The Nāṣirī Generations 38.1

38.1

Sultan Raziya was a great monarch. She was wise, just, and generous, a benefactor to her kingdom, a dispenser of justice, the protector of her subjects, and the leader of her armies. She was endowed with all the qualities befitting a king, but she was not born of the right sex, and so in the estimation of men all these virtues were worthless. (May God have mercy on her!) In the time of her father, Sultan Sa'id Shamsu-d din, she had exercised authority with great dignity. Her mother was the chief wife of his majesty, and she resided in the chief royal palace in the Kushk-firozi. The Sultan discerned in her countenance the signs of power and bravery, and, although she was a girl and lived in retirement, yet when the Sultan returned from the conquest of Gwalior, he directed his secretary, Taju-l Malik Mahmud, who was director of the government, to put her name in writing as heir of the kingdom, and successor to the throne. Before this farman was executed, the servants of the State, who were in close intimacy with his majesty, represented that, seeing the king had grown up sons who were worthy of the dignity, what wisdom could there be in making a woman the heir to a Muhammadan throne, and what advantage could accrue from it? They besought him to set their minds at ease, for the course that he proposed seemed very inexpedient. The king replied, My sons are devoted to the pleasures of youth, and no one of them is qualified to be king.