The Yassa and Mongol Life

PAX MONGOLICA : THE STEPPE EMPIRE OF THE MONGOLS HIST 1301 | History The Yassa and Mongol Life After years of conflict, Chinggis waited until 1206 to convene a kurultai in order to solidify and formally establish his authority over all Mongols, hoping to ease resentment. A kurultai was a gathering of supporters of a seminomadic confederation's leader, called to reaffirm approval of a significant alteration the leader wished to make to the group's internal dynamics or its interactions with other groups. Being present indicated acceptance, while being absent suggested not simply dissent but also a potential betrayal of the leader. The size of Temujin's kurultai was unheard of. Nearly all of the approximately one million People of the Felt Walls participated, establishing encampments that stretched for kilometres, according to The Secret History of the Mongols. Temujin's coronation was very inclusive, open to more people than only the capital's elites and populace, in contrast to practically all other coronations in recorded history. He was crowned Chinggis Khan by a shaman, who also verified that Tengri, a god worshipped by numerous peoples in central Asia, had given him power and would bestow wealth and good fortune on his people if he ruled justly and wisely— a concept akin to the Confucian Mandate of Heaven. Chinggis Khan proclaimed that any future great khan, that is, any leader over the entirety of what he began to refer to as the “great Mongol nation” and the superior of all lesser khans, could be chosen only by a kurultai and not by familial succession alone. This prevented conflicts over succession and preserved the democratic spirit of the kurultai where members had a say in selection. At this point, Chinggis Khan was the chief of his clan and tribe. As the empire grew, he ordered the creation of a written script for the Mongol language, based on the script used by Uyghur tribes from areas north of China and Mongolia, so that the yassa and records pertaining to it could be recorded. These rules, known as the yassa, governed relations between households. The goals of clan-to-clan raids, theft and robbery, were declared capital crimes by the yassa. It was forbidden to sell Mongols into slavery and to kidnap and sell women for marriage. Hunting was prohibited during animal mating seasons, no one could kill more animals than their household could consume, and certain butchering techniques guaranteed that the animal was used to its fullest potential. Perhaps the first legal code to do so, the Yassa promoted no religion and forbade discrimination and favouritism based on religion. All religious leaders and owners of church properties received tax and labour duty exemptions from Chinggis Khan, who continued to worship Tengri. Later, these benefits were extended to people in secular fields like law and medicine that required literacy. For a Mongol woman, her family was everything, yet she had very little, if any, control over the makeup of her own family. Polygamy was prevalent and marriages were planned, albeit a man was not allowed to have more wives than he could support. It is unknown to what extent a woman's agreement was required, but adult males in the family were free to sleep with any of the women if doing so did not break incest taboos. The yassa codified the possibility of sexual assault inside families since it classified adultery as only happening between married individuals of separate houses. But there was power for Mongol women. When the men went to hunt, raid, or herd, they were frequently left in charge of the home. A widow who had passed the reproductive age was frequently regarded as the head of the family and replaced her husband in the organisations that handled group decision-making within the clan. Following this paradigm, the wives and mothers of subsequent Mongol rulers may exercise enormous authority over a khanate. Borte, the wife of Chinggis Khan, served as the de facto head of the Mongol Empire's civilian population while her husband was abroad on long expeditions. During the same era, most other Afro-Eurasian communities did not have many or any examples of female leadership.