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Intellectual jousting and the Chinggisid Wisdom Bazaars1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 May 2016

GEORGE LANE
GEORGE LANE*
Affiliation:
School of Oriental and African Studies, University of [email protected]
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Abstract

In recent years the image of the Mongols has undergone a steady change. This shift reflects a growing interest in the development of the Chinggisid Empire and its assimilation of the peoples and cultures that it absorbed and conversely the absorption, not always voluntarily, of things Mongol by the sedentary cultures which acted as the Mongols’ hosts. It was not only military technology, cuisine, medicine, art, and the practicalities and instruments for enhancing the quality of life and commerce which were exchanged but the intellectual ideas and ideals which underpinned the life styles of those who were encountered. Chinggis Khan famously aspired to provide his wives and children with the fineries of life and the best the world had to offer. But it was not just the material world that he aspired to but also the intellectual luxuries of scholarship and learning. Throughout the Chinggisid Chronicles there are references to wise men and learned advisors who were consulted on the great decisions but also not infrequently there are references to debates often described in language more reminiscent of jousting tournaments or duels than intellectual exchange. These learned debates, usually between clerics of rival faiths, were staged by various princes in courts throughout the empire for sport and entertainment. Their popularity highlights aspects of the regimes’character.

This paper will consider the nature of these debates and the traditions from where they might have emerged and at the same time it will consider the role of ‘wise men’ in Chinggisid society.

Type
Part III: The Sources
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 26 , Issue 1-2 , January 2016 , pp. 235 - 247
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 2016 

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Footnotes

1

I would like to thank the British Academy for their generous inclusion of me in their Mid-Career Fellowship Scheme, which allowed me the time to complete this research.

References

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23 Ibid ., pp. 131–136; Devin DeWeese provides a far fuller account and translation of this debate and encounter in “‛Alā’ al-Dawla Simnānī's religious encounters”, in Pfeiffer (ed.), Politics, Patronage, pp. 49–54.

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46 Ibid ., p. 152.

47 Rashīd al-Dīn, (ed.) Rawshan and Mūsawī, II, pp. 948–949.

48 Ibid ., pp. 774–775.