A jarlig,[1][2][3] also written yarlyk, is an edict, permission, license, or written commandant of Mongol and Chinggisid rulers' "formal diplomas."[4] 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 jarliqs in the 1230s.
From the mid-13th to mid-15th centuries, all princes of Northeastern Rus received jarliq authorizing their rule. The issuing of jarlyk on governing of Rus finalized the establishment of the title of Grand Duke of Vladimir
(Grand Prince). Initially, those jarliq 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 jarliq, however, is extant. In the mid-fifteenth century, Grand Duke Basil II of Moscow began forbidding other Rus princes from receiving the jarliq from Mongol khans, thus establishing the right of the Moscow grand prince to authorize local princely rule. Mongol leaders gave the jarliq to emissaries, travelers, monks and merchants to give them free passage, exemptions from taxes and imposts and security.[5]
Kublai Khan began the practice of having the four great aristocrats in his kheshig sign all jarliqs (decrees), a practice that spread to all other Mongol khanates in 1280.
Ghazan reformed the issuance of jarliqs (edicts), creating set forms and graded seals, ordering that all jarliqs be kept on file at court in Persia. Jarliqs older than 30 years were to be cancelled, along with old paizas (Mongol seals of authority).
Even after 1260, the Yuan Dynasty in China still considered jarlig must be issued by only Qa'an/Khagan (Emperor) but linkji by khans (princes) of three western khanates.[6] However, some high-ranking officials continued to issue jarligs under the name of a khan or Emperor in Central Asia.[7]
The Rus' metropolitan archive[which?] preserves six jarliq (constituting the so-called Short Collection) considered to be translations into Russian of authentic patents issued from the Qipchaq Khanate:[citation needed]
from Khan Tiuliak (Tulunbek) of Mamai's Horde to Metropolitan Mikhail (Mitia) (1379)
from Khatun Taydula to Metropolitan Alexius (1354)
A seventh jarliq, which purports to be from Khan Özbeg to Metropolitan Peter (found in the so-called full collection) has been determined to be a sixteenth-century forgery. The jarliq to the metropolitans affirm the freedom of the Church from taxes and tributes, and declare that the Church's property should be protected from expropriation or damage as long as Rus' churchmen pray for the well-being of the khan and his family.[citation needed]
Contemporary use
In modern Mongolian the term (Mongolian: зарлиг, romanized: zarlig) is used to refer to official edicts.
