Mongol Yasa Legal Code

Timeline

1. c. 1206–1227Mongolian Plateau · Mongolian PlateauAfter unifying the steppe tribes and founding the Great Mongol State, Genghis Khan promulgated the Yasa, according to Persian and Chinese sources, regulating military campaigns, tribal alliance order, hunting and the great quriltai, punishments for desertion and theft, and establishing a framework of tolerance toward religious communities.
2. 1211–1260Mongol Empire · EurasiaDuring the western and southern campaigns, the Yasa was enforced among troops and court officials as the khan's supreme decree, binding princes, generals, and trade route order; meanwhile conquered regions were allowed to retain parts of their customary law and religious courts, forming a governance pattern of multiple parallel legal sources.
3. 1260–1400Ilkhanate, Golden Horde, and others · Eastern EuropeAfter the empire fragmented, the Ilkhanate, Golden Horde, and Chagatai Khanate still invoked the Yasa as a symbol of khanal authority, but Islamic law and local custom increasingly permeated judicial practice, and the Yasa gradually evolved from specific provisions into a symbolic source of political legitimacy and court authority.