History Is Messy: lessons in research, the hard way

So, I did a little cursory grammatical searching based off of the leads I left myself in my last post on the Titles Project, because this blog is just as much for my own reference as it is for anyone who's reading it to dive into my insanely, esoterically quirky interests.

As a review, I mentioned exploiting the Wikipedia page for Middle Mongol's references.  I went back to that today and one of the links piqued my interest.

Lingua Mongolica is listed as a source on that page.

I was doing a read through on the intro page for them.  There was something that stuck out to me in particular:

The term 'classical Mongolian' technically refers only to the language of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when the written Mongolian language was standardised in order to facilitate the translation of Buddhist literature. 

That stuck out to me because non-standard ways of writing, while not unique to Mongolian, means there's no one way, both in spelling and alphabet, to write pre-classical Mongolian.

Now, what that amounts to is a conceit that pre-classical Mongolian, in my case Middle Mongol, is entirely non-standard and, therefor, unreliable.  I had backtracked my way into figuring that out previously, but seeing a source explicitly state as much is both comforting and frustrating.

There's more that also piqued my interest here in the resource (emphasis mine):

The focus of Lingua Mongolia is not strictly the classical language but rather the literary language of the Mongols over the last eight hundred years; from the pre-classical Mongolian of the Secret History right up to modern literary Mongolian, as it still exists in Inner Mongolia. It is worth noting however that the term classical Mongolian is sometimes used to distinguish Uighur-script Mongolian from the Cyrillic Mongolian used by the Mongols north of the Gobi.

 With that in mind, I could, possibly, use Uighar vertical, sometimes also called Sogdian vertical, script and bring it to "close enough".  Introduction the first source is based specifically in Sogdian vertical, kicking it back into contention.

We'll see how much matches between the notes on Introduction I took and "Lingua Mongolica's" modelling of the language to see what I can suss out.  Introduction is a linguistic basis; I've yet to dig in far enough to see what "Lingua" has.

Something Mongol and NOT grammar or titles?! WHAT CRAZY IS THIS

I've put a lot of time into the Grammar and Titles project recently, which has been reflected here, but I also have been looking at my next garb project for generally usable garb -- so not a special challenge or theme.

I'm multi-talented, or maybe ADD, like that.  I like to think multi-talented, but sometimes I get bored and my interests wander off to something which isn't my main focus for a while.

I want to make something inspired by this:

source

Now, you might be thinking "this doesn't look that much different than what you usually do" and you'd be both right and a bit off base.

First, the general construction of Mongol deels hasn't really changed much over the passing centuries.  I believe I've talked to the basic construction before, but in case I haven't, the general pattern I have memorized is here.  I do some modifications, like I will take out the panel extensions because of the fit I usually do, which is loose in the lower half, but you can see the basics of it in any of the pictures of me I've posted up here for head-to-toe analysis and the like.

Now, unsurprising to most people who study it, but history is messy.  People then, like now, don't fall into these discrete and easy groupings, and with that, comes variations across.

In China, the strong influence of the Chinese ethnic groups means that I generally haven't seen the deels like the above.  They tend to be less fitted, longer and more simple in design and construction, relying on the strength and prominence of the fabric to do the talking.

The example above, is from the Persian sphere of influence.  What that means is that the Mongols changed their deel a bit, the longer they were there, until it becomes the cross-over coat that the early Mughals wore, at least until Period ends in the early 17th century.

It looks like this:

source

Jumping back, though, I've got some working out to do on the pleating.  Pleating is not something I readily understand in terms of how to construct them.  I know there are different kinds of pleats which sit different ways.

First, a close up of the pleating:

Same source as extant at beginning

I really enjoy this detail shot because I have seen numerous examples from the Persian sphere of Mongol cross-over coats having this silhouette and general construction pattern.

I was talking with Elvira yesterday about garb fantasies and my sticking points.  And there are two with this particular deel construction.

The pleats and the belt.  The belt I'll get to in a minute, but the pleats I want to dive into more.

They way they sit they look like cartridge pleats.  I've laid out cartridge pleats for other members of the household's garb.  I know how to do it, but I have literally no evidence (there's no inside detail shot I can find) that this is, in fact, a type of cartridge pleat.

It's insanely neat and ordered, but without the evidence for cartridge pleating, I have to believe it's probably insanely small, and well organized, gathers.  They appear to be sewn in 3 spots: one to the upper part of the coat, one in the center and then one a bit further down to reinforce the drape.  Kind of like a proto-smocking, I suppose.

However, I really am not sure.  I'll have to experiment, and likely fail, a few times before I work it out.

Now the belt.

That belt is a braided in small, smell braids, then sewn together.  As a belt, it is not part of the actual coat itself, but holds it together between the waist and the hips.  That's a lot of braiding. I don't braid well.  That's a problem.

So, I've got some working out to do, which will require some experimentation.  I would not expect as much about this ongoing experiment that I would about the other project, as it's more clear-cut in when I can start and stop, and what that will look like in terms of progress.

Photography and Garb Snobbery

I had started another post on variants in Mongol garb in period (which make it sound like some sort of terrible thesis paper), and I got sidetracked into something which should really be its own post.  So, here I am! It's like a bonus update born out of my own rambling!  Everyone hopefully wins!

This arose because I have seen gentles of all statures dabble in and out of Mongol.  I think it's great, but I am often concerned about what their source materials are.  From what I typically see from folks who don't entrench in Mongol, it's usually a turn into the "folk costume" trap.

This happens to a lot of people and how we got something like the "Irish Dress" which is questionably medieval and questionably ever worn as real clothing, outside of costume.

Taking the folk costume (like, from a Ren Faire or a cultural festival) and assuming it's "what they wore back then".  Sometimes it's pretty close to the truth, which is real in the case of the Mongols.  Often, though, it's gone through some changes and is really more of a costume than a heritage clothing piece, or throwback.

So, how does this all tie in together?

I'm a terrible, internal garb snark.  I'm also pretty entrenched in what I'm doing at this point.  I have a decent eye, now, to see where in the deel evolution something lies.  And, more importantly, if someone is copying from a tribe they probably shouldn't.

This isn't to say I've not fallen into the trap, but to keep myself more accountable for myself, I created a Pinterest board dedicated to things which could look like or pass as period Mongol, but aren't.

The bottom line, though, is that if you can find it in a photograph -- whether colorized, color or black and white -- that's not of a piece of art or a surviving artifact, it's out of period.

This isn't to say that I'm not hugely excited to see someone swim in the warm waters of Mongol.  There aren't many of us, to my understanding, that do it as a main persona. To see others do it makes me excited because visibility is huge, especially in a social organization like the SCA.  I just have a gatekeeper/protective mentality when what I do doesn't look like what they do because my focus, intensity and sourcing is different.

A Little Off Topic -- King's and Queen's Equestrian Champions

I want to take a few inches to update on things that aren't about my research, but are relevant to this as an SCA blog.

I've mentioned before, most notably in my Birka posts, that I am a member of a robust household in Society -- House Strangewayes. We started out as a group of friends who played together, dipping our fingers into the different parts of what the SCA has to offer and, over time, we've started to take flight a bit, as well as grow.

I was part of the first real expansion of the House, and there's been a steady expansion since I came on board, almost 10 years ago.

Yesterday at KQ Equestrian Tournament and Champions, was a big day for the House.

First, one of our newest members, Gritta (who I don't believe has a blog, yet, for her work) received her Award of Arms.  She's still very new into playing -- having attended her first event closing in on a year ago.  In that time, she's really come right into making some quite exceptional German garb.  Her sewing skills floor me, as I'm not the greatest craftsman at sewing.

Gritta is on the bottom right-hand side in the feathered cap.  At Birka 2016 (this photo), she won a special award for having the most historically accurate dress, by the eye of the judges, in the Fashion Show.  It was well deserved and it was her first German garb ever!  From there, she's been upping her skills and looking around at more examples of German.

I'm excited to see what else she does as the continues to wade into the SCA, and especially the Arts and Sciences.  She's also become a fast friend of mine, specifically, so I was overjoyed to see her recognized by the Crown for the great work and even better conduct example she's been setting.  She is a true asset to the Society and I'm thrilled that I get to call her a friend.  I'm so proud of her recognition that I could gush for ages!

Fortune also received an induction into The Order of the Burdened Tyger.  I've linked to the awards page for the East Kingdom, but it's a service award that is granted for exceptional service, typical for an event that required a huge amount of logistical rejiggering to work.  Fortune, Lord Aleksei and other gentles I don't know in any way, received the induction for their work during Coronation.

Fortune outlines all that went into the event here, and it's a really great run down of how she in particular, and her leadership team overall, earned the Burdened Tyger.  It's a "wow, awesome, big deal" kind of award.  Fortune and I have been friends for over a decade now, before either of us were SCAdians.  She's jumped into SCA and really has blossomed, both personally and skills-wise, since joining up.  To see her receive an Award of Honor made my heart smile.

Between the two awards, it was a great day for good friends, for the Household, and I had a tinge of pride myself at knowing these people and helping to support them as they grow themselves, which is really what SCA is all about -- helping each other pursue our interests and growing together as humans.

Vivant to you both, and to all the recipients of awards, including the Shire as the first recipient of the Company of Fellowship for our willingness to come together as a community.  Her Majesty, in her description, said beautifully that it shows the Shire is a group who thinks of the "we" instead of the "I" (and may be a tinge on the nutty side). I think it's a great testament that the Shire got awarded this new honor on the same day others received Burdened Tyger, which wouldn't have been possible without that same "we not me" attitude.

It was a good day yesterday for all of us -- Shire, and House.

Continued Research in the Titles Project

I hit a snag with the resource I lifted from yesterday as far as being a truly period (read: pre-1600) resource. Classical Mongolian comes into real life around 1700.  That century is troublesome.

It provides some workable thoughts, but just like Old English, Middle English and Modern English are related, but significantly different, so also is Modern, Classical and Middle Mongolian would suffer many of the same problems.

It's a good launching pad, but I need to find a dictionary and grammatical syntax rules book like Introduction to Classical has.

In an attempt to get things rolling again in a more solid direction, I'm starting with Wikipedia's article on Middle Mongolian as a jumping point.  They list their sources and they're fairly extensive.  While I may find different information from those sources, this is Wikipedia after all, I can get in the dirt in the very least focusing on the language the Mongols of the SCA period actually spoke.

Quest/Titles Project Update

I had mentioned before how the information listed on the EK Alternative Titles page was a bit lackluster, which inspired me to go on an extended project based on a quest given to me by Her Majesty, Queen Avelina.

Well, I made some major progress, but before I get to that, let me take a step back.

Looping into today's earlier post, I have to rely on newer Mongolian vocabulary and grammar than the time period I focus on.  I've come to accept that I don't yet have the research skills, nor the linguistic know-how to get a truly good insight into what I want for my exact person.  And, since this is turning into something which could go to the common good of the Society, having something workable, if not up to my specific persona, is much better than being in perpetual frustration and doubt.

With that being said, I took a look at the resources that are available for Mongol Naming Practices and got my hands on (thanks to a Household member who's a professional librarian) an out-of-print book that focuses specifically on Mongol Grammar.

It's titled Introduction to Classical (Literary) Mongolian (parenthesis theirs),  It is, in a word, a gold mine that I'm super happy I pursued on a gut instinct.

I just got through the read of the title and took, well, copious notes including vocabulary listings, and the grammatical structures for Mongol nouns, adjectives and adverbs.  I know, I'm weird. I like understanding grammar rules.  It's as close to mathy as I think I could ever get.

Anyhow, I started a quick and dirty list of words I think could be helpful, not only for titles themselves but also general use at a Royal level.  In my own notes, I cite the page I found the word so when I submit everything will be properly documented.

Here's the list, unedited and raw (meaning lacking diacritical markings and only Roman letters):

Qagan -- King

Koebgun -- son/boy

Degu - younger brother

Eke - mother

Bars - tiger

Aqa - elder brother

Qatun - Queen

Cerig - soldier

lama - priest/lama

moritu - rider/horseman

noyan - prince/lord

Qan - minor prince, lord (this would be the title I was asked to find, guys.  STOKED)

ulus - people/nation

tusimel - minister/official

arsalan - lion

abagan - master, sire

juljagan - young, offspring

ocuguken - minor/subordinate

degedu - high, elevated

aldartan said -- celebrities, famous poeple

ama|n - family, household

arga - art, craft, plan; trick

ayag-qa - rank of priest; gelung

baga - small, young

bagsi - teacher/scholar

bars, baras - tiger

elci - envoy, embassador

erkim - supreme, chief, outstanding

jarudasu|n - slave, servant, messenger (messenger is the meaning I'm going for)

keukid - children

nokor - comrade, friend, companion (pl. nokod)

Qan kobegun - prince

qaragulci - guard, shepherd

qaragul - sentinel, guard

tusimel - official, minister

quda - brother-in-law, cousin

I think this is a good base to start from.  I do want to find more resources, aside from Wikipedia the open encyclopedia of sometimes ok information, to bolster the list.  But, it's definitely a strong start.

I'm also going to organize my notes in a way which makes presenting the declensions easier to understand for a non-grammatically inclined person.  The grammar becomes important for naming practices with the heralds, as well as any other awards or designations that may be created or given out.

But, that is where I sit right now with the project.  It feels great to have some progress made and something workable I can present to Her Majesty.

Challenges of Researching Mongols, and Strategies I Employ

I'm going to take a second to talk through why I usually take what probably looks like a ludicrously roundabout way to piece together information for my persona.  I think it's a good reminder that not all topics are created equal, and also to demonstrate that sometimes you've just got to work smart to get where you want to be.

The Big Thing to Remember about the Mongols is that for much of their early history, even into the start of their Golden Age, they were an illiterate culture.  That's not to say that they didn't have any culture, or stories, or beliefs.  It is only to point out that they used oral tradition to pass these stories, information and skills between generations.

The lack of a first-person written record does not typically come from the Mongols, but rather their enemies and subjects from settled (and literate) cultures.

Towards the end of Temujin (aka Genghis Khan's) life, there is evidence of a growing literacy, and the use of different alphabets, with a preference in some places to use the alphabet used by the Uighars, others the Chinese and many places Arabic.  The Chinese and Arabic are the ones I see most often in my own research, given when I look at and when it is, but it's not uncommon to see Sogdian (Uighar, in the reference above) Vertical on some artifacts, like the Mongol "Passport".

In some ways, what that leaves a researcher with is a couple options.  The first is to just focus on when the Achievement Unlock screen pops up and study only after Mongol literacy.  It makes things easier in terms of knowing you have some good in-culture sources, but it also is like in Legend of Zelda when you suddenly get the hook shot and the entire game is changed for how you play.  You were a bad Zelda player before, but you've got a new and highly useful tool now.

In all honesty, it's what I'm going to have to do for the Mongol Titles project which has evolved out of my Queen's Quest I've written about previously.  The Mongols would have had to have settled before they would have the structure necessary for equivalents, so I have to use well-post grappling hook resources to flesh out the equivalencies chart.  It's frustrating because it's well after I've seen most people declare their Mongol personae (including me), but it's the best I've got to work with at my disposable.  Hopefully, a future Mongol will come along with better access and resources, and more research will be done by the professional academics that us amateur historians can rely on.  Until then, that's where that is.

Focusing back, though, the biggest roadblock I usually encounter is that I have to use other people's accounts and depictions to figure out what is going on with Mongol "stuff".  It's something I've written a bit on before, but it's worth retouching.

There's a great example of the strain a researcher has to go through when looking at "unskewing" a resource, as much as that's impossible. When Americans first began knocking on the door of Japan for trade, their looks were copied onto woodcuts.  You can see some here.

This is what analyzing another culture's clothes look like when you're been completely ignorant to their existing in the first place.  All you have is what you already wear to compare it to, so you make your best guess and hope.

This is pretty well expressed in Persian miniatures.  The Mongols came roaring through, sacked a bunch of their cities, took over their empire and installed themselves in a governmental system.  It was highly traumatic for any culture and country, but especially since the knowledge of the Mongols was minimal at best.

So, you need to depict your new leaders, but you don't know what they're wearing?  Well, that's where some license comes in.  You can see some basic construction, but their weaving is odd to you, the fit is a little different and there are other things.  So, you make an exaggeration -- a sleeve here, a waist there -- until you've got something of a hybrid.  Not quite Persian, but not quite Mongol, either.

This means that you need to look at many sources from different places and see what they have in common.  That's why my Mongol tends to be baggier with a definite square construction.  It's the most in-common aspects of the trends I see across the miniatures.

This also translates to needing more resources to feel confident, if you're like me.  In my best garb and garb ideas, I pull from multiple sources, in multiple cultures and sometimes across time.  Part of that is a cultural sensitivity concern (Mongol express tribal affiliation through their deel) and part of it is to generically show what a Mongol of the 13th to 14th century could have looked like.  There's scant graves and there's even fewer Mongol first-person depictions, especially with pictures.

Quick Update on the Quest

I had made a quick mention about checking the College of Heralds for information on what may already be listed.

It's sorely lacking, which is why I'm taking it on as a larger project.  There's clearly a need for this information and it has all come together.

Other, related, thoughts: I'm ditching the Crimean Khanate idea right now.  I may revisit it once I have more resources at my fingertips.

I've also decided to re-up my digital archives access with the Boston Public Library which gives access to all sorts of journals, including through JSTOR.

I'm also going to start putting out some feelers on other people who've done similar with other cultures to see what they've done with it, as well.

Coco Chanel Said to Take One Thing Off: Accessories

Let's talk hats and shoes for the Golden Age Mongol man.

There's a generally held belief that there's not a whole lot of information about what Mongols wore in period.  It's sort of true and sort of false.

The truth is that not many folks outside the Ivory Towers of behind-the-paywall academia have committed a decent amount to tips and tails for Mongols.  This is a two-pronged problem.

First, most people researching the Mongols and are public about it tend to research the military aspect of the culture.  It's an insanely valid way of researching the culture, as it was remarkably modern in how it approached organization and communication.  Not since the Romans has a culture had such dominance and such a uniquely well-organized military force spanning the size of land the respective empires spanned.

Second, the reliance on second person resources requires much more cross-referencing than is typical for a literate culture. (I know I talk about that a lot, but it's seriously the biggest hurdle I face.)  The pace of conclusion is, by necessity, much much slower than with the SCA's other cultures, who mainly focus in Europe.

Additionally, much of the research is self-referential.  SCAdian A finds a resource by SCAdian B.  SCAdian B's resource is sent all around, but few add to what's out there.  The pattern continues until we're passing around Geocities and Tripod sites that haven't been updated in 15 years.

I think we can do better and I strive to do better.

So let's talk about those accessories, shall we?

Hats, man.  Hats.

From what I've seen, Mongols had a few different styles of hats and, since I'm not a milliner, I am going to name them in a way that makes sense to me.

       

     

              http://karakalpak.com/images/sawboghtaq01.jpg

You have, in order, the feather hat, the brimmed hat and the fur hat.  Everything else I've seen has been variations on these three themes.

The demon hat of Slinky dog is a mix between the fur hat and the brimmed hat.  The feather hat shows nobility.  The brimmed hat is also a working hat and can be seen as more of a cowboy-style hat at times.

They evolve over time and I plan on making a fleshed out timeline of each hat and when they seem to rise and fall in popularity, as well as where.  But, for now, know that they blend and blur into each other because history and fashion are both not straight forward at all.  Honestly, it's a good class idea for an event, as an introduction to Mongol men's fashion.

Regardless, though, there's some common themes on how Mongols wore hats that are worth pointing out now.

The biggest common theme is that the ears are usually uncovered. Parts of the ear will be covered, usually the frostbite and sunburn prone tips of the ears (See Ogodei above), but the majority of the ear will be uncovered.

Another theme is that the hats do not sit close to the scalp.  There's volume above the head.  It's not quite the Burgundian hennin craziness, but there is absolutely gap between the scalp and the crown of the head.  It makes the hats look like they sit funny to the modern eye, but it's consistent.

I've only seen one example in art where the hat appears to sit on the scalp and the subject was not of the Mongol tribes, but of another, related ethnic group.

Shoes are much more straightforward.

The shoes I've seen depicted have all basically been the same.  They're mid-calf boots without a pointed toe.

I made mention to the slippers I've worn here, but I want to flesh out the ideas a little bit more.

As best as I've been able to tell, the designs on the slipper and the curled toe are both post-period enhancements on the basic shoe design.

The gutal (boots) I've found depictions of have the same basic layout as the slipper, believe it or not.  The difference really comes down to toe construction and the boot.

In the examples above, the boots have pretty decent looking heels, even being a little raised.  As odd as it sounds, Ugg boots come pretty close to the construction I've seen in extents. 

I'm loathe to by Uggs just for events, but I have foot problems (hell yeah high arches! Plantar's Fasciaitis for the win!) so I need a shoe I can put my arch supports in.  I may break down and buy (or ask someone to gift me) a pair of man-Uggs.  Until then, my lace-up, steel toe combats will have to do.

King's and Queen's Archery and Thrown Weapons

As my blitzkrieg of updating continues today, I wanted to break down the head to toe on my look I wore for K&Q Archery and Thrown yesterday.

Their Majesties and I

This was taken by housemate Simona bat Leon, and is the moment when I was being introduced as Lord Erdene Qadajin for the first time.

I wanted to take a second and breakdown the inspirations for the deel I'm wearing.  The hat was detailed in a previous post (Birka 2015) but the deel is completely new.

First, the fabric:

My new scroll and a close up of my fabric

It's a quilter's cotton.  I typically use quilter's cotton as a substitute and/or stand in for more historically accurate fabrics for a couple reasons.

The biggest is that quilter's cottons tend to have better patterning on them for my persona than other types of fabrics.  I have not yet found a source with what I'm really looking for most of the time, so this is a good approximation of the overall feel.  Mongols loved to have their entire wardrobe covered in cloth of gold.  Not only would that be prohibitively expensive, but I'd be afraid to touch it, let alone cut it to make a deel.

With quilter's cotton, the applique patterning shines and glints like gold and while it's in negative to what cloth of gold actually looked like, it drives the point home and I'm one of the only people who really knows how cloth of gold actually looks.  Yes, I am playing people's ignorance, but it's for science!

The pattern itself is also not a bad patter on this one.  It's a floral motif and it isn't paisley.  I've seen similar, though larger "print" on some period extant examples.  And, it was relatively inexpensive to boot.  It was a win all around.

Second is the cut and length:
I've made no secret about being mostly inspired by the Chinese and the Persians for my garb.  I rely a good deal (haaaa pun) on the art explosions that happens once the war of conquest settled to figure out what I'm doing -- it's a side effect of the larger, more ongoing work I'm doing regarding prints, depictions and social class which has been influencing my garb more and more.

There's two big things I want to point out.

Firstly, the length I'm sporting appears to be pretty standard.  From where modern pants lie when fit properly up to about mid-Achilles tendon are the lengths I've seen for the time period in which I'm playing.  I like to go a little longer because the pants I wear, while of period construction, are store bought, mid-weight gi pants.  They super comfortable and they are of period construction but it's not hard to tell it was made in a garment factory somewhere.

The second is the sleeve length.  There's two sources of inspiration for the length of the sleeve.  I've been sliding my persona more and more into being a scholar than a merchant.  Merchants are great and they're key to the success on the Silk Route, I don't really think it suits the persona I'm trying to build.  I would be more of a scholar in period with what I'm doing and how I'm doing it.  Furthermore, as I become more familiar with the time and place, I think shifts in persona are natural.

The length of the sleeve I've seen both in Persian and in Chinese portraiture.  The super extended sleeve length comes from an allegorical piece "Mohammad Splitting the Moon" which is a miniature I absolutely love.

Mohammad is seen with his face covered, the Mongol is on his left
Source

There's so much to look at -- the guys checking everything out in the background, the two rubbernecks chillin' with the Prophet. Is the Mongol checking out Mohammed's sweet coat? And who's the guy in light blue there, seemingly oblivious to it all?

Focusing in on the Mongol, who is in orange on the right.  If you look at his sleeves, you'll see that they are exaggerated.  In period, Mongols didn't wear gloves, but had extended sleeves to act as skin coverage in the extreme and variable weather.  It's hard to find it depicted in war scenes, so allegorical ones like these are the best way to see them "in action".

I took a little extrapolation from the figure's right arm (our left side arm) and formulated that the sleeves would go down to about mid-calf if his arms were at his sides.  This matches what I've seen for depictions of scholars from China, though I've had a hard time finding any from the Yuan period.

Looking at the photos that are coming out, it appears I nailed the sleeve length from what I've seen.  The sleeve is acting the same way in the miniature as it does while I'm standing there, hand over hand.  I'd say that's a win.

The sleeve width is blatantly a Chinese ripoff as the Chinese, like me, hated tight sleeves.

I did want to also take a second and reference that I've stopped wearing the slippers.  They were fun and all, but they needed to be retired for a couple reasons.

The slippers just aren't period.

I've been unable to support that those shoes were ever worn in period.  I've not seen it on any depictions of inside the ger or khan's tent.  The upturned toe is also a post-period innovation and I've not been able to support it through anything I've seen.  It's an anachronism, but because I am not myself Mongol, it's also a misrepresentation of the evolution of the cultural dress.  That's appropriative at that point and a major no-no for me.  If I'm going to do it, I want to make sure I do service not only to history, but also to those still living who have Mongol heritage.  I am doing work and depicting a time of great cultural pride; to do it wrong is a disservice to those I wish to tribute.

The slippers also are old and starting to get holes.

That I do care less about, but they're also getting worn through and developing holes in many places.  Being unable to substantiate their use was something I noticed first, as I don't wear the slippers that often.  Then, after the last event I wore them to, I noticed they're beginning to come to the end of their life anyway.  I'll still wear them as house shoes until they're completely dead.

What have I done in the meantime about shoes?  Well, I'll write another post on that, as I've been doing research into shoes, and hats as I referenced in the Birka 2016 post.

Birka 2016

It all started with a garb challenge.

This year's Birka Queen's challenge was Pixar inspired.  I immediately glommed onto it as one of the ways I like to challenge myself when I'm idling thinking about garb is to convert characters into culturally appropriate inspiration.  I may be a nerd, but I'm a multifaceted and creative one.

As a Household, we decided to go with Toy Story as our main inspiration. A bunch of us participated in the challenge -- we had Jesse and Buzz, Etch-a-Sketch, Bo Peep, the Claw Machine Aliens and Partysaurus Rex.

I did this guy:

I thought the colors were nice and in the range of what I like to wear generally, I had an idea as to what I could do for the slinky part and, additionally, I had an idea of what I wanted to do for headgear (spoiler: that was a miserable failure and I think I interpreted the entire hat incorrectly).

But, first, let's see what I did come up with, and was wearable, shall we?

There I am!  All strutting my stuff down the runway at the fashion show.

Here is a less elegant photo of me so you can see the pattern better.

I'll start with that pattern as it seems, on first glance, to be the most obtrusively modern part of the whole thing.  It actually isn't.

I chose Slinky Dog because I had thought of an example of a Mongol on horseback from the Shahnama (book of Kings) credited to Abu'l Qasim Firdausi at the Met:

The print I found didn't exactly match, but it was close enough to pull the inspiration.  You also may have noticed I did some alterations from what's discretely pictured in the source material.

My persona was not yet part of the nobility, haven't had received my AoA at that point in time.  From what I've been able to tell, the long-under-short seems to indicate someone of relative wealth and importance, the first step on the ladder up.  To accommodate for that, I ditched the specific under deel and went with the the weave pattern of the over deel.  Acting above your station was punishable by death to the Mongols at the time and, I take to heart making sure you think with your persona in creating your looks.

Another detail I want to point out is that the sleeves are lined with an embellishment.  I've seen this often enough that I typically do it for all my deel.  It adds a splash of additional interest and I, frankly, enjoy it.

Pulling back to how I applied these to the challenge and the way everything relates together, I'm going to refresh your eyes.


 The chain link pattern on the main overcoat is the slinky part of the dog. Additionally, the brown is to reference the body, both front and hind, of the toy.  My favorite detail I included at the last minute was to add the little bit of brown at the end of the belt.  If you look at Slink, you can see that he has a spring for a tail that is capped in the brown plastic.  I wanted to keep that to further drive home the inspiration as, on its face, the deel is a bit abstract.

The hat, on the other hand, was an unmitigated disaster from start to finish and I'm taking it as a huge learning opportunity, but for construction and methodology fails.

Obviously Slink is based on a daschund, with his big floppy ears and low profile. It made me think of this hat:

There are several things about this image that are misleading, not least of which is that it looks like a droopy set of dog's ears.

The true problems I had were with fit (too small!) and understanding exactly how the hat was worn (the image is angled).  It was a big ol' fail and I've since figure out how to correct it, finding other examples.  That would need to be a different post as it's not exactly related.

For good measure to end, here's a photo of most of us in the household.

Life Update

This blog, you probably noticed, took an unintended detour into silence for too long a period of time than I'd have liked and I want to give some background.

I had an attack of life and took a big step away from research while the dust settled and then I had technological problems.

You see, reader, I became a dad!  We're hoping to adopt a 2 and a half (now) year old little boy and he was placed with us in October of last year. That's why the blog suddenly ground to a complete stop instead of being a sporadic "oh yeah, I should put this in writing" endeavor.  Toddlers are bundles of energy and my entire life got rearranged.  I wasn't sure what my playing in the SCA would look like, let alone what I could do to further my research.

But, things have settled.  We have schedules and routine and, happily, time for me to play.  It's complicated, as it always is, but I'm able to make time for everything, even if it's more limited.

We also had an issue with our computer which meant I was completely without one for most of the past year.  We were managing before the little guy got placed with us, but all the wires are not conducive to a small, energetic kid running around.

At that point, I had to halt the blog until we could get a replacement.  And, now we do!

Now back to the usual. :-)

My Quest

As stated in my previous post, I was given a quest by Her Majesty to seek out period and persona appropriate titles for Mongol personae when I received my Award of Arms.

I am always looking for new ways to expand my knowledge, so I obliged the quest.  It intersects a lot of less-utilized aspects of my interests when it comes to the SCA. I have a big interest in linguistics, especially historical linguistics. Needless to say, this is entirely in a wheelhouse I never thought I'd ever be able to live in while playing, given the focus on material culture in the SCA.

With all that being said, there are several challenges I'm going to face when it comes to getting everything sufficiently equivalent for my tastes.  Below is a basic breakdown of what I know already, the challenges it's going to present and what I'm thinking right off for how I can overcome them.

First challenge:
Our game uses a European, especially a French/English, structure to titles based off of High Middle Ages Feudalism.  There is an influence of the trade guilds, as well, with Masters and Mistresses for highest level artisans and scholars.  They all come together right around the end of period, to my knowledge.  So, 1550s to early 1600s.  I am not an expert, by any means, in the timelines and the rises and falls of titles and social structures in Europe, given my own focus, but that's the understanding I have.

Added into that, the Mongol people were and, to some extent, still are a nomadic people.  Landed gentry, frankly, didn't exist in period that was home-grown.  Social structure was based off of cultural norms and the military structure.  As the SCA has an independent military structure, it would be less informative and absolutely be a shoe-horn to take military terms for non-military positions (i.e. not Knights and Squires).  The last thing I want to do is be controversial to the Chivalry -- making a new problem to solve an old one.

Strategy
I'm going to take a look at the Mongols who did settle, so post-Chinggis and see what I can find for the governmental structure.  The Mongols held, and held sway, in territories and kingdoms long after the conquests which brought about the Golden Age of Mongols.  In particular, I'm going to be looking at a couple different places and times to see what it has to offer:

(1)Persia
Persia offers a lot in terms of finding what I need.  The largest advantage to Persia is that they did have land owners and a more European style (than, say, Eastern or Indian style) court.  There was the Shah and then those who reported to him; there were levels of nobility and, most importantly, there was both a military and an artistic/scholarly culture home grown in Persia and its environs.

Additionally, when the Mongols invaded and overthrew the Persians, they didn't overthrow the government in its entirety.  What they did was they created what can be thought of as one of the first modern style shadow governments.  It's not an exact match to what we've seen in the Modern era, like with Vichy France during the Nazi Occupation (Did I just Godwin my blog?), but it's definitely a shadow government.

The way it worked, from what I've been able to find, is that the Mongols took the existing structure and added themselves into it.  This is shown in the miniatures (look, overlap) in that there are always Persians and Mongols together and in relatively reflective positions.  In my garb breakdown, which I'll be posting later today, I have a good example of what I mean.

So, what you have, in essence, is that the Mongols would have had their own positions and what I seek is if they would also have had their own titles to go with those positions.  If that's the case, then it's a Mongol-specific title system I can lift and adjust grammatically according to gender.

(2)The Timurids
The Timurids are one of the last great gasps of the Mongols as a huge force in Asia.  They had their own empire and then went on the conquer and become the antecedents to the Mughals in India.  Having land, they would have needed to structure themselves in a way in which I could use a mirror to find approximates.  Then, the same pattern applies as with the Persians -- figuring out how to make it grammatically sound through gender and post.

This is largely a guess in terms of it will work, but I know that Tamerlane had a court and his successors also had them.  It's also another way for an Indian persona to attribute the appropriate titles onto themselves, as India is neither a monolith nor even a single state area until modern times.  And, depending on what you're looking at as "India", it is still a three-state region with India, Pakistan (where the Indus River is actually located) and Bangladesh (former East Pakistan).

This would make the strongest arguments, if it proves out, because it's homegrown completely within the evolving Mongol culture throughout period and so doesn't fall victim to biases in the way that the Persians do.

(3)The Chinese
The Yuan dynasty, oh how I love you. You have given me so much inspiration and knowledge.  It's the material culture I know the most about and was the Mongol cultural area I was most familiar with even before I started in the SCA.

In all truthfulness, I don't know as much as I should about the social structures of Chinese court and dynastic life as I should.  I tend to focus more overall in figuring out where someone sits in a portrait for general social standing than I do with figuring out what all the iconography means beyond know "Emperor" or "Scholar".  The civil society in China goes back thousands of years and the Yuan dynasty is a funny period for China in terms of how it sees itself, largely being eschewed for native rule dynasties.

This would be similar to Persia in application in that the terms and titles would be adapted from the home culture.  The main difference is that the Chinese were subjects of the Mongols directly instead of shadowed by Mongol overseers (more or less).  The terms, however, would be in Chinese.  That works to the advantage that there is no grammatical gender in Chinese, nor is there real structure in number and tense.  The difficulty is that we have to use modern pronunciations to Middle Chinese because of a pictographic writing system.  There isn't an actual way to know if what we're using now were the actually pronounced ways of the language back that far.

(4)The Crimean Khanate 
The Crimean Khanate is a largely forgotten, semi-independent successor state to the Golden Horde.  It existed as a tribute to the Ottomans and was founded in the mid-late 15th century.  It dates to well within period and, with direct contact with the Ottomans as a tributary, would have had ample information if I can find it.

There are several problems with the Crimean Khanate that can cause issue.  First, its position was precarious.  Sandwiched between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire, it was hot territory for the Russians to take over, which they eventually did in 1774 according to the linked article.  They existed as a trading outpost on, as you can guess, the Crimean peninsula and its environs.

interesting historical tidbit -- the reason why the area is primarily Russian and not primarily Turkic today is because the Soviets expelled the Turkic peoples to the PR Kazakhstan and then russified the area.  This resettlement makes the area Russian ethnically and is a bit of an antecedent to some of the problems that arouse a couple years ago.  See? History is still relevant, even to contemporary events!

Anyway, my main issue is I know basically nothing about the Crimean Khanate, aside from that it existed, they traded with the Ottomans and they were not liked by the Russians who wanted the warm water port.  It would require a ton of research and, I think, most of the information would be on the wars between the Ottomans and Russians and/or the Crimean Wars much, much later.  It looks, on face, as a historical dead zone.

Second Challenge:
Even if the Mongols were to have been a landed culture on their own, they were not a literate culture until the smashed into other folks by conquering them.  There simply is no way to have one, mass title database for everything that could possibly have been as oral traditions change with changes in cultures.  Think about how Grimm fairy tales changed in records, even when being written down sporadically through the times they were being told in medieval and early-modern Germany.

Lacking a real written record is, of course, a challenge I work around all the time.  I tend to rely on China and Persia, since the biases of the writers are well known.

Strategy
I'm going to continue to use the methods I'm already using. It will be trickier since, instead of using visual reference it will need to be written, but a process part of anything I submit as to how I worked around biases should cover those shortfalls.  It's not perfect, but it can work.

Third Challenge:
I don't know that much about Middle Mongol grammar.  This is a huge area that will require a good amount of study.  Once Mongolian was written down, it was written using Chinese character, Sogdian-Uyghir script and Persian-adapted Arabic.  Later, Mongolian used Cyrillic letters with additional home-grown lettering to capture the phonetics of the language.

Strategy
I've just got to learn the language.  I've already got a request out to Jacquemine van Bel who is not only a great and close pre-SCA friend of mine but a legitimate librarian with the paperwork to prove it.  We're already turning up helpful resources for me to use and, being in the higher education utopia of New England, we should be able to get some good access as she works for a college library.

Upcoming, I'll go more into what I've done so far to reach to these conclusions instead of do something smaller like just run to the College of Heralds site (spoiler: not as helpful as I'd have liked).

Award of Arms, New Projects

(Photo credit Lady Fortune Sct Keyne)

I got papers, as my Household likes to say.

Yesterday at King's and Queen's Archery and Thrown Weapons here in the East, I was called into Court to receive my Award of Arms for the research I'm doing and outlining here.  I'm hugely honored and flattered to have been recognized for it.

I will be breaking down the garb in a future post as the deel is new and the sleeve length, as you may be able to see, but I absolutely first wanted to thanks His and Her Majesty, Kenric and Avelina.

Their Majesties, while I was before the Court, asked me for the equivalent of Lord for a Mongol persona.  I, in all my infinite casualness, responded "honestly, I have no idea.  I haven't gotten to language yet" with a laugh.  It was appreciated by the Crown, but did come with a quest.

I have been tasked with finding what that equivalency would be, but me being me, I want to do it bigger because why not right?  I want to do the full round of titles so no matter the level of award, or area of focus, there is an option.  It's ambitious, but I do have some ideas that I will outline in a future post.

I've actually got a few posts lined up, mentally, that I will be committed to "paper" in coming weeks, focused mostly in garb, but this is the first "big thing" to happen for me.  As a result, I felt it deserved its own, timely, post.

All this to say, stay tuned because more is coming for real this time!

And I'm back!

So, life took some turns and I was unable both to do much research nor tell anyone about it.  I am back with a computer now, though, so I will hopefully be able to update more than the spurts-in-Winter that I've been doing.

BUT YEAH, we'll see.