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A secular empire? Estates, nom, and religions in the Mongol empire

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 April 2022

Christopher P. Atwood Open the ORCID record for Christopher P. Atwood [Opens in a new window]
Christopher P. Atwood*
Affiliation:
East Asian Languages and Civilizations Department, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America Email: catwood@sas.upenn.edu
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Abstract

Recent work in religious studies has emphasized how European colonial empires used the defining and constructing of religions and secularism as tools of rule. This article explores parallel processes in the Mongol empire (1206–1368) where ‘religion-making’ occurred in three areas: 1) a precise and legal definition of professional service estates among the conquered peoples that included the clergies of designated religions; 2) a broad and imprecise classification of nom or ‘way of life’ that partially overlapped with the clergies defined in the first category; and 3) a realm above all such sectarian distinctions destined for the Mongol ruling elite who alone were capable of living in free obedience to Heaven. The parallels and differences with classifications of the religious and the secular in European colonial empires shed light on how power interacts with cultural classification and practices.

Keywords

Mongol empiresecularismclergynomritualethics
Type
Research Article
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 56 , Special Issue 3: Sulh-i Kull as an Oath of Peace: Mughal Political Theology in History, Theory, and Comparison , May 2022 , pp. 796 - 814
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Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

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