Mahr: Prestige, Status and Wealth in Early Modern Manisa (1700-1819)

Based on the probate records of the period 1700-1819, the study aims to contextualize the social meanings of mahr in Manisa as well as their continuity and transformation. The study thus examines the changes in the payment or acquisition of mahr and the wealth/mahr ratio to reveal its economic importance for different wealth groups. By focusing on the changes in this ratio rather than the legal functioning of dowry, it also scrutinizes the importance of dowries in the daily-life of Manisa and whether status affected the amount of paid or received mahr. 3.820 probate inventories retrieved from Manisa court registers are the main sources of the study. By utilizing these records, it also converts nominal values of individual wealth and mahr into the real ones and thus aims to underline, once again, their transformation in the period under study