Political and economic dimensions of dowry in Seljuk and Abbasid dynasty marriages

After its establishment, Seljuk Sultan Tuğrul Bey, who aimed to strengthen his political dominance among other states and dynasties, gave great importance to political marriages between dynasties. For this reason, the Seljuk Sultans used marriage as a political tool many times in order to strengthen the good relations between them and the Abbasid Caliphate or to fix the bad relations, and they tried to regulate the relations between them in this way. In order to regulate the relations between the Seljuks and the Abbasids, the first step was taken with the marriage of Sultan Tugrul's niece Hatice Arslan Hatun and Khalifa al-Kaim Biemrillah. In the following processes, Seljuk sultans and Abbasid caliphs often tried to achieve some of their goals through marriages. Among these goals, the dowry brought by the women has a great share. It is enough to reveal the economic dimension of the dowry by gving 300,000 cash gold dinars as the dowry of the fertile lands left by Altuncan Hatun as a dowry while the Sejuk Sultan Tugrul Bey married Seyyide Hatun, the daughter of Khalifa al-Kaim Biemrillah. In addition, when examining the sources on dowries, it is noteworthy that a number of events experienced over dowries affect relations. For this reason, it is important to investigate the dowry issue.