All sources and image credits are listed in the description. You can read the article on Medievalists.net here: www.medievalists.net/2022/05/medieval-hairstyles-from-bianfa-to-top-knots-in-northeast-asia/
11:00 Khwarezmian Turks apart from the nobilities prolly had extremely diverse hairstyles ranging from braided to shaved since many Turkic people had already abandoned their traditional haircuts after converting to Islam 2-3 centuries prior to the Mongol invasion of Central Asia
I could be wrong, but I remember reading a journal article about a year ago which suggested many of the inhabitants of the central asian steppe were essentially Muslim in name only, continuing many of their tengrist traditions and (because they were illiterate), never actually reading the Koran, until well into the 18th century as the Russian empire began funding madrassahs in an attempt to get them to embrace a more sedentary lifestyle.
Not disagreeing with you, but let me share my evidence for the statement here. (I probably should have phrased it a bit more like "traditional Turkic style" or along those lines), but many of the Turkic soldiers in the service of the Khwarezmshahs were people still from the steppe, rather than inhabitants of the region for a long time. Qanglis "on loan" from the Qipchap-Qangli people. Their status as Muslims is rarely specified in the sources. The stone balbal of the various Qipchap-Cuman-Qangli tend to still show this longer braided style, until the balbal disappear around the time of the Mongol invasion (possibly caused by the Mongols or their production stopped sometime before the Mongols arrive). Seljuq bowls up to this period tend to show long hair loose or braided, and manuscripts of Rashid al-Din from the early 1300s also see long braids on the Turks. Now perhaps these all are elite figures, as you say (would not be surprising. The wealthy people pay good money to see themselves on things). To me it is indicative that a good number of Turkic people up to the Mongol conquest had hair in similar style, if not uniform. And it doesn't account for affect of islamization, but that's a bit of larger topic that deserves more space than I would have given it here.
@@TheJackmeisterMongolHistory most people follow their Celebrity if Turkic Khan is a celeb, his hairstyle is copied thus Balbal stone = longer braided style should be common
Nenenin Donu Dude just stop creating history from your ass. Until Ottomans era,Turks always had long braided hair and converting to islam is unreleavant
The "Pigtail General" Zhang Xun in 1917 attempted to restore the Qing dynasty. It was the last stand of the queue hairstyle. In 1922, the deposed Emperor Puyi cut his off, heralding the end of this longstanding hairstyle.
It's an important, and very modern, example of how these hairs can be associated with the state. I think based off that, we shouldn't doubt that successes earlier dynasties may have had in enforcing these hair styles.
Since it is specific about "male" hairstyles, I have to ask this question: Do we know how the laws and customs handled cases of natural baldness? Most of them seem to accommodate the normal pattern of hair loss (by shaving the critical regions), but especially the mongol "frontal lock of hair" could pose problems. Or did the tradition of drinking yourself to death before reaching 35 prevent this problem?
Good question! I've not come across it, but that doesn't mean there wasn't any customs to anything relating to that. The surviving artworks tend to show some variation in each style, such as placement of the Khitan and Jurchen hair regarding the ears/back of the head, and the Mongolian hair in artwork is sometimes missing that front lock. Khubilai's portrait, for instance, does not seem to have the front lock though he has the hair loops. So these were a bit more like guidelines rather than "Your front lock is 2 cm too short, you will be killed now!" Missing the front lock was probably not a huge deal. Wearing the hair of a rival state though (i.e, of the Jurchen) was something more seriously policed than anything. And it's not like they didn't know what baldness was. Most of these cuts, as you say, tended to avoid the worst of it. But just like today, there's a handy solution... a hat! I didn't get into it here, but one thing that comes across in the sources is that a man would also have a hat. For the Mongols, to be a man meant to have your own hat and belt. So a handy way at least to cover up an unfortunate lack of hair, if required.
This makes me think of the Early Medieval Pechenegs, who were noted for wearing their hair very long and flowing, which would probably be very attractive if they also weren't noted as being generally uncleanly. This changed to the more common Turkic hairstyle under Oghuz influence so that, in one battle the Byzantines had trouble distinguishing their Pecheneg and Tork allies from their Seljuk enemies.
I wish I knew more on the Pechenegs; they're one of those groups whose names pop up often in my research, but are always on the periphery of the topic I'm focusing on in that moment...
@@TheJackmeisterMongolHistory Check the search for the link. “Миллиард.Татар” “оживил” с помощью искусственного интеллекта Чингисхана, Боголюбского и булгар This is the Russian project "Billion Tatars." They are depicted in turn using artificial intelligence 1. the first three photo are the Volga Bulgars. (Volga Tatars) 2. Andrei Yuryevich Bogolyubsky, son of Yuri Dolgoruky and Polovtsian princess, daughter of Khan Aepa (Osenevich) 3. Kuman-kipchak (Polovets) 4. A girl from the Pecheneg tribe from the necropolis of Saralzhin I (Western Kazakhstan). 5. Genghis Khan
I'd really like it if you did a video on Mongol hats and some other clothing. I mean they're always depicted wearing the same drapey style of fur hat but i wouldnt imagine them wearing such dress in Syrian summer heat in the wars with the Mamluks.
Mongol hair actually varied. more north you go. more hair they leave cause its cold as hell up there, more south you go, its a desert so less hair is ideal
I figure it would be a lot of effort to keep the entire head shaved; probably most of these guys were going around with a few day's growth at any given time. Wealthier fellows had a barber around to keep their heads nice and shiny and barren, and it probably made them stand out more among the masses. We know that even the Khans continued to (mostly) wear traditional Mongol clothes, the deel. Aside from better materials and ornamentation sewn into them, likely well-maintained hair/shaven heads also served to be a good marker of status.
There's more than a few figures who were described with missing eyes in this period; there might have been some very jagged scars going across the heads of some of these fellows.
I've read that there might've been a religious component to the partially-shaved hairstyle too. Something about the top of the head being sacred or being a connection to heaven. Mongols always removed their caps while praying, maybe to "connect" with heaven? Or just as a sign of submission. And then there was that episode in the SH where Temujin shaved his head bald for an extended prayer session. makes you wonder what that signified. Unfortunately no one of that era did any in-dept writing about Mongol religious beliefs, so I guess we'll never have a detailed explanation, just speculation.
Certainly not impossible. But that's one of those things were it's like chicken and egg. Was submission to heaven the reason for the shaving, or did that become an explanation after the fact? There's textual evidence for the shaving going back to the Xiongnu, I believe. My suspicion is that the reason began very practical; it's an easy way to keep hair out of your face when on horseback. And perhaps overtime some people begin shaving in similar way (humans are creatures of habit, after all). Then they encounter another group, some rival party, and find that they also came across the idea... but their head is shaved slightly differently. Group A defeats/incorporates Group B, and in some manner gets Group B to adopt shaving manner of Group A. Given passage of centuries, becomes a general trend among all nomads in the region, later reinforced with after-the-fact justifications to heaven, and to mark them out from the Chinese who don't shave at all. Do I have any evidence for that? Not at all. Your guess is as a good as mine, when it comes to the origins of these. There's probably some folk tale somewhere about it.
The removing of the cap and belt seems more to be, that these are things associated with a 'man.' Removing these accessories is almost like being naked before Heaven, a sign of humility. Perhaps there is a connection of hair with this, but I would hesitate to make one, out of fear that I am forcing a meaning onto it.
Note to myself: hairstyles are a serious business. 😉 The various partially shaven hairstyles of the nomads of the Euroasian steppes make me think about the Ukrainian 'oseledets'.
The Russian name for that hair , khohkol (at least, on Wikipedia) is very close to the Mongolian khökhöl, which comes from the thirteenth century kegül. Given that Cossack is argued to come from the Turkic qazaq/Kazakh, it may well be that the hair's name, perhaps even the style, origins form interactions with steppe nomads.
In Mongolian movies the Mongolian have full hair while Manchus the villains have shaved hair. And they think it’s a Chinese thing! But it’s an Altai thing. SMH
Maybe I'll see if Kings and Generals want to animate this script, they could probably get Keeps on there, as well as joke about the founder's shiny bald head.
Great info. 👍🏻😮 I never knew about the Khitan and Tangut hairstyle. And I thought, only the Manchus decreed the queue style on the Han-chinese subjects. Didn't know that the Mongols enforced their hairstyles upon the Chinese too. Weren't the Mongols the more tolerate ones? 🤔 By the way, how about the hairstyles of the Chinese-ruled dynasties such as the Han, Sui, Tang, Song and Ming? I thought the knot plus flowy hair were the trend for Tang, Song and Ming. 😅
The degree of tolerance the Mongol state practice has been overexaggerated by the internet. Most of the time the Mongols didn't outlaw religions or anything, but rather specific things within religions or cultures they didn't like, or saw as in the way of their rule. As I understand it (and a historian of early China could answer this better than me) is that by the Qin Dynasty the topknot becomes more and more common, and in Han Dynasty it replaces most other, if not all, styles.
@@TheJackmeisterMongolHistory Ah, I see... and I just noticed that your works are more on the Mongols, hence the screen name. Thank you, for the reply though. 🙂
My theory on why they had these hairstyles was to simply accommodate for male pattern baldness. Notice how all these styles shave the top while leaving the sides and back long, it's because the hairs on the sides and back of men's heads aren't prone to male pattern baldness. Also, I find it hard to believe the depictions of Han Chinese men all wearing their hair in perfect top knots with a perfect Norwood 0 hairline. Did Han Chinese men not have receding hairlines in those days? How can a grown man have the same hairline as a teenage boy as depicted by the Han top knot hairstyle.
I might be misremembering but in my textbook "Mongolian culture and civilization" at the National University of Mongolia it said that prior to Chingisid khaan using Uigher as standardised script, there were a hodge podge of scripts used in tandem like the Khitan large script which quickly out of favour for the most part, remnants of sogdian from the gokturks, and of course Uigher. I don't suppose we know of any examples? Would khitan been used to interact would other people who were part of the liao and sogdian Central Asia.
We do actually, and some predating Chinggis by quite some time. A few years ago some inscriptions were recently dated quite early: Bugut inscription (in Brahmi script) is dated to the 580s, and the Khüis Tolgoi (in Sogdian script) to the early 600s. Both of them are, according to recent study, in Mongolic languages. There's a bit more info in this article: d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/59890188/Ruan-ruan_sketch_JEAL1.120190628-6279-16kccg8-with-cover-page-v2.pdf?Expires=1652508884&Signature=GvkgXkuPZfMTAaTDMuTY2vgOt0nKZEYgrxnPFtUaV57hjgOBC20CxFX4ulhn1zY9KeWe6GVZ1D62e3ZPOFmQJtv1OIT~6kOqUcLY5Ur6ycneoZVd~xtbyV6uyapCf5HO7DpQibWcpbJ4N6CO1quZYbNI6yPQJK2dNnP4znxrwWsdvgJ9Zu7~uITsbIhaOjt6pbs-kGQR1Gf1lLecFisYweJUA5jbFJRFpf4tbyS~4vSR8lS9eAV~68ag6UDvk9T4TIek1oyKL-GWKBmmT9IJL8qOOy6jvIByOUlf3En3-xnCAf~cCQA3~P6ddDG6Sj22zmLbiZ9lQxs4hZStFmpnKQ__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJLOHF5GGSLRBV4ZA And of course we have the Orkhon inscriptions and other Old Turkic inscriptions, but they were written in the Old Turkic alphabet which, as far as I know, stops being used sometime before the Khitan domination of Mongolia. There are a handful of surviving Khitan stone inscriptions in Mongolia, and even Jurchen script (which was adapted from Khitan). Mostly they are in Inner Mongolia. The most interesting one, is a Jurchen inscription from 1196, which also has Chinese on it. It's in Khentii province. I say it's the most interesting, because it refers to a Jin victory over the Tatars. This is a campaign we know well form the written sources, as Temüjin and Toghrul took part in it. it is this campaign that the Jin give Toghrul the title of Ong Khan. Neither of them are mentioned in the inscription it self (and we wouldn't expect them to be). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Jurchen_inscriptions Now those are stone inscriptions. As the Khitan Liao Dynasty had a large presence in Mongolia from the 900s until 1100s, including a number of settlements and forts, we can assume Khitan language and script was used in administration and many interactions. Likely Khitan script was present on a great many materials which did not survive the passage of time. We would imagine travellers and merchants passing into Mongolia would have sought to use Khitan for their interactions with them, but as far as I know there is little evidence for the use of Khitan west of Mongolia, even during the Qara-Khitai days. I won't say it was never used: I simply may not know of studies on that topic, or evidence for its use did not survive. So I would say your textbook was mostly correct, but it's hard to answer 1) to what extent these scripts were used outside of the occupying powers (i.e, did Khitan script have any uses outside of government related purposes? 2) how many, and what scripts, were used by 1206? By then the Khitan power had been pushed out of the Mongolian plateau for almost a century. Uighur script obviously had use among the Naimans. The Old Turkic alphabet had been out of use for centuries. If I were to guess, only Uighur and possibly Chinese may have been any use at all around the time of Chinggis' rise to power.
There is a sharp break between the Ottomans and the Seljuks in hair matter. Despite Ottomans were Oghuz too and somewhat inheritor of Seljuks,they shaved their head fully. I think reason of that break was Ottomans imitadet late Bahri Mamluks which shave their long fancy hairs after pilgrimage of Sultan al Nasr Muhammed
I think that's as good an explanation as any. I've never research the Ottomans well enough to have an opinion. I wonder if there is also influence from the early contacts between Ottomans and the Byzantines? I don't know either group well enough to really make a good guess, though.
@@mimorisenpai8540 I wrote it last year, so I want to correct the information error. Ottoman Turks used to cut their hair in the same style as the Cossaks (khokol). They also differed from the Muslim societies around them in this regard.
This hair and nomadic culture is very widespread in earlier Mongo-Turco empires all over Central Asia to near East of Roman empire like Khazars, Tartaria and Volga Ural region, all the way back too the year 700s till early modern age. People like the Cossacks still wear these Turkic hairstyles
I want to share the information.(Sorry, my english is not good) 4:24~4:26 Flowing loosely below hairstyle isn't a modern invention in Korea. It's Korean historical men's hair style is right. You can see the Silla people's half-tied hair and ponytail(or loose long hair) style in 唐閻立本王會圖 and 채화판기마인물도. And this hairstyle of Goguryeo men can be found in murals. (Academically, loose long hair is called "채머리 Chae-meori") According to the record, Goryeo is also similar. [民庶之家, 女子未嫁, 紅羅束髮, 其餘被下. 男子亦然, 特易紅爲黒繩耳.] 백성 집에서는 여자가 시집을 가기 전에는 분홍색 비단으로 머리를 묶고 나머지는 아래로 늘어뜨린다. 남자도 마찬가지인데 분홍색 〈비단〉을 검은색 끈[繩]으로 바꾼 것이 다를 뿐이다. (Common people)Unmarried woman ties her hair with a red silk band and the rest of her hair hangs down. Men is same but It's just different to use black silk band. (Source : 선화봉사고려도경(宣和奉使高麗圖經) 권20 ) Thank you for introducing me to Northern Asian hair styles.
Thank you, this is very interesting; I hadn't known this or come across it. Thank you for telling me the names as well; I will definitely look into this for future reference!
There's a couple series on the Mongols. There's a 2004 Inner Mongolian series on Chinggis, which a few Mongols have recommended me but I have never watched very much of it
@@TheJackmeisterMongolHistory Watch two films - The Horde and Mongol. Probably the best, because it was done by direct participants Russia - Kazakhstan. th-cam.com/video/svYOTyEhaQM/w-d-xo.html th-cam.com/video/Hr_PNoCZXg4/w-d-xo.html
I'm assuming you mean Emir Temur (d.1405). So the sources, as far as I know (including envoys like de Clavijo) do not describe his hair at all (everyone got pretty distracted by his limp/injuries). In most Timurid artworks, the hairstyle is obscured from view due to the turban, but some figures will have Mongol-style hairloops (or some variation, it's hard to tell exactly) or close shaven hair. Usually King figures in these manuscripts (including Temur) have the hair, at least on the sides of the head, shaved, but there is at least one image of Temur where he has hair loops. As far as I have been able to tell, the front hairlock is not on any of these images, and may have fallen out of style by this time. You can see examples in this 1430 Timurid copy of the Jami' al-Tawarikh, where there is both hair-loops and monarchs with shaven heads. Possibly this is reflection of the various styles in Timurid armies; Chagatai tribesmen have their hair in loops, but there was also style for more closely shaven hair. Of course, we have Temur's tomb.... Fomenko, that absolute garbage human, has a book where he claims that when the Soviet's dug up Temur's tomb, they found thick red-hair on Temur. But I have never been able to find a copy of Gerasimov's original study to see if this was indeed the case, or just another example of Fomenko just fabricating something for the sake of it (the point Fomenko wanted to make was that Temur was actually Caucasian/Russian and the Mongol Empire was a Russian state, so you can understand why it's not much good relying on anything he says). None of the pictures or video purporting to be from Temur's exhumation appear to show any hair left on his skull, (though it should be said the image quality and black/white doesn't make it easy to tell exactly what we're looking at at times). Notably, Gerasimov also does not seem to have put any hair on Temur's reconstruction. So presumably he didn't actually find any that survived, and also chose to follow manuscript depictions where Timurid monarchs are shown (almost always) with their hair shaven. So my guess, is that probably before he became Emir, Temur wore hairloops, but for most or part of his reign kept his hair closely cut (and hence, why envoys like de Clavijo don't comment on it even when describing Temur's crown; there wasn't any hair to comment on!). Maybe this had some influence on the Ottoman hair you noted before?
@@TheJackmeisterMongolHistory ı think there are miniature which show early Ottomans as shaved hair,but its belong to 16.century. So maybe your Timur-influnce theory could be correct
Western heavily armored knights do not use bows. That is why they lost easily to Mongolia. The samurai of Kamakura in the same era of Japan, like the Mongols, attacked in groups while firing bows in heavy armor.
I see some korean serieses in that series i see some barbaric tribal group called jerchens please explain who are they? they are origin is from modern korean countries? Please?
So the Jurchen were a Tungusic people from what's now Manchuria. They overthrew the Khitan Liao Dynasty in the 1100s, and founded the Jin Dynasty. The Jin Dynasty ruled most of North China and parts of Korea, until it was destroyed by Mongols in the 1200s. But the Jurchen people remained in Manchuria and continued to be a military force. They lived as semi-nomads and agriculturalists, and would raid their neighbours in China and Korea. In the early 1600s they were unified by the chief, Nurhaci, who established the Later Jin Dynasty. Nurhaci or his son (I can't remember) renamed their people as the Manchu, conquered Mongolia and declared their state the Qing Dynasty, then began to conquer China in the late 1600s. The Manchu Qing Dynasty ruled China until the start of the 1900s.
@@TheJackmeisterMongolHistory thank you for you are valuable reply 😍😍 the mongol history is very intresting,also emissaries from my state reached kublai khans court
Jurchens lived in the north of Goryeo as well. Taejo came from a Jurchen area and relied on them a lot when overthrowing Goryeo to set up Joseon. Possibly those events were depicted in the series you saw.
All the ancient Korean kings 朝鮮王 of the past were Chinese officials. The queen was a Chinese nobleman. The members of the palace are all members of the Chinese nobles and the Han blood family 漢血家族(including various technical staff. Scholars, architects, monks, senior soldiers ...). They are all Chinese , Chinese language (Han dialect) , and Chinese characters. They have always been proud of the Chinese descent and the Han blood family 漢血家族. They call the ancient Korea 朝鮮 as part of China. These clearly recorded in a large number of letters written to the Chinese emperor and Chinese history . Only the "White clothes Ethnic白衣民族" (the ancestors of Koreans today) slaves and civilians speak Korean language. After the 15th century, Chinese officials (King of ancient Korean朝鮮王) invented a characters for indigenous and slave language - Korean characters. In order to better manage slave work. Korea is an independent country established in 1950 (the United States has power in military power). Korean language and Korean characters as the official language and characters are less than 70 years. The real history of the Korean people (White clothes Ethnic白衣民族) is only about 100 years. * Ancient Korea before 1910 = 朝鮮 (the name of the Chinese city). The official language : Chinese language (Han dialect) and Chinese characters. Korea after 1950 = 韓國 The official language : Korean language and Korean characters. --------------------------- Most Korean historical TV series are based on the theme of ancient Chinese managers ( ancient korean king) and Chinese nobles on the ancient Korean Peninsula. It is just that Koreans say that this is Korean ethnic history. Historically, the ancient Korean Peninsula was one of the areas where Chinese territory and governance were more than 2000 years ago (the ancestors of Koreans have always lived in a small place at the southernmost part of the peninsula). Before 1930, the official language and text of the ancient Korean Peninsula were also Chinese. After 1950, Korean language and Korean characters became official languages and characters. Korea has become only more than 70 years of independent countries. The ancient Koreans wearing white clothes And women's clothes show their nipples. Korean tradition is a beautiful standard for women to show their nipples.Women use their heads to move everything. Korean historical dramas are fake. A large number of Chinese culture and Chinese historical elements are plagiarized directly.
Much like watching a movie from the 1970s and wondering how some of those hairs were ever in style, thought I suppose many of these were more dramatic (though required less hair product to maintain)
All sources and image credits are listed in the description. You can read the article on Medievalists.net here: www.medievalists.net/2022/05/medieval-hairstyles-from-bianfa-to-top-knots-in-northeast-asia/
Are you kidding? The best part of this channel is listening to Jack Meister.
I would like to think so ;)
I simply do not have the head shape to pull off any of these hairs.
You should try one it'll make a good surprise for the tumen
The first blond khölkhöl a Mongol would ever see
@@TheJackmeisterMongolHistorywhat’s a khiokhol
Im here in the first place cos i really want a nuqula but im trying to find out if im allowed to bc im not mongolian i dont want to be disrespectful 😭
You're very good! I saw your posts in FB. You're such a prolific content producer :)) Glad that you liked our history. Talarkhaj bainaa.
11:00 Khwarezmian Turks apart from the nobilities prolly had extremely diverse hairstyles ranging from braided to shaved since many Turkic people had already abandoned their traditional haircuts after converting to Islam 2-3 centuries prior to the Mongol invasion of Central Asia
I could be wrong, but I remember reading a journal article about a year ago which suggested many of the inhabitants of the central asian steppe were essentially Muslim in name only, continuing many of their tengrist traditions and (because they were illiterate), never actually reading the Koran, until well into the 18th century as the Russian empire began funding madrassahs in an attempt to get them to embrace a more sedentary lifestyle.
Not disagreeing with you, but let me share my evidence for the statement here. (I probably should have phrased it a bit more like "traditional Turkic style" or along those lines), but many of the Turkic soldiers in the service of the Khwarezmshahs were people still from the steppe, rather than inhabitants of the region for a long time. Qanglis "on loan" from the Qipchap-Qangli people. Their status as Muslims is rarely specified in the sources. The stone balbal of the various Qipchap-Cuman-Qangli tend to still show this longer braided style, until the balbal disappear around the time of the Mongol invasion (possibly caused by the Mongols or their production stopped sometime before the Mongols arrive). Seljuq bowls up to this period tend to show long hair loose or braided, and manuscripts of Rashid al-Din from the early 1300s also see long braids on the Turks. Now perhaps these all are elite figures, as you say (would not be surprising. The wealthy people pay good money to see themselves on things). To me it is indicative that a good number of Turkic people up to the Mongol conquest had hair in similar style, if not uniform. And it doesn't account for affect of islamization, but that's a bit of larger topic that deserves more space than I would have given it here.
@@TheJackmeisterMongolHistory most people follow their Celebrity if Turkic Khan is a celeb, his hairstyle is copied thus Balbal stone = longer braided style should be common
@@HotZetiGer Turkic Khans, the One Direction of the Medieval steppe
Nenenin Donu
Dude just stop creating history from your ass.
Until Ottomans era,Turks always had long braided hair and converting to islam is unreleavant
thank you so much for covering this topic sir, you earned my respect , this is the best channel about mongols at the moment. Liked and subbed
Thank you, that is very kind of you!
The "Pigtail General" Zhang Xun in 1917 attempted to restore the Qing dynasty. It was the last stand of the queue hairstyle. In 1922, the deposed Emperor Puyi cut his off, heralding the end of this longstanding hairstyle.
It's an important, and very modern, example of how these hairs can be associated with the state. I think based off that, we shouldn't doubt that successes earlier dynasties may have had in enforcing these hair styles.
thank you for the vid!
Thank you for watching!
Since it is specific about "male" hairstyles, I have to ask this question: Do we know how the laws and customs handled cases of natural baldness? Most of them seem to accommodate the normal pattern of hair loss (by shaving the critical regions), but especially the mongol "frontal lock of hair" could pose problems.
Or did the tradition of drinking yourself to death before reaching 35 prevent this problem?
Good question! I've not come across it, but that doesn't mean there wasn't any customs to anything relating to that. The surviving artworks tend to show some variation in each style, such as placement of the Khitan and Jurchen hair regarding the ears/back of the head, and the Mongolian hair in artwork is sometimes missing that front lock. Khubilai's portrait, for instance, does not seem to have the front lock though he has the hair loops. So these were a bit more like guidelines rather than "Your front lock is 2 cm too short, you will be killed now!" Missing the front lock was probably not a huge deal. Wearing the hair of a rival state though (i.e, of the Jurchen) was something more seriously policed than anything.
And it's not like they didn't know what baldness was. Most of these cuts, as you say, tended to avoid the worst of it. But just like today, there's a handy solution... a hat! I didn't get into it here, but one thing that comes across in the sources is that a man would also have a hat. For the Mongols, to be a man meant to have your own hat and belt. So a handy way at least to cover up an unfortunate lack of hair, if required.
This makes me think of the Early Medieval Pechenegs, who were noted for wearing their hair very long and flowing, which would probably be very attractive if they also weren't noted as being generally uncleanly.
This changed to the more common Turkic hairstyle under Oghuz influence so that, in one battle the Byzantines had trouble distinguishing their Pecheneg and Tork allies from their Seljuk enemies.
I wish I knew more on the Pechenegs; they're one of those groups whose names pop up often in my research, but are always on the periphery of the topic I'm focusing on in that moment...
@@TheJackmeisterMongolHistory Check the search for the link.
“Миллиард.Татар” “оживил” с помощью искусственного интеллекта Чингисхана, Боголюбского и булгар
This is the Russian project "Billion Tatars." They are depicted in turn using artificial intelligence
1. the first three photo are the Volga Bulgars. (Volga Tatars)
2. Andrei Yuryevich Bogolyubsky, son of Yuri Dolgoruky and Polovtsian princess, daughter of Khan Aepa (Osenevich)
3. Kuman-kipchak (Polovets)
4. A girl from the Pecheneg tribe from the necropolis of Saralzhin I (Western Kazakhstan).
5. Genghis Khan
I like the nuqula with the full curtain in the back, instead of it being separated.
Interesting, would like to see your analysis of clothing for different groups of people next time.
I'd really like it if you did a video on Mongol hats and some other clothing. I mean they're always depicted wearing the same drapey style of fur hat but i wouldnt imagine them wearing such dress in Syrian summer heat in the wars with the Mamluks.
Mongol hair actually varied. more north you go. more hair they leave cause its cold as hell up there, more south you go, its a desert so less hair is ideal
Make more about the khitans and your works are good 💙💙💙
I always want to do more on the Khitans! Hopefully one day soon.
Of course it was probably a lot messier than we see in portraits and paintings. Life was rough before the invention of conditioner
I figure it would be a lot of effort to keep the entire head shaved; probably most of these guys were going around with a few day's growth at any given time. Wealthier fellows had a barber around to keep their heads nice and shiny and barren, and it probably made them stand out more among the masses. We know that even the Khans continued to (mostly) wear traditional Mongol clothes, the deel. Aside from better materials and ornamentation sewn into them, likely well-maintained hair/shaven heads also served to be a good marker of status.
@@TheJackmeisterMongolHistory Imagine the amount of nicks and scars accrued over a life time. :p
There's more than a few figures who were described with missing eyes in this period; there might have been some very jagged scars going across the heads of some of these fellows.
I've read that there might've been a religious component to the partially-shaved hairstyle too. Something about the top of the head being sacred or being a connection to heaven. Mongols always removed their caps while praying, maybe to "connect" with heaven? Or just as a sign of submission. And then there was that episode in the SH where Temujin shaved his head bald for an extended prayer session. makes you wonder what that signified. Unfortunately no one of that era did any in-dept writing about Mongol religious beliefs, so I guess we'll never have a detailed explanation, just speculation.
Certainly not impossible. But that's one of those things were it's like chicken and egg. Was submission to heaven the reason for the shaving, or did that become an explanation after the fact?
There's textual evidence for the shaving going back to the Xiongnu, I believe. My suspicion is that the reason began very practical; it's an easy way to keep hair out of your face when on horseback. And perhaps overtime some people begin shaving in similar way (humans are creatures of habit, after all). Then they encounter another group, some rival party, and find that they also came across the idea... but their head is shaved slightly differently. Group A defeats/incorporates Group B, and in some manner gets Group B to adopt shaving manner of Group A. Given passage of centuries, becomes a general trend among all nomads in the region, later reinforced with after-the-fact justifications to heaven, and to mark them out from the Chinese who don't shave at all.
Do I have any evidence for that? Not at all. Your guess is as a good as mine, when it comes to the origins of these. There's probably some folk tale somewhere about it.
The removing of the cap and belt seems more to be, that these are things associated with a 'man.' Removing these accessories is almost like being naked before Heaven, a sign of humility. Perhaps there is a connection of hair with this, but I would hesitate to make one, out of fear that I am forcing a meaning onto it.
What mongol series is that SH?
@@tolui1874 Secret History of the Mongols. I was just too lazy to write it all out :P
the best factor of a lot of these hairstyles is they make male pattern baldness far less of a problem
Just an extended effort to ensure that everyone feels that male beauty standards of the period are achievable
Note to myself: hairstyles are a serious business. 😉
The various partially shaven hairstyles of the nomads of the Euroasian steppes make me think about the Ukrainian 'oseledets'.
The Russian name for that hair , khohkol (at least, on Wikipedia) is very close to the Mongolian khökhöl, which comes from the thirteenth century kegül. Given that Cossack is argued to come from the Turkic qazaq/Kazakh, it may well be that the hair's name, perhaps even the style, origins form interactions with steppe nomads.
Thank you.
In Mongolian movies the Mongolian have full hair while Manchus the villains have shaved hair. And they think it’s a Chinese thing! But it’s an Altai thing. SMH
Spent the whole time waiting for
*This video was brought to you by Keeps*
damn, now I want a manscaped stencil called _the mongolian_
Maybe I'll see if Kings and Generals want to animate this script, they could probably get Keeps on there, as well as joke about the founder's shiny bald head.
Great info. 👍🏻😮
I never knew about the Khitan and Tangut hairstyle.
And I thought, only the Manchus decreed the queue style on the Han-chinese subjects. Didn't know that the Mongols enforced their hairstyles upon the Chinese too. Weren't the Mongols the more tolerate ones? 🤔
By the way, how about the hairstyles of the Chinese-ruled dynasties such as the Han, Sui, Tang, Song and Ming? I thought the knot plus flowy hair were the trend for Tang, Song and Ming. 😅
The degree of tolerance the Mongol state practice has been overexaggerated by the internet. Most of the time the Mongols didn't outlaw religions or anything, but rather specific things within religions or cultures they didn't like, or saw as in the way of their rule.
As I understand it (and a historian of early China could answer this better than me) is that by the Qin Dynasty the topknot becomes more and more common, and in Han Dynasty it replaces most other, if not all, styles.
@@TheJackmeisterMongolHistory Ah, I see... and I just noticed that your works are more on the Mongols, hence the screen name.
Thank you, for the reply though. 🙂
My theory on why they had these hairstyles was to simply accommodate for male pattern baldness. Notice how all these styles shave the top while leaving the sides and back long, it's because the hairs on the sides and back of men's heads aren't prone to male pattern baldness. Also, I find it hard to believe the depictions of Han Chinese men all wearing their hair in perfect top knots with a perfect Norwood 0 hairline. Did Han Chinese men not have receding hairlines in those days? How can a grown man have the same hairline as a teenage boy as depicted by the Han top knot hairstyle.
I might be misremembering but in my textbook "Mongolian culture and civilization" at the National University of Mongolia it said that prior to Chingisid khaan using Uigher as standardised script, there were a hodge podge of scripts used in tandem like the Khitan large script which quickly out of favour for the most part, remnants of sogdian from the gokturks, and of course Uigher. I don't suppose we know of any examples?
Would khitan been used to interact would other people who were part of the liao and sogdian Central Asia.
We do actually, and some predating Chinggis by quite some time. A few years ago some inscriptions were recently dated quite early: Bugut inscription (in Brahmi script) is dated to the 580s, and the Khüis Tolgoi (in Sogdian script) to the early 600s. Both of them are, according to recent study, in Mongolic languages. There's a bit more info in this article: d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/59890188/Ruan-ruan_sketch_JEAL1.120190628-6279-16kccg8-with-cover-page-v2.pdf?Expires=1652508884&Signature=GvkgXkuPZfMTAaTDMuTY2vgOt0nKZEYgrxnPFtUaV57hjgOBC20CxFX4ulhn1zY9KeWe6GVZ1D62e3ZPOFmQJtv1OIT~6kOqUcLY5Ur6ycneoZVd~xtbyV6uyapCf5HO7DpQibWcpbJ4N6CO1quZYbNI6yPQJK2dNnP4znxrwWsdvgJ9Zu7~uITsbIhaOjt6pbs-kGQR1Gf1lLecFisYweJUA5jbFJRFpf4tbyS~4vSR8lS9eAV~68ag6UDvk9T4TIek1oyKL-GWKBmmT9IJL8qOOy6jvIByOUlf3En3-xnCAf~cCQA3~P6ddDG6Sj22zmLbiZ9lQxs4hZStFmpnKQ__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJLOHF5GGSLRBV4ZA
And of course we have the Orkhon inscriptions and other Old Turkic inscriptions, but they were written in the Old Turkic alphabet which, as far as I know, stops being used sometime before the Khitan domination of Mongolia.
There are a handful of surviving Khitan stone inscriptions in Mongolia, and even Jurchen script (which was adapted from Khitan). Mostly they are in Inner Mongolia. The most interesting one, is a Jurchen inscription from 1196, which also has Chinese on it. It's in Khentii province. I say it's the most interesting, because it refers to a Jin victory over the Tatars. This is a campaign we know well form the written sources, as Temüjin and Toghrul took part in it. it is this campaign that the Jin give Toghrul the title of Ong Khan. Neither of them are mentioned in the inscription it self (and we wouldn't expect them to be). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Jurchen_inscriptions
Now those are stone inscriptions. As the Khitan Liao Dynasty had a large presence in Mongolia from the 900s until 1100s, including a number of settlements and forts, we can assume Khitan language and script was used in administration and many interactions. Likely Khitan script was present on a great many materials which did not survive the passage of time. We would imagine travellers and merchants passing into Mongolia would have sought to use Khitan for their interactions with them, but as far as I know there is little evidence for the use of Khitan west of Mongolia, even during the Qara-Khitai days. I won't say it was never used: I simply may not know of studies on that topic, or evidence for its use did not survive.
So I would say your textbook was mostly correct, but it's hard to answer 1) to what extent these scripts were used outside of the occupying powers (i.e, did Khitan script have any uses outside of government related purposes? 2) how many, and what scripts, were used by 1206? By then the Khitan power had been pushed out of the Mongolian plateau for almost a century. Uighur script obviously had use among the Naimans. The Old Turkic alphabet had been out of use for centuries. If I were to guess, only Uighur and possibly Chinese may have been any use at all around the time of Chinggis' rise to power.
@@TheJackmeisterMongolHistory thanks
There is a sharp break between the Ottomans and the Seljuks in hair matter. Despite Ottomans were Oghuz too and somewhat inheritor of Seljuks,they shaved their head fully.
I think reason of that break was Ottomans imitadet late Bahri Mamluks which shave their long fancy hairs after pilgrimage of Sultan al Nasr Muhammed
I think that's as good an explanation as any. I've never research the Ottomans well enough to have an opinion. I wonder if there is also influence from the early contacts between Ottomans and the Byzantines? I don't know either group well enough to really make a good guess, though.
@@TheJackmeisterMongolHistory Byzantines often have long hair
Well post Mongol invasion many turkmen tribe started adopting shortcut due to deeper Muslim influence.
@@mimorisenpai8540 I wrote it last year, so I want to correct the information error. Ottoman Turks used to cut their hair in the same style as the Cossaks (khokol). They also differed from the Muslim societies around them in this regard.
This hair and nomadic culture is very widespread in earlier Mongo-Turco empires all over Central Asia to near East of Roman empire like Khazars, Tartaria and Volga Ural region, all the way back too the year 700s till early modern age. People like the Cossacks still wear these Turkic hairstyles
top knot tang dinasty (4 century AD) were influenced by hindunism
"...grow your hair!" -Genghis khan 😤
I want to share the information.(Sorry, my english is not good)
4:24~4:26 Flowing loosely below hairstyle isn't a modern invention in Korea.
It's Korean historical men's hair style is right.
You can see the Silla people's half-tied hair and ponytail(or loose long hair) style in 唐閻立本王會圖 and 채화판기마인물도.
And this hairstyle of Goguryeo men can be found in murals.
(Academically, loose long hair is called "채머리 Chae-meori")
According to the record, Goryeo is also similar.
[民庶之家, 女子未嫁, 紅羅束髮, 其餘被下. 男子亦然, 特易紅爲黒繩耳.]
백성 집에서는 여자가 시집을 가기 전에는 분홍색 비단으로 머리를 묶고 나머지는 아래로 늘어뜨린다.
남자도 마찬가지인데 분홍색 〈비단〉을 검은색 끈[繩]으로 바꾼 것이 다를 뿐이다.
(Common people)Unmarried woman ties her hair with a red silk band and the rest of her hair hangs down.
Men is same but It's just different to use black silk band.
(Source : 선화봉사고려도경(宣和奉使高麗圖經) 권20 )
Thank you for introducing me to Northern Asian hair styles.
Thank you, this is very interesting; I hadn't known this or come across it. Thank you for telling me the names as well; I will definitely look into this for future reference!
Lot of series about Vikings have realesed but why there no series about chenkis khan?
There's a couple series on the Mongols. There's a 2004 Inner Mongolian series on Chinggis, which a few Mongols have recommended me but I have never watched very much of it
th-cam.com/play/PLUa_k6rOywhPqoNDvnqyCS2NOLBLTqgN7.html
@@TheJackmeisterMongolHistory Watch two films - The Horde and Mongol. Probably the best, because it was done by direct participants Russia - Kazakhstan.
th-cam.com/video/svYOTyEhaQM/w-d-xo.html
th-cam.com/video/Hr_PNoCZXg4/w-d-xo.html
@@mr.purple1779 first one is just bad
@@mr.purple1779 i watched movie Mongol, especially when i was little kid Altan urag was popular band
we know Timur's hairstyle ?
there are lots of Temur's in mongol history
I'm assuming you mean Emir Temur (d.1405). So the sources, as far as I know (including envoys like de Clavijo) do not describe his hair at all (everyone got pretty distracted by his limp/injuries). In most Timurid artworks, the hairstyle is obscured from view due to the turban, but some figures will have Mongol-style hairloops (or some variation, it's hard to tell exactly) or close shaven hair. Usually King figures in these manuscripts (including Temur) have the hair, at least on the sides of the head, shaved, but there is at least one image of Temur where he has hair loops. As far as I have been able to tell, the front hairlock is not on any of these images, and may have fallen out of style by this time. You can see examples in this 1430 Timurid copy of the Jami' al-Tawarikh, where there is both hair-loops and monarchs with shaven heads. Possibly this is reflection of the various styles in Timurid armies; Chagatai tribesmen have their hair in loops, but there was also style for more closely shaven hair.
Of course, we have Temur's tomb.... Fomenko, that absolute garbage human, has a book where he claims that when the Soviet's dug up Temur's tomb, they found thick red-hair on Temur. But I have never been able to find a copy of Gerasimov's original study to see if this was indeed the case, or just another example of Fomenko just fabricating something for the sake of it (the point Fomenko wanted to make was that Temur was actually Caucasian/Russian and the Mongol Empire was a Russian state, so you can understand why it's not much good relying on anything he says). None of the pictures or video purporting to be from Temur's exhumation appear to show any hair left on his skull, (though it should be said the image quality and black/white doesn't make it easy to tell exactly what we're looking at at times). Notably, Gerasimov also does not seem to have put any hair on Temur's reconstruction. So presumably he didn't actually find any that survived, and also chose to follow manuscript depictions where Timurid monarchs are shown (almost always) with their hair shaven.
So my guess, is that probably before he became Emir, Temur wore hairloops, but for most or part of his reign kept his hair closely cut (and hence, why envoys like de Clavijo don't comment on it even when describing Temur's crown; there wasn't any hair to comment on!). Maybe this had some influence on the Ottoman hair you noted before?
Forgot to attach that 1430 Jami al Tawarikh link: gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8427170s/f337.planchecontact.r=Persan+1113.langEN
@@TheJackmeisterMongolHistory thank you kind sir
@@TheJackmeisterMongolHistory ı think there are miniature which show early Ottomans as shaved hair,but its belong to 16.century. So maybe your Timur-influnce theory could be correct
Then since the early days of People's Republic of Mongolia, we've been wearing the hairstyle called "kalmykian" (халимаг) 🙃
hello, you somehow look like Michael Rosen YTP, but younger
Western heavily armored knights do not use bows. That is why they lost easily to Mongolia. The samurai of Kamakura in the same era of Japan, like the Mongols, attacked in groups while firing bows in heavy armor.
Shaven styles are just easy to manage in old times. U can't wash them always, water, soap issue as well as lice.
👍👍👍
So they had religious freedom in the Mongol Empire but not freedom of hairdos!?! =D
Mongol imperial support for Big-Barbershop unions
I see some korean serieses in that series i see some barbaric tribal group called jerchens please explain who are they? they are origin is from modern korean countries? Please?
So the Jurchen were a Tungusic people from what's now Manchuria. They overthrew the Khitan Liao Dynasty in the 1100s, and founded the Jin Dynasty. The Jin Dynasty ruled most of North China and parts of Korea, until it was destroyed by Mongols in the 1200s. But the Jurchen people remained in Manchuria and continued to be a military force.
They lived as semi-nomads and agriculturalists, and would raid their neighbours in China and Korea. In the early 1600s they were unified by the chief, Nurhaci, who established the Later Jin Dynasty. Nurhaci or his son (I can't remember) renamed their people as the Manchu, conquered Mongolia and declared their state the Qing Dynasty, then began to conquer China in the late 1600s. The Manchu Qing Dynasty ruled China until the start of the 1900s.
@@TheJackmeisterMongolHistory thank you for you are valuable reply 😍😍 the mongol history is very intresting,also emissaries from my state reached kublai khans court
Jurchens lived in the north of Goryeo as well. Taejo came from a Jurchen area and relied on them a lot when overthrowing Goryeo to set up Joseon. Possibly those events were depicted in the series you saw.
All the ancient Korean kings 朝鮮王 of the past were Chinese officials. The queen was a Chinese nobleman. The members of the palace are all members of the Chinese nobles and the Han blood family 漢血家族(including various technical staff. Scholars, architects, monks, senior soldiers ...). They are all Chinese , Chinese language (Han dialect) , and Chinese characters. They have always been proud of the Chinese descent and the Han blood family 漢血家族. They call the ancient Korea 朝鮮 as part of China. These clearly recorded in a large number of letters written to the Chinese emperor and Chinese history .
Only the "White clothes Ethnic白衣民族" (the ancestors of Koreans today) slaves and civilians speak Korean language.
After the 15th century, Chinese officials (King of ancient Korean朝鮮王) invented a characters for indigenous and slave language - Korean characters. In order to better manage slave work.
Korea is an independent country established in 1950 (the United States has power in military power). Korean language and Korean characters as the official language and characters are less than 70 years. The real history of the Korean people (White clothes Ethnic白衣民族) is only about 100 years.
*
Ancient Korea before 1910 = 朝鮮 (the name of the Chinese city).
The official language :
Chinese language (Han dialect) and Chinese characters.
Korea after 1950 = 韓國
The official language :
Korean language and Korean characters.
---------------------------
Most Korean historical TV series are based on the theme of ancient Chinese managers ( ancient korean king) and Chinese nobles on the ancient Korean Peninsula. It is just that Koreans say that this is Korean ethnic history.
Historically, the ancient Korean Peninsula was one of the areas where Chinese territory and governance were more than 2000 years ago (the ancestors of Koreans have always lived in a small place at the southernmost part of the peninsula).
Before 1930, the official language and text of the ancient Korean Peninsula were also Chinese. After 1950, Korean language and Korean characters became official languages and characters. Korea has become only more than 70 years of independent countries.
The ancient Koreans wearing white clothes And women's clothes show their nipples. Korean tradition is a beautiful standard for women to show their nipples.Women use their heads to move everything.
Korean historical dramas are fake. A large number of Chinese culture and Chinese historical elements are plagiarized directly.
Love ur channel. How ridiculous do they look. Im sure future people will say the same.
Much like watching a movie from the 1970s and wondering how some of those hairs were ever in style, thought I suppose many of these were more dramatic (though required less hair product to maintain)
Those are peyos
liao