The story of the female slave (and the palace head gentlewoman) Thamal appointed by Shaghab, the mother of a caliph, as the supreme judge:

  Ibn Al-Jawzy mentions that Shaghab, the lady and mother of the Abbasid caliph, Al-Moqtadir, has appointed her friend, the palace head gentlewoman named Thamal, as the supreme judge of Baghdad and made her hold her council/meeting every Friday to issue verdicts within cases and complaints brought to her by people, and other male judges and religious scholars worked under her to help her, and the signature of Thamal on any paper meant a decree that must be immediately executed (Al-Muntazim, 13/180 events of 306 A.H.). Al-Siyouti mentions the same event in his writings as well, with the same details, and we infer that the Abbasid caliphate and people did not object to the fact that a woman (a former female slave) would be appointed as the supreme judge presiding over many male judges and fiqh scholars, and no one was annoyed by her name, which meant in Arabic ''the drunkard''. But how come that this former female slave and the palace head gentlewoman of the Abbasid caliphate reached this position? Why the former slave Shaghab, the lady and mother of a caliph, would appoint her in that important high-rank post? To answer this question, we delve deeper into the roots of such even within the hidden layers of the history of the Abbasid caliphate in its palaces within lines of historical accounts. We assert here beforehand that the following story we are going to recount below will certainly shock the gullible readers who dream of reviving the caliphate rule system in the Arab world, with all its features and side effects.  

1- Shaghab, Thamal, and Futna: the story begins with these three female slaves, owned by the Abbasid caliph Al-Mo'tadid, who had an eye for women, and who died of excessively active sexual life. Al-Mo'tadid had hundreds of female slaves and concubines in his harem/seraglio, and as he was getting bored with fat white blondes, he admired immensely a slender and graceful female slave whose skin was golden, and he was informed that this pretty female slave, whose name was Naeim, was owned by a notable lady, and he bought her from this lady at a large price. When he enjoyed her in bed for one night, he forgot all about her and sought new pretty concubines and female slaves for his pleasure, for he was never satiated and liked to try new women more often than not. But Naeim got pregnant and bore the caliph a son, Al-Moqtadir, who became later on a caliph himself. Naeim hated and resented very much the fact that her master and owner Al-Mo'tadid deserted her and she grew jealous of the other women in the seraglio, causing lots of trouble on a daily basis in the palace. Al-Mo'tadid was furious and humiliated her in public and beat her, and because of her trouble-making, he changed her name into Shaghab (i.e., literally in Arabic, the troublemaker). This name stuck to her all her life. Al-Mo'tadid punished her more by imposing on her to be confined in another separate palace to care for her baby son, and this palace became a prison to her as she was never allowed to step outside it by the decree of the caliph. Another female slave, Thamal, was a dear close friend of Shaghab and visited her daily to bring her news of Al-Mo'tadid and all events in the palace and in Baghdad. When Shaghab knew from her one day that Al-Mo'tadid fell in love with a new concubine named Futna and deserted the rest of the concubines and female slaves because of her, and that he was spending all his time with Futna and did not desert her as he did with the case of Shaghab, she was so furious and jealous. Shaghab was so envious and grew more furious when later on, Thamal told her that Futna bore a son for Al-Mo'tadid, named Muhammad (who later on became a caliph named Al-Qahir), and that Al-Mo'tadid was so happy with this son. Shaghab was very worried that Al-Mo'tadid might make the son of Futna as his heir and successor to the throne instead of her son, his first born, because at one point, Al-Mo'tadid was so furious and was about to put his son, Al-Moqtadir, to death when he saw his child distributing his food in equal shares with other playmates (who were children aside to serve him as a prince). Indeed, Al-Mo'tadid felt that Shaghab is bringing up her son in a way that may not make him fit to rule as a powerful caliph later on and this might endanger the future of the Abbasid caliphate. Al-Mo'tadid, as per Middle-Ages mentality, saw that the future caliph must be brought up to be a tyrant, not a socialist who would advocate equality! When Al-Mo'tadid was about to put the son of Shaghab to death, she wept and cried and beseeched Al-Mo'tadid to have mercy on her son and spare him. Al-Mo'tadid pardoned her and his son eventually when he grew calm. This situation made Shaghab hate Futna and Al-Mo'tadid and conspire with Thamal to get rid of her to spite Al-Mo'tadid. Indeed, Futna died suddenly and mysteriously, leaving behind her baby son (who became a caliph named Al-Qahir). This crime passed unpunished and uninvestigated by Al-Mo'tadid, who commanded Shaghab to breastfeed, rear, and bring up Al-Qahir along with her own son, Al-Moqtadir. Shaghab hated Al-Mo'tadid so much for that because she felt that the caliph treated her like a cow milked or his sons and a mere nanny or babysitter to his babies.                  

2- Durayrah in the lake: months later, Thamal told her close friend, Shaghab, a piece of bad news that disturbed her more than ever; the promiscuous oversexed caliph Al-Mo'tadid was so busy with a new very pretty concubine he bought and loved so much, named Durayrah. Indeed, Al-Mo'tadid built Durayrah a special palace with and orchard and a piscine-like water pool, with total cost of 60 thousands dinars of gold, to live with her away from prying eyes. He sometimes would bring other singing slaves to entertain him and Durayrah. Shaghab was so envious and jealous, especially when the sound of music and laughter reached her ears in her palace-prison. To have her revenge, Shaghab conspired with Thamal to bribe the promiscuous poet Ibn Bassam, who was known for his satirical lewd poems filled with sexual innuendos, in order to mock and deride t Al-Mo'tadid in lines of poetry. Thamal told him the whole story and he was more than eager to gratify Shaghab and to have fun. Soon enough, the whole of the dwellers of Baghdad repeated these liens of Ibn Bassam and the caliph was scandalized:

He left all people astonished and bewildered

And he stayed away from them at the pool

To enjoy ramming into the vagina of Hurayrah!

  When he heard these lines of poetry, Al-Mo'tadid felt mortified and felt afraid to lose his awe and redoubtable character, for he was very brutal and heartless in the eyes of his subjects, for he was the one to renew and regain the power and strength of the Abbasid dynasty and its awe throughout the Empire, and despite his promiscuous lifestyle and excessive wine-drinking, he was a despot in the full sense of the word over his leaders, viziers, and all people. Hence, the lines of Ibn Bassam made him hurriedly demolish the palace, pool, and orchard of Durayrah. Thus, this conspiracy of Shaghab and Thamal succeeded and music stopped, making Shaghab feel avenged temporarily; Al-Mo'tadid never left Durayrah all day and all night, and he loved her the more and deserted the rest of female slaves in his harem. Shaghab felt that her revenge must be completed by getting rid of Durayrah, by poisoning her with the help of Thamal, to spite Al-Mo'tadid and to make sure he would not have a son by her. Thus, Durayrah died suddenly and mysteriously, just like Futna. Yet, this time, Al-Mo'tadid had some lines of evidence to accuse Shaghab of being involved in the death of Durayrah. Al-Mo'tadid had to beat Shaghab severely and was about to cut her nose and distort her face, but he decided not to do that, for he had not clear evidence against Shaghab to accuse her of murder and he feared that she was needed to care for his two sons; he was afraid that she might harm his son, Al-Qahir, who was under her care, and he had to care for the feelings of his son and hers, Al-Moqtadir. Al-Mo'tadid composed lines of poetry to eulogize Durayrah and he wept for losing her, feeling very depressed. In such a melancholic state, Al-Mo'tadid had too much sex with his concubines until he got sick and died months later.

3- Sudden mysterious death: Al-Mo'tadid died months after the death of Durayrah in 289 A.H., and at the time, his first-born son and successor Al-Moktafy was 25 years old, and he ascended the throne. At the time, Al-Qahir was two years old and Al-Moqtadir, son of Shaghab, was six years old. Shaghab felt happy when Al-Mo'tadid died and she got out of her palace-prison eventually to reside in the Abbasid palace, and she made her intimate friend Thamal the palace head gentlewoman. Shaghab and Thamal waited patiently until Al-Moqtadir was 13 years old, and they poisoned the young caliph Al-Moktafy who died suddenly after ruling for less than six years. Al-Moqtadir was his successor, and the Abbasid circles in Baghdad spread the news (spread by Shaghab and Thamal first) that Al-Moqtadir came to puberty and became a man. Of course, the conspiracy of Shaghab and Thamal succeeded and Al-Moqtadir was enthroned at once. Since Al-Moqtadir lived all his life with his mother Shaghab in her palace-prison, he could not bear to be parted from her and he obeyed her too much in everything and always consulted her on all affairs. This made Shaghab the real de facto ruler in authority, and she actually ruled for 25 years, until her son, the caliph Al-Moqtadir, was murdered in 320 A.H. Her first decree was that no one was to call her Shaghab anymore, under the pain of death; her formal title was Al-Sayeda (i.e., the Lady).         

4- Drowned in the Euphrates: of course, once Shaghab came to full power and authority, she took revenge from all her rivals and enemies inside the palace; she dismissed so many viziers and confiscated their wealth and possessions and appointed others (who were loyal to her) in their posts. In 299 A.H., Shaghab dismissed the former head gentlewoman of the palace, Fatima, and confiscated her money, jewelry, precious stones, and possessions. Days later, people found the drowned corpse of Fatima in the Euphrates; no one dared to accuse Thamal and Shaghab of this crime. Thamal rose in power and authority in her turn, and she was feared by everyone; she would appoint and dismiss viziers, and everyone knew that her influence over Shaghab was unparalleled, and that the way to Al-Sayeda must inevitable pass by Thamal. By the ways, Thamal had a formal title of her own: Um Moussa Al-Qahramana (literally, the mother of Moussa   the head gentlewoman), because her only son was named Moussa. In 304 A.H., events that came to be known as the plight of the vizier Ibn Al-Jaraah too place; this vizier was very much afraid of the authoritarian and heartless Thamal that he resigned from his position, but he thus provoked the ire of Thamal and Shaghab, and the latter issued a decree to confiscate his money and to have him put to death. What saved Ibn Al-Jaraah and made him keep his wealth was that he humbled himself at the feet of the caliph Al-Moqtadir, while imploring for mercy and to be spared, an act that saved him and made him retain his wealth, only for a while (Al-Muntazim, 13/166 events of 304 A.H.). Later on, Shaghab issued a decree to appoint Thamal as the supreme judge of Baghdad, an unparalleled and an unprecedented thin in the history of all caliphates. Yet, Thamal did not assumed this high-rank position for long; soon enough, disputes occurred between her and her intimate friend Al-Sayeda Um Al-Moqtadir, Shaghab, and the plight of Thamal began. Ibn Al-Jawzy mentions that Shaghab ordered the arrest of Thamal and all her household members, followers, and her in-laws and the confiscation of all her money and possessions: more than one million dinars. The plight of Thamal did not occur was because of her injustice, corruption, and her taking bribes, for that was the norm all over Baghdad and the whole Abbasid Empire and all courts, trials, and judges, but because of the political ambition of Thamal; indeed, Thamal considered herself as an equal to Shaghab, as both were mere female slaves brought to Baghdad and bought to the Abbasid palace. The only difference, as per Thamal, that Shaghab bore the caliph Al-Mo'tadid a son, whereas Thamal was not as fortunate or lucky as Al-Mo'tadid did not like her that much. Thamal thought of herself as equal to Shaghab as she helped her in all her conspiracies, and she felt she had the right to have more political power and authority and to appoint her in-laws within the State. The last straw was that Thamal managed to make one prince of the Abbasid dynasty as her in-law, by marrying him to her niece, and Shaghab thought this to be too dangerous for her and her son the caliph, threatening their authority, as Thamal would this way grew too powerful. Thamal committed a mistake that aroused more suspicions inside Shaghab; when Al-Moqtadir was taken ill, Thamal sent (without being authorized to do so) to one of the Abbasid dynasty member to govern and manage all affairs of the palace, instead of the one chosen to do so by the caliph himself. This action posed a threat to the authority of Shaghab. Moreover, enemies of Thamal convinced Shaghab, who lent them her ears, that Thamal was impertinent and sought more power to herself by undermining Al-Sayeda, the mother of the caliph, and urge the prince who was the husband of the niece of Thamal to seek to be enthroned instead of Al-Moqtadir. Hence, Shaghab imprisoned Thamal and her people and confiscated her money and possessions (Al-Muntazim, 13/209 events of 310 A.H.).

5- We take the following notes. 

1- We, as Arabs, need to critically reread history of the Umayyads, the Abbasids, and the Fatimids, so that people would get to know the huge gap, or rather abyss, between raised mottoes and banners and the actual facts of history. If we are to summarize the history of the Abbasids in one line, we should say it was the era when female slaves and concubines controlled everything as consorts of caliphs and mothers of caliphs. This began with the Abbasid caliph Al-Mahdi, whose powerful concubine, and later-on wife, Al-Khayzuran, controlled him and ruled in his name, and continued in full power even during the caliphate of her son Harun Al-Rasheed. The era of female slaves went on for several decades; or instance, the female slave Qabeeha controlled her paramour, the caliph Al-Motawakil, and her son the caliph Al-Moataz. Even the caliph Al-Mostakfi was controlled by his female slave, concubine, and gentlewoman of his palace, named Alam of Shiraz, and she helped him to get enthroned and he repaid her debt in gratitude by allowing her to manage affairs of the caliphate with him, and when some people protested his doing so, he told them his sentence that became an aphorism: (We have found her in times of need, and we have found the rest of you in times of ease). Let us bear in mind that real history is one thing, and the forged history filled with raised mottoes and slogans is something else.       

2- It was during this Abbasid Era of powerful female slaves that the Sunnite religion imams/deities lived, especially the famous scholars of hadiths, fiqh, and interpretations of the Quran: Al-Tabari, Al-Shafei, Ibn Hanbal, Moslem, and Al-Bokhary, among others. No one of them wrote a single word against female slaves controlling the 'Islamic' caliphate nor against the promiscuity, homosexuality, or wine-drinking of caliphs (whom were thought to have a 'divine' right of kings and to represent God's shadow on earth!). It is high time to deal with and discuss these imams/authors as mortal human beings who are NEVER infallible and as persons who lived in decadent times of immorality and they were influenced by such an atmosphere. The rare pious ones among Sunnite authors would never write negatively about any sins, corruption, or injustices, whereas the vast majority of them received money from powerful ones to remain obsequious to those in power and rule by authoring and fabricating fatwas and hadiths for them, tailored to their tastes and whims, in return for money.        

3- We personally are not against women being appointed as judges, head judges, or even presidents of countries; rather, we wish to see this happen in the Arab world, provided that this would happen within direct democracy when people really rule themselves and the criteria to judge responsible persons would be their competence and deeds, with the ability of the citizens to check, watch over, impeach, fire, penalize, and reward them and to hold them accountable as public servants.