Mongol relay postal system (yam / örtöö)
Red de postas del Imperio mongol (yam u örtöö)
- Date
- c. 1234 · confidence medium
- Place
- Karakorum, Övörkhangai, Mongolia
- Credited to
- Ögedei Khan
- People
- 👤 Ogodei1186–1241
- Field
- Communication
What it is
A network of stations a day's ride apart, with relay mounts and provisions, available to bearers of the safe-conduct tablet (paiza). It came to link Beijing with the Volga and Persia, carrying messages more than 300 km a day.
Heir to the Chinese (yi) and Persian relay systems; the Secret History of the Mongols attributes its organisation to Ögedei.
What it led to
- government of a continent-spanning empire
- circulation of travellers, techniques and ideas across Eurasia
- postal relays of the Yuan dynasty and the Russian empire