Shaghab (Arabic: شغب) (died 933) was the mother of the eighteenth Abbasid caliph al-Muqtadir (r. 908–932), and wielded a considerable influence over state affairs during the reign of her son.
[8][9] The two stories highlight different aspects of al-Muqtadir's accession: on the one hand, a cabal of officials choosing a weak and pliable ruler, "a sinister development" that inaugurated one "of the most disastrous reigns in the whole of Abbasid history [...] a quarter of a century in which all of the work of [al-Muqtadir's] predecessors would be undone",[10] while on the other hand, the issue of dynastic succession, and especially the loyalty of al-Mu'tadid's ghilman to his son, evidently also played an important role.
[12][2] Saghab, usually known simply as al-Sayyida ('the Lady'), utterly "dominated her son to the exclusion of the other women in his harem, including his wives and concubines"; al-Muqtadir would spend much of his time in his mother's quarters.
Saghab as Queen-Mother became one of the most influential and powerful figures of her son's reign, interfering in the appointments and dismissals of officials, execution and forgiveness of sinners, decide on many major events, handling of government checks, utilitarian relationship with powerful officials and officers, making financial contributions to the treasury, and undertaking charitable activities.
Likewise, the 13th-century chronicler Ibn al-Tiqtaqa, regarded al-Muqtadir as a "squanderer" who let "matters concerning his reign were run by women and servants, while he was busy satisfying his pleasure".
Her plotting for her favourites, the corruption of her family, and her hostility towards the "good vizier" Ali ibn Isa al-Jarrah, who was dismissed due to her machinations in 917, are underlined in the chronicles of the period.
However, when she married her niece to Abu'l-Abbas, a grandson of al-Mutawakkil (r. 847–861), her rivals were quick to accuse her of aspiring to overthrow the Caliph and place her nephew on the throne.
Another qahramana, Zaydan, was the antithesis of Thumal: her house was used to jail several senior officials after they were dismissed, but it was a comfortable captivity, and she often provided refuge to those persecuted by their political rivals.
[20] 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 lowered the cost for a plaintiff to initiate a case: however, her appointment was described in Muslim history, among others by Ibn Hazm, as a proof on the decadence of the reign of al-Muqtadir and one example of a series of "scandals whose equal has not been seen to this day".