Latest / Trade Routes That Changed Human History Forever — Fexingo History / The Yassa: Genghis Khan's Law Code That United an Empire
Transcript
- Lucas: So if you've been following along with the show, you know we've talked a lot about trade routes — the Silk Road, the Indian Ocean, the Spice Islands. But there's one empire that made much of that long-distance trade possible, and we haven't really looked at how they kept it all running. Luna: The Mongols? Lucas: Exactly. And not just their military campaigns — those are famous enough. I want to talk about something less flashy but maybe more important in the long run: their law code. The Yassa. Luna: I've heard the name, but I don't actually know what it said. Lucas: That's the thing — nobody really does. Not in full. The Yassa has this mysterious quality. We know it existed, we have descriptions of it from Persian historians like Juvayni and Rashid al-Din, and from Marco Polo. But no complete copy survives. It might have been kept deliberately secret, only known to the Mongol elite. Luna: Wait, a secret law code? How does that work? Lucas: Well, it wasn't secret in the sense of hidden — it was enforced publicly. But the actual written text, if it was ever fully written down, was probably kept in the royal treasury. Genghis Khan is said to have had it recorded on scrolls that were kept by his most trusted advisors. The idea was that the law should be applied consistently, but its interpretation was guarded. Luna: So what do we know it covered? Lucas: Quite a bit, actually, from the outside accounts. First, there was a strong emphasis on loyalty. Anyone who betrayed their lord or deserted in battle was executed. But also, interestingly, there were rules about environmental protection — you couldn't wash clothes in running water during a thunderstorm, for example. That might sound odd, but it's tied to Mongol beliefs about water spirits. Luna: Right, the rivers were sacred. Lucas: Exactly. And there were practical laws too: stealing livestock was a capital offense, but if you couldn't pay a debt, you could work it off. The Yassa also mandated religious tolerance — all faiths were to be respected, and Genghis himself consulted Buddhist monks, Muslim scholars, and Christian Nestorians. That policy was huge for trade, because merchants from different backgrounds felt safe moving through Mongol territory. Luna: So it wasn't just about punishment — it was about creating a stable environment for commerce. Lucas: Absolutely. The Mongols actively encouraged trade. They set up relay stations called yam, with fresh horses and supplies for messengers and merchants. And they had a class of merchant partners called ortogh — basically state-backed traders who got loans from the Mongol treasury to fund caravans. The Yassa made sure contracts were honored and banditry was crushed. Luna: That's a pretty sophisticated system for a so-called 'barbarian' empire. Lucas: It really is. And a lot of it was administered by one man: Shigi Qutuqu. He was Genghis's adopted brother — found as a child abandoned on the battlefield, actually. Genghis's mother Hoelun raised him alongside her own sons. He became the first supreme judge of the empire, what they called the yarghuchi. He was responsible for enforcing the Yassa and keeping the written records. Luna: And he wrote down the laws? Lucas: According to the Secret History of the Mongols, Genghis ordered Shigi Qutuqu to write down all his decrees in a 'blue register' — a book with blue covers. That might have been the Yassa itself, or a part of it. The problem is, that book hasn't survived. We have references to it, but no physical copy. So historians have to piece together what the Yassa contained from mentions in court histories and traveler accounts. Luna: You mentioned the Secret History — that's the Mongol chronicle, right? Lucas: Right. It was written in the 13th century, not long after Genghis's death, and it gives us a lot of insight into his thinking. It's not a law code itself, but it records his sayings and decisions. For example, Genghis said: 'If you do not keep your own law, how can you expect others to keep it?' That principle was central. Luna: But here's a question: was the Yassa actually a single written code, or more like a collection of precedents? Lucas: That's a big debate. Some scholars argue it was a systematic code. Others say it was more like a body of customary law that evolved. The Persian historian Juvayni, who worked for the Mongols, describes it as a set of written rules recorded on rolls. But he also says the Mongols were 'illiterate' at the time — which suggests the laws might have been dictated to scribes from other cultures. Luna: So the writing part was outsourced. Lucas: Exactly. The Mongols themselves were mostly oral. But they quickly adopted the writing systems of the people they conquered. Uyghur scribes, for instance, played a big role. They used the Uyghur script to write Mongolian. So the Yassa might have been written in Mongolian using that script, but we just haven't found it. Luna: I wonder if there's any chance it's still out there, buried somewhere. Lucas: It's possible. The Mongol royal archives were kept at Karakorum, and later at Dadu — modern Beijing. When the Yuan dynasty fell in 1368, a lot was destroyed or scattered. But some fragments might survive in Chinese or Persian libraries. There's a famous text called the 'Great Yasa of Genghis Khan' that appears in later Islamic chronicles, but it's probably a later compilation, not the original. Luna: Speaking of later — did the Yassa continue after Genghis died? Lucas: It did, but it evolved. Each of his successors, like Ögedei and Kublai, added their own decrees. Ögedei, for instance, introduced a law that allowed merchants to use the imperial relay system — that was a big boost for trade. But by the time of the later Ilkhanate in Persia, the Yassa was sometimes in conflict with Islamic law. Some Mongol rulers tried to reconcile them, others just picked one. Luna: So it wasn't a static thing — it changed with the empire. Lucas: Right. And that's actually one reason it's so hard to define. The Yassa was a living tradition. But its core principles — loyalty, honesty, respect for different religions, protection of trade — those persisted. And they helped create the Pax Mongolica, that period of relative peace and stability across Eurasia in the 13th and 14th centuries. Luna: And that peace made the Silk Road safer than it had ever been. Lucas: Exactly. Marco Polo traveled from Venice to China during that period, and he mentions the Yassa in his book. He says that under the Mongols, you could carry a bag of gold across the empire without fear of theft. That's a direct result of the Yassa's harsh penalties for banditry. And it's why we're talking about trade routes today — the Mongols were the ones who made them viable at a scale never seen before. Luna: It's funny — we usually think of the Mongols as destroyers, but they were also builders. Lucas: They built an administrative system that rivaled anything in the medieval world. And the Yassa was its foundation. You know, it's a bit like the way we run this show — we don't have a lot of rules, but the ones we have matter. Luna: Like no ads. That's a good rule. Lucas: Exactly. We deliberately don't run ads on these episodes. If you want to support that choice, the link is buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It helps us keep doing what we do, without interruption. Luna: Yeah, it's a small thing that makes a big difference. Lucas: Anyway, back to the Mongols. One of the most interesting aspects of the Yassa is what it says about leadership. Genghis believed that a ruler had to be just, and that justice was the basis of power. In the Secret History, he says: 'The strength of a state lies in the justice of its laws.' That's a pretty timeless idea. Luna: And it's still relevant today. Lucas: Absolutely. The Yassa may be lost, but its influence lingers. The Mongol Empire was the largest contiguous land empire in history, and it was held together not just by horses and bows, but by a set of laws that people believed in. Or at least, feared enough to obey. Luna: Do we have any idea how the common people felt about the Yassa? Lucas: That's a great question. We don't have direct records from commoners, but we do have hints. For instance, the Yassa exempted certain groups from taxes — scholars, physicians, and religious leaders of all faiths. That suggests the Mongols wanted to win over the educated classes. And the ortogh merchants, who were often from conquered peoples, benefited hugely from the system. So there was buy-in, at least from some. Luna: But also execution for fairly minor crimes — that must have bred resentment. Lucas: No question. The penalty for even a first offense of theft could be death. And the Mongols had a concept of collective responsibility: if a bandit wasn't caught, the whole community could be held accountable. That's harsh. But it also meant that communities had an incentive to police themselves. And for the most part, it worked. Luna: It's a trade-off — security versus liberty. Lucas: Exactly. And that trade-off is still with us. The Yassa is a reminder that legal systems are never neutral — they reflect the values and priorities of the people who make them. For the Mongols, the top priority was stability and loyalty, because their empire was so vast and diverse. And in that, they succeeded remarkably well. Luna: So next time I think about the Silk Road, I'll also think about the Yassa. Lucas: That's exactly what I hoped you'd say. Because without it, the trade routes might have just been dangerous paths through warring kingdoms. The Mongols turned them into highways. Luna: And we still walk those highways today, in a way. Lucas: We do. The global economy we live in has roots in that Mongol peace. It's a strange legacy — one of conquest and law, destruction and connection. But that's history for you.