Fatima bint al-Ahmar
A daughter of Sultan Muhammad II and an expert in the study of barnamaj (biobibliographies of Islamic scholars), she married her father's cousin and trusted ally, Abu Said Faraj.
She was involved in the government of her son but was especially politically active during the rule of her grandsons, Muhammad IV and Yusuf I, both of whom ascended the throne at a young age and were placed under her tutelage.
Professor Brian A. Catlos attributed the survival of the dynasty, and eventual success, as being partly due to her "vision and constancy."
[1] Through a combination of diplomatic and military manoeuvres, the emirate succeeded in maintaining its independence, despite being surrounded by two larger neighbours, the Christian Crown of Castile to the north and the Muslim Marinid Sultanate in Morocco.
[3] The Granadan poet, historian, and influential statesman Ibn al-Khatib (1313—1374), who was well acquainted with many royal women and from whom much of historical information about Fatima came from,[4] wrote in his political treatise Maqama fi al-Siyasa that women should not be put in charge of state affairs, and that their role should be limited as "the soil where one plants one's children, the myrtles of the spirit, and where the heart rests'".
[9] Her father Muhammad was known as al-Faqih (a faqīh is an Islamic jurist), due to his erudition, education, and preference for learned men such as physicians, astronomers, philosophers, and poets.
[12] In 1279, after reoccupying Málaga, which had previously rebelled under the Banu Ashqilula, Muhammad II appointed Abu Said as the city's governor, a post once held by his father Ismail.
[17][18] Muhammad III took the throne after his father's death in 1302; Fatima appeared to maintain a good relation with her brother and her husband remained the governor of Málaga throughout his reign.
[20] Fearing the sultan's vengeance, Abu Said negotiated a deal with the Marinids, in which he were to yield Málaga in exchange for the governorship of Salé in North Africa.
[23] With her son in control of the city, Fatima helped him engineer another rebellion against Nasr,[9] enlisting the aid of Abu Said's old ally, Uthman ibn Abi al-Ula, the chief of the Volunteers of the Faith, and various factions within the capital.
[27] As Muhammad was only ten years old, Fatima, and a guardian named Abu Nuaym Ridwan, served as tutor and a sort of regent for the young sultan,[28] and they took active role in government.
[30] The assassination of the vizier Ibn al-Mahruq, on the order of Muhammad IV in 1328, occurred while he was in the palace of Fatima discussing the emirate's affairs as he regularly did.
[34] According to Rubiera Mata, Fatima likely influenced Yusuf I's constructions in the Alhambra, the royal palace and fortress complex of Granada, but Boloix Gallardo argues that there is no evidence for this.
[28][35] She died on 26 February 1349 (7 Dhu al-Hijjah 749 AH), during Yusuf I's reign, at the age of more than 90 years in the Islamic (lunar) calendar, and was buried in the royal cemetery (rawda) of the Alhambra.
