Were marriages between Christian and Muslim nobilities possible?

Not exactly a WI, but I thought this one was the best forum to post it.
I was reading about the suggested marriage of Joan of England to Al-Adil (the brother of Saladin) made by Richard I, and later I've read that Ismail Ibn Sharif, Sultan of Morocco, asked to marry Marie Anne de Bourbon, a legitimised daughter of Louis XIV. Of course, neither marriage happened. However, are there any recorded marriage between Christian and Muslim nobilities/ruler families? And how could such marital agreements be more commom?
 
Not exactly a WI, but I thought this one was the best forum to post it.
I was reading about the suggested marriage of Joan of England to Al-Adil (the brother of Saladin) made by Richard I, and later I've read that Ismail Ibn Sharif, Sultan of Morocco, asked to marry Marie Anne de Bourbon, a legitimised daughter of Louis XIV. Of course, neither marriage happened. However, are there any recorded marriage between Christian and Muslim nobilities/ruler families? And how could such marital agreements be more commom?
If a Male Muslim ruler with a Christian Princess is possible...the reverse would not under islamic law.
 
Not exactly a WI, but I thought this one was the best forum to post it.
I was reading about the suggested marriage of Joan of England to Al-Adil (the brother of Saladin) made by Richard I, and later I've read that Ismail Ibn Sharif, Sultan of Morocco, asked to marry Marie Anne de Bourbon, a legitimised daughter of Louis XIV. Of course, neither marriage happened. However, are there any recorded marriage between Christian and Muslim nobilities/ruler families? And how could such marital agreements be more commom?
Yes there have been multiple occasion where it happened in general their were a power gaps between the two party I think of the ottoman and that one Byzantine princess and Almanzor and the daughter of one Iberian king or for an alliance in the objective of achieving a common goal I think of the alliance between the duc of Aquitaine and the Muslim leader of Barcelona in their double rebellion against their respective overlord . Also the marriage of a Christian princess to a non Christian leader seem more common than the marriage of a Muslim princess to a non Muslim leader
 
I think you either need a fluid situation where religious lines haven't solidified and there's relatively free intermixing, or a power imbalance where one party is dispatching a princess as a form of supplication.

In early medieval Spain the Muslim Banu Qasi were related to the early Kings of Pamplona.

Heard it happened under some circumstances in the ottoman empire

Byzzies sent some Palaiologoi and Kantakouzenoi princesses east to the Ottomans.

Princesses of the Empire of Trebizond also married into Muslim dynasties, such as the Aq Qoyunlu.
 
It mostly happened in the Balkans and Caucasus OTL with Byzantine, Serbian, etc. princesses marrying Ottoman rulers and with Georgian princesses marrying the rulers of nearby states.
 
I think you either need a fluid situation where religious lines haven't solidified and there's relatively free intermixing,
Christianity and Islam do share a lot of major tenants. Perhaps if they viewed each other as branches of the same faith?

Then it would be like early marriages between Protestants and Catholics.
 
In some cases on such inter religious marriages sons followed father's faith, daughters followed mother's faith. There were examples of Christian daughters of Muslim Turkic rulers, born from their Christian wives.
 

Osman Aga

Banned
Not exactly a WI, but I thought this one was the best forum to post it.
I was reading about the suggested marriage of Joan of England to Al-Adil (the brother of Saladin) made by Richard I, and later I've read that Ismail Ibn Sharif, Sultan of Morocco, asked to marry Marie Anne de Bourbon, a legitimised daughter of Louis XIV. Of course, neither marriage happened. However, are there any recorded marriage between Christian and Muslim nobilities/ruler families? And how could such marital agreements be more commom?

Yes, it happened in Al Andalus, for example the Banu Qasi. It also happened with the Turkmen Beyliks although they were usually the ones taking brides rather than giving it. The Tatars of Central Asia usually gave brides and took brides with Shamanist/buddhist Mongols in the Middle Ages so I'd guess the Tatars of Russia were open to that as well with their Christian Russian neighbors. Last but not least is Mount Lebanon where the Catholic Shihab Emir Bashir II married a Muslim woman as first wife.

Additional: Muslim Albanian Tribes and Catholic Albanian Tribes in the North intermarrying with each other. I think the sons and daughters of tribal leaders could be considered as nobles in some sort of way.
 
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Osman Aga

Banned
In some cases on such inter religious marriages sons followed father's faith, daughters followed mother's faith. There were examples of Christian daughters of Muslim Turkic rulers, born from their Christian wives.

This is the first time I read this. Do you got examples? You got my curiosity.
 
I wonder if there are examples of Muslim princess/noblewomen marrying Christian rulers and nobility?
I'm not entirely sure, but I believe that a King of Leon or Castile may have married a Muslim woman. ..

Edit: They may have or may not have married, Zaida of Seville was at the very least mistress of King Alfonso VI of Castile, though she likely converted to Christianity

 
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Osman Aga

Banned
Ladislaus of Durazzo offered to marry a daughter of Bayzeid I.
Surprised me that Ladislaus considered this. I would expect "do not marry an infidel" by a monarch who lives awfully close to the Papacy.

What I would expect is, had Bayezid agreed with this, there would be more exchange of brides with certain European dynasties who have a shared enemy with the Ottomans. I wonder what the Pope would think of this...
 
I don't remember where I've encountered this, I need to do research, but iirc it involved princesses of Trebizond.
It's also the arrangement that Casimir the Great is said to have had with his Jewish mistress Esterka--the sons were Christians, the daughters Jewish. Some noble families traced descent to the former. It was an illegitimate union, of course, but it's another data point.

There were also marriages between Polish Tatar nobles and their Catholic or Orthodox neighbors, but that also tended to involve conversion, if not of the parents then of the children, to Christianity (since Muslims marrying Christians tended to be social climbers--much like Jews marrying Christians). As the recent Young Pilsudski television series put it, discussing Aleksander Sulkiewicz's offspring, "You a Muslim, she a Calvinist--and what will the children be?" "Catholics, obviously."

It's easy for the Ottomans and other Muslim dynasties to do because of their vast harems, but it's much harder to pull off for Christian monarchies, both because of the monogamy rule in Christianity and because the politics of marriage don't make it advantageous for the overwhelming majority of Christian families. The only places where I can see a huge benefit for marital alliances between Christian and Muslim nobilities would be in the Outremer or in those parts of Europe that border the Ottoman Empire--Poland-Lithuania, Wallachia, Romania, Hungary, etc. How much Christian-Muslim intermarriage was there in those Christian parts of Europe that bordered the Ottomans?
Surprised me that Ladislaus considered this. I would expect "do not marry an infidel" by a monarch who lives awfully close to the Papacy.

What I would expect is, had Bayezid agreed with this, there would be more exchange of brides with certain European dynasties who have a shared enemy with the Ottomans. I wonder what the Pope would think of this...
I think the Pope might actually be very enthusiastic about it. Many European pagan kingdoms were brought to Christianity by pious Christian wives, after all--the hope of baptizing Bayezid the Thunderbolt could make him extremely excited.
Christianity and Islam do share a lot of major tenants. Perhaps if they viewed each other as branches of the same faith?

Then it would be like early marriages between Protestants and Catholics.
For a long time (and still as a minority opinion after), Islam was viewed as a heretical offshoot of Christianity. But even in a lot of Catholic-Protestant or Orthodox-Protestant or Orthodox-Catholic marriages, conversion was expected (Nicholas II's German wife had to enter the ROC, for example)--so you'd need Islam to be unrecognizably closer to Christianity for that.
 
Well, there were examples of late Medieval pagan-Christian marriages (Lithuanian dukes taking Rurikid Orthodox wives and having their kids raised as pagans). That seems to be even bigger barrier to overcome.
 

Osman Aga

Banned
It's also the arrangement that Casimir the Great is said to have had with his Jewish mistress Esterka--the sons were Christians, the daughters Jewish. Some noble families traced descent to the former. It was an illegitimate union, of course, but it's another data point.

There were also marriages between Polish Tatar nobles and their Catholic or Orthodox neighbors, but that also tended to involve conversion, if not of the parents then of the children, to Christianity (since Muslims marrying Christians tended to be social climbers--much like Jews marrying Christians). As the recent Young Pilsudski television series put it, discussing Aleksander Sulkiewicz's offspring, "You a Muslim, she a Calvinist--and what will the children be?" "Catholics, obviously."

It's easy for the Ottomans and other Muslim dynasties to do because of their vast harems, but it's much harder to pull off for Christian monarchies, both because of the monogamy rule in Christianity and because the politics of marriage don't make it advantageous for the overwhelming majority of Christian families. The only places where I can see a huge benefit for marital alliances between Christian and Muslim nobilities would be in the Outremer or in those parts of Europe that border the Ottoman Empire--Poland-Lithuania, Wallachia, Romania, Hungary, etc. How much Christian-Muslim intermarriage was there in those Christian parts of Europe that bordered the Ottomans?

I think the Pope might actually be very enthusiastic about it. Many European pagan kingdoms were brought to Christianity by pious Christian wives, after all--the hope of baptizing Bayezid the Thunderbolt could make him extremely excited.

For a long time (and still as a minority opinion after), Islam was viewed as a heretical offshoot of Christianity. But even in a lot of Catholic-Protestant or Orthodox-Protestant or Orthodox-Catholic marriages, conversion was expected (Nicholas II's German wife had to enter the ROC, for example)--so you'd need Islam to be unrecognizably closer to Christianity for that.
Usually when there is a theoretical marriage between higher ranking figures like Ladislaus and an Ottoman princess I'd expect all the children to be raised as Christians because... well... he is a King. Not a small noble where some children are Christian others are Muslim.

Bayezid I and the Papacy weren't too good with each other considering Bayezid's ambition, although that hardly would prevent the Pope for aspiring his own ambition (converting a powerful ruler who united the East and could bring it under Rome's authority). But in this scenario, Ladislaus would marry Bayezids daughter, a Muslim. That is something the Pope may find problematic. If Bayezid were to marry a relative of Ladislaus that could bring us to what you suggested, the pope getting his hopes up with Bayezid.

The last part, pretty much all German wives of the Czars became Russian Orthodox. The Russians were stronger and more faithtful to demand it I guess.
 
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