Khadija bint Jalal al-Din Umar, Sultana of the Maldives

Khadija was the ruler of the islands of Dhibat al-Mahal (the Maldives) when Ibn Battuta visited them, and he counts it among the wonders of those islands that their ruler was a woman ¹. He gives her lineage: Khadija daughter of Sultan Jalal al-Din Umar son of Sultan Salah al-Din Salih al-Banjali; the kingdom had belonged to her grandfather and then to her father ¹.

Ibn Battuta relates that when her father died her brother Shihab al-Din succeeded while still young; the vizier Abdallah ibn Muhammad al-Hadrami married his mother and dominated him, and when Shihab al-Din came of age he exiled his stepfather the vizier to the al-Suwayd islands and ruled alone ¹. He then says that Shihab al-Din was reported to visit the wives of his officials by night, so they deposed him, exiled him to the Haladutni district and sent someone who killed him there; none of the royal house was left but his sisters Khadija the eldest, Maryam and Fatima, and they made Khadija sultana ¹.

Ibn Battuta says Khadija was married to their khatib Jamal al-Din, who became vizier and held real power and put his son Muhammad in his place as khatib, yet orders were issued only in her name, written on palm-leaves, and the khatib named her and prayed for her at the Friday sermon ¹. He notes the custom that a stranger coming to the palace brought two cloths, bowing towards the sultana and throwing one, then bowing to her vizier, her husband Jamal al-Din, and throwing the other ². He says her troops numbered about a thousand, mostly foreigners ². He mentions that she, like the other women of the islands, did not cover her head ³.

Ibn Battuta says the sultana's sister complained to her that their mother was travelling with him; unable to stop her, the sultana demanded the return of the jewellery she held, since it came from the bandar treasury unless witnesses showed Jalal al-Din had given it to her, and it was returned ⁴.