Queens of Islam: The Muslim World's Historic Women Rulers by Tom Verde

A survey of prominent Muslim women rulers from the first centuries of Islamic history to early modern times.

From Pakistan to Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan to Nigeria, from Senegal to Turkey, it is not unusual in modern times for women in Muslim-majority countries to be appointed and/or elected to high offices, including heads of state.

Nor has it ever been.

Stretching back nearly to the founding of Islam itself, women have held positions of political power in numerous Islamic nations and empires. Some ascended to office in their own right; others served as regents for incapacitated husbands or male successors then too young to rule. Some proved insightful and able administrators, courageous military commanders, or both; others differed little from their equally flawed, power-hungry male counterparts, and sowed the seeds of their own downfalls.

Queens of Islam examines the lives of fifteen of the most remarkable female leaders of Muslim dynasties, empires, and caliphates—from Islam’s earliest centuries through the end of the seventeenth century. Their stories demonstrate that throughout the faith’s long history there were many women who achieved positions of power and served as effective rulers, revered by those they governed while being respected—even feared—by their contemporary world leaders.

Entertaining and informative, Queens of Islam is rife with palace intrigue, sex scandals, power-grabs, and military conquests, set against a backdrop of Islamic world history.