Taken in chronological order, the second female ruler to legally hold the reins of power in the Muslim world of the Middle Ages was Shejer üd-Dür (or Sejeret üd-Dür), wife of Melik Salih, of the house of Ayyub. Indeed, it was through Shejer üd-Dür, a female ruler, that there was a transfer of power between this state and the Egyptian Mamluks. She is, I would say, the most known female ruler of Islam, partly because she reigned during the age of Crusades and was responsible for the imprisonment and then for the release of the French King Louis IX. Shejer üd-Dür ruled together with her husband Melik Salih Nejmüddin Ayyub, the eldest son of the Ayyubîd state’s fifth ruler, El-Kâmil.
Since Melik Kâmil was absent in Syria on a prolonged campaign against the Crusaders, he appointed his son as his heir and left him as his representative in Egypt. In 1229, Melik Kâmil returned to Egypt after reaching an agreement with Emperor Friedrich II that he would not return to Jerusalem for ten years. His relations with his son Nejmüddîn Salih became extremely strained, owing to the attitude of the mother of one of his other sons, Melik Âdil.