ABSTRACT
Many regulations in the yasa are of a military nature. Chinggis Khan is known to have been a legislator who promulgated a code of law (jasaq in Mongolian, yasa in Persian and Arabic) of extreme severity. After conquering the tribes of Inner Asia, Chinggis Khan sought to ensure the stability of this nascent empire by creating a central authority to counter the former clan structures by removing the power vested in traditional authorities. Chinggis Khan gave a legal framework to the newly founded Mongol state. Any act that could be a potential source of animosity between clans or individuals and that was punishable according to the pre-imperial vengeance system was henceforth regulated. The issue of whether Mongol customary law was applied to the sedentary populations of the empire has kindled much debate among scholars, who have focused on whether shari‘a was abolished in Muslim lands.
