Lady of Damascus

 

Madrasā aš-Šāmīyyā al-Ḥusāmīyyā Extra-Muros

In the quarter Sūq Sārūǧā, old al-ʿAwnīyā, north of the walls. Sitt aš-Šām Zumurrud H̱ātūn is for Damascus what Sitt Zubaydā is for Baghdad. The high rank and political importance that the women of the ʾAyyūbīd family had is peculiarly Kurdish. I have met and enjoyed the hospitality of two such ladies, ruling their wild tribes with more authority than a man, “the greatest emirs stood erect in front of them as is the custom in the presence of kings.”

Titles such as “Lady of Damascus,” which do not designate actual rulership, probably come down from Sasanian Persia, type šahrbānōk, “lady of the empire.” Zumurrud, daughter of Naǧm ad-Dīn ʾAyyūb, was full sister of Tūrānšāh and Saladin, half sister of Rabīʿā H̱ātūn. She married first ʿUmar b. Lāǧīn, and Ḥusām ad-Dīn Muḥammad was their son. Her second husband was her first cousin Abū Saʿīd Nāṣir ad-Dīn Muḥammad b. Šīrkūh b. Šāḏī. Thirty-five kings were so closely related to her that she could not marry them. She died 16 Ḏū al-Qaʿdā 616 (January 23, 1220) in her house, which she had instituted as madrasā (Šāmīyyā intra muros), south of the Māristān an-Nūrī, and was buried in her turba extra muros.

Ernst Herzfeld. Damascus, Studies in Architecture III. Ars Islamica XI-XII 1946 (p. 1-71).