The Terror of Central- and Eastern Europe of the 13th Century: Genghis Khan. The Analysis of The Secret History of the Mongols as a Legal History Source Work

In the first half of the 13th century, Europe feared the conquering invasion of the Mongol Empire. The key to an empire's strength undoubtedly lies in its organized state and legal structure. The first remarkable stage of the development of the legal system of the Mongolian nation took place during the formation of the Great Mongol Empire with the establishment of Genghis Khan's so-called Yassa Law, as the first, integrated, written code. The legal source compiled the customary law of the time by Šigi Qutuqu, chief judge of the great khan. The original text of the code has not survived, but we can indirectly deduce its content through the study of historical sources and traditions. Despite the fact that many literary works have been published on the Great Mongol Empire, representing various disciplines, no one has yet undertaken a legal history- and legal theory-based examination of The Secret History of the Mongols - which, unlike Yassa, is the oldest surviving contemporary document in Mongolian history. The present paper collects the customary law elements found in the source work by branch of law and attempts to capture the moment in legal history when codification and the separation of powers, as the first steps of legal modernization, appeared on the Mongolian steppe as early as the 13th century. The research method used is source analysis.