Jarlig

A jarlig, also written yarlyk (from Russian: ярлы́к and Ukrainian: ярлик), is an edict, permission, license, or written commandant of Mongol and Chinggisid rulers' "formal diplomas." It was one of three non-fundamental law pronouncements that had the effect of regulation or ordinance, the other two being debter (a record of precedence cases for administration and judicial decisions) and billing (maxims or sayings attributed to Genghis Khan). The jarlig provides important information about the running of the Mongol Empire. Ögedei Khagan prohibited the nobility from issuing gergees (tablet that gave the bearer authority to demand goods and services from civilian populations) and jarligs in the 1230s. From the mid-13th to mid-15th centuries, all princes of Northeastern Rus received jarligs authorizing their rule. The issuing of jarligs on governing of Rus finalized the establishment of the title of Grand Duke of Vladimir (Grand Prince). Initially, those jarligs came from the qaghan in Karakorum, but after Batu established the khanate of the Golden Horde (c. 1227), they came from Sarai. None of these jarligs, however, is extant. In the mid-15th century, Grand Duke Basil II of Moscow began forbidding other Rus princes from receiving the jarlig from Mongol khans, thus establishing the right of the Moscow grand prince to authorize local princely rule. Mongol leaders gave the jarlig to emissaries, travelers, monks, and merchants to give them free passage, exemptions from taxes and imposts and security. Kublai Khan began the practice of having the four great aristocrats in his kheshig sign all jarligs (decrees), a practice that spread to all other Mongol khanates in 1280. Ghazan reformed the issuance of jarligs (edicts), creating set forms and graded seals, ordering that all jarligs be kept on file at court in Persia. Jarligs older than 30 years were to be canceled, along with old paizas...