Great Yasa
Great Yasa
a law code promulgated by Genghis Khan when he was elected great khan at a khuraltai (assembly) held in 1206. The Great Yasa is believed originally to have been a codification of Mongol customary law and to have contained a list of punishments for serious crimes; it was later amended and supplemented—apparently during Genghis Khan’s wars of conquest in Central Asia and China. The text has not been preserved in its entirety. Only fragments have survived in the writings of Persian, Arab, and Armenian authors of the 13th century.
REFERENCES
Popov, P. “Iasa Chingiskhana.” Zapiski Vostochnogo otdeleniia Russkogo arkheologicheskogo obshchestva, 1907, vol. 17, pp. 150–64.Riazanovskii, V. A. Mongol’skoe pravo (preimushchestvenno obychnoe). Harbin, 1931.
Vernadsky, G. “The Scope and Contents of Chingis Khan’s Jasa.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 1938, vol. 3.