Khadija had her brother, the Sultan Ahmed Shihabuddine assassinated and took the throne for herself in 1347, becoming the first female ruler of Theemuge Dynasty.
The army of the Sultana of Maldives consisted of a thousand men of foreign birth; some of them natives.
According to Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta, her Bengali grandfather, Sultan Salahuddin Salih al-Bangali, was the founder of the dynasty.
Ibn Battuta: "One of the wonders of these islands is that its ruler (sultana) is a woman named Khadija ... .
He was still young and the vezir 'Abdallah son of Muhammad al-Hazrami married the mother of Shihab-uddin and overpowered him.
"[3] He then confirms the power struggles which resulted in the death of her brother and her enthronement: "The only survivors from the ruling house were his three sisters ... .
The inhabitants of the Maldive islands preferred for sovereign Khadija and she was the wife of their orator (khatib) Jamal-ud-din who became vezir.
The orders were written on palm leaves with a bent piece of iron similar to a knife, while paper was not used except for writing the Qur'an and books of learning.