Shajarat al-Durr was One of the most interesting women of Egypt's archaic Islamic period, who ruled Egypt for a short period at the end of the Ayyubid period. Shajarat al-Durr was the wife of Sultan Al-Salih Najm Al-Din Ayyub. Largely, he was responsible for importing a whole corps of slaves to
Egypt, who would become known as the Mamelukes, which meant those who are owned. These slaves would eventually rise to rule Egypt, and one of the Turcoman slaves that he purchased from the Caliph Musta'sim's harem was none other than Shajarat al-Durr, who would also become his wife. She ruled Egypt for eighty days as sultana, a very rare feat indeed for a woman in medieval Islam. She bear to her deatg with wooden bath clogs by the womens and first wife of the second husband for Shagaret al Dur ( Sultan Aybak ) after the jackals and gods had their fill, her remains were gathered in a basket and she was buried in her own magnificent tomb, which she had built in 1250 AD in an admirable spot near the shrines of female saints.
The small mausoleum of Shajarat has a dome with an interesting profile. Like that of the Abbasid Caliphs, it has a keel-arch curve. This is very different than the mausoleum of her first husband's as is the facade treatment. This dome has an entrance on every side except the quibla wall. Originally, the building, with its three entrances, must have been surrounded by an enclosure. The quibla wall itself has a prayer niche that protrudes outside. It and the southwest wall still retain some ornamentation, including lozenges and medallions carved with flutes and keel-arched niches with fluted hoods.
Within, the three sides around the quibla are adorned with a stucco keel-arch niche above each entrance. These are shallow, fluted, with the flutes carved and radiating from a central panel. The frames of the niches are composed of stalactites, or two rows of carved small niches, and the spandrels of the niches are finely carved with floral motifs, appearing so lacy that the details are hardly recognizable. Then, the whole is framed by an inscription band of naskhi script on an ornate background. Within the dome, the transitional zone is reduced because of its size. Painting decorates the stucco squinces.
The qibla wall is decorated with a keel-arched prayer niche. It is concave, with a conch that starts above a wooden frieze that runs around the whole chamber above the entrances. There is a stalactite triple frame that borders the niche, which is adorned inside with Byzantine style glass mosaics forming a tree with mother-of-pearl pieces set in the foliage. This may be an allusion to the sultana's name, which means "Tree of Pearl". The wooden frieze running along the walls with carved inscriptions and arabesques may be dated to the Fatimid era, and therefore must have belonged to an earlier building. The upper inscription band underneath the transitional zone of the dome was once covered with black paint, no doubt by her enemies. However, it was later repainted white, and carries her name and titles.
