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Rauf HUSEIN-ZADE
D.Sc. (Hist.), Chief Researcher at the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography, National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan (Baku, Azerbaijan).
BELIEFS, CUSTOMS, AND RITES OF 7TH-12TH CENTURY TURKS
(According to Syrian SourceS)
Abstract
The author discusses the ethnic-cultural the Middle Ages and passed down from gen-traditions which the Turks of Central and eration to generation as described by the Syr-Hither Asia acquired during Antiquity and ian written records of the 12th-13th centuries.
I n t r o d u c t i o n
The Syrians are one of the autochthonous peoples of Hither Asia; Syria and Mesopotamia were their homeland, where Syrian princedoms emerged and disappeared in Antiquity. Osroe (the Edessa Kingdom, 132 B.C.-A.D. 244), with its capital in Edessa (Urfa, now §anliurfa in Turkey), was the most prominent of them. The Syrian cities of Palmyra, Petra, and Melitene (now Malatya in Turkey) were well known as important trade and crafts centers and hubs of political, ideological, scientific, and cultural activities. The Syrians, one of the most cultured Oriental peoples, authored many works in all spheres of Ancient and Medieval knowledge. Two of them are intimately connected with the present subject. I have in mind The Chronicle by Michael the Syrian (1126-1199) who lived in the state of the Seljukids in Asia Minor (1077-1307), where he closely cooperated with the Turks (Syrian Turkiye, his own name for the Seljuks) and could observe their daily life. He spoke the Oghuz language, which means that he
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described what he observed and heard directly from the Seljuks. Another, no less important work, Chronography (Makhtbhanuth Zabhne, Chronicon), was written by encyclopedic scholar Bar He-braeus Abu-al-Faraj (1226-1286), known in the Islamic world as Ibn al-'Ebroyo, a polyglot who had a good command of the Oghuz and Arabic languages. He traveled far and wide across Hither Asia where he contacted Turkic tribes and learned a lot about the daily life of the Oghuz-Seljuk Turks.
Both books provided valuable material on the history and material and spiritual culture of the Oghuzes and Seljuks. They confirm that the system of beliefs, customs, and rites of these peoples were, in fact, an intertwining of pre-Islamic and Islamic norms which developed over time into a typically Turkic complex of ideology and everyday life.
Beliefs
Michael the Syrian writes that Sky was the supreme deity of the Turks, which they called Kan Tangri: kan in their language being sky or sky blue (gok/kok), while Tangri meant God, Sky, and Great.1 For this reason, the Turks believed that sky was the only, that is, supreme, deity. In other words, the Turks were monotheists who worshiped the visible sky as their only deity. It should be said in this connection that Ibn Fadlan wrote about the Turks of the 10th century that if any of them suffered from injustice or misfortune he would raise his head toward the sky and say, "Bir Tangri," which meant "O, the Only God!"2 In Central Asia there is a mountain called Khan Tengri (6,995 meters above sea level); it belongs to the Tengri Dag range in the eastern part of Central Tien Shan in Kyrgyzstan.3
After embracing Islam in the 10th century, the Seljuk Turks did not abandon their pre-Islamic traditions. No wonder Michael the Syrian wrote that until his time, that is, the latter half of the 12th century, any Turk, when asked about his faith by someone who knew nothing about Islam, invariably answered, "Kan Tangri!"4 As monotheists, wrote Michael the Syrian, the Turks easily accepted Islam because "they [the Turks] always worshipped one deity; they united with the Arabs in their religion and adopted Islam." He also pointed out that, in fact, the Turks adopted Islam because allegedly they had heard from the Arabs the Word of the Prophet Muhammad, who said, "Those who give up their worshipping of idols and other creatures and embrace My faith will receive good and rich soil and will rule on it!" Michael the Syrian said that this was why the Turks had become Muslims.
Magic Rites Connected with the Sky
The Chronicle describes the institution of meetings of leaders and the ritual of electing the "king," chief of the Turkic tribal union. According to Michael the Syrian, emirs of the tribes, 70 in all, the most noble and respected people, gathered to elect one of them as chief. They arranged themselves in a circle, each holding his staff (a symbol of power), drew a circle on the ground, which represented the Sky, and agreed that the person whose staff fell in the center would become their "king." Then they all threw their staffs up into the Sky, where, they believed, the supreme deity resided. One of the staffs would stick vertically in the very center, making its owner the chief.
1 The same can be found in Mahmud al-Kashgari (see: Divanü Lugat-it-Türk, Translation and introduction by Z.-A.M. Auezova, index by R. Ermers, Almaty, 2005; Divanü Lugat-it-Türk Tercümesi, Çeviren: Besim Atalay. Ankara: Cilt I, II, III, IV, 1939-1941).
2 A.P. Kovalevskiy, Kniga Ahmeda ibn Fadlana o ego puteshestvii na Volgu v 921-922 godakh, Kharkov, 1956, pp. 125-126.
3 See: Bolshaia sovetskaia entsiklopedia, 3rd ed., Vol. 28, Moscow, 1978, p. 188.
4 Drevnetiurkskiy slovar (Leningrad, 1969, p. 312) says Kög Tängri—blue sky; the same can be found on the monument erected in honor of Kyul Tegin (8th century).
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The Chronicle contains a description of another ritual: willing to divide the spheres of conquest and migration, the chiefs of three tribes threw three marked sticks up into the Sky. They fell down to indicate the directions: one tribe remained where it was; the other moved to Central Asia, and the third to Hither Asia, including Asia Minor. It was decided that each of the tribes would accept the gods it found in the new places. The Turks who stayed behind in their historical homeland (in Orkhon-Enisey and Altay) remained shamanists like their ancestors. Those who moved to Central Asia became Nesto-rian Christians. This is confirmed by the necropolises testifying that the ancestors of the Turkmen, Kazakhs, and Kyrgyz were Nestorians and that Syrian missionaries preached among them.5 Those who moved to Hither Asia, the Seljuk Turks, embraced Islam. In other words, religion was not an issue of prime importance for the Turks; its choice depended on political expediency. It should be said that the Turks appeared on the historical arena in the 4th century; they soon appeared in Hither Asia among those who marched westward and as mercenaries in Byzantine and Caliphate armies.6 Greek sources, for example, mention noble Byzantine families of Turkic origin: the Alakases, Axuches, Aplesphars, Aspiets, Kamitzes, Karajis, Karamalys, Maniaks, Tarchaneiotes, Tatikiis, Urans, Hasans, and Tsits.7 In the Arabian Caliphate, there was a Turkic army and Turkic military commanders.8 The Seljuks of Asia Minor later replaced the Arabs with their sultanate (1077-1307), which had its capital in Konya.
The Kog Bori Totem and the Term "Qo§!"
The pre-Islamic beliefs of the Turks are closely connected with the idea of their ancestor-forefather, who occupied one of the central places in their religious system. This is kog bori (grey wolf),9 one of the most important of the Turkic totems that retained much of its meaning even when the Turks became Muslims. Michael the Syrian, who learned about the totem from the oral epic tradition, called it "an animal that looked like dog," in which the grey wolf of the Oghuz epic cycle is easily recognizable.
Significantly, Salor-Kazan, a character in the Oghuz heroic epos Kniga moego deda Korkuta (Book of Dede Korkut), when talking about his roots, said, "One of my roots goes back to a cub he-wolf."10 According to the Turks, the grey wolf (in the modern Turkic languages bos gurd) led them to new lands and headed migrations and military campaigns. No wonder the Turkic army was always described as being led by a bek on a light grey (like a wolf) horse.11 Mentions of a grey wolf can be found in many written sources, including the Oghuz epic cycle.12 Oghuz-name describes the Kog Bori! (grey wolf) as a war cry (uran) of the Turks, with which they attacked the enemy.13
Michael the Syrian preserved one of the most typical Turkic military nomadic terms Qo§!, which signaled the beginning of coordinated movement. Survivals of the tribal system among the Turks were tenacious to the extent that even much later stories (registered in the 12th century) as-
5 See: D.A. Khvolson, Nestorianskie nadpisi iz Semirechya, St. Petersburg, 1887; Ch. Jumagulov, "Nestorianskie pamiatniki," in: Epigrafika Kirgizii, Issue I, compiled by Ch. Jumagulov, Frunze, 1963, pp. 43-58; idem., Yazyk siro-tiurkskikh (nestorianskikh) pamiatnikov Kirgizii, Frunze, 1971.
6 See: N.V. Pigulevskaia, Araby u granits Vizantii i Irana v IV-VI vekakh, Moscow, Leningrad, 1964, pp. 215-228.
7 See: V.A. Gordlevskiy, "Gosudarstvo Seldzhukidov Maloy Azii," in: V.A. Gordlevskiy, Izbrannye sochinenia, Vol. I, Moscow, 1960, p. 49; A.P. Kazhdan, Sotsialny sostav gospodstvuiushchego klassa Vizantii XI-XII vekov, Moscow, 1974, pp. 116-121.
8 See: N.Ch. Akhundova, Tiurki v sisteme gosudartvennogo upravlenia Arabskogo khalifata (VIII-seredina X vekov), Baku, 2004, Ch. III, Para 3; B. Spuler, The Muslim World, Part I, The Age of Caliphs, Leiden, 1960, p. 62.
9 See: M. Kashgari, op. cit.; Drevnetiurkskiy slovar.
10 Kniga moego deda Korkuta. Oguzskiy geroicheskiy epos, Transl. by Academician V.V. Bartold, Moscow, Leningrad, 1962, p. 98; according to a different version (ibid., p. 279, footnote 33), "I am of the same root as the loud-voiced he-wolf puppy").
11 See: Ibid., pp. 99, 100.
12 See: A.M. Shcherbak, Oghuz-name. Mukhabbat-name, Moscow, 1959.
13 See: Ibid., p. 32.
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cribed this command to the grey wolf. It comes up in a story every time migration or the military movement of Turkic tribes is mentioned. Michael the Syrian writes, "They say that when they [the Turks] were moving from the East to the West, they saw an animal that looked like a dog marching in front. They did not know what it was and where it came from; they could not approach it either. When the time came to begin moving again, it said to them in their language, 'rise!' They rose and followed it. While it moved, they followed it in the direction it was going. When it stopped, they set up camp, and so it went on until they reached the areas where they were to begin their rule. The leader did not reappear, so they remained where they were.
"...When the Turkic people [the Seljuks] up and left, they covered the whole land and even pushed out the Turks who arrived earlier, because the land could not support them all; those [who arrived earlier] were pushed to the West. When they began moving, they saw that what had been the guide for the people before them [the Turks] and looked like a dog was marching in front and they could not approach it. When it wanted to go, it turned to them and said in a loud voice 'Qo§!' in their language, that is, 'rise!' They rose and followed it until it stopped; when it stopped, they set up camp. It led them for many days and then disappeared; after that we read or heard nothing more about it. We only know that each group of people is led to something useful by means of what is familiar to it. The Judaists are led by sacrificing sheep and calves; the magi by the stars; in the same way, these [the Turks] were led by animals that look familiar."14
The Hadiths about the acts and pronouncements of the Prophet Muhammad offer a more or less similar idea. Some of them speak about Turkic hegemony in world history: "They [the Turks] will reach the Arabian Peninsula three times. During the first of their conquests, those who escape will be safe; the second time, those who manage to escape will save their lives, but the third time, no one will escape."15 Judging by the Ancient and Medieval history of the Turks, by "first conquest" the Prophet Muhammad meant the Turkish campaigns of the 4th-5th centuries; by the second, he predicted what the Oghuzes would accomplish, while the "third conquest" was the Seljuks' campaigns in Central and Hither Asia.
The places found in Oghuz-name parallel to the passage quoted above from The Chronicle of Michael the Syrian say that the grey wolf totem was a herald of the organized movement of the Turks, "At dawn, a ray very much like a ray of the sun penetrated the tent of Oguz-Kagan; a big great wolf appeared from the ray and said to Oguz-Kagan, 'O, Oguz! You are going to move away from Urum. O, Oguz! I will go ahead of you." After that Oguz-Kagan folded up his tent, moved on, and saw a huge grey wolf walking in front of his army. [All the others] were marching behind this wolf. Several days later, the grey wolf stopped. Oguz and his army stopped too.
"And again [Oguz-Kagan] moved on. Then Oguz-Kagan saw a grey wolf. This grey wolf said to Oguz-Kagan, 'Oguz-Kagan, now move on with your troops. Lead your people and the beks here and I will show you the way,' he said. At dawn, Oguz-Kagan saw that the wolf was already marching in front of the troops. Gladdened, he moved on too.
".Once the grey wolf, without moving [on], stopped. Oguz-Kagan also stopped and set up camp."16
The command Qo§! is the imperative of the verb qo§mag, which some of the Turkic languages used in the past and are still using. This is true mostly of the Western Hun branch. The fact that the Turkic term Qo§! appeared in a Syrian text means that it was not a common word, but a command which meant "let's move." Since the Turks preserved many vestiges of the tribal system, the Qo§! command is ascribed to a totem, the grey wolf, which appears every time the epic describes Turkic marches or migration. This is how the presence of the term, the meaning of which was clear to the Turks but did not belong to the Syrian vocabulary, appeared in the Syrian text.
Chronique de Michel le Syrien, Vol. IV, ed. par J.-B. Chabot, Paris, 1910, pp. 567, 569-570.
Quoted from: N.Ch. Akhundova, op. cit., p. 42.
A.M. Shcherbak, op. cit., pp. 37-39, 45-46, 50.
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Qo§! means a command to perform a repeated action, which is suggested by the semantics of the verb qo§mag and its derivatives in some of the medieval and contemporary Turkic languages. Such are the verbs meaning "harness" or "join" in the form of kosmak (Oghuz, Kypchak, Turkish), kosmak (Jagatai, Ottoman, and Uighur); qo§maq (Azeri and Turkmen); KyrnMW (Uzbek). There are other meanings: kos (Jagatai) means a "camp" or an "army"; kosuluk (Jagatai) means "unification'; kosu (Ottoman)—a "crowd" and a "cart"; go§ (Turkmen)—"camp" and "team of horses"; kosum (Turkish)—"team of horses." The Azeri and Turkmen languages use gosun for "troops"; the Jagatai and Ottoman languages used the word kosun; the Turks, kosun, and the Uzbeks, Kyrnun.17
The above suggests that the largest number of meanings of Qo§! and Qo§mag meant organized movement—either migrations or military marches.
Marriage Rites
In the 11th and 12th centuries, the Turks living on the vast territory from Central Asia to the Mediterranean and from the Caucasus to the Persian Gulf followed the marriage rites that contained elements of the marriage rites of other people but preserved typical Turkic features. This explains why they survived among the peoples related to the Oghuzes and, therefore, the Seljuks.
It is rare that the evolution of everyday life can be traced over 800 years, which makes the information contained in the written sources of the 11th-14th centuries, including the writings of Ibn al-'Ebroyo, doubly interesting. He supplied us with the earliest, among those known so far, descriptions of the Oghuz marriage rite: the marriage in 1063 of the first Great Sultan Togrul bek Seljukid (1038-1063) and Seyyeda, the daughter of Caliph al-Qaim Abbasid (1031-1075).18 The fact that his description is confirmed by other sources means that marriage rites survived unchanged among the Turks for centuries. From this it follows that the Turkic marriage cycle had certain pre-Islamic specifics and bore the stamp of a nomadic lifestyle and the norms of tribal society. After adopting Islam in the 10th century, the Turks followed the old marriage rites; fiqh served as the official basis for the marriage contract.
The descriptions found in the written sources described the Turkic marriage rites customary among nobles rather than among common people, however those rites still practiced suggest that they were essentially the same in all social groups. The descriptions of marriage rites found in the written sources and the contemporary Turkic marriage cycle are in fact identical. This means that they remained unchanged and are very different from those practiced by other peoples. This statement is confirmed by the fact that some of the contemporary peoples, the languages of whom are close to those of the Oghuzes (Azeris, Turkmen, and Turks) still largely follow the same marriage ritual.
In the past, 15 years was the minimum age for the bridegroom, while the bride could be even younger.19 Not infrequently, babies were betrothed. In the 11th-12th centuries, the marriage rites of the Turks consisted of the following elements:
Matchmaking. Consent of the bride's family had to be obtained; this was an important stage. This is confirmed by one of the wedding songs still alive among the Salars (descendants of an eponymous Oghuz tribe that lives in Xinjiang. "It is said in Turkic that if there is no cloud in the sky, there will be no plenty on Earth; if there are no matchmakers, there will be no relatives!"20 The bride's family used this time to acquire the maximum advantages. If the bride's relatives wanted too much and made the marriage disadvantageous for the bridegroom, his side would use all sorts of arguments up to and including threats in order to trim the appetite of the other side. This happened when Great
17 See dictionaries of these languages; see also: L. Budagov, Sravnitelny slovar turetsko-tatarskikh narechiy, St. Petersburg, 1868-1871; V.V. Radlov, Opyt slovaria tiurkskikh narechiy, St. Petersburg, 1890-1911; M. Kashgari, op. cit.
See: G. Barhebraei, Chronicon Syriacum, ed. by P. Bedjan, Parisitis, 1890, p. 255.
See: Kniga moego deda, pp. 34, 39, 73; Chronique de Michel le Syrien, p. 699.
E.R. Tenishev, Salarskie teksty, Moscow, 1964, pp. 87, 89.
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Sultan Togrul bek Seljukid sought the hand of Caliph al-Qaim Abbasid's daughter in marriage: only the sultan's broad hints that he would wage war forced Abbasid to give his consent to the marriage.21 Before seeking a bride for his son, an emir sought advice from his closest circle, "Son, let us call to our tent all the beks of the Oghuzes: we shall follow their decision." The folklore of the Salars says that the young man first informed his father that he intended to marry, after which matchmaking began.22
Among the rich and mighty, it was viziers, military leaders, atabegs, emirs, and qadis who acted as matchmakers. The case when the father himself performed this duty goes back to the pre-Islamic past of the Turks.23 An Oghuz epos relates how a father tells his son the following: "It is for you to find a girl; it is for me to give you money and food."24 Matchmakers were received with honors, especially if they represented royalty or another influential person. Emir of Arzinjan Bahram Shah Mangujakid personally headed the ceremonial procession to meet the matchmakers of Konya Sultan Kay Kaus I Seljukid (1210-1219) who sought his daughter's hand in marriage and personally accompany them to the palace. This was an unequalled honor.25 The unfaithful who arrived in Asia Minor at the time of the Crusades of the 11th-14th centuries paid equal honor to those who came to engage in matchmaking: they rolled out carpets, slaughtered white sheep, and poured red wine.26
After the traditional greetings, the matchmaker addressed the eldest man in the house of the future bride, "On the instructions of Allah and the word of the Prophet, I have come here to seek the hand of [name followed] in marriage, who is purer than the new moon and brighter than the sun."27 The matchmakers had to obtain the consent of the bride's family. If the girl being pursued was given in marriage to another, the offended side might even "go at war."
In some cases, a powerful noble or even royal bridegroom might inform the bride's family that the contract had been signed even before the talks were completed. This happened in 1062 when Great Sultan Togrul bek Seljukid, irritated by the prolonged talks and aware of his power, merely informed everyone that he would marry Caliph al-Qaim Abbasid's daughter.28
There was a cycle of love songs better described as wedding love songs; the Salars had a special term for this type of song—the yir: the bridegroom sang while addressing his bride in his thoughts: "I will marry you! If I do not marry you, what shall I do?" Another song goes, "Even when I do not think about you our souls are still one. When I think I go crazy and my soul is in confusion. If they ask why this confusion [I shall answer]: because of your black hair."29
Drawing up the marriage contract: this was a very important stage at which the true intentions of the sides became clear. Both sides sought the maximum advantages, some of them fairly surprising. Caliph al-Qaim Abbasid, for example, demanded that Great Sultan Togrul bek Seljukid return the occupied Vasit region.30 The contract was done in writing, then signed and stamped by empowered and experienced representatives of the sides. As a rule, this was done in the bridegroom's house in the presence of a faqih, qadis, and representatives of the houses of the bride and the bridegroom.31 In 1056, Caliph al-Qaim Abbasid, who sought the hand of Arslan-hatun, the niece of Grand Sultan Togrul bek Seljukid, in marriage, gathered his closest circle in the palace. Then, after the sultan gave
21 See: G. Barhebraei, op. cit., p. 241; Irak ve Horasan selguklulari Tarihi (History of Seljuks of Iraq and Horasan), istambul, 1943, S. 18-20.
' Ibid., p. 63; Rashid ad-Din, Jami at-tavarikh, Vol. I, Book I, Moscow, Leningrad, 1952, p. 81.
22 See: Kniga moego deda, p. 36; E.R. Tenishev, op. cit., p. 137.
23 See: Kniga moego deda, p. 64.
24 I
25 See: Kniga moego deda, pp. 36-37; ibn Bibi, Selgukname (Seljukname), Qeviren M.N. Gencosman, Ankara, 1941, S. 71.
26 See: Kniga moego deda, p. 65.
27 A.N. Kononov, Rodoslovnaia Turkmen. Sochinenie Abu-l-Gazi khana Khivinskogo, Moscow, Leningrad, 1958,
p. 59.
28 See: irak ve Horasan, S. 18.
29 E.R. Tenishev, op. cit., pp. 69-70, ff.
30 See: irak ve Horasan, S. 18.
31 See: Kniga moego deda, pp. 13, 30; ibn Bibi, op. cit., S. 72-73; irak ve Horasan, S. 9, 21, 43, 72-73.
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him a sign, the vizier of Seljukid Amid al-Mulk, who came to draw up the marriage contract, girdled himself, took a lash, and called in the Turkic emirs who had come with him. In the presence of the representatives of both sides, the vizier started drawing up the contract. According to the custom, first the bridegroom expressed his agreement with all the points, then everyone else expressed their consent. The contract was signed and came into force.32
Ibn Bibi informed everyone of the details of the contract and cited the formulas it envisaged. When describing the wedding of Konya Sultan Kay Kaus I Seljukid and Seljuk-hatun, he wrote, "They called the agents and witnesses of both sides. The person empowered to sign the marriage contract [in the name of the sultan] turned to the qibla and, after describing some of the marriage contracts drawn up in the family of Caliph al-Mammun [Abbasid, 813-833], prayed. When he had finished, he said, 'You know quite well that Sultan Izz ad-Din Kay Kaus ibn Key-Khosrow of the Kilij-Arslan clan, the conqueror and victor, reasonable and sensible, wants to ask the noble clan of Melik Fahr ad-Din Bahram Shah ibn Daud for Seljuk-hatun's hand in marriage for a kalym of 100 thousand gold dinars.' The bride's side answered, 'We accept the offer and consent to the marriage. Let virtue reign over them!' The marriage contract was concluded and the couple were joined in matrimony. Then they were showered with good wishes of 'Let them be happy and have children!'"33
The articles dealing with the bride price (Turkic term kalym) and mahr or mehr (support of the wife in the event of divorce on the husband's initiative or his death) were described by Mahmud al-Kashgari in his Divanu Lugat-it-Turk. The size of the kalym and mehr depended on the social and property status of the bride and the bridegroom and their future gains. Sometimes demands for excessive kalym or mehr or other uncommon demands from the bride's side were intended as a veiled refusal. Until the bridegroom paid the entire kalym, he could not claim his bride.34 There were cases when future spouses lived together after the marriage contract had been signed but the marriage rite had not been performed.35 The custom gradually died away under the pressure of Islamic injunctions. The kalym and the mehr were in fact an act of buying and selling the woman, a trade deal.
Kalym and mehr were normally paid in cash. In some cases, huge sums were involved (up to several hundred thousand gold dinars) and even larger quantities of silver dirhams. In 1081/82, Caliph al-Muqtadi Abbasid (1075-1094) sought the hand of one of the daughters (her name is unknown) of Great Sultan Melik Shah Seljukid (1072-1092) in marriage; his matchmakers were informed that they had two rivals and that each of them was offering 400 thousand gold dinars as a kalym, "If the Caliph can pay this or a similar sum, he will be preferred because he is the most noble of the suitors." This case was probably an exception because the skilful matchmakers convinced the bride's family that it was a great honor and a great advantage to become a relative of the Abbasid Caliph, a religious leader in the world of Islam; no kalym was paid.36
An eyewitness related an interesting fact about the size of the kalym in the Ottoman Empire: the bridegroom had to pay the bride's father a sum in silver coins that weighed as much as his future wife.37 This was called agirlik (weight or heaviness). Today in Turkey, this term means "bride's dowry" or "jewelry."
Kalym also included expensive clothes, thoroughbred racers, male and female slaves, servants, jewelry, silk cloth and kerchiefs and, in some cases, real estate. Seljuk-hatun, the daughter of Konya Sultan Kilij Arslan IV Seljukid (1248-1264), brought her father part of Eastern Anatolia when she arrived at the house of her bridegroom Argun, son of Mongol Ilkhan Abag Khan Hulagid (1265-1982).38
32 See: Irak ve Horasan, S. 8-9; Sadruddin, Ahbar-üd-Devlet is-Selqukiyye (Chronicle of the State of the Seljiks), Ceviren N. Lügal, Ankara, 1943, S. 12-13.
33 Ibn Bibi, op. cit, S. 72-73.
34 See: A.P. Kovalevskiy, op. cit., p. 126; G. Barhebraei, op. cit., p. 241.
35 See: Kniga moego deda, pp. 35, 39, 69.
36 See: Irak ve Horasan, S. 72.
37 See: Osman-bey, Turki i ikh zhenshchiny, St. Petersburg, 1874, p. 67.
38 See: Ibn Bibi, op. cit., S. 279, 283.
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In most cases, the sources say nothing about the bride's dowry even if it was specified in the marriage contract; it was probably considered unimportant when noble or royal houses wedded their offspring. According to indirect information, however, Iraqi Sultan Mahmud I Seljukid (1118-1131) was married consecutively to two daughters of his parental uncle, Great Sultan Sanjar Seljukid (1118-1157). When they died, the uncle demanded that the nephew return the dowry and jewelry he had received.39 The dowry of a noble bride included "household appliances and other items of everyday use which suited her rank," as well as "headwear strewn with pearls; fragrant [ankle] bangles; precious rings and [wrist] bracelets; gold-brocaded and pearl-studded personal items; exquisite clothes, ambler mules shod in gold; horses faster than the wind; and innumerable quantities of all kinds of other precious objects and gold."40
After signing the marriage contact, the bridegroom had to give presents to the bride and her family, as well as to those who participated in drawing up the contract. Not specified by the contract, this ceremony was repeated several times at all stages of the marriage rite. The bride's family presented a red caftan to the future spouse. The noble bridegroom put it on while his retinue addressed him with: "You wear a red caftan while we are clad in white caftans;" the bridegroom responded: "You should not be bothered by such trifles: today I put it [the caftan] on; tomorrow my deputy; for forty days you should wear it in turn." This is an old custom among the Turks which goes back to the vestiges of group marriage.41
In the medieval and contemporary Muslim East, there was a special expression "to give a khalat [chapaan]" that described gift-giving. The custom of "presenting a khalat" has survived to this day: gifts are presented at weddings or to people who bring good news. In Kniga moego deda Korkuta, one of the characters says, "I will give a horse and clothing to anyone who brings good news."42 Normally, gifts included expensive clothing, thoroughbred race horses, expensive saddles, servants, gold and silver coins, silk kerchiefs, jewelry and, by way of exception, real estate. Great Sultan Togrul bek Seljukid, for example, after signing the marriage contract, presented his father-in-law Caliph al-Qaim Abbasid with thirty Turkic boys and girls, thirty horses, two servants, a race horse with a gold saddle encrusted with pearls, and 10 thousand gold dinars. He gave his bride Seyyeda 10 thousand gold dinars, a necklace of thirty pearls each weighing 1 miskal (4 grams), and "everything that belonged to his dead wife in Iraq."43 Ibn Bibi mentioned sugar-loafs among the bridegroom's gifts. Konya Sultan Kay Kaus I Seljukid, in particular, presented sugar-loafs to those who drafted the marriage contract. Vladimir Gordlevskiy commented on this with the following: "Sugar was a symbol of restored peace and goes back to the epoch when wives were abducted, which caused squabbles and enmity between the two clans," and explained that sugar meant that the spouses were wished a sweet life. Late in the 19th century, when he visited the Ottoman Empire for academic purposes, he pointed out that among the Ottoman Turks sugar was regarded as one of the gifts.44 Today, in the Caucasus, sweetmeats (sugar, nabat, and confectionary) are an inevitable component of gifts.
A ceremonial procession concluded the talks and marked the signing of the marriage contract. During the feast, which crowned the ceremony, the following traditional solemn formula was uttered: "Let them [the bridegroom and bride] be happy and have children!"
Kerchiefs, nearly always silk kerchiefs, were invariably among the gifts presented as part of the kalym; kerchiefs were also part of the dowry. This custom has survived to the present day. In the past, noble emirs presented their guests at the feasts with gold-embroidered silk kerchiefs. Among the Seljuks, kerchiefs were presented as a sign of good news or ajoyous occasion. In Azerbaijan, the bride receives a white
39 See: Irak ve Horasan, S. 144.
40 Rodoslovnaia Turkmen, p. 59; Ibn Bibi, op. cit., S. 72.
41 See: Kniga moego deda, p. 38. The white caftan means that the man was not married.
42 Ibid., p. 92.
43 Irak ve Horasan, S. 21.
44 See: V.A. Gordlevskiy, "Iz kommentariev k staroosmanskomu perevodu khroniki maloaziatskikh Seldzhukidov, tak nazyvaemoy 'Khroniki Ibn Bibi'," in: V.A. Gordlevskiy, Izbrannye sochinenia, Vol. II, Moscow, 1961, p. 163.
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silk shawl (kelagai) on the day of the preliminary agreement; on the day of betrothal, she is presented with another similar shawl. The custom is widespread among the Kumyks of Daghestan.45 It is not by chance that many of the Oriental peoples share the tradition of presenting kerchiefs or lengths of cloth: they signify happiness and wellbeing and probably perform the function of a wedding veil: to protect against "evil spirits" and the "evil eye." On the whole, they had a religious and magical function.
This ritual is obviously connected with another, no less important, custom in which cloth plays an important role. Throughout almost the entire ceremony, the bride remained concealed behind a curtain or veil; terminologically this can be described as a taboo: the ban related to the girl who was betrothed and is consequently somebody's property. This is a custom of religious hetaerism: the bride is transferred to a deity; she is protected from "evil spirits" and the "evil eye"; it is also a vestige of the ancient custom of abduction. The bride is kept behind a curtain or is veiled to protect her and the bridegroom against magic because, it was believed, the wedding provided an opportunity to cast spells. This custom is very much alive: in Azerbaijan, the bride is kept in the parents' house under a veil; her face is concealed during her trip to the house of the bridegroom and at the wedding feast. At home, she puts on her wedding dress behind a white curtain; then she moves into another room where she, still veiled, receives good wishes standing in a special place; in the third room, she sits behind a curtain. Before she comes out to be driven to the bridegroom's house, her head is covered with a kerchief and a shawl.46 In the past, in her husband's house, the new wife never bared her head until the first child was born.
Wedding feasts in the house of the bride. For a common Turk, marriage was a financial burden, which explains why there was often several years between the signing of the marriage contract and the wedding. By the time the contract was signed, the bridegroom had to accumulate enough money to buy presents and pay for the wedding in his house. For obvious reasons, the noble and wealthy never thought twice about the kalym, repeated gifts, or other expenses; a wealthy bridegroom normally had enough money to pay for the wedding once the marriage contract was signed.
The mounted bridegroom and his retinue arrived at the house of the bride and were accompanied to special wedding premises. If the bridegroom or his future father-in-law were titled persons, the ceremony was even more pompous. The bridegroom was met outside the city, sometimes at the distance of several days' travel, by specially appointed dignitaries and a military unit. Once more, gifts, silk kerchiefs, and gold coins, among other presents, were presented to the bride and distributed among the members of her house.
All this time, the bride, concealed from the others by a shawl, remained in a separate room in the house of her parents. At night, on the eve of the wedding feast, she was brought to the wedding premises and, clad in white, was seated on a "golden throne." The bridegroom approached her, kissed the ground at her feet, and for some time served her. After performing the ritual, he took his place on a "silver throne." The "silver" and "golden" thrones might be an echo of Turkic folklore which likens the girl to the Sun ("red" and "golden") and the young man to the Moon ("white" and "silver"). One of the Oghuz epic songs says that, at a feast, Khan Bayundur placed the beks who had sons by a white banner; those who had daughters were seated by a red banner, while those who were childless sat by a black banner. During the wedding, red tents were put up in the house of the bride and white tents in the house of the bridegroom.47
If, before the wedding, the bridegroom "retreated to the places where his ancestors roam," the bride changed her white wedding clothes for black ones and mourned him by scratching her cheeks until she drew blood, lamenting: "Alas, the master of my crimson lips! Alas, the hope of my brow and head! Alas, my king and my dzhigit! Where did you go, why did you leave me alone, my soul, my
45 See: Kniga moego deda, p. 49; Narody Kavkaza, Part II, Moscow, 1962, p. 135; S.Sh. Hajieva, Kumyki, Moscow, 1961, pp. 270-271.
46 See: Osman-bey, op. cit., p. 80; S.Sh. Hajieva, op. cit., pp. 275-176; Narody Kavkaza, p. 138; R. Babayeva, Quba qohorinin toy adotlori (Marriage Rites of the City of Quba), Baku, 1946, pp. 22-23, 32 (in Azeri).
47
See: Kniga moego deda, pp. 14, 39, 69; Ibn Bibi, op. cit., S. 7.
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dzhigit; you whom I loved with all my heart as soon as I opened my eyes; you with whom I shared my pillow; who perished on his road and who became its victim!"48
Transfer to the house of the bridegroom took place after the feast in the bride's house. The wedding cortege went to a special room, while the bride was invariably accompanied by the bridegroom, although exceptions were made: emir-i mejlis and the wives of top officials of the Konya sultanate accompanied the bride of Konya Sultan Kay Kaus I Seljukid instead of the bridegroom, who could not attend the wedding feast in Arzinjan at the bride's house. The bridegroom was expected to meet his bride in any case. For example, Iraqi Sultan Muhammad Seljukid (1153-1160), although ill, personally greeted his bride sitting in a palanquin close to his capital, the city of Hamadan in Azerbaijan. Iraqi Sultan Togrul I Seljukid (1132-1134), accompanied by his emirs, met his bride outside the capital. Among the Salars, the bride moved to the bridegroom's house sitting on a camel inside a gejebe (imitation of the Salar dwelling).49
Wedding feast in the bridegroom's house. From the house of her parents, the bride was ceremoniously escorted to the wedding premises in the house of her bridegroom (an already existing or newly built palace or pavilion). It was the custom among the Oghuzes to set up a white tent for the bridegroom at the place where "an arrow sent by the dzhigit fell to the ground."50 This means that the choice of place for the wedding feast in the bridegroom's house was a ritual. There is a custom among some of the present-day Turkic peoples of organizing the wedding feast in special premises; in Azerbaijan, mainly in the countryside, a toyhana (a wooden pavilion) was built for the occasion, its walls and floor covered with carpets. The tradition goes back to the 12th century; Nizami Ganjavi wrote about this at one time.51 The guests took their places at the tables arranged along the walls; professional musicians and singers performed in the same room; those who wanted to dance went into the center.
Great Sultan Togrul bek Seljukid built a palace in Baghdad for his wedding feast with Seyyeda, the daughter of Caliph al-Qaim Abbasid. Seljuks illuminated the palace and streets for such occasions; buildings, mainly palaces, were lavishly decorated. In 1159, for example, pavilions were built for the wedding of Iraqi Sultan Muhammad Seljukid and Hatun-i-Kirmani, daughter of Melik of Kir-man in Hamadan, the capital of the sultanate; the city was illuminated.52
The "bath ritual" in the bridegroom's house on the eve of the wedding was another tradition. Konya Sultan Kay Kaus I Seljukid went to the bathhouse before going to the wedding.53 Even today, in Azerbaijan the bridegroom, along with his mates and musicians, goes to the bathhouse; the ritual is known as "bey hamami" (the bridegroom's bath ritual) and is accompanied by gift-giving.
In the wedding premises, the bride was led into a separate room and put on the "golden throne" ("the throne of honor and bliss," according to Ibn Bibi), where she remained concealed behind a curtain. In Azerbaijan, this expression is known from a wedding song of the people of Quba (a city in Azerbaijan). In the bride's house, people sing, "We congratulate you, the bride, on being seated on the throne and wish you happiness."54 Among the Salars, the bride's father sings oruh-ses (song of praise) in honor of the bridegroom and the bride. The bridegroom and his friends dance and sing in front of the bride.55 It should be said that Ibn al-'Ebroyo supplied information that was not contained
48 Kniga moego deda, p. 39.
49 See: Sadruddin, op. cit., S. 129; "Histoire des Seldjoucides. Extraite du Tarikhi-Guzideh d'Hamd-Allah Mustau-fi," Trad. par M. Defremery, Journal Asiatique, tome XII, 1848, pp. 362-364; Irak ve Horasan, S. 256.
50 Kniga moego deda, pp. 38, 54.
51 See: N. Ganjavi, Iskender-name (The Book of Alexander), Part I, Baku, 1953, pp. 191-192; idem, Sem krasavits (The Seven Beauties), Baku, 1959, p. 243.
52 See: Ravendi, Rahat-us-Sudur ve Ayet-us-Surur (Lightening the Hearts and Creating Joy), I-II Cilt, Qeviren A. Ate§, Ankara, 1957-1960, S. 259.
53 See: ibn Bibi, op. cit., S. 74.
54 Kniga moego deda, p. 35; N. Ganjavi, op. cit., p. 256; A.A. Volodin, Trukhmenskaia step i trukhmeny. Sbornik materialov dlia opisaniia mestnostey i piemen Kavkaza (SMOMPK), Issue 38, Tiflis, 1907, p. 238; R. Babayeva, op. cit., p. 22; ibn Bibi, op. cit., S. 74.
55 See: E.R. Tenishev, op. cit., pp. 87-90; G. Barhebraei, op. cit., p. 241.
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in other sources or among other peoples. When the bride of Great Sultan Togrul bek Seljukid "arrived at his palace, the sultan and noble Turks rose and danced as was the custom among them: they knelt and rose and sang songs according to the Turkic custom." Dated 1063, this is the earliest information about wedding songs and dances among the Turks; kneeling as a dance element can still be seen among the Azeris and many other Caucasian peoples.
In the bridegroom's house, the wedding feast began late at night and went on for several days to the accompaniment of music, dancing, and sings. Among the Turks of the Caucasus and Central Asia, dancing and singing performed by one person is still popular. As far as we know, it was only among the Seljuks that the future spouse danced and sang in front of the bride. Among other Turkic people, dancing in front of the bride, without singing, is performed by the bridegroom's closest friends and relatives.
During the feast, which lasted many days or even a week, and after it, gifts were presented. The bridegroom sent his gift to the bride through one of his close female relatives. Great Sultan Togrul bek Seljukid, for example, sent his bride two precious necklaces, a gold goblet, and a head shawl embroidered with gold and decorated with pearls through his niece Hadija Arslan-hatun, the Caliph's wife. Those present at the wedding feast were mainly given expensive clothing.56
Viewing and uncovering the face. Throughout the wedding feast in the bridegroom's house and after it, the bride was kept in a special chamber concealed behind a curtain. Here is a typical detail: after the wedding the spouse stayed away from his wife for several days (up to a week in some cases). For example, Great Sultan Togrul bek Seljukid, when entering the room where his wife sat on a golden throne, bowed to the ground to demonstrate his respect, but never sat down, leaving the room without saying a word. This went on for seven days, throughout which the wife never showed her face. This custom, and many other wedding rituals typical of the Turks, demonstrated respect for the woman. The face uncovering ceremony took place after an interval specified by tradition; terminologically this meant the first night, which probably took place in a tent set up for this purpose.57
The wife's temporary return to her parent's house. In some cases, the sides agreed that after the wedding feast in the bridegroom's house the wife would return, for a specified period, to her parent's house, or would not be taken away from her native town by her husband (if the wedding took place in the bride's native town).58 It is hard to say whether this was observed, since the sources mention it only when the husband broke it. This custom preserved the remnants of the transition stage between the matrilocal and patrilocal forms of residence. The patrilocal form is typical of class society, which explains why in the past the husband frequently neglected the custom. According to Ibn al-'Ebroyo, for example, when, after the wedding, Togrul bek "left Baghdad to return to Horasan, he took the Caliph's daughter, his wife, with him. The sultan broke his promise to let her stay in Baghdad."
This is the last of the marriage rites.
Other elements of the wedding cycle. Music, dancing, and singing were invariable components of the Turkic marriage cycle performed by professional singers and musicians who played the kobyz, zurna, and drums. The Salars have preserved a cycle of wedding lyrics called sagi§ (the bride's lamenting).59 In one of them the girl pleads with her parents, "Why I am being married off so early?"; in another she addresses her friends, "Tell my parents that I am too young to marry"; the third again is addressed to the parents, to whom she says, "My life in my husband's house will be a hard one if he does not like me." There was a sagij performed while the girl was dressed for the wedding feast. She addresses her relatives, father, mother, and brothers, "Please help me, do not abandon me, and do not forget me when I move to my husband's house; come and see me!"
These songs and songs of praise were performed throughout all stages of the wedding ceremony. In the 13 th century, for example, Ibn Bibi registered the following formula in Asia Minor that was pronounced at the feast when the wedding contract was signed:
56 See: Irak ve Horasan, S. 24.
57 See: Kniga moego deda, p. 39; N. Derzhavin, op. cit., p. 173; G. Barhebraei, op. cit., p. 241.
58 See: G. Barhebraei, op. cit., p. 241; Irak ve Horasan, S. 24.
59 E.R. Tenishev, op. cit., pp. 32-35; 91-94.
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"Kymiiy ee bobyKiy ojicywiap!"
("Let them [the bridegroom and bride] Be happy and have children!").60
Late in the 19th century, Vladimir Gordlevskiy attended an Ottoman wedding in Asia Minor where he heard a song with a similar refrain:
"Kymjiy ojicyn, uapbiM, oncyn! ffulbulHulH Mu,6apeK omcyu!"
("Be happy, my love,
Let your wedding be blessed!").61
One may even say that both formulas recorded at different times in the same locality (Asia Minor) testify to the fact that in the 19th century an echo of the songs of praise of a much earlier (Middle Ages) period was still heard. In Azerbaijan, for example, the singer addresses the bride with a song of praise:
"3hmuh, chhuh mnxmuH M^apnK oicyH! chhuh dnxmuH Mu,6apnK oicyH!"
("We congratulate you, the bride, on being seated on the throne!
We wish you, the bride, happiness!").62
Similar wording and identical formulas used in Asia Minor in the 13 th and also in the late 19th century and in Azerbaijan in the mid-20th century cannot but attract attention. This means that throughout the centuries, wedding songs and dances were passed down to the next generation and were popular in places populated by Turkic tribes (the Caucasus being one such place) who used kindred languages and followed similar customs.
Wedding feasts were accompanied by all sorts of games and contests, including equestrian events, such as dzhigiting (stunts on horseback) and racing.63 For example, in 1172, during the wedding between Emir of Melitene Abu-i-Kasim and the daughter of the ruler of the Hisn-Ziyyad fortress Kara Arslan, "everyone came out to organize games according to the customs of the Turks and warriors." There is a custom among the Caucasian peoples to start games or dance in pairs. The Ottoman Turks invited musicians; they danced and took part in games and watched horse racing and dzhigiting.
There were competitions among those who wanted to marry the girl; they were expected to answer questions and solve riddles and take part in various contests. What the Oghuzes wrote about the single combat between the bridegroom and monsters was the most archaic form of heroic matchmaking, which goes back to the ancient fairy tales about bogatyrs popular among the Turkic and Mongolian people. It is known that the bridegroom and the bride competed in quick-wittedness (a dialogcompetition), riding, archery, and wrestling. Typically, the bridegroom would say, "If this girl wins, the rest of the Oghuzes will ridicule me forever."64 Among the Islamized Turks, this competition was an archaism and a vestige from pre-Muslim times. This very distinctive tradition survived until the 11th-12th centuries. Michael the Syrian wrote that during the wedding feast in the bridegroom's house, equestrian events were organized "according to the customs of Turks and warriors."65 The Salars preserved the custom until our day and age in the form of wedding "camel games" which in-
60 Ibn Bibi, op. cit., S. 73074.
61 V.A. Gordlevskiy, "Osmanskaia svadba," in: V.A. Gordlevskiy, Izbrannye sochinenia, Vol. IV, Moscow, 1968, pp. 98, 109-110.
62 R. Babayeva, op. cit., pp. 3-4, 22.
63 See: Kniga moego deda, pp. 38, 42, 44-47; A. Kiiasbekov, Svadebnye obriady Nukhinskogo uezda (SMOMPK), Issue 31, Tiflis, 1902, p. 180; V.A. Gordlevskiy, "Osmanskaia svadba," pp. 97, 100; Chronique de Michel le Syrien, p. 699.
64 Kniga moego deda, pp. 35-38, 64-69, 72.
65 Chronique de Michel le Syrien, p. 699.
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cluded tales and songs in honor of the bridegroom and bride.66 Competitions during weddings were a very distinctive reflection of the lifestyle of the Turks, who spent the larger part of their lives on horseback; they were always ready to fight, hunt for prey, or clash over pastures. These games were not merely a demonstration of prowess, agility, and proficiency; there was another meaning in all of this connected with so-called wedding dzhigiting (one of the vestiges of the custom of bride abducting). The games and dances, in particular, were magic rites much more ancient than class society.
Specifics of marriages among the feudal lords. Marriages between the houses of feudal lords pursued other aims than starting a family. They sought allies, wealth, power, economic might, and political clout, sharing the spoils of war, distributing material boons and territory, and acquiring connections, sinecures, crowns, or land. This is amply testified by the dynastic and other forms of marriages among Muslims and with "infidels."67 For example, a Turkic kagan gave Sassanid Emperor Khosrow I Anushirvan (531-579) his daughter's hand in marriage in the hope of "winning his favors as a relative and averting possible evil on his part."
Caliph al-Qaim Abbasid married Hadija Arslan-hatun, the niece of Great Sultan Togrul bek Seljukid, to "strengthen his contacts with the Seljuks and to show his enemies that he did not intend to cut short his friendship with the Turks." The Great Sultan, in turn, married the Caliph's daughter Seyyeda to become a relative of the Abbasids and legalize, in the eyes of the Muslim world, both usurpation of secular power of the imam of the faithful and his conquers.
In 1064, when Great Sultan Alp-Arslan Seljukid (1063-1092) led his army to the Southern Caucasus, the local rulers, in an effort to protect themselves and their domains, decided to pledge their loyalty to him and become related to him. Georgian King Christian Bagrat IV (1027-1072) accepted this Seljukid as his suzerain, signed a peace treaty with him, and gave him a Georgian princess's hand in marriage. The wedding took place in the Azeri city of Hamadan. Later, Alp-Arslan gave one of his dignitaries the princess's hand in marriage.68
Great Sultan Malik Shah Seljukid negotiated a peace treaty with Emperor of Byzantium Alexios I Komnenos (1081-1118), who wanted the Seljuks to stop their inroads into imperial territory. Malik Shah agreed on the condition that his elder son would be wedded to one of the Komnenian princesses. The emperor accepted the condition, but Malik Shah was murdered in 1092 before the matrimonial plans were realized.69
Caliph al-Muqtadi Abbasid (1075-1094) had two Turkish wives: Sara, the daughter of Great Sultan alp-Arslan Seljukid, and the daughter of his successor Malik Shah. Caliph al-Mustajir Abbasid (1094-1118) was married to Hatun al-Ismat, Malik Shah's other daughter.70 Iraqi Sultan Daud Seljukid (1131-1132) married his cousin Jauhar-hatun, the daughter of Iraqi Sultan Masood Seljukid (1134-1152). Iraqi Sultan Suleyman Shah Seljukid (1160-1161) was married to a Christian, the daughter of Georgian King David IV the Builder (1089-1125) and a niece of Khwarazmshah Atsiz (1127-1156). Arslan Shah, who succeeded Suleyman, married a daughter of Caliph al-Muqtafi Abbasid (1136-1160); Iraqi Sultan Muhammad I Seljukid (1153-1160) was betrothed to daughter of Caliph al-Muqtafi Abbasid.71
Atabeg of Azerbaijan Shams al-Din Ildeniz (1136-1176) married the widow of Iraqi Sultan Togrul I (1132-1134) and, as a relative of the Seljukids, strengthened his position in Iraq. He had two sons by her—Jahan Pahlavan and Qizil-Arslan—maternal half-brothers of Iraqi Sultan Arslan Shah Seljukid. For political reasons, in 1186, the last Iraqi sultan of the Seljukid dynasty, Togrul II (1176-
66 See: E.R. Tenishev, op. cit., pp. 32-35, 36-37, 87-94, 137.
67 G. Barhebraei, op. cit., p. 233; Irak ve Horasan, S. 8, 26, 43, 72-73, 212; Sadruddin, op. cit., S. 12-13, 57, 94, 129; Histoire des Seldjoucides, Vol. XII, p. 352.
68 See: Irak ve Horasan, S. 31; G. Barhebraei, op. cit., p. 244; Histoire des Seldjoucides, Vol. XI, pp. 436-437.
69 See: Vizantiyskie istoriki. Anna Komnina. Alexiada, Part I, St. Petersburg, 1859, pp. 303-304.
70 See: E. de Zambaur, Manuel de Généalogie et de Chronologie pour l'Histoire de l'Islam, Hannover, 1927, Tableau Généalogique "R".
71 See: Ibid., Tableaux Généalogiques "G" et "R".
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1194), married Inanj-hatun, the widow of his Atabeg Jahan Pahlavan and daughter of powerful Emir of Asia Minor Bek Timur.72
In the latter half of the 12th century, the Georgian dynasty of Bargatids became related to the Iraqi Seljukids. Princess Rusudan, the sister of King Georgy III (1156-1184), married Sultan Arslan Shah (1161-1176). After realizing that they were no match for the Iraqi state of the Seljukids and the Ildenizids who ruled it, the Shirvanshahs preferred to become the relatives of their fearful neighbors. This explains why Emir Umar, the younger son of Atabeg Jahan Pahlavan, who ruled in Ganja, married the daughter of Shirvanshah Garshasp (1179-1225). When Atabeg Abu-Bakr Ildenizid lost much of his former might and could no longer keep the Georgian feudal lords in check, he married a Georgian princess to discontinue military inroads into his domains.73
A gold medal was minted to commemorate the wedding of Great Sultan Togrul bek Seljukid andSeyyeda, the daughter of Caliph al-Qaim Abbasid, a unique case in the history of the Seljuks.14 It is 47 mm in diameter and weighs 23.74 grams. The obverse shows Caliph al-Qaim Abbasid and a circular Arabic inscription in Kufi style: "There is no God but Allah and Muhammad, Peace be upon Him, is the Messenger of Allah. Al-Qaim bi-Amrillah, Head of the Faithful." The reverse carries a portrait of the first Great Sultan Togrul bek Seljukid wearing a typically Turkic felt hat. The circular Arabic inscription in Kufi style says: "Powerful Sultan, Shahinshah, Pillar of Peace and Religion Togrul bek. Minted in Madinat al-Salam [Baghdad] in 1063."
Some of the customs provide an insight into the wedding rites of the Turkic cycle. Marrying a widow. The procedure was shorter and the wedding less pompous; the kalym was half of the normal size; there were no feasts in the bride's house, no exchange of gifts, no bridegroom's trips for his future wife, and no face uncovering. When Iraqi Sultan Togrul I Seljukid married Inaj-hatun, the widow of his Grand Artabeg, Jahan Pahlavan Ildenizid (1176-1187), he dispatched his agents to accompany her to Hamadan, the capital of his sultanate, and greeted her personally outside the city walls together with emirs and their wives.75
Divorce. The reasons were varied, the main one being childlessness. It comes as no surprise that Oghuz Khan Bayundur placed his childless beks under a black banner (for the pre-Islamic Turks black was the color of mourning). It was the custom among the Turkic nobility to send a childless wife back to her parents with a lavish mehr.76 In 1181, the daughter of Konya Sultan Kilij-Arsland II Seljukid (1156-1192) and her husband, ruler of Hisn-Kaifa Emir Noor ad-Din Artukid, divorced because of the husband's "satanic love for a prostitute,"77 a legally untenable reason, which caused a scandal between her father and his son-in-law.
There was an instance of formal divorce in the history of the Atabegs of Azerbaijan Ildenizids. In 1225, Khwarazmshah Jalal ad-Din (1220-1231) besieged the Azeri city of Tabriz; its ruler Uzbek (1210-1225), the last of the Atabegs, fled the city leaving behind his wife Melike-hatun, the daughter of Iraqi Sultan Togrul II Seljukid. She agreed to surrender the city to the khwarazmshah if she could become his wife. Jalal ad-Din accepted the offer, but Melike-hatun first needed a divorce. City qadi Kavam as-Din Haddadi refused to dissolve the old marriage and prohibited the new one. A certain Izz ad-Din Kazvini offered his services in exchange for the position of city qadi.
72 See: G. Barhebraei, op. cit., p. 233; Irak ve Horasan, S. 8, 26, 43, 72-73, 212; Sadruddin, op. cit., S. 12-13, 57, 94, 96, 129; Histoire des Seldjoucides, Vol. XII, p. 352.
73 See: V.F. Minorskiy, Istoria Shirvana i Derbenda X-XI vekov (A History of Sharavan and Darband in the 10th-11th Centuries), Moscow, 1963, pp. 180, 186; Histoire de la Géorgie, depuis l'antiquité jusqu'au XIXe siècle, St. Petersburg, 1849, pp. 395, 435.
74 See: S.G. Agajanov, "Unikalnaia medal s izobrazheniem seldzhukskogo sultana Mudammeda Torgul-beka," Iz-vestia AN Turkmenskoy SSR, Seria obshchestvennykh nauk, No. 4, 1964; F.A. Walker, "Unique Medal of the Seljuk Tu-grilbeg," in: H. Ingholt, Centennial Publication of American Numismatic Society, New York, 1958.
75 See: Sadruddin, op. cit., s. 129.
76 See: Rodoslovnaia Turkmen, pp. 75-76.
77 Chronique de Michel le Syrien, p. 725.
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The appointment and divorce were equally prompt; Melike-hatun and Khwarazmshah Jalal ad-Din got married.78
Levirate andsororate marriages. These types of marriages were practiced by the top crust of the Turkic feudal lords, mostly for political and economic reasons. Oghuz Khan (Oguz-Kagan), the legendary forefather of the Oghuz tribes, married his cousins who were the daughters of his three parental uncles. Among the pre-Islamic Oghuzes, the elder son was duty- bound to marry the widow of his late father (if she was not his mother). Iraqi Sultan Suleyman Shah Seljukid (1160-1161) married the widow of his brother, the daughter of a Georgian king. Another Iraqi Sultan Mahmud I Seljukid married two of his cousins, the daughters of Great Sultan Sanjar Seljukid. In 1149, the ruler of Mosul Seyf ad-Din Zangid married the daughter of ruler of Mardin Timur Pasha, whom he had defeated. When he died, his brother Qutb ad-Din Maudud married his widow. Atabeg Qizil-Arslan Ildenizid (11871191) married Inanj-hatun, the widow of his brother Jahan Pahlavan.79
Polygamy. According to the sources, polygamy based on customs was practiced among the Turkic tribes in pre-Islamic times. Oghuz Khan, the forefather of the Oghuz tribes, had three wives; the great, as well as the Iraqi and Konya, Seljukid sultans had several wives each at any one time. Harems were an inalienable part of sultanic palaces. Normally sultans had four legal wives and several concubines, the children they bore them being accepted as legal with the right to inherit property or even the throne. Great Atabeg of Azerbaijan Jahan Pahlavan Ildenizid had two sons—Kutlug-Inanj and Amiran Umar— by his legal wife and two other sons—Abu-Bakr and Uzbek—by concubines. All of them were considered legal and equal heirs. Abu-Bakr (1195-1210) and Uzbek (1210-1225) became atabegs and rulers of the Azerbaijani Sultanate, while Kutlug-Inanj and Amiran Umar never rose that high.80
Polygamy ruled out the problem of infidelity. Michael the Syrian wrote, "The Turks are wise and have skillfully arranged their family life. They avoid infidelity and few indulge in fornication because they have no laws that prohibit second and third marriages or polygamy." Infidelity was punished.81 An unfaithful wife was evicted from the family home; on the khan's orders, she was tied by the neck, arms, and legs to the tails of five wild mares, the hind legs of which were punctured by spears. They started rotating on spot until they tore the woman apart. Nor did an unfaithful husband avoid punishment: "If they [the Turks] open a case against someone they tear him apart: he was tied to the top branches of two trees which were then allowed to straighten; the tied man was thus torn apart."
Respect for the woman. Turkic marriage rites testify to the tradition of respecting the woman. Vassily Bartold wrote that among the nomads the woman had more influence than among the settled peoples because of their frequently greater role in cattle-breeding.82 Kniga moego deda Korkuta says the same; it contains no mention of polygamy among the Oghuz Turks.
Pre-Muslim Turkic marriage ceremony. The marriage rites described above and related customs were typical of the Islamized Turks. There were earlier rites which survived, on the whole, among the Oghuz tribes until the 11th-12th centuries. For example, a contemporary wrote, "There is the following custom among them: if one of them is seeking the hand of a woman from the family of another man (his daughter or sister or any other woman on which he has influence) for a certain amount of Khwarazm clothing and he pays this, he can take this woman to his home. Sometimes kalym is paid in camels or horses or something else. No one can collect his wife until he has paid the kalym agreed on with the 'guardian.' If he pays it, he can boldly enter the house in which this woman lives and take
78 See: Rashid ad-Din, op. cit., Vol. I, Book 2, p. 242; Recueil des historiens des croisades. Historiens orientaux, Vol. I, Paris, 1872, p. 100.
79 See: A.P. Kovalevskiy, op. cit., pp. 126, 129; Rashid ad-Din, op. cit, Vol. I, Book 1, p. 82; Rodoslovnaia Turkmen, p. 41; G. Barhebraei, op. cit., pp. 252, 317; Irak ve Horasan, S. 144, 212; Histoire des Seldjoucides, Vol. XII, p. 344; Vol. XIII, p. 19.
80 See: Rashid ad-Din, op. cit., Vol. I, Book 1, p. 83; Rodoslovnaia Turkmen, p. 41; Ibn Bibi, op. cit., S. 74; Chronique de Michel le Syrien, p. 568 ; G. Barhebraei, op. cit., p. 244; Histoire des Seldjoucides, Vol. XI, p. 436; Vol. XII, p. 368 ; Sad-ruddin, op. cit., S. 121.
81 See: Rodoslovnaia Turkmen, p. 64; A.P. Kovalevskiy, op. cit., p. 126; Chronique de Michel le Syrien, p. 568.
82 See: V.V. Bartold, "Turkestan v epokhu mongolskogo nashestviia," in: V.V. Bartold, Sochinenia, Vol. 1, Moscow, 1963, p. 372.
THE CAUCASUS & GLOBALIZATION
her in the presence of her father, her mother, and her brothers and they do not prevent this. If a man who has a wife and sons dies, the eldest of his sons must marry his wife, if she is not his mother."83
C o n c l u s i o n
The above suggests that throughout the ancient and medieval history of the peoples of the Turkic world, they developed, consolidated, and passed down from generation to generation ethnocultural traditions which, even though they came from different sources, gradually shaped ethnically distinctive specifics.
It was at that time that these people determined the optimal forms of their economic activity, acquired a material culture, and put the final touches to their spiritual culture, social and family order, folk ethics, visual arts, and folklore. This ethnocultural complex is confirmed by information from Syrian sources about the religious beliefs, customs, and rites of the Turks of the 7th-12th centuries.
1 A.P. Kovalevskiy, op. cit., p. 126.
