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.
06 June 2016
05 June 2016
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.
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.
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| 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.
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:
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.
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.
 |
| 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 |
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:
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?
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:
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. :-)
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).
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)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!
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