(Ebook) Tree of Pearls, Queen of Egypt by Jurji Zaydan, Samah Selim ISBN 9780815609995, 9782012034822, 081560999X, 2012034829

(Ebook) Tree of Pearls, Queen of Egypt by Jurji Zaydan, Samah Selim ISBN 9780815609995, 9782012034822, 081560999X, 2012034829

Crusaders under the command of Louis IX, King of France, invaded Egypt. Al-Salih had fallen gravely ill, but the instant he received news of the offensive, he commanded his troops to make ready for war. Al-Salih died soon thereafter and was succeeded by his son, Ghiyath al-Din Turan Shah, who became known as the Exalted King, Al-Mu‘azzam. Real power, however, rested in the hands of Tree of Pearls, a concubine of the late King, and it was she who managed the affairs of the state after his death, carefully concealing news of this event from the populace until his son, Ghiyath al-Din, was brought to Cairo from Damascus and invested in the year 1249. Deadly dissension then spread between the officers of the Exalted King Ghiyath al-Din and his father’s Mamluks, who rose up in rebellion against the son. The victorious Mamluks conferred amongst themselves and agreed to invest Tree of Pearls with the royal title, and thus it was that she became the first Queen in the history of Islam. A bitter struggle for power ensued between this Queen and a number of Mamluk princes, along with the remaining members of the Ayyubid dynasty and other ambitious parties.