Khnata bent Bakkar

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Dowager Sultana Lalla Khanata bint Bakkar ( للا خناثة بنت بكار ) also known as Hinata binti Bakar al-Gul (b. 1668 - died 1754), was de facto ruler of Morocco from 1729 to ca. 1754. She was one of the four wives of Sultan Moulay Ismail, who reigned from 1672 to 1727, and acted as his de facto First Minister and Secretary. After his death, she remained a de facto ruler during the unstable situation which followed as the mother of Sultan Moulay Abdallah (r. 1727-1757).

Life[]

Origin and marriage[]

Lalla Khanata's full name was Khanatha bint Sheikh Abu Bakar al-Gul bin Ali bin Abdallah.^[1]

Lalla Khanatha was born to the chieftains of the noble and mighty M'gharfa family of the Awlad Hassān Beidanes. She was of the Awlad Hassān armed aristocratic caste of the Beidane people and her family of the Awlad Abdalla clan in the M'gharfa tribe. Her father was the Grand Sheikh Abu Bakkar Al M'gharfi the chieftain of the M'gharfa tribal confederation.

She has also been claimed to be the daughter of the Emir of Brakna.^[2]

In 1678, following the expedition of Sultan Ismail to Souss and the oasis of Touat to the provinces of Chenguit on the border of the Sudan region in modern Mauritania, the Sultan received embassies from all the Maqil tribes in the Saharan provinces of the country, and as a part of their submission, Khnata bent Bakkar was given to him as his bride.

Reign of Sultan Moulay Ismail[]

Moulay Ismail had thousands of slave concubines in his harem, hundreds of children ^[3] and four legal wives: herself, , Lalla Aisha Al Mubaraka and . Lalla Khnata and Sultan Moulay Ismail issued children together, among them Sultan Moulay Abdallah.^[4]

Khnata bent Bakkar was famous for her beauty, intelligence, and learning. She devoted herself to private study in the palace, and came to be regarded as learned within both Islam and the sciences.

She came to be one of the favorites of her husband, and as such in a position of influence. She was one of the few people from which Moulay Ismail took advice. She acted as de facto First Minister and Secretary for her husband. In 1721, she acted as a mediator between the Sultan and the British ambassador Charles Stewart, during the negotiations about a peace treaty between Morocco and Great Britain, which was successfully completed in 1722 with her assistance.^[5]

Mother of the Sultan[]

In 1727 Sultan Moulay Ismail died. After his death, there followed a period of internal turmoil, in which her husband's ten sons with various wives and concubines competed with each other for power. She supported her own son Sultan Moulay Abdallah and wielded great power and influence in his government during his reign. She was appointed First Minister in his government and has been referred to as the first woman in Morocco in such a position. Her perhaps biggest contribution was as a diplomat, as she successfully acted as the mediator between her son and his competitors and half brothers during the succession crisis. She has been credited with having lead Morocco out of the instability of succession war back to stability.

She was the author of a commentary on the work of Ibn Haggar al-Asqalani: Al-Isaba fi Marifat as-Sabaha and of several letters to the inhabitants of Oujda, advising and consoling them on their plight as neighbors of the Ottoman Turks.^[6]

She was buried in the mausoleum at Fez al-Jadid.

References[]

External links[]

• Khnata bent Bakkar (retrieved July 7, 2010)

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