A MAN WITH ANSWERS

JOHN MASSON SMITH, Jr.

Feb. 12, 1930 - July 24, 2019

I have only a tiny little connection with this man and his research, but I'll introduce him via part of the Obituary that was printed in the San Francisco Chronicle in August of 2019.  It was sent to me by a friend who knew of my connection with Turkey..

Smith  was born in 1930 in Massachusetts.  He graduated from Harvard, served in the army for three years before getting his PhD. in Near Eastern History at Columbia University.  He and his wife spent a year in Istanbul, where he directed the American Research Institute in Turkey.  Then he spent over 40 years as a professor in the UC Berkeley Department of History.  

John was a world-renowned scholar of Islamic coinage and of the history of the Mongol Empire.  John's great achievement was enabling scholars and students to understand the history of steppe nomad empires not only from the vague statements of their sedentary enemies but especially from a quantitative analysis of material that had existed for centuries but which nobody had bothered to take seriously.

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I was able to find online a reprint of one of his articles entitled "Dietary Decadence and Dynastic Decline in the Mongol Empire."  Now I'm not crazy about that period in history or those peoples, but I must say that I found his paper, which was printed in the Journal of Asian History, vol. 34, no. 1, 2000,  exceptionally interesting.  Frankly, I never thought of reading anything about  Mongols, but as I read various parts of Smith's paper, I did see of interest that they ate lots of meat but not grain, not herbs, not vegetables, "nor anything else."  They focused on meat and milk, especially mare's milk, which fermented and turned alcoholic quickly.  The mongols developed high-volume drinking habits ....and one of Smith's lines ends with "So far, then, we have the early Mongols on a high-fat and high cholesterol diet, somewhat checked by food shortages, and with a penchant for drunkenness offset by the limited supply and low alcoholic content of the only available beverage.  And along with the drunkenness was the great "hullabaloo" (my word) and festivities that it encouraged.  No wonder they had short lives!

Never did I think I would enjoy reading a 12 page paper on Mongols.  But I certainly did.

My friend who sent me this obit because it had to do with Turkey.  She was unaware that during the 18-months I was there, I often had contact with the then Director of ARIT, Dr. Tony Greenwood.  I was researching Americans buried in the Ferikoy Istanbul Protestant Cemetery, and not only did I receive much help from Tony while I was there but our contact continued until I finished my research.  I not only gave him a copy of my book but I left him all the research material that I had on hand.  

Dr. John Smith was with ARIT a long time before I was; I did not know him or even know of him, but receiving his obituary brought back many good memories, and then reading his paper gave me a whole new picture on Mongols plus a lot of chuckles!