Talk:Yassa

If someone could expand on this and give good description of what Yasa was. Also This should be I think Yassa as the other guy pointed out. Can someone change this to Yasa? It is the same.

I think Genghis Khan needed to chill out a little bit... Ed Sanville 19:10, 19 May 2005 (UTC) Genghis Khan means in modern translation Paramount Leader </ref><ref> Plantagenet Somerset Fry´s Children´s World History and status of Chinese head of state

Yassa - West African dish

"Yassa" is also the name of a traditional west African dish made from onions and olives. Perhaps set up new article with that information.

The meaning of the word

The word was used by Uyghurs, thus is used in turkic languages too. Yasa means (even in current Turkish) law. "Anayasa" (main yasa) means the constitution. It was known by others as "Yasak" (which means forbidden) because it said what was forbidden for them to do. (that word is used in currrent turkish as well) Nerval 12:43, 3 December 2006 (UTC)

Vandalism

Removed two occurrences of vandalism from the page, courtesy user 208.254.22.50. Mmoople (talk) 05:36, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

What does this even mean?

Taken from the intro: "It is unclear if it was not made secret once generally not followed." — Preceding unsigned comment added by OmgItsTheSmartGuy (talk • contribs) 20:40, 23 December 2012 (UTC)

Controversy

Although this article seems to present this subject as if it were a historical fact, there is far from a consensus on the subject among historians.

"In a series of articles on 'The Great Yasa of Chinggis Khan', professor David Ayalon, reacting to an earlier and under-researched work by A.N. Poliak, demonstrated that Mamluk historians in Egypt were very poorly informed about Mongol Law and that there was no good evidence that Mamluk secular justice was influenced by a Mongol law code which was called the yasa." --"The Mongol Empire and Its Legacy"

(From the same quote) "Dr. Morgan has taken iconoclasm somewhat further and suggested that there is no good evidence to indicate that Chinggis Khan had promulgated a written code of law at the 'quriltai' of 1206 or at any other time--and even if there ever was such a code, we do not know what is in it."

The "Encyclopaedia Iranica" says this under the entry for "YĀSĀ": "a term...frequently used in secondary literature to designate a supposed written code, the “Great Yāsā.” . . . David Ayalon demonstrated that the account of the yāsā furnished by the most frequently quoted author...was derived, not from his supposed informant...but (without acknowledgement) from the encyclopedist Ebn Fażl-Āllāh ʿOmari (d. 749/1349) and through him, ultimately, from ʿAṭā-Malek Jovayni (d. 681/1283, q.v.). Although ʿOmari’s account of the yāsā also incorporated material absent from the extant version of Jovayni’s history and of doubtful provenance, Ayalon showed that Jovayni was virtually our only source on the yāsā (Ayalon, 1971, pp. 101-40), though he still accepted the historicity of a written code.

"David Morgan then demonstrated the lack of evidence for the written code. The account in the Secret History (para. 203; tr. de Rachewiltz, I, pp. 135-36) merely described how Čengiz Khan entrusted his adopted brother, Šigi Qotoqu, with the office of chief judge (yarguči) and the task of maintaining registers of judicial decisions; there was nothing about written laws as such (Morgan, 1986)." Also the general Tocuchar the khan of the sieges as he claimed to be called according to scientific investigations, that is the presiding general of the sieges,

As I understand it, the theory of the Great Yasa is pretty much discredited by this time--although some popular historians appear to be prolonging its existence. In "The Secret History of the Mongols", the word "yasa" is only ever used to refer to individual decrees, never some grand codified set of laws.

Here's part of a good discussion of the subject on reddit.comr/AskHistorians: "Then how do we explain the prevalence of this idea amongst a variety of texts? We're not really sure how the idea started but there are two possibilities. Firstly many of the laws which people claimed formed part of the Great Yasa appear to be part from Mongol customary law, so perhaps the unwritten social customs of the steppe when enforced seemed like part of some grand codified structure. Alternatively it could refer to Genghis Khan's biligs maxims/sayings, which were collected and referred back to. A final possibility is that the idea came from the fact that apparently Mongols would record how certain disputes were settled and then would refer back to this as new situations arose, building up precedent based law. Potentially this could have given the impression of unified set of laws laid down in the misty past." Alex8541 (talk) 05:42, 29 June 2014 (UTC)

please explain how these Mongols coped with no lying?