The imperial bestowal, as a major way of distributing the Buddhist canon, profoundly affected the contours of Buddhism in late imperial China. But why did the inner court engage in the distribution? How did it choose the recipient from the outside world? How was it possible for an aspirant to the canon to win out among the competitors? These questions concern the dynamics and mechanism behind the diffusion of the canon. They also cast new light on the relationship between Buddhism and the state and local society by revealing how the two otherwise separated worlds interacted. This paper is intended to tackle these unexplored questions by examining the extensive bestowal of the Ming Beizang during the Wanli court (1573–1620). It first makes a survey, revealing how uneven the distribution was in terms of both time and region. It then explores the motives of the imperial members as patrons in the context of court politics. Its focus, however, is on the agents and elements working behind the selection of the beneficiaries, and how their interplays conditioned the influence of the canon in local societies. In the process, the roles of the emperor, court women, eunuchs, officials, monks, and local elites are all examined.

As is well known, Hülegü, Chinggis Khan's grandson and the founder of theIlkhanate (r. 658–664/1260-65), never converted to Islam. Moreover, as theman who annihilated the Abbasid Caliphate (750-1258), that had led theIslamic umma for more than half a millennium, Hülegü wasoften portrayed—albeit mainly outside his realm—as one of the greatdestroyers of Islam. Yet around the mid-seventh/fourteenth century we findat least two different conversion stories relating to Hülegü in bothIlkhanid and Mamluk sources, both allegedly originating in Baghdad. Thispaper aims to present these narratives and analyse their origin and use inthe context of the later or post-Ilkhanate period. I may say already at thisstage that I have more questions than answers, and that my explanations asto why such stories were invented are rather speculative.

Three women dominated the politics and government of the Mongol Empire inthe decade of the 1240s. Töregene and Oghul-Qaimish ruled as regents and arecredited with corruption and petty politics throughout their regencies,while Sorqoqtani Beki became a paragon of virtue throughout the world forher adherence to the yasa of Chinggis Khan. Curiously, verylittle attention has been paid to this period to verify the accuracy of thestatements. This study examines the role of all three women, but alsoattempts to place their actions in context, examine their role in commerceand how that affected their activities and their legacies. It argues thatwhile the overall depiction of Töregene and Oghul-Qaimish may not beinaccurate, it overlooks some crucial elements and motives in their actionswhich also reveal that Sorqoqtani's actions were not as virtuous as thesources state.

When Chinggis Khan died in 1227, his sons inherited different parts of theempire that had been built by their father. Chinggis Khan's second son,Chaghatai (d. c. 1241), became the ruler of the lands of present-day CentralAsia, conforming the origin of what became to be known as the ChaghataidKhanate. After the death of its founder, this political entity experienced along succession crisis that lasted for a decade until a woman, OrghīnaKhātūn, took control of the khanate in the name of her son. Although aruling woman is not an exceptional case in the Mongol empire, she was thefirst and only woman that ruled over the Chaghataid Khanate, and that did sopeacefully and without major upheavals for nine years. Additionally, she didnot adopt a passive role but was involved in the running of the khanate,playing her cards in the always-unstable political arena of the Mongolempire. This article looks at the ascension to the throne, the reign and thelegacy of this Mongol woman in Mongol Central Asia by contextualising herrule within the history of the region in general and in that of the Mongolempire in particular.

The Chinggisids clearly favoured specific in-law clans through policies ofrepeated marriage over generations. This paper charts the fortunes of onesuch clan, the Oirats, who first joined the Chinggisids when Chinggis Khanand Börte's daughter Chechiyegen wedded an Oirat prince. ThereafterChechiyegen's own daughters married back to the Toluid, Jochid andChagatayid families. This paper follows those Oirats who intermarried withthe Ilkhanids, beginning with Chechiyegen's daughter Güyük and ending withthe Toluid-Oirat Ilkhan, Abū Sa‘īd (r. 1317-1335).

Various Near Eastern and European writers of the thirteenth century remarkedon the outlandish appearance of the Mongol warriors then rampaging acrossEurasia. One aspect of this was their distinctive headgear. From our sourcesit is clear that Mongol costume could be exploited by non-Mongols in theNear East for a variety of purposes; how these distinctive hats weredescribed, and how contemporary artists depicted them, will also bediscussed.

Perhaps, appropriately, crime and criminality only enter the local historiesof Yazd, the ‘Tārīkh-i Yazd and the Tārīkh-i Jadīd-i Yazd, by stealth. 1 The interests and concerns of the authors of the local histories layelsewhere, in describing the topography of the city, its religious edificesand shrines, noting its pious, learned and great inhabitants and recordingits history from earliest times; and indeed if the authors were writingabout a city endowed with the title Dār al-ʿIbādaʾ, the Abode of Piety, itis unsurprising that crimes or criminal acts are largely absent from thetext and so, only one or two accounts of crime feature in the localhistories. However, the ordering of society and the maintenance of thisorder constitute a central topic in medieval Persian writings, including thehistories.