13 Facts About Sitt al-Mulk

Sitt al-Mulk was doted on by her father, and was his favourite daughter.

Sitt al-Mulk's wealth allowed her to fund a number of charitable endowments.

Sitt al-Mulk was renowned for her beauty, but, following common Fatimid practice, she remained unmarried to avoid dynastic complications.

Sitt al-Mulk inherited her father's open-mindedness and tolerance, and, uniquely among Fatimid palace ladies, she was involved in politics.

Sitt al-Mulk exercised considerable influence on him during his reign, as seen by the attempt of the Christian vizier Isa ibn Nasturus, when he was dismissed from his post, to regain his post through her intercession.

Al-Mansur thus became caliph with the regnal name of, while Sitt al-Mulk was placed under house arrest.

Sitt al-Mulk intervened to inform her brother, who was rather ignorant of state affairs, of a conspiracy by two senior officials that led to the execution of the vizier Abu'l-Ala Fahd ibn Ibrahim, followed by the extortion of vast sums from tax officials in Palestine.

Sitt al-Mulk was committed to the succession of al-Hakim's surviving son Ali, and took him and his mother, the Ruqayya, into her palace to shield them from the Caliph.

Sitt al-Mulk thus approached the Kutama general Ibn Dawwas, whom the Caliph suspected of being one of her lovers, and conspired with him to have al-Hakim killed, which was done by Ibn Dawwas' slaves.

Sitt al-Mulk reversed her brother's manifold prohibitions, allowing women to leave their homes, and permitting again the listening to music and the drinking of wine.

Sitt al-Mulk used her personal slave woman and confidant Taqarrub as her personal agent of information.

Sitt al-Mulk severely persecuted the Druze religion, which believed in al-Hakim's divinity.

Sitt al-Mulk succeeded in eliminating it entirely from Egypt, and restricting it to the mountains of Lebanon.