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Command Performances: Entertainers in the Mongolian Empire

Command Performances: Entertainers in the Mongolian Empire TH. T. ALLSEN (Ewing, NJ, U. S. A.) COMMAND PERFORMANCES: ENTERTAINERS IN THE MONGOLIAN EMPIRE _ Among the nomads of Inner Asia public entertainments were a common feature of life. Some;- such as the recitation of epic tales, were homegrown. So, too, were the performances of shamans whose spiritual quests and magi- cal cures were accompanied by music and dance that induced ecstasy and symbolized : or dramatized their journeys to other realms.' In the steppe, as elsewhere, religion and entertainment were not sharply distinguished from one another The nature of the entertainments available in the nomadic world was con- ditioned as well by their patrimonial notions of government and society, ' which required rulers to provide regularly food and drink to their immediate followers. These feasts, called qurim in Mongolian and toy in Turkic, were often accompanied by various entertainments, many performed by foreign professionals.' There was in fact a wide and impressive array of performers attracted to nomadic camps and courts: acrobats, jugglers, tightrope walkers, fire-eaters, magicians fortune-tellers, contortionists, trainers of wild and ex- otic animals, and jesters .4 Naturally, entertainers of this type become increas- . ingly visible after the Mongols formed a state at the http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Russian History Brill

Command Performances: Entertainers in the Mongolian Empire

Allsen, Th T.
Russian History , Volume 28 (1-4): 10 – Jan 1, 2001
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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
Copyright © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
0094-288X
eISSN
1876-3316
DOI
10.1163/187633101x00064
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

TH. T. ALLSEN (Ewing, NJ, U. S. A.) COMMAND PERFORMANCES: ENTERTAINERS IN THE MONGOLIAN EMPIRE _ Among the nomads of Inner Asia public entertainments were a common feature of life. Some;- such as the recitation of epic tales, were homegrown. So, too, were the performances of shamans whose spiritual quests and magi- cal cures were accompanied by music and dance that induced ecstasy and symbolized : or dramatized their journeys to other realms.' In the steppe, as elsewhere, religion and entertainment were not sharply distinguished from one another The nature of the entertainments available in the nomadic world was con- ditioned as well by their patrimonial notions of government and society, ' which required rulers to provide regularly food and drink to their immediate followers. These feasts, called qurim in Mongolian and toy in Turkic, were often accompanied by various entertainments, many performed by foreign professionals.' There was in fact a wide and impressive array of performers attracted to nomadic camps and courts: acrobats, jugglers, tightrope walkers, fire-eaters, magicians fortune-tellers, contortionists, trainers of wild and ex- otic animals, and jesters .4 Naturally, entertainers of this type become increas- . ingly visible after the Mongols formed a state at the

Journal

Russian History – Brill

Published: Jan 1, 2001

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