In:
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Cambridge University Press (CUP), Vol. 31, No. 1 ( 2021-01), p. 71-102
Abstract:
This article aims to clarify an obscure passage in Plano Carpini's text, and subsequently in C. de Bridia's one, referring to a crushing defeat of Chinggis Khan, which has so far not been identified with certainty. The record of such a defeat is found in identical terms under the pen of Jūzjānī, and it actually appears that this strange narrative follows the pattern of the Mongol myth of origin, which is also common to the myths of the Türks, of the Kimeks and others. Here the argument is made that these accounts written outside the Mongol territory are therefore not only the result of confusion and distortion, contrary to what has long been thought. They testify to the existence of a legend of Chinggis Khan, built in an imperial propaganda effort directed at all the nomadic subjects of the Mongol Empire, and which placed the birth of the empire and the story of the origins contained in the myth on the same symbolic level.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
1356-1863
,
1474-0591
DOI:
10.1017/S1356186319000439
Language:
English
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Publication Date:
2021
detail.hit.zdb_id:
2052836-X
detail.hit.zdb_id:
2971643-3
SSG:
0
SSG:
6,24
SSG:
6,23