MARRIAGE MORES

Though it was a polygynous society, most families were limited to one wife, and fidelity was prized and adultery frowned upon. In fact, earlier chroniclers such as Carpini and Rubruck claim that adultery was punishable with death. Intercourse with a virgin was also considered a capital offence. Wives had to be bought, and the marriage was considered eternal, the couple being reunited in the afterlife. This belief gave rise to the practice of sons marrying all his father's wives, other than his natural mother, on the father's death. The son, often the youngest, had the option to merely look after the well-being of these wives or to take them as full wives. If these wives returned to the father in their afterlife, it was not considered such a loss because they were still kept within the family circle. In the case of Hiilegii Khan, Mongol ruler, or Il-Khan, of Iran (ruled 1256-65), his inherited wife, Dokuz Khatun, became his principal wife, and their sons and descendants sat on the Il-Khanid throne until 1335. She was the last and youngest of his father's, Tolui's, wives, and it was claimed the marriage had not been consummated. According to Rubruck the Mongols observed the prohibitions on first and second degree of sanguinity that forbade marriage with first cousins or with aunts or uncles. However, there were no restrictions on affinity, that is on marrying two sisters, for example, in succession or at the same time. Chinggis Khan had innumerable wives, and modern estimates claim that 16 million of his descendants are walking the planet today, spreading his genes to places Mongol hooves never trod.

When a marriage contract was drawn up, it was the father who organized the banquet. Meanwhile, the daughter was obliged to flee and hide from her future husband at the home of her relatives. The father would then announce the disappearance of his daughter and would tell her fiance that if he could find her he could keep her. At this the man would ride out with his friends to hunt for his betrothed. Upon finding her, he was supposed to feign violence and forcibly seize her, taking her away with him bound and struggling. As their daughter was being abducted, her family would be at home mourning their loss while the husband's family would be preparing a welcoming feast to greet his newly won wife.