The Island Queens

The first, Sultana Khadija, daughter of Sultan Salah al-Din Salih Albendjaly, reigned from 1347 to 1379. Luckily for us, Ibn Battuta travelled in the Maldives during her reign, and fell completely under her spell: One of the wonders of these islands is that its ruler (sultana) is a woman named Khadija . . . . Sovereignty was exercised first by her grandfather, and then by her father.

When the latter died her brother Shihab-ud-din became king. He was still young and the vezir 'Abdallah son of Muhammad al-Hazrami married the mother of Shihab-uddin and overpowered him. And it was he who married also this Sultana Khadija after the death of her husband, the vezir Jamal-uddin.69 After describing the power struggles which resulted in her brother being deposed and then put to death, Ibn Battuta describes the circumstances of Khadija's enthronement:

The only survivors from the ruling house were his three sisters . . . .

The inhabitants of the Maldive islands preferred for sovereign Khadija and she was the wife of their orator (khatib) Jamal-ud-din who became vezir. He took over the reins of power . . . but orders were
issued in the name of Khadija only. The orders were written on palm leaves with a bent piece of iron similar to a knife, while paper was not used except for writing the Qur'an and books of learning.70
Was the khutba proclaimed in the name of Sultana Khadija? We can count on Ibn Battuta to record the formula meticulously:

The orator (khatib) mentioned the queen (sultana) in the Fridayprayer and also on other occasions. 'O my God!' says he, 'help Thy female slave whom Thou in Thy wisdom hast chosen from all creatures and made an instrument of Thy grace for all Muslims- verily,that is, Sultana Khadija, the daughter of Sultan Jalal-ud-din, bin Sultan Salah-ud-din.

After the death of Sultana Khadija, who reigned for 33 years, her sister Myriam succeeded to the throne.

She remained there until 785/1383, her husband also occupying the post of vizier. After Sultana Myriam, her daughter, Sultana Fatima, ascended the throne and ruled until her death in 790/1388. So, for forty years the Muslims of the Maldive Islands were governed by women. Ibn Battuta, who held the office of qadi, did not long resist the charm of the women of the islands. He described his marriage to the stepmother of the sultana:

The qazi and witnesses were summoned, and the marriage was solemnized, and the grand vezir paid the dower. After a few days she was brought to me. She was one of the best women and her society was delightful to such an extent that whenever I married another woman she showed the sweetness of her disposition still by anointing me with perfumed ointment and scenting my clothes, smiling all the time and betraying no sign of ill humor.72

Ibn Battuta was so enchanted with the royal treatment given him by his wife that he did not hesitate to have four. He married often during his journeys through the Muslim world, which lasted practically his whole life, but the memory of his domestic happiness with the Maldive women was particularly sweet. One detects some regret that he could not bring one back with him to Tangier:

The women of these islands never leave their country, and I have seen nowhere in the world women whose society was more pleasant. A woman in these islands would never entrust to anybody else the serving of her husband; she herself brings him food and takes away the plates, washes his hands and brings him water for ablutions and massages his feet when he goes to bed.73 However, there was one thing that intrigued him: One of the customs of the country is for the women not to dine with their husbands and the husband does not know what his wife eats.
In these islands I married several women; some of them dined with me after I had tackled them, but others did not. And I was not able to see them eat and no device on my part was of any avail.

The only fault he found in the Maldive women - especially in his role as qadi - was that they went about half-naked:

The women of these islands do not cover their heads, nor does their queen and they comb their hair and gather it together in one direction. Most of them wear only a waist-wrapper which covers them from their waist to the lowest part, but the remainder of their body remains uncovered. Thus they walk about in the bazaars and elsewhere. When I was appointed qazi there, I strove to put an end to this practice and commanded the women to wear clothes; but I
could not get it done.75

Ibn Battuta was too intelligent not to see the link between the sensuality of the women believers and their walking around half naked. In his capacity as qadi he insisted on a compromise.

The women believers could walk about half-nude, but in the audience hall of the tribunal where he administered the shari'a they would have to show a minimum respect for appearances: 'I would not let a woman enter my court to make a plaint unless her body were covered; beyond this, however, I was unable to do anything.' With the archness so typical of a native of Tangier, Ibn Battuta notes later on that their half-nude state suited the Maldive women much better: 

'I had slave girls whose clothing was like that of the women of Delhi and who covered their heads. But far from being an ornament it looked like a disfigurement since they were not used to putting it on.'76 All things considered, the qadi was ready to make concessions about the pertinence of the shari'a regarding the veil for women when it interfered with something as serious as aesthetics, especially in such a sensual environment as that of the islands. But not all the islands resembled each other, nor did their women.

EXCERPT FROM

The forgotten queens of Islam

Book by Fatema Mernissi