On the Byzantine-Mongol Marriages

The article focuses on the rapprochement between Byzantium and the Mongols from the 1250s which resulted in marriage alliances between Mongol Khans and Byzantine despoinas (princesses). The key issue is a clash of two different approaches. The Byzantine one was focused on the exclusive status of Byzantium as Christian Roman Empire, whose status was unrivalled and whose sovereigns seldom allowed marriages of Byzantine ladies to the foreign rulers, especially if the latter were heathen or Muslim. The Mongol view considered the Mongol state as the only one destined to dominate over other states. Here, the marriages between Mongol rulers and foreign brides have been suggested as one of vital elements of such domination. The compromise between two views seemed to have been made by the Byzantines: while the Byzantine church law refused to recognize interconfessional marriages, the Byzantines began to see these marriages as a Christian mission of sorts as the Greek brides and wives could have served as agents for spreading Greek Orthodox Christianity. Given the fact that some Khans had already converted to Islam prior to the marriage, these were also the first marriages between the Byzantine Imperial dynasty of the Palaiologoi and the Muslim rulers. It seems that special tolerance of the Mongols towards Christianity (even if they were Muslims) played a key role in the change of the principles of the Byzantine marriage policy: it henceforth became possible for the Emperor’s illegitimate daughter to marry a Muslim ruler. This policy affected the marriages of the later period of the fourteenth and fifteenth century between the imperial dynasties of the Palaiologoi and Grand Komnenoi, on the one hand, and the neighboring Turkish rulers, including the Ottomans, on the other.

Keywords

Mongols, Byzantium, Empire of Nicaea, Empire of Trebizond, Golden Horde, Ilkhanid state, Michael VIII Palaiologos, Maria Palaiologina Diplobatatzina, Noghai, Hülegü, Abaqa, Baydu

Received

14.09.2022

Publication date

15.12.2022

Number of characters

66922

Cite

GOST	Korobeynikov D. On the Byzantine-Mongol Marriages // ISTORIYA – 2022. – V. 13. – Issue 11 (121) [Electronic resource]. URL: https://history.jes.su/S207987840023180-7-1 (circulation date: 25.07.2024). DOI: 10.18254/S207987840023180-7
MLA	Korobeynikov, Dmitry "On the Byzantine-Mongol Marriages." ISTORIYA 13.11 (121) (2022) DOI: 10.18254/S207987840023180-7
APA	Korobeynikov D. (2022). On the Byzantine-Mongol Marriages. ISTORIYA 13(11 (121)) DOI: 10.18254/S207987840023180-7

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