Sulafa Khatun (d. ''after'' 1225), was the ruling

atabeg Atabeg, Atabek, or Atabey is a hereditary title of nobility of Turkic origin, indicating a governor of a nation or province who was subordinate to a monarch and charged with raising the crown prince. The first instance of the title's use was wit ...

Maragha Maragheh ( fa, مراغه, Marāgheh or ''Marāgha''; az, ماراغا ) is a city and capital of Maragheh County, East Azerbaijan Province, Iran. Maragheh is on the bank of the river Sufi Chay. The population consists mostly of Iranian Azerb ...

between 1209-1225. She was the last member of the

Ahmadilis The AhmadilisClifford Edmund Bosworth, ''The New Islamic Dynasties: A Chronological and Genealogical Manual'', Columbia University, 1996. pp 198:"The Ahmadilis" ( fa, احمدیلی), also known as the Atabegs of Maragheh (''Atābakān-e Marāghe ...

dynasty and its only female ruler. Sulafa Khatun succeeded Arslan-Aba II in 1209. It was uncommon and controversial for a woman to become a ruler in an Islamic state, regardless if it was as a monarch or as regent,t though Muslim, had different customs than the Arabic and women rulers were more common within them.

Ibn al-Athir Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ash-Shaybānī, better known as ʿAlī ʿIzz ad-Dīn Ibn al-Athīr al-Jazarī ( ar, علي عز الدین بن الاثیر الجزري) lived 1160–1233) was an Arab or Kurdish historian a ...

expressed his shame that a woman ruled a Muslim state, and commented her rule with the quote "No people will succeed if they have a woman as their ruler" by the Prophet Muhammed.El-Azhari, Taef. Queens, Eunuchs and Concubines in Islamic History, 661–1257. Edinburgh University Press, 2019 She was married to atabeg Korp Arslan and had a son with him, but her son died in 1208. She remarried the

Eldiguzids The Ildegizids, EldiguzidsC.E. Bosworth, "Ildenizids or Eldiguzids", Encyclopaedia of Islam, Edited by P.J. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs et al., Encyclopædia of Islam, 2nd Edition., 12 vols. with index ...

Prince Ozberg. In 1220, the Mongols invaded Caucasus, and laid siege to Maragha in April 1221. Sulafa Khatun was besieged in the citatel of Ru'in Diz, which she successfully defended against the Mongols. In 1225, she was defeated by

Jalal al-Din Mangburni Jalal al-Din Mangburni ( fa, جلال الدین مِنکُبِرنی), also known as Jalal al-Din Khwarazmshah (), Minkubirni or Mengu-Berdi (c.1199 – August 1231), was the last Khwarazmshah of the Anushteginid dynasty. The eldest son and succ ...

. She divorced her spouse Ozberg, was obliged to marry Jalal al-Din Mangburni and abdicated her power to him, thus ending the Maragha state.

References

{{reflist 13th-century women rulers Women in 13th-century warfare 13th-century Iranian people Anushtegin dynasty