Role of women in choosing the Sultan during the era of the Dehli Sultanate (602 AH- 932 AH/1206 AD- 1526 AD

Abstract

In the court of the Dehli Sultanate, women enjoyed a great position, allowing them to intervene in the political affairs of the state and influence its trends. This intervention was manifested in many forms of which the most significant is choosing the personality of the Sultan. The main objective behind this intervention was the political ambition whether for themselves or their son. Women's personal ambition reached isolating the Sultan and ascending the throne instead of him, in one of the cases in which the Islamic world witnessed a woman alone on the throne. In many cases, a woman tried to defend her son's entitlement to the throne. To achieve this, she followed several policies ranging from negotiating with senior statesmen and agreeing with them at times to using the policy of deception and intrigue at other times. A woman was succeeding in achieving her goals whenever she was close to the arena of governance and was familiar with the smallest details. On the contrary, her lack of interest in matters of governance and politics caused her failure. The punishment of women who intervened and were involved in attempts to kill or isolate the Sultan, or who had great political ambitions, often did not go beyond imprisonment and confiscation of money, except for the case of Sultan Razia, who was killed after trying to regain the throne of the Sultanate.