In the Ottoman empire, and other Muslim ruling Nations of the Premodern era, were Marriages of State common with the legal practice of polygamy?

by Karstarkking

Just a bit of personal curiosity here, and as an amateur I apologize if my vocabulary isn't accurate enough. So here's a bit of preface as to where my mind was going with this:

I was thinking of all the political unions between Monarchies of Europe during the Middle ages and Renaissance as nobility often used Marriages of State as a way to seal alliances. Was there any sort of equivalent to a Marriage of State within the Muslim world, and if so how was it different than those in Europe? What then were the roles of daughters in such a system?

I hope this clarifies my question somewhat, Thanks!

Zooasaurus

I'll try to answer your question on the Ottomans, sorry if it doesn't satisfy you (Especially since the period or topic in question isn't really my specialty)

Yes, in the 14th to 15th century Ottoman sultans and their sons frequently contracted marriages with princesses of neighboring dynasties, both Christian powers of the Balkans and Muslim powers of Anatolia. The main purpose of interdynastic marriages was to maintain favorable alliances that could strengthen the state’s military and diplomatic standing in an environment of shifting alignments. Most Ottoman marriages were arranged as part of the negotiation of an offensive alliance or, more often at the conclusion of combat to symbolize the defeated party’s submission and acceptance of vassal status. The Ottomans limited their marriage alliances to local Rumelian-Anatolian states with whom they vied for power, or potential enemies who might become allies at the next turn of events. The dynasties in this pool with whom the Ottomans intermarried included the Christian Byzantine and Serbian royal houses and the Anatolian Muslim principalities of Germiyan, Aydın, Saruhan, Jandar, Karaman, and Dulkadir.

While royal marriages of the 14th century were contracted primarily with Christian women, those of the 15th century were made primarily with Muslim women. During that period, not only Ottoman sultans and their sons turn to the Anatolian principalities for marriage partners for themselves and their sons, they also gave their sisters and daughters to the men of these princely houses. This was because of the shift in Ottoman power in Anatolia. Marriage often marked submission, and the Islamic sociolegal principle of kafa’a which discouraged the marriage of women to men inferior in social status may have provoked unwillingness on the part of more established Muslim powers in Anatolia to give their daughters in alliance to the fledgling Ottoman principality in the 14th century. With the growth of the Ottomans as a major Anatolian power, Muslim principalities started to give their daughters in marriage to the Ottomans. It was this same principle that kept Ottoman royal women from marrying Christian princes, because while the status of a Muslim male was not jeopardized by marrying a non-Muslim, a Muslim female was.

Though there are many cases of interdynastic marriages during those period, sadly there aren't many records survived to provide us more information for these wives. One example of interdynastic marriage was between Orhan, the second Ottoman Sultan with Theodora, the daughter of Byzantine Emperor John Kantakuzenos who offered his daughter in 1346 due to Ottoman military support. Another minor example of Ottomn interdynastic marriage is with Efendi, one of many Orhan's wives. Efendi may have been Orhan’s cousin, the daughter of Osman’s brother Gündüz. If so, his marriage with Efendi may have functioned to seal Gündüz’s loyalty to Osman back in the days. Osman also married Mal Khatun, Orhan's possible mother and the daughter of one Umur Bey who might be the ruler of Umuri principality, which was located northeast of the emerging Ottoman state and disappeared in the late 13th or the early 14th century. Another was Bayezid, who had marriages with Hafsa Khatun, daughter of İsa Bey of the principality of Aydın and Maria, daughter of the Serbian king Lazar Grebelyanovich among others. Ottoman princesses do marry into other Muslim royal houses, but they are few and left little records. One example was İlaldı Khatun, daughter of the Ottoman sultan Mehmed I who was married to Karaman ruler Ibrahim. The final interdynastic marriage made by an Ottoman sultan appears to have been that in 1435 of Murad II, Mehmed’s father, to Mara, the daughter of George Brankovich, the ruler of Serbia. The dynasty contracted three more marital alliances, but these were made for princes rather than for the sultan himself. Brides came from the principality of Dulkadir in 1450 and 1467 and from the vassal Crimean Khanate in 1504. By the 15th century, to stop outflow of power and resources to foreign dynasties Ottoman princesses also had been stopped being married into other dynastic houses and instead married to either cousins or, more often, statesmen who were considered slave members of the dynastic household

All this is from Leslie Pierce's excellent book The Imperial Harem which you should read if you want to know more about Ottoman harem or reproductive politics