Tandu Khatun () or ''Tindu Khatun'' () was a Jalayirid princess and regent of the

Jalairid Sultanate The Jalayirid Sultanate was a culturally Persianate, Mongol Jalayir dynasty which ruled over Iraq and western Persia after the breakup of the Mongol khanate of Persia in the 1330s.Bayne Fisher, William. ''The Cambridge History of Iran'', p.3 ...

in Iraq in 1411–1419.

Background

Her parentage is uncertain. According to

Abd al-Razzaq Samarqandi Abd-al-Razzāq Samarqandī ( fa, کمال‌الدین عبدالرزاق بن اسحاق سمرقندی, ''Kamal-ud-Din Abd-ur-Razzaq ibn Ishaq Samarqandi''; 1413–1482) was a Persian Timurid chronicler and Islamic scholar. He was for a while the ...

, she was the daughter of

Shaikh Awais Jalayir Shaykh Uways Jalayir ( fa, شیخ اوویز جلایر) was the Jalayirid ruler of Iraq (1356–1374) and Azerbaijan (1360–1374). He was the son of Hasan Buzurg and the Chobanid princess Dilshad Khatun. Biography Shortly after Shaykh Uways Ja ...

of the

in Iraq. Another author,

Shabankara'i Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Muhammad Shabankara'i ( fa, محمد بن علی بن محمد شبانکرائی; c. 1298–1358), better known as Shabankara'i () was a Persian poet and historian of Kurdish origin. He wrote in the Persian language and flou ...

, presented her as the daughter of Hasan Bozorg and

Dilshad Khatun Dilshad Khatun ( fa, دلشاد خاتون; died 27 December 1351) (lit. Queen Dilshad)(meaning 'Happy Hearted'), also Delshad, was a Chobanid princess. She was the wife of Ilkhan Abu Sa'id Bahadur Khan, and after him Hasan Buzurg, the first rul ...

. While most of the Medieval authors such as

Al-Maqrizi Al-Maqrīzī or Maḳrīzī (Arabic: ), whose full name was Taqī al-Dīn Abū al-'Abbās Aḥmad ibn 'Alī ibn 'Abd al-Qādir ibn Muḥammad al-Maqrīzī (Arabic: ) (1364–1442) was a medieval Egyptian Arab historian during the Mamluk era, kn ...

and

Ibn al-Imad al-Hanbali Ibn al-ʿImād ( ar, إبن العماد) (1623-1679), full name ʿAbd al-Ḥayy bin Aḥmad bin Muḥammad ibn al-ʿImād al-ʿAkarī al-Ḥanbalī Abū al-Falāḥ ( ar, عبد الحي بن أحمد بن محمد ابن العماد العكري ...

, as well as modern authors like Eduard von Zambaur (1866-1947), Mehmet Zihni (1845-1913) and

Bahriye Üçok Bahriye Üçok (1919 – October 6, 1990) was a Turkish academic of theology, left-wing politician, writer, columnist, and women's rights activist whose assassination in 1990 remains unresolved. Early life and education Born in Trabzon, Bahriye ...

believed her to be the daughter of Shaikh Hussain Jalayir.

Marriages

Barquq

According to

, she was first married to Sayf ad-Din Barquq of the Egyptian

Mamluk sultanate The Mamluk Sultanate ( ar, سلطنة المماليك, translit=Salṭanat al-Mamālīk), also known as Mamluk Egypt or the Mamluk Empire, was a state that ruled Egypt, the Levant and the Hejaz (western Arabia) from the mid-13th to early 16th ...

in 1393. The marriage was arranged by his uncle

Ahmad Jalayir Sultan Ahmad was the ruler of the Jalayirid Sultanate (ruled 1382–1410), he was son to the most accomplished ruler of the sultanate, Shaykh Uways Jalayir. Early in his reign, he was involved in conflicts with his brothers. He would later suffer fr ...

as an alliance between Iraq and Egypt against

Timur Timur ; chg, ''Aqsaq Temür'', 'Timur the Lame') or as ''Sahib-i-Qiran'' ( 'Lord of the Auspicious Conjunction'), his epithet. ( chg, ''Temür'', 'Iron'; 9 April 133617–19 February 1405), later Timūr Gurkānī ( chg, ''Temür Kür ...

. The marriage was arranged during a journey she made with her uncle to Cairo, when Barquq was allegedly astonished by her beauty and asked for her hand, and when her uncle returned to Iraq, she remained, while Egypt sent support of the Egyptian armies to assist Iraq against Timur. The marriage was reportedly happy from Barquq's point of view, as he was said to have loved her greatly. Tandu, however, did not like life in Egypt and suffered from homesickness, and eventually, Barquq allowed her to return to Iraq.

Shah Walad

In Iraq, she eventually married her cousin, Shah Walad Jalayir, heir of Ahmad. However, Ahmad was killed by

Qara Yusuf ''Abu Nasr'' Qara Yusuf ibn Mohammad Barani ( az, Qara Yusif ; c. 1356 – 1420) was the ruler of the Qara Qoyunlu dynasty (or "Black Sheep Turkomans") from c.1388 to 1420, although his reign was interrupted by Tamerlane's invasion (1400–1405 ...

in 1410, who send his son Shah Muhammad to capture

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...

, where Shah Walad recently rose to throne.

Regent

Bakhshāyesh, the military governor of Baghdad, soon offered Tandu to her daughter to marry her. Bakhshāyesh recently rose in power after killing rival emirs in Baghdad. However, he was killed on his wedding night. According ''Tarikh al-Ghiyathi'', it was Tandu who ordered the murder. Tandu then started a rumor that his uncle Ahmad was actually 'hidden' and would come back to save his people soon, ordering Baghdad people to celebrate for 3 days. While using opportunity, she fled the city with Walad's 6 children and went to

Wasit Wasit ( ar, وَاسِط, Wāsiṭ, syr, ‎ܘܐܣܛ) is an ancient city in Wasit Governorate, south east of Kut in eastern Iraq. History The city was built by al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf in c. 702 CE on the west bank of the Tigris across from the hi ...

and then

Shushtar Shushtar ( fa, شوشتر; also Romanized as Shūshtar and Shūstar and Shooshtar) is a city and capital of Shushtar County, Khuzestan Province, Iran. Shushtar is an ancient fortress city, approximately from Ahvaz, the centre of the province. ...

. Strenghtening in Shushtar, Basra and Wasit, Tandu reportedly took power herself as regent, and remained regent for eight years during reigns of Mahmud and Uvais II. Nevertheless, Jalayirid power was not secure, thus she submitted to Shahrukh to keep

Khuzistan Khuzestan Province (also spelled Xuzestan; fa, استان خوزستان ''Ostān-e Xūzestān'') is one of the 31 provinces of Iran. It is in the southwest of the country, bordering Iraq and the Persian Gulf. Its capital is Ahvaz and it covers ...

in control. Hanbali relates that "The ''

khutba ''Khutbah'' ( ar, خطبة ''khuṭbah'', tr, hutbe) serves as the primary formal occasion for public preaching in the Islamic tradition. Such sermons occur regularly, as prescribed by the teachings of all legal schools. The Islamic tradition ...

'' was said in her name from the pulpits and money was coined in her name until her death in . Her son took power after her."

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tandu Khatun Mongol khans Mongol rulers 15th century in Asia 15th-century Mongolian people 15th-century women rulers Women of the Mongol Empire Jalayirids 1419 deaths