Thumal

Thumal (died after 908), was a woman serving as chief administrator of justice during the reign of Caliph al-Muqtadir (r. 908-932). Her position was an extraordinary unique position for her sex.

Thumal was originally the assistant of Shaghab, mother of Caliph al-Muqtadir. When Shaghab secured the succession of her son to the throne, she de facto seized power and appointed a parallel bureaucracy to handle state affairs. Shaghab stated that the affairs of the umma, especially justice, was better administered with a woman in charge: she appointed Thumal in charge of mazalin, in effect minister of justice or chief administrator of justice, and supervisor of the qadis, who opposed to be supervised by a woman, but was forced to accept the appointment.^[1] According to the historian Tabari, Thumal carried out her duties well enough to achieve popularity among the public in her office, especially because of the new reforms which lower the cost for a plaintiff to initiate a case: however, her appointment was described in Muslim history, among others by Ibn Hazm, as one example of a series of "scandals whose equal has not been seen to this day".^[1]

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