Following Their Own Customs: A Reexamination of Khubilai's 1280 Edict on Muslim Practices.

• Author: Liu, Haiwei
• Position: Kublai Khan

On January 27, 1280, Khubilai Khan (r. 1260-1294) issued an imperial ediet prohibiting the Muslim method of slaughtering sheep and the practice of circumcision. This event was of great significance. Both Persian and Chinese sources have accounts of it. Marco Polo's travelogue also mentions the edict. (1) Scholars have consulted these Persian and Chinese sources to examine important issues of the Mongol empire, such as Khubilai's policy toward Islam and the conflicts between Mongol law and Islamic law. Morris Rossabi argues that this edict reflected Khubilai's concern about the growing power of Muslims in Yuan government. He associates it with the Yuan war against Khaidu (1235-1301) in Central Asia. (2) Johan Elverskog contextualizes this edict in the negotiation between the laws of Chinggis Khan and Islamic law. He suggests that the edict sent a two-faceted message to Khubilai's Chinese subjects: Mongol authority could not be challenged, and the Muslims' power in the Yuan court was not unchecked. (3) Peter Jackson places the edict in the context of the conflict between Muslim officials and Han Chinese. He suggests that this edict was "designed to head off a possible revolt by the dynasty's Chinese subjects and perhaps to send a message to the newly conquered Song territory in particular." (4) Chen Dezhi [phrase omitted] argues that Khubilai used the three rebellions mentioned in the edict to admonish Muslims. (5) Examining it from a global perspective, Miya Noriko [phrase omitted] proposes that this edict was issued to break up Muslims' monopoly of commerce along the Eurasian continent. (6)

Although each of the above-mentioned studies addresses an aspect of this edict, existing scholarship has not adequately discussed the primary reason why the Yuan government issued such an edict. This article addresses this question. The first section of the article presents a new translation of the 1280 edict, showing that the Mongol rulers set out as a guiding principle that different subjects should follow their respective customs. The second section produces a new narrative of this edict, arguing that Khubilai outlawed these two Muslim practices because Muslims forced non-Muslims to follow these practices and consequently violated the Mongol guiding principle. The third section examines why the Mongol rulers tended to draw boundaries between different peoples and to restrict them from crossing these boundaries. By reexamining the 1280 edict in a wide context, this article seeks to shed newlight on the relationship between the Mongol rulers and the various subject groups.

THE 1280 EDICT IN CHINESE AND PERSIAN SOURCES

Although sources in Chinese and Persian both record this edict, their narratives of it differ. The Persian source Jami' al-tawatikh (Compendium of chronicles) attributes the cause of this edict to a conflict taking place at a court banquet when the Tibetan (Uyghur?) Sangha [phrase omitted] (d. 1291) was the vizier (councilor). (7) It relates that Khubilai held a banquet to receive a group of Muslim merchants who came from afar to present gyrfalcons. During the banquet, Khubilai offered lamb from his table to these merchants, but they refused to eat the lamb and told Khubilai that this food was unclean to them. The Jami' al-tawankh records Khubilai's reaction:

Offended, the qa'an ordered that Muslims and People of the Book should no longer slaughter sheep [in their own fashion] but should slit the breast and side as in the Mongol manner. Anyone who did slaughter a sheep [in the Muslim fashion] would be killed, and his wife, children, and property would be confiscated. (8) According to the Jami al-tawankh, a Christian official named Isa (1227-1308), or Aixue [phrase omitted] in the Chinese sources, took advantage of this edict to persecute Muslims. (9) He instigated slaves of Muslims to inform the government against their masters who followed the Muslim way of slaughtering sheep. This persecution led to the execution of prestigious Muslim scholars. Furthermore, this persecution was so severe that "for four years Muslims could not even have their sons circumcised." (10) Curiously, Rashid al-Din (1247-1318), the author of the Jami' al-tawarlkh, gives no explanation why a ban on the Muslim method of slaughtering sheep resulted in being unable to practice circumcision.

The Jami' al-tawarlkh tells us that the chief councilor Sangha persuaded Khubilai to rescind this ban. The text further says that, seven years after the edict was implemented, Sangha, who was bribed by Muslim merchants, reported to Khubilai that financial problems caused by diminishing commercial taxes were occurring in the empire. Sangha argued that many Muslim merchants who were fearful of this edict had left China, leading to these financial difficulties. To maintain financial stability of the empire, Khubilai finally decided to lift this ban. (11)

The Chinese sources, including the official history Yuan shi [phrase omitted] and the collection of Yuan government documents Yuan dianzhang [phrase omitted], record this event, but their narratives of this event differ from that in the Jami' al-tawarlkh on a few points. The Yuan shi attributes the cause of this edict to a conflict between Muslim merchants who were on their way to pay tribute to Khubilai and postal station attendants they encountered along the way. The Yuan shi records:

On the dingyou day [January 27, 1280], [Muslim merchants] came from Bargu to pay a tribute in gyrfalcons. These Muslims were offered food [by postal stations] along the way, but they did not eat lamb that was not slaughtered in their manner. The common people suffered from this. The emperor said: "They are my slaves. How dare they not follow the customs of our dynasty in what they eat or drink?" He issued an edict to prohibit this. And he decreed that the kings of various barbarian states within and beyond the seas be notified [of this edict].

[phrase omitted]. (12)

The common people (bai xing [phrase omitted]) mentioned in this record are postal station attendants. who were obliged to provide food, horses, and accommodation for emissaries, officials, and merchants--whoever was authorized to use the postal services.

The original Chinese text of this edict, preserved in the Yuan dianzhang, offers more details. This edict is written in the Sino-Mongolian style, in Chinese characters but following Mongolian and Chinese syntax. (13) It also contains borrowed words from Mongolian and Persian, as well as colloquial Chinese of the Yuan period. Some parts of this decree are hard to understand. Paul Ratchnevsky (1899-1991), Donald Leslie (1922-2020), and Francis Cleaves (1911-1995) have partially or completely translated the text into German and English. (14) Elverskog used Cleaves's translation but reworded it, making it more readerfriendly. (15) Chen and Miya have annotated it. (I6) There are, however, points in the text and the translations that need to be clarified. Below I offer a new English translation of this edict followed by a few clarifications:

In the sixth year of zhiyuan period, twelfth month, twenty-fourth day [January 27, 1280]: Chinggis Khan was born, and from the place where the sun rises to the place where the sun sets, he conquered all the various countries and let each of them follow its own customs. Among the different peoples and households, there were Huihui Muslims, who said that "we do not eat Mongol food." [Chinggis Khan said:] "By the protection of Heaven, we have subdued you. You are our slaves, but you refuse to eat our food. How can that be appropriate?" Thus he said. "Make them eat. [Moreover,] if they slaughter sheep by slitting the throat, they should be held guilty." Thus he said. The rule was established. This imperial edict was implemented in the time of the Khaghan emperor [Ogodei. r. 1229-1241]. Ever since Emperor Guyuk [r. 1246-1248], because we are not as magnificent as the ancestors, we have slacked off [in implementing this edict].

[phrase omitted]

In the region of Bukhara, because Tarabi Baba Rasul and Shay[kh] Adi had evil intentions, not only were they executed, but they also involved many others in the disaster. After that, because biceci [vizier. HL] S(a)yf al-Din. the astrologer H(u)sam al-Din. and Madj al-Din had also harbored evil intentions, they were killed by Prince Hiilegii. He not only made the many Muslims cat the food of our dynasty, but also had [his order] translated into Muslim writing for them After that time, if they had understood as they should have, it would have been fine. Because they did not understand, there was Parwan(a)h (l7) who also harbored evil intentions. He was executed by Prince Abagha. At that time thev did not understand either. (18)

[phrase omitted]

Now, the Huihui Muslims who come from the land of Bargu to pay a tribute of the Haiqing falcons say, "we do not eat what are slaughtered by others." Because they have troubled the poor common people,' (1)' from now on make Muslim Huihuis and Jewish Huihuis eat meat of animals, no matter who slaughters them. Do not slaughter sheep by slitting the throat. Do not practice circumcision. (20) If they should pray five times every day, if they want to double up on the prayers, let them decide. If [they] transgress this imperial edict by slitting the throat of sheep and eating them. (21) or by circumcising relatives, or forcibly circumcising slaves, if the slaves report to the government, the slaves will be freed from their masters. Whatever property and wealth the masters have should be given to the slaves who report it. If other people report it, judgments should be made according to this rule. We respectfully received this [edict].

[phrase omitted]

This edict first mentions an order made by Chinggis Khan (r. 1206-1227) that outlawed the Muslim method of slaughtering sheep. It then talks about three Muslim rebellions taking place in Central and West Asia and associates these rebellions with...