Circa 1223-1257
Sultanah Of Egypt And Syria

Seventh Crusade. Shajarat al-Durr, queen of Egypt and Syria, was a Turkish slave who was the concubine of the Ayyubid sultan al-Malik al-Salih Najm al-Din Ayyub (ruled 1240-1249). Freed by her husband before his accession, she became one of his closest advisers. In late 1249, she went forth with her husband to fight French king Louis IX in the Seventh Crusade (1248-1254). Louis IX had occupied the Egyptian port of Damietta and was trying to seize all of Egypt, and although Sultan al-Salih was ill at the time with tuberculosis, the invasion of the kingdom required his presence. The sultan died in November 1249, and from that time until the arrival of her stepson Turan Shah in February, Shajarat al-Durr ruled the state as a member of a council of three. She kept Sultan al-Salih's death a secret, despite the advance...