Mongol Law, Courts and Social Obligations

After Temüjin became Genghis Khan in 1206 and through the succession conflict that followed Möngke Khan’s death in 1259, Mongol government used the khan’s commands, customary rules, judges and local officials to direct how people served the empire. A decree could assign provisions or punish a neglected duty; a judge could decide a dispute and preserve the decision in a register. Conquered communities also brought established religious and local legal practices into the imperial system.

The word yasa (Mongolian jasagh) could mean a law, decree or order. It is often used for the supposed “Great Yassa,” a single written code issued by Genghis Khan. Historians debate that reconstruction. The surviving evidence instead shows individual commands, accumulated regulations and customary rules, alongside written records of court decisions. These instruments made authority concrete: they named who owed service, what officials could demand and how a dispute was settled.

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Commands and the Yassa

A new khan could renew the authority of earlier orders. When Ögedei (r. 1229–1241) became Great Khan, the supreme Mongol ruler, in 1229, the Persian historian Juvaini reports that Genghis Khan’s yāsās were brought out, confirmed and declared unalterable. Ögedei’s son Güyük (r. 1246–1248) used the word in a 1246 ultimatum to Pope Innocent IV, demanding that the pope appear at Mongol headquarters to hear the commands of the yasa. The practice connected a ruler’s own directions to those inherited from his predecessor.

These commands addressed government as well as military discipline and ritual custom. Ögedei’s rule for his guards, for example, made attendance at a rostered shift a defined duty. A guard who missed a turn faced three strokes of the rod the first time and seven the second. For a third failure, a guard who was not sick or otherwise excused and had not first consulted the company elder, the unit’s senior officer, faced thirty-seven strokes and removal to a distant posting. The company elders also had to assemble the men and announce the order; an elder who failed to give notice could be punished. The rule set a graded consequence, recognized an excuse for a third failure and made supervisors responsible for communicating the duty.

Some commands also regulated religious practice near Ögedei’s court. The Persian historian Juvaini reports that Muslims there were required to slaughter animals in Mongol fashion rather than by their own ritual method of cutting the throat. He also describes spring and summer bans on ritual washing before prayer and on washing clothes in running water, acts believed to offend local spirits. Historian Peter Jackson locates these reported taboos around the court, where a public breach could be seen as threatening the khan’s immediate safety.

Judges and written decisions

In 1206, Genghis Khan appointed Šigi Qutuqu as yarguchi, a chief judge. The Secret History of the Mongols describes his tasks together: curb theft, discourage falsehood, punish offenders according to the severity of their case, and enter both judicial decisions and the distribution of people into a register. The record was to be copied into a book on white paper and kept unchanged. It joined adjudication to the government’s allocation of households and populations, giving later officials a record to consult when claims over people or service arose.

A yarghu was a hearing or judicial proceeding presided over by a yarguchi. The judge worked under the khan’s authority and could also carry military or administrative responsibilities.

Obligations, resources and enforcement

Ögedei’s post-station order shows how imperial rules organized resources for travel. Before the stations, messengers rode among the population, slowing their progress and burdening residents. The new arrangement set a station at each stage, with assigned station masters and keepers for the post horses. The account specifies twenty horse keepers at each stage. Communities grouped into imperial units of a thousand supplied horses, provisions, mares and their milkers, oxen and carts, plus storemen and grainkeepers. With a staffed relay, a messenger could change horses and continue without searching through households along the route.

The same order specified recurring livestock dues. From each flock, communities were to supply one two-year-old sheep for the ruler’s provisions; from every hundred sheep they were to provide one yearling for the poor and needy within that unit. Other provisions included mares for milk and replacements, with designated herders to tend them. The decree also set consequences for missing equipment: a keeper who let even a piece of string or a spoke in a cart wheel be lacking risked confiscation of half his goods. The order attached a penalty to a precise supply failure, while assigning named staff to keep stores and transport ready.

Religious exemptions also changed who owed service. Historian Peter Jackson notes that Buddhist and Daoist monks, Muslim scholars and Christian clergy could be excused from forced labour, military service and personal taxation, while taxes on the products of their economic activity remained. An exemption therefore protected a person or institution from particular duties without removing every fiscal obligation.

Local practice and a court hearing

Imperial judges and commands operated among peoples with other legal institutions. North China under the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty already had Chinese, Khitan and Jurchen officials when Mongol armies invaded. The Jurchens came from northeastern Asia; the Khitans were another northern Asian people whose leaders and troops served in the Jin state. Historian Igor de Rachewiltz describes the early conquerors using existing local offices and official ranks while also placing authority in Mongol hands. For later Chinggisid jurisdictions, a study of thirteenth- and fourteenth-century appointments and records finds that yarguchi jurisdiction was especially associated with Turkic and Mongol nomads in military service, while settled subjects brought many matters to religious and local legal practices. Conquest could also change the status of captives and household dependants.

At Möngke Khan’s (r. 1251–1259) court in 1254, Flemish Franciscan envoy William of Rubruck described a visitor’s mistake that became a case for the judge. As his party left, one companion struck the threshold of the khan’s dwelling while bowing. Guards stopped him and brought him before Bulgai, the court’s great secretary and judge. Bulgai asked whether anyone had warned the visitors about the rule. Rubruck replied that they had no interpreter with them. Bulgai pardoned the companion, but barred him from entering the khan’s dwellings afterward. The inquiry considered notice and understanding; the decision paired pardon for the first breach with a continuing restriction on access.