This paper presents the content of this thematic issue of Diogenes on Asian studies in Turkey. It explains the origins of this set of papers in light of relevant scholarship, relates it to current academic work in the field, and provides a rationale for issuing a volume on Asian scholarship in Turkey.

The vast mortuary complexes of the Xiongnu, the world’s first nomadic empire (c. 200 BC–AD 100), were important statements of elite power and ritual commemoration in Inner Asia. Very few of the features that accompanied the main tombs, however, have been fully excavated and investigated. This study is one of the first to assess completely the small archaeological features—and associated faunal remains—that surround the more monumental structures, features that intimate substantial investments in, and ritual activities around, these mortuary arenas. This research provides an important contribution to the understanding of the social politics of ritual practices and the development of complex institutions in steppe pastoral societies.

Analyzing the messages and the responses that Chinggis Khan sent to and received from Ong Khan and his allies after his defeat at the hands of the latter at the battle of Qalaqaljit Elet in the spring of 1203, and explicating the terms of cimar (chimar) and törü that appear in the messages, this article looks at the political order and culture where the Chinggisid state rose. The article argues that pre-modern Mongolian and Inner Asian politics was guided by the idea of törü, which resembles the Indo-Buddhist idea of dharma, the Chinese idea of dao, and the European idea of natural law. It also argues that the hereditary divisional system that the Inner Asian state builders regularly employed to govern their nomadic populations, the institutions of dynastic succession, and the hereditary rights of princes and the nobility for inheritance fundamentally structured Inner Asian politics. Hence, it questions the conventional wisdom that depicts pre-modern Inner Asian politics not only as pragmatic, fluid, and fractious but also dependent on the personal charisma of leadership, and the personal bond and loyalty between leaders and followers, as if it were lacking enduring social, political institutions and order.