Yassa and Bilik of
Gengizkhan
of
al-Farabi Kazakh National university,
Almaty,
Republic of Kazakhstan
Yassa was very strict legal
code. Any wrong act was interpreted as a crime, and strictly persecuted.
Despite that the western part of the Mongol empire adopted the Muslim culture,
and gradually yassa establishments were not followed strictly. That was written
by Hamdallah Kazvini. By Yassa it was prohibited for Mongols to live in urban
areas, but descendants of Chagatai and Jochi soon forgot about those bans.
It is not clear how long
Yassa establishments worked in Mongol lands. In the state in Mawerennahr set up
by Timur and his successors “tore” in Turkic language was interpreted as the
law of Gengizkhan. In Syria and Khorezm, Timur and his descendants were accused
in putting “tore” above Sharia, and people under his control were not viewed
Muslims. During the rule of Timur’s son Shahruh (1409-1447) was adopted a
decree to follow only Sharia and annul ‘Bilik” of Gengizkhan and his legal
practices. But son of Shahruh, Ulugbeg viewed that it was correct to observe
all laws of Gengizkhan. The last Timurid, Babur, wrote: “Our ancestors
implicitly obeyed the laws of Gengizkhan. At the kurulai, parties and feasts, before
taking a meal, or any acts, I did nothing against “tore”. All people by the
decrees of Gengizkhan must follow the words of God. Whoever it is to leave
those valuable words/laws, must be not forgotten. If your father left a good
law, its must be observed. If he left a bad law, it must be replaced by a good one”[1].
In XV-XVI centuries in
Mogolistan basic articles of Yassa were still in force. Eastern Desht-I-Kipshak
Kypshaks followed Yassa in settlement of complex problems. As the th
descendants of Gengizkhan ruled the lands for a long time, then Yassa was seen
as the supreme law. But it is wrong to state that all the territories of former
Gengizkhan Empire observed Yassa. The subject people practiced their own legal
codes along with Yassa. Part of the
law provisions of Gengizkhan adopted with the aim to strengthen his state, were
kept in the criminal code of nomads.
In
the customary law of nomads Biliks (procedural interpretations of Yassa) left
by Gengizkhan played big role. In the oral spiritual legacy of Kazakhs are kept
numerous references to it. In the opinion of the expert on medieval nomadic
history T.Sultanov, the researchers of XIV century made a mistake when mixed
Bilik with Yassa [2]. After through
analysis of Bilik and Yassa, in 1901 P.Melioransky came to conclusion that
there are different in many points. Yassa clearly identifies types of crimes
and how they in due way must be persecuted. Bilik provides legal procedure and
its stages, and also punished those who disobeyed Yassa. in the process of
state governance by Yassa, administration of public affairs, the successors of
Gengizkhan followed Bilik. Gengizkhan left to his descendants and people not
only the laws, but also the rules of their correct implementation. Full text of
Bilik is given by Rashid-ad-Din in his work’s chapters: “The best praiseworthy
quality of Gengizkhan is to leave legal knowledge of Bilik”. Rashid-ad-Din
employed many evidences on Mongol legal code from various sources – historical
narratives and memoirs. In the
historical narratives Gengizkhan who conquered the world is depicted as the one
who founded a state out of scattered Mongol tribes, set up a unified system of
governance instead of tribal rule, introduced a system of administrative
bureaucracy as well as wise statesman.
On the other hand, his invasions and plunder of the occupied territories
led to disappearance of their cultural and economic wealth, postponed for
centuries the development and formation of big people out of Turkic tribes.
Assessment of Bilik from various sides allows us to understand what role his
laws, and legal establishments, provisions of how to rule conquered peoples,
played in the state he left for his descendants. The Gengizkhan’ s
establishments were promoted by Kazakh zhuraus, poets, biis, oral folk art-
proverbs and sayings. For instance: “Where sons do not listen to father, younger brother do not respect the elder ones,
husband is not backed by his wife, and wife dose not follow her husband,
mother-in-law do not like their daughters-in-law, senior did not protect the
youngsters, and youngsters did not follow the seniors, and the nobles being
close to god could not influence the public, and having a lot of wealth could
not build a wealthy country for the people and ignored the customs (uisun), and law (Yassa), and people fought
against the state; in that state grow thieves, robbers, enemies, cheaters, and
offenders, they inflict big damage to people, steal their horses and cattle,
and if the army launches a campaign, its exhausted horses would die halfway,
and both- army and horses would die”[3].
Bilik of Gengizkhan taught the statecraft, gave useful advises on governance – what to do in various spheres, and which are the priority. It teaches that the rulers must care about the people close to power, families, and how to mange family affairs, lead an army, control international affairs, what qualities are desirable in peacetime, etc. and gives full answers to all these questions.
Here we should refer to the extract from Bilik: “The content of the Bilik is that at that time the demands of the Kazakh khanate society were fully responded by it”.
1.
Êlyashtorny
S.G., Sultanov T.I. States and peoples of the Eurasian steppes. St. Peterbourg,
2004, p. 189.
2.
Rashid
ad-Din. collection of chronicles. Vol. I, book 1, Moscow-Leningard, 1952,
259-269 pp.
3. Materials on Kazakh customary law. Almaty, 1996, 208 pages.