COML721 - Grad Sem Mongol Empire

This seminar will cover all aspects of the “Secret History of the Mongols” (1264), the classic source on medieval Mongolian history and our most important source on Genghis Khan. The class will be taught through close reading of the text in translation, with full consideration of the parallel passages in the ‘Authentic Chronicles,’ Rashid al-Din’s Compendium of Chronicles, and the Yuan shi. Themes we will cover include: Textual transmission; Composition and context; Sources for the ‘Secret History’; Genealogies and paternal and maternal descent; Fratricide and empire; Narrative and chronotope; Secrecy and public history. All readings will be in English.