Amina Khatun (

fl. ''Floruit'' ( ; usually abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for 'flourished') denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indic ...

1117) was de facto ruler of

Aleppo Aleppo is a city in Syria, which serves as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Governorates of Syria, governorate of Syria. With an estimated population of 2,098,000 residents it is Syria's largest city by urban area, and ...

in 1117.El-Azhari, Taef. Queens, Eunuchs and Concubines in Islamic History, 661–1257. Edinburgh University Press, 2019 She was born to Fakhr al-Mulk Ridwan, Amir of Aleppo (r. 1095–1113). Her father was succeeded by her brother

Alp Arslan al-Akhras Tāj al-Dawla Alp Arslān ibn Riḍwān, nicknamed al-Akhras ('The Mute'), was the Seljuk sultan of Aleppo from 1113 until his death in 1114. According to Ibn al-Athīr, he was not actually mute but had only a speech impediment and a stammer. He ...

under regency of

Lu'lu' al-Yaya Luʾluʾ al-Yaya, also called al-Bābā or al-Khādim ("the Eunuch"), was the regent of the Seljuk sultanate of Aleppo from AD 1113 ( AH 507) until his assassination in 1117 (510). He was the ''atabeg'' (father-lord) of the underage sultans. Prev ...

. Her brother was deposed in 1114 by Lu'lu' al-Yaya, who replaced him with her six-year-old younger brother Sulṭān Shāh. In 1117, Lu'lu' al-Yaya died. Amina Khatun seized effective control of Aleppo in the interregnum. She did not proclaim herself as regent, but she called upon the commander Yaruqtash in Damascus to come and assume the regency in Aleppo on behalf of her brother. When Yaruqtash tried to assume direct control and depose her brother, she had him arrested and exiled. Together with her sister Farkhinda Khatun, she installed

Ilghazi Najm al-Din Ilghazi ibn Artuq (; died November 8, 1122) was the Turkoman Artukid ruler of Mardin from 1107 to 1122. He was born into the Oghuz tribe of Döğer. Biography His father Artuk Bey was the founder of the Artukid dynasty, and had ...

as the new commander and regent and, eventually, as the successor of her brother. Her position as de facto keeper of the citadel and regency of Aleppo was near unique for a woman in a Muslim state of her time.

References

12th-century women regents 12th-century Syrian people Monarchs of Aleppo Syrian women in politics 12th-century regents {{Syria-bio-stub