Emma Marriott - Long Live the Queens

Over the next few years Arwa began a series of conquests in an attempt to expand her territories. In 1091, al-Mukarram died, and she was encouraged by the Fatimid caliphate in Cairo (with whom the Sulayhid dynasty were allied) to marry her late husband’s cousin Saba ibn Ahmad. Sources are conflicted on the marriage; some say she was reluctant to marry him and only did so to remain in power. Whether or not the marriage was successful, Arwa remained fully in charge of Yemen and Saba was an effective military general for her until his death in around 1100.

Not long after, tribes under Arwa’s rule began to show signs of rebellion, which erupted into civil war, and Arwa gave control of Sana’a to a tribal leader. Relations between the Fatimids in Cairo also deteriorated and in 1119, conflict between Yemen and Cairo flared up. An army came to take control of Yemen, or (depending on which source you look at), came to defend the Sulayhids against the Najahids. Either way, they attempted a coup against Arwa, which ultimately failed as she still had so much loyalty and support amongst the Yemeni people, even though she was by now in her seventies.

Soon after there was another succession crisis in Cairo when Al-Mustansir Billah died in 1130. He was succeeded by his cousin, but Arwa supported his son, Imam at-Tayyib, which effectively ended any affiliation between Arwa and the caliphate. Arwa became Tayyib’s leading proponent and in effect a head of a new branch of Islam known as Taiyabi Ismaili. The other branch of Ismaili, tied to the Fatimid regime in Cairo, effectively disappeared after the collapse of the caliphate in 1171. The Taiyabi Shi’ites, however, survived, even after the Sulayhid dynasty had ended and as Yemen was such a fulcrum for maritime trade, it eventually made its way to Western India.

In Jabala, Arwa built herself a palace and at Sana’a she rebuilt the old palace into a mosque. Her tomb now resides in the mosque within a silver- and gold-covered mausoleum. The mosque is still in use today and became a place of pilgrimage for many years after Arwa’s death in 1138 when the Sulayhid dynasty ended. She outlived all four of her children, ruled Yemen for over half a century, and as co-regent for twenty years beforehand, she built monuments and mosques and helped keep a sect of Islam alive. It’s an impressive legacy for a queen who, in the words of the nineteenth-century historian Yasin al-Khatib al-‘Amri, ‘perfectly understood how to manage the affairs of state and of war’.

Born: circa 606 CE

Died: 647 CE

Many expected ancient Korea’s first female sovereign to fail. The Chinese Tang Empire was of the opinion that enemies were simply emboldened by a female ruler, whilst a twelfth-century Confucian scholar remarked that it was lucky her kingdom wasn’t destroyed under her rule, as ‘according to heavenly principles, the yang [male] is hard while the yin [female] is soft’ (whatever that means). Well, this soft female seems to have done a pretty good job as Queen and, rather than destroying the kingdom of Silla over which she ruled, she may well have even contributed to its eventual triumph over the Korean peninsula.

Since the first century BCE, ancient Korea had been dominated by three kingdoms – Baekje, Goguryeo and Silla – which battled constantly for pre-eminence. Born in around 606 CE as Princess Deokman, Seondeok ascended the throne of Silla in 632, succeeding her father, King Jinpyeong, who had ruled the kingdom for fifty-three years. He had had no male heir and, as only those who were members of the ‘sacred bone class’ – the highest social level in Silla – could succeed the throne, Seondeok was duly crowned. High-born women may well have had relatively high status in ancient Korea during this period, and it wasn’t unknown for women to rule over small areas of the Silla kingdom, but this was the first time a woman had ruled as regent in her own right.

The History of the Three Kingdoms (The Samguk sagi ) written by the abovementioned Confucian scholar, Gim Busik, relates that even before Seondeok’s reign, she had proven herself ‘generous, benevolent, wise and smart’ – ideal traits for any would-be queen, it would seem. And as befitting of a well-meaning sovereign, one of her first acts after ascending the throne was to organise a relief campaign to provide aid for poor commoners in the countryside. Seondeok also had to address the problem that her kingdom, whilst prosperous, was still facing constant attacks by its neighbours and had lost territory, particularly to Baekje. In the face of such a threat, she enlisted the help of two key officials, her nephew Gim Chunchu (future king of Silla) and renowned general Gim Yushin, thereby beginning the unification process which eventually resulted in Silla conquering the other two kingdoms in the 670s whilst deepening its relations with the Tang dynasty in China.

In 641 a Baekje attack on Silla led to the death of Gim Chunchu’s daughter. Seeking revenge, Chunchu asked Seondeok’s permission to approach the ruler of Goguryeo, King Yeongnyu, and request his assistance against Baekje. The Goguryeo king agreed to help but only on the condition that Silla return some of its territory, which Seondeok refused, and Chunchu was promptly imprisoned. In a bid to rescue him, Seondeok then mobilised a 10,000-strong army under General Gim Yushin. When King Yeongnyu discovered this, the threat of such a force heading to his kingdom was enough to prompt him to release Chunchu.

Two years later, following further attacks from Goguryeo and Baekje, Seondeok sent representatives to the Emperor Taizong of the Tang dynasty in China requesting his urgent assistance. Keen to benefit from the rivalry of the three kingdoms, Taizong was happy to oblige. The Emperor said he would first attack the Liaodong Peninsula between China and the Korean peninsula to divert the attention of the Goguryeo and at the same time carry out a naval campaign on the west coast to do the same with Baekje. He also offered to supply thousands of Tang army flags and uniforms so that Silla soldiers could disguise themselves as fearsome Chinese warriors. In addition, Taizong insisted on placing a Chinese prince as an interim ruler in Silla, which would put an end to the troubles in the kingdom – the implication being that the presence of a female ruler sends an open invitation to enemies to try their luck.

Not unsurprisingly, Seondeok refused this last request but diplomatically managed to secure Tang military assistance anyway – thereby laying down the foundations for a future alliance between Silla and China. The joint army they formed, however, would suffer defeat at the hands of the Goguryeo, as they would another three times over the next decade, and it wouldn’t be until the 660s, after Seondeok’s reign, that Silla would ultimately conquer the kingdoms of Baekje and Goguryeo.

Seondeok was more successful when it came to the domestic rule of Silla, centralising the rule of state further, and most notably supporting the spread of Buddhism. Rulers at this time found Buddhism a useful tool in consolidating their influence and endorsing the sovereign as ruler. The History of the Three Kingdoms relates that an especially large number of Buddhist temples were built during Seondeok’s reign. As most were wooden structures, they haven’t survived, but the remnants of one of Seondeok’s temples – Hwangnyong (‘Temple of the Illustrious Dragon’) – is visible in present-day Gyeongju. The Queen’s father began its construction but Seondeok added a nine-storey wooden pagoda, reported to be 80 metres tall, making it one of the highest structures in East Asia at the time and the tallest wooden structure in the world.