The Impact of Political Marriages on the Development of Ardalan History in the Thirteenth Lunar Century

For centuries and millennia, those in power used political marriage as a means to achieve their goals. The most important functions of political marriage were to  end wars and conflicts, seal an agreement or alliance between two political forces, establish succession among dynasties, take advantage of military capabilities of the parties to preserve their interests, etc. The Ardalan Dynasty, in the western regions of Iran, repeatedly used this strategy to pursue its goals, culminating in the thirteenth lunar century. In that century, the rulers of Ardalan entered a marriage contract with the powerful Qajar Dynasty as well as the local Vaziri Dynasty. The present article intends to use a descriptive-analytical method on the effects of political marriages on the development of Ardalan history in the mentioned time period. It seems that the political marriage strategy worked ambiguously for the Ardalan family. Thus, in the short term, it provided the desired interests of this family at various levels, but in the long run became one of the most important factors in the annihilation and eventual collapse of this government in Kurdistan.