The Role of Local Officials

In The Story of the Mongols Whom We Call the Tartars, Giovanni DiPlano Carpini wrote that Chinggis had one ultimate law that drove him and his

Family to conquer their neighbors: “The Tartars must subject the entire world to themselves and have no peace with anyone unless they submit to the Tartars. . . but once the Mongols began conquering foreign lands, they had to create new political systems and rely on the help of local officials. Chinggis used officials called daruqachi and basqaqs to rule for him in distant lands. They collected taxes, raised troops, and settled disputes between local officials and nobles. The daruqachi were usually Turkic peoples friendly to Mongol rule who were considered their equal because of their military service for the Great Khan. Basqaqs were local people chosen to work for the khan. They eventually played a prominent role in the affairs of the Golden Horde, since the Mongols in Russia never set up a strong central government. In the other uluses, the Mongols used existing political structures to help them run local affairs.

During the early years of the Mongol empire, one of the key foreign officials was Mahmud Yalavach (d. 1262), a Muslim from Khorazm. Under Chinggis, he served as a basqaq. Ogedei gave him control over all of China under Mongol rule. A series of jarquci and other officials served under him. His son Mas’ud Beg (d. 1280s) held a similar position in Turkestan, a region centered in the oasis cities of Central Asia. The early Mongol khans also relied on Uighurs and other Turkic people of Central Asia to staff their imperial courts. The governments that developed in Central Asia and Persia were mostly Turko-Mongolian, rather than purely Mongolian.

By the time of Ogedei’s death in 1241, the Mongols had split their realm beyond Mongolia into three main provinces. This division was for political purposes, to ensure strict control over the settled people. (The provincial system did not include Russia, which was not yet advanced and wealthy enough.) After the empire began to split into separate khanates, the provincial system was used to divide China into smaller political units. This system begun by the Mongols was the basis for the division of provinces still used in China today.