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The sultan was replaced by his widow, Shajar al-Durr, a former slave who now ruled as sultan, like Razia in Delhi – a rare thing in Islamic history, a woman ruling in her own right as Malikat al-Muslimin (Queen of the Muslims). But when her rule was challenged she was forced to marry a Mamluk general. She later had him murdered in his bath, a deed that infuriated the guards and led to her, naked except for a diamond-encrusted shawl, being beaten to death by the shoes of his palace-slaves: death by stiletto.
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