Great Yasa of Genghis Khan

Context

The document reproduced is not the Yasa of Ghengis Khan, for there are no known surviving copies of it. Numerous primary sources call the Yasa a law code even if they do not make specific reference to a particular law. One of the major problems in studying the history of the Mongol Empire is that very few Mongolian sources survive. As the empire declined, the capitals of the four Mongol states into which the empires split after 1260 were often sacked and plundered. Also, climatic conditions often made it difficult for many documents to remain intact. In any case, the contents of the Mongolian imperial archives do not exist except in fragments.

Many historians who left chronicles of the Mongol Empire did not use sources from the imperial archives. Rather, they spoke with Mongolian princes and administrators to corroborate information. Although it is often said that history is written by the victors, for the Mongol Empire it was written by the conquered and by their enemies. The Mongolians did not have a writing system until around 1204, when Ghengis Khan ordered one to be adopted and adapted to the Mongolian language. He also directed that all of his sons and grandsons learn to read and write, even though he himself remained illiterate. Thus writing and the maintenance of documents was a relatively new concept from the onset of the empire. To ensure that it became an integral part of the court and the government, he appointed his adopted brother, Shigi-Qutuqtu, as the chief judge, with instructions to record the laws of the empire. Most documents were written in three languages, Mongolian, Persian, and Uighur (a Turkic language).

Nonetheless, most Mongols remained illiterate. In this light, it is not surprising that the Yasa was not promulgated across the empire. It was kept in the Kok Debter, or “Blue Book” (blue being a sacred and auspicious color for the Mongols) and locked away. Periodically, the Kok Debter was updated. The nomads, however, being a preliterate society, tended to memorize documents and thus had little need for written texts. Furthermore, many of the laws were based on timeless tradition, so the people adhered to them without any effort. The only changes that Ghengis Khan instituted were designed to promote unity among the nomadic tribes, which previously had been fractured and often engaged in seemingly endless cycles of war.

It appears that the Yasa was primarily applied to the nomadic population. Indeed, it remained a valid source of law for the Mongol world long after civil war split the empire into four powerful states in 1260. These four divisions included the empire of the Great Khan in East Asia, the Ilkhanate in the Middle East, the Jochid Khanate (popularly known as the Golden Horde but named after Ghengis Khan's eldest son) in the Eurasian steppes north of the Black and Caspian seas, and the Chaghatayid Khanate (named after Ghengis Khan's second son) in central Asia. In truth, the Mongols had very little concern for the vast majority of their subjects. The empire was viewed as the patrimony of the altan uruk, or Golden Family—that is, the family of Ghengis Khan—and a source of wealth for the ruling family. As long as rulers paid taxes, sent tribute and troops when requested, and did not rebel, the Mongols more or less left them to their own devices. If they did not do these things, the Mongols retaliated with the utmost violence. Typically, an area had only one attempt at rebelling, for the Mongols were not opposed to massacring entire populations.

The passages reproduced are not the Yasa as the Mongols knew it but rather the Yasa as viewed and interpreted by outsiders—both sedentary subjects in the empire and also populations beyond the borders of the Mongol Empire. Those authors who wrote from outside the empire needed to understand their enemy, while those who wrote from within the empire wrote to comprehend their masters. Those who wrote from a later period, after the empire had split, tried to understand the nature of empire at its height.