns.
Though Ibn Battuta talks of them as sisters, according to the
historian Zambaur, Fatma is Meryem’s daughter, which sounds convincing
when we consider the date of Fatma’s marriage. We regret to state that
our research has failed to unearth any more information about these
women.

The fourth woman sovereign in the Maldives, actually on Malicut in
the north of the Maldives, reigned in the early 17th-century.
Unfortunately, Pyrard, who conversed with her, does not give her name.
Nevertheless, the book of François Pyrard, who visited the Maldives
almost two centuries after Ibn Battuta and stayed there for a long
period, reflects the startling changes that have taken place in the
Maldives in the meantime. By the early XVII century, Muslim Maldivian
women considered bare breasts the greatest shame possible. They went
out, preferably in the evening, never without a veil in daytime, and
uncovered their heads only in the presence of the queen or the
princesses.
Such observations make it clear that the Muslim “purdah,” unobserved
during the reign of Sultan Hatidje Binti Ömer, made its influence felt
thoroughly later owing to various factors.

Many researchers think that, like in other regions of the Muslim
world like Aceh in Indonesia, Bhopal in India and on the Comoro Islands,
also on the Maldives there was a strong matriarchal tradition which was
maintained during Muslim rule, and that therefore one Muslim female
ruler followed the other.

Even now, women play an essential role in the society of the
Maldives. Half of the students at the university are women. Women are
also well represented in the government of the Maldives.

This entry is based on “Female Sovereigns in Islamic States.” You can find it on Amazon here.