Among the peoples of the steppe a marriage was paid for in animals. The Chinese histories and one Arabic traveller record the practice for the Gaoche, the Wuhuan, the Rouran, the Xueyantuo, the Uyghurs, the Kirghiz, the Dubo and the Oghuz. The price depended on the means of the family or the rank of the ruler.

The Gaoche and their neighbours

The Wei Shu says that the Gaoche paid the betrothal gift in cattle and horses and counted it an honour.[1] The wedding is told in The Gaoche wedding. After the wedding the husband’s people went into the herd of the bride’s family and took the best horses.[1] The gift therefore returned in part to the groom.

The Wuhuan paid in the same coin after a different beginning. The bridegroom first carried off the girl and consorted with her. After half a year or a hundred days he sent cattle, horses and sheep as the betrothal gift.[2] The Shiwei, whom the Göktürks ruled through three tudun, had a custom of the same kind.[3] In the south the bridegroom carried off the bride, and afterwards he sent cattle and horses as the gift.[3] The couple lived in the wife’s house until a child was born.[3]

The Rouran

In the fourth month of 541 the Rouran khan Anagui sent a thousand horses as the betrothal gift for a princess of the Eastern Wei and asked for her to be brought north.[4] The princess was Lanling, a sister of the prince of Changshan, whom the court gave for the purpose.[4] The Wei Shu lists the same thousand horses.[1] The Eastern Wei regent Gao Huan took care of the princess’s outfit and brought her on the way himself.[4]

The Xueyantuo

The Xueyantuo khan Yinan paid in sheep and horses, and he lost the marriage because of it. After his defeat in 641 he sent his uncle Shabolo with 3,000 horses and asked for a Tang bride.[5] The emperor refused.[5] The next year Yinan sent more horses, cattle, sheep and camels and pressed his request. Taizong agreed to give the princess of Xinxing.[5] Yinan levied sheep and horses from his subjects for the bride-price.[5] The Xueyantuo had no treasury, and the animals had to cross the Gobi, where grass and water were short. Many died on the way, and the delivery came late.[5] The Xin Tang Shu says that nearly half of the livestock was lost.[5] The Tongdian says that the betrothal sheep and horses were reduced by almost half, and that the emperor therefore sent the envoys back.[6] The emperor broke off the marriage.[5]

The Uyghurs

The Uyghur khans paid in horses whenever a Tang princess was promised. In 788 the khan sent his chancellors and the wives of the great chiefs with more than a thousand people to fetch Princess Xian’an.[7] The Jiu Tang Shu says that the betrothal gift was 2,000 horses.[7] The Tang Huiyao says 3,000.[8] The two figures disagree.

In 821 the Uyghurs came for Princess Taihe with 2,000 men and delivered 20,000 horses and 1,000 camels.[5] The Xin Tang Shu notes that no foreign mission to China had ever been so large.[5] Earlier, in 758, the Uyghurs had come to fetch Princess Ningguo.[9] They presented 500 horses, sable coats and white cloth.[9] One modern account takes the presents as a bride-price and observes that a gift exchange at a marriage was equivalent to trade.[10]

The Kirghiz and the Dubo

The Xin Tang Shu says that the Kirghiz gave sheep and horses as a betrothal gift, and that the rich counted them in hundreds or thousands.[5] Among the Dubo the rich gave horses. The poor gave deer hides and grass roots.[11]

The Oghuz

On his journey to the Volga Bulgars in 921 and 922, Ibn Fadlan crossed the Oghuz country.[12] A man who wanted a woman of another family as his wife agreed on a price with her guardian. It was paid in garments from Khwarezm, or in camels, horses and other goods.[13] When he had paid, he took the woman into his house in the presence of her father, mother and brothers, and they did not stop him.[14] Nobody could take a wife without having paid the agreed sum.[14]

Animals in the records

Horses appear in every record from the Gaoche to the Uyghurs.[15] Cattle appear among the Gaoche, the Wuhuan and the Shiwei. Sheep appear among the Wuhuan, the Xueyantuo and the Kirghiz, and camels among the Uyghurs and the Oghuz.[16]

A bride-price drove animals over long distances, and the Xueyantuo case shows what that could cost. The Chinese records give the figure only where a ruler or a prince married. The price of an ordinary marriage appears without a number.

References

  1. ^ a b c Wei Shu, juan 103
  2. ^ Hou Han Shu, juan 90; Sanguozhi, juan 30
  3. ^ a b c Sui Shu (Book of Sui), juan 84
  4. ^ a b c Bei Shi (History of the Northern Dynasties), juan 98
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Xin Tangshu (New Book of Tang), juan 217
  6. ^ Tongdian, juan 199
  7. ^ a b Jiu Tangshu (Old Book of Tang), juan 195
  8. ^ Tang Huiyao (Institutional History of the Tang), juan 6
  9. ^ a b Tang Huiyao (Institutional History of the Tang), juan 98
  10. ^ Jagchid 1989, p. 160
  11. ^ Xin Tangshu (New Book of Tang), juan 217; Tongdian, juan 199
  12. ^ Ibn Fadlan
  13. ^ Ibn Fadlan; Canard 1958, p. 69–70
  14. ^ a b Ibn Fadlan; Canard 1958, p. 70
  15. ^ Wei Shu, juan 103; Bei Shi (History of the Northern Dynasties), juan 98; Xin Tangshu (New Book of Tang), juan 217
  16. ^ Wei Shu, juan 103; Hou Han Shu, juan 90; Sui Shu (Book of Sui), juan 84; Xin Tangshu (New Book of Tang), juan 217

Sources

Literature

  • M. Canard, La relation du voyage d'Ibn Fadlān chez les Bulgares de la Volga (1958)
  • Sechin Jagchid; Van Jay Symons, Peace, War, and Trade Along the Great Wall. Nomadic-Chinese Interaction through Two Millennia (1989)

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Institutions and Titles
Livestock Losses in the Annals · Sheep · The Economy of the Steppe Empires · Women among the Turkic Peoples
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Culture of the Turkic Peoples

Cite this article

Yavuz, Emre-E. “Bride-Price in Livestock.” Turkic Atlas, revised 7 November 2026. https://turkicatlas.org/institutions/bride-price-in-livestock/

Last revised: 7 November 2026